Teaching Experiences

1.      Fourth grade spend a whole class colouring in rocks with crayons so that we can play counting games with the finished products. I am seen collecting rocks from all over the school during the day and children are seem looking for rocks all throughout class. I am beginning to develop a slight reputation as unhinged.

2.      Making flashcards with Fifth graders of items you can find in the classroom, ending up with several hundred flashcards of tables with six legs and “teachers” that look like bizarre humanoid monsters with suspiciously pale skin.

3.      “Describe a person in the classroom” with 7^th grade. Rosa, upset after being punished by the classroom teacher, writes a description that describes her teacher Senor Thomas as “fat, ugly, stupid and mean”, all in faultless English.

4.      Learning numbers with Dominoes in Sixth grade. Guillermo answers “Who knows how to play Dominoes in English?” with “but profe! You don’t need to speak to play Dominoes!”

5.      While learning about countries and continents in 8^th grade, I am pulled into a minor disagreement with Isaac, who insists that the country of Denmark is part of China.

6.      Asked to substitute for the 5^th grade teacher in the afternoon, we have an impromptu visit to the library when it’s discovered that the textbooks I’m supposed to be teaching out of are missing. We go and read books for the last hour of school.

7. In the space of less than two hours of teaching, I confiscate a bouncy ball, three notebooks of non-English nature, a pencil, two sticks and two mangoes.