Day 79: I read the News Today, oh boy

And Here May We Present:

A Day in the Life of Tyler Teacher.

8:00 AM. I woke up too early. Strange & Troubling dreams. Went back to sleep.

9:00 Woke up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head (well, not that last part, but you get the idea)

9:20 Breakfast is 2 Dr. You breakfast bars & an apple. I head out for work.

9:30 In the elevator, I can already hear screaming children by the time it reaches the 3rd floor. Our school is on the 7th floor. This does not bode well.

9:40 Eleven classes with only a short lunch break begins with Joey class, my youngest group of kindergarteners. Susan still screams basically every time she sees me. This period, we play with duplo knock-offs and I try to get them to repeat English words after me.

Susan

10:25 Swan class. I take the children to the library, as noted in the schedule, and I spend most of the time there pointing out the literary situations in the school's Pagemaster books that are like Where's Waldo knock-offs with Hank and Eddie. It is one of the most enjoyable library days I've had in quite a while.

11:05-11:10 Dark Thoughts

11:10 Swan class again - this time back in the regular classroom for some quality time with our "Treasures" book. Eddie, probably my most intelligent but definitely my most distractable kindergartener, likes to play a guessing game with me where he rearranges the books facedown on the table and has me try to guess which one belongs to who.
Eddie can be seen here on the table, bothering Kelly and Emily.

Kevin likes to mug for the camera.

Kevin is the class' pretty boy.

Clearly.

Around the end of class, I take them outside, because they've been pretty good, really.


11:50 Lunch, and the day's only break. Kimchi and rice for eats, John and I spend most of the time discussing the awfulness that is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We can't remember who wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (Protip: Oscar Wilde)

12:50-1:30 Back with Joey class again. This time around, we draw and I attempt to figure out and label what they're drawing.

1:35-2:15 "Show and Tell" Now, for Show and Tell, I'm kind of thrown to the wolves as I must contend, alone, with both Swan and Penguin classes, our two oldest, biggest and most misbehaved kindergarten classes. By and large, though, the students in these two classes are pretty smart, so it kind of balances out. Not on show and tell day, though. Show and tell day is invariably a free-for-all.
Show and Tell class in the library. Note no one is really "Showing" or even "Telling." We should call it "Sit and Ignore Teacher" class. That's adorable Kein climbing up on the table there.

This is Ingrid, MYU's unofficial mascot. She is also one of my favorite students, although I only teach her twice a week. She hangs around the office pretty much all day since Sunny teacher is her aunt.

2:15-2:35 After Show and Tell, it's snack time for the kids, and afternoon prep time for the teachers. Here's snack being prepared:
Eddie and Matthew decide to have a remote car race in the hallway:

Eddie consents to a rare photo
Matthew, the race's victor

2:35-3:15 Since Megan is in America for two weeks, John and I have to cover her classes. P1-1 is one of hers, although I have taught all the students before in some capacity or another. Today, at least, we're doing a level test, but they will NOT STOP TELLING EACH OTHER THE ANSWERS. And to make matters worse, Danny decided to hit the "next track" button halfway through the listening section of the test. The entire test is on one track.

3:20-4:00 Test with P2-1, which today was just Leo and Thomas, two of my best students. Easy as pie.

4:00-4:10 Glorious ten-minute passing time! I play the piano for a little bit.

4:10-4:50 P3-1. I am exhausted by this point. Students in this class are honestly quite hateful at times. There are seven cold reasons in my fridge why I will make it through this day.

4:44-5:35 The start of a double block of T1-1, another class I am covering for Megan. Again, I know all these students. They are excitable, but they are a bit older and quite advanced. I take them out for slushies and we work on our show and tell writing assignment for later in the month. On the way out for slushies, I run into Charlie, Denny, Andrew and Jenny, who of course demand slushies as well. I trust Andrew the most, so I give him a few bills and send them back the way we came.

5:40-6:20 T1-1 still. I listen to Thomas tell me ghost stories. Thomas' comprehension is through the roof, but he gets really nervous when speaking English and garbles up his sentences pretty badly. Still, he's a good kid, so I'm patient.

6:25-7:05 Ah, glorious NA 5-1! The best class in the school. Even better, Fridays are speaking days, so we chill in the library and talk about whatever comes to mind.

7:20 Home. Finished. The weekend peeks its head up above the horizon, virtually gravid with promise. I have earned my just rewards: