Oh my God, I have made the craziest discovery. Did you know that if you sleep a full night, that you can concentrate ALL DAY? Did you also know that you'll be way better at everything you do, and that you'll have a bounce in your step, and that you'll say wild things to yourself like, "Well, I've got a free hour, why don't I just go run 1,227 errands right quick?"
Today was great in all ways. I'm going to have to keep testing out this whole sleeping thing a litte bit more. It seems to work for me.
I had an interesting class with my older students this morning, where I got an a-ha moment out of three - yes three! - people. I feel on top of the world when that happens. They literally went, "Oooooohhhh... I get it!" and I literally went, "Oooooooohhhh... I kick ass."
That class was followed quickly by my worst class. The kids are terrible; they spend all hour talking and I have had to seperate them and yell and threaten in the past. Today? One girl began talking while another student was reading. I did what any self-respecting teacher would do and made a bit of a spectacle out of Ms Chatterbox by asking her a direct question about the passage. She freaked out, said she didn't know, then tried to get out of it. I just sat down in a chair in the middle of the classroom and waited. I think that freaked the Frenchies out, because anything unorthodox really throws them for a loop: What is this??? Teacher sitting at a student desk?!! The world as I know it is over!!!
Everybody was silent while Ms Chatterbox re-read the paragraph we had all just read outloud together, and then she answered me. After that, nobody said a word, everyone raised their hands, and we had a great discussion. It was amazing. Like night and day, or like Ashlee Simpson and Bob Marley.
My last class was with the other older kids, and today was our last day. They asked me why, and I said "Because you never come to class, and your head teacher has decided it's stupid for me to teach you when there are other kids asking to have classes with me. Why should people who aren't interested get priority?" I felt a little bad because the five that were there were the five that always come, and the rest are the ones who caused the decision to be made. But still...
So I did a class where I laid out some really simple stuff that they obviously needed to review. They all started understanding halfway through the class, and once they caught on, it was quite a party in there, let me tell you. And English grammar review party. It can get pretty jumpin'.
After class, one of the students came up to me and said, "Could we please continue with you? I learn so much more in your class than I do with the other teacher. Isn't there any way we could work it out?"
Hearing that, I think I might have high-fived myself in my head at some point. Maybe.
Then I got home, ran some errands, did the dishes, wrote my Spanish essay, took a bath, and then left for Spanish class. Yes, it's sorta weird to take a bath at 17.00, but my house was cold and I wasn't home long enough to bother putting on the heat. Getting in a big tub of hot water really does the trick in those situations.
And Spanish was great, as always, except for the fact that in the middle of class I said something in English and didn't even realize it. Just poof! Said it, kept going, and stopped only when I noticed people were giggling at me. After class, we all went out for drinks and talked shit about the people who were in the class but dropped out after two weeks. Those losers don't know the fiesta they're missing.
Ok, I'm going to bed now. I'm going to go for a whole eight hours tonight. Just watch me.
Hmm... I'll have to give this full night of sleep thing a try!