So I've been really struck lately by the duality of my situation as a teacher in school and a teacher at home, especially since the kids I teach are basically Andrei in 6 or 7 years. It's funny because today we had some small victories with my kids at school and my kid at home.
First the kids at school: I teach ESL. Or as they say know days ESOL. Somehow over the past 3 years we've picked up a vowel for some reason. But anyway, I have everyone at school who comes from a non-English speaking background who has not passed the UALPA (ESOL) exam or the CRT (no child left behind) test. These kids are usually fed up with school and frustrated by years of constant failure, so trust me they are NOT usually cool with spending a hour a day doing what they do worst- reading and writing in English... which is of course what they need the most. Today we played "good ange/bad angel" in my 8th grade advanced class. I have decided that they are going to read Treasure Island and they are going to love it... but that's kind of an uphill battle because of the time period and the language. Well, after we played for half the class I think the kids started to get really in to it and by the end of class we'd made some MAJOR strides.
Andrei is doing a little better, too. He got his first positive comments from his teacher today. Apparently the 45 minutes we spent role-playing appropriate behavior in class helped him understand how to sit still and behave a little better today. He's still got a LONG way to go, but I think he'll really start catching on if his mom doesn't get in the way too much.
Anyway, it was a long, stressful day, but I'm grateful for small victories.
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