The (mis)Adventures of Teaching

Third grade is just as ridiculous as I remember. Life as a 9-12 year old is as dramatic and obnoxious as how much news coverage of B to the Spears is out there. But I am loving (most days) every moment of it. I am often bombarded by students asking me if they can go to the long toilet (our #2), saying that some random body part such as a finger nail is paining (hurting) or to simply, in my opinion drive me crazy, continual get up to sharpen their pencils. But I have been given some of the best laughs from these students as well. The other day I wore my glasses to school for the first time, and one of my favorites (every teacher has favorites no matter what they say) Ashwin, stands up and bursts out “MISS what happened to your face?!?” In which I thought what did happen to my face? He continued with “you are wearing those glasses!” In which I smiled and explained that the polite way to ask is “Miss, why are you wearing glasses today?” He laughed and said okay did a little dance I refer to as the Ashwin shake and we then learned about Quadrilaterals, which no one could say but we all had fun trying. And this is a typical day in class 3A.
3B however is a different story. The class is made up of 22 boys and 7 girls. Now while I don’t like to believe in the stereotypes, but this class has a reputation for being bad, and I do attribute it to their being 22 rowdy and ready to go boys. But to be honest they have quickly one a spot in my heart. They are the class that challenges me the most, has made me cry and has more importantly made me realize that everyone is human, even the little ones. For the first two weeks I came home horse and frustrated with why they just wouldn’t listen. I finally hit my breaking point during a particular hard class, acted like a third grader, and spent the weekend reflecting and realizing that I needed to grow up. Instead of wondering why they weren’t working well, I needed to realize why I wasn’t working. So I walked in on Monday and had one of the best conversations with 3B. We now have a kicking behavior chart, a better understanding, and most importantly respect, and that carries us both through the bad days. It is also, because of 3B that I have learned what a mom must feel when her kids are hurt. One afternoon in the midst of a riveting lecture on line segments, Siddhyartha called “MISS!!” in which I responded “What do you do when you want my attention?” He then raised his hand, so I came over (feeling quite proud of myself) and asked what he needed, he pointed to Mahin next to him and said “He is crying Miss, really crying!!” (in which that proud feeling quickly turned into feeling like an ass). I looked over and my heart dropped Mahin was crying, really crying. I tried to find out what was wrong, but all he could say was “My foot.” He tried to stand to go to the office, but could not put any weight on that foot, in which I became really scared. I picked him up and had Siddyartha and Nikesh follow me out to the hall. As I shouted over my shoulder for the students to be good I carried him up the stairs, trying to ask him what had happened to his foot but he kept saying “It hurts.” Once at the top of the stairs I had Nikesh and Siddyartha be his crutches and take him to the office, feeling torn between taking him myself and the 26 other students I had destroying the classroom. After class I walked into the office to see Mahin sitting in front of a heater with a foot swollen to twice its size, but he had calmed down. I spent the next 30 minutes playing I Spy while waiting for his mom to come and pick him up. When he returned to class three days later, he still didn’t know what had happened, but that day changed a lot for me. I constantly worry about my students, and their futures here. Mahin went to the hospital but they didn’t know what was wrong and his foot still hurts sometimes. The put tape over mumps, kids are constantly coughing because of the pollution, debris from a rock curie falls onto school grounds, and I feel helpless. As they say here “Ke Gharne?” What to do? I can’t change how things work, but I can do my best to be present to my students, and not get caught up in being the “teacher” especially since I think I may learn more from them.