just another American teacher in SK

English language classes are challenging for my students. But they do it. They don’t like it, but they do it. My boys are so funny sometimes ~ one of them told me today, “Teacha,  too difficult.  My brains me hurting you make me work too hard.”   

Stuff like that makes me smile and laugh. And then there are the situations that are not so great … 

There is one little boy in Grade 1 that is really struggling.  The odds are not in his favor ~ he’s smaller, he’s smarter, he can speak several languages (including fluent English), he looks different (Mongolian/French heritage) ~ so he is a complete “outsider”.  His parents moved to Ganghwa Island to “get out of the city”, which resulted in his transfer from private school. And he is miserable …

When I walked into my ASA (After School Activity), I could hear what can only be described as howling, like an animal in distress (!!)   My “little man” was having a complete meltdown, crying hysterically, with his head between his knees.  I had no choice but to break the rules (NEVER leave a classroom unattended) and get him out of the room.  Once we were in the hallway, he told me that his classmates always make fun of him and push him around, that he doesn’t belong here ~ he screamed, “I am in HELL!!”  

As I was taking him to a quiet place, where he could just lay down and “chill” for a while, we met the Vice Principal in the hallway ~ not good.  First, I had broken a rule; secondly, a student under my guidance was clearly in distress.  The Principal addressed this kid with “What is your issue?!” and took him to the counselor’s office for a “rest” and told me to return to my classroom.

The unattended ASA students were fine, working on their projects. They all had questions about what was happening, so we talked about it a bit and (breaking yet another rule) l allowed the students to go home early.

When I returned to the counselor’s office, the kid’s homeroom teacher was there, he was calm and ready to go home. After the teacher and the kid left the room, the “counselors” both burst out in gales of laughter …    

WHAT is funny?!

I don’t understand.

Sometimes it just breaks my heart.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 10:56 pm and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.