Life is good. I found a new job and so far it is wonderful. I interviewed with a really nice girl which turned into more of a chat than an interview and I left crossing my fingers that I would get to work there. Everyone just seemed so nice and happy. Quite the opposite of my other job where I worked there for a month and no one seemed to really talk to anyone. I met with the director on Monday to go over what I would be doing and that was a nice change as well. We talked about our experiences learning a second language (pretty much the entire staff seems to speak English, which is fascinating and nice all at the same time) and one of the first things she said was people learn by listening and speaking first, you can't just put a book in front of a child and expect them to learn and be able to know what they're doing. (Take that Hector, told ya so!) and I thought, alright, this lady actually knows what she's doing. This was all before she had told me I got the job so I started really hoping I would be able to work there because it would be so nice to have a director who was also a teacher so they understood what went on in the classroom. Then she asked if I would be interested in editing the other English teachers' worksheets and lesson plans and being a kind of substitute teacher for the school where I would help out when needed. Frankly, this sounded great to me because I was a little burnt out on teaching after the last mess. So she took me around to introduce me to the classes but warned me beforehand how out of control and disrespectful the kids were. I thought, "oh no, here we go again..." boy, was I surprised! The kids all sat in their seats facing the front. Occasionally one would laugh at a mistake another student made or talk quietly to the other person sitting next to them. The director gave them a big lecture and sent three of them to her office where she further lectured them on the importance of being respectful and told them they would have to spend recess in the office with her and told one boy who laughed at a mispronunciation another student made that she was going to call his mother and make sure she knew how poorly he behaved in school that day. When he was on the verge of tears she let him go back to class then said to me, "I'm not really going to call his mother, but I'll let him think that, maybe it will scare him a little into behaving better." All I could think was 1) another 'take that Hector! see, you can discipline kids!' and 2) wow, if you could see the bullying and fighting going on over at CEYCI, you would die.
So I've been working there for 2 days now and it's so nice not to absolutely dread going to work. The kids are funny and, aside from being fidgety with short attention spans like all kids, well behaved. The teachers are all super nice and smile and talk to each other. The first day when I was being shown around they all told me if I ever needed anything or had any questions to feel free to come to them. And I thought, even if you're just saying that to be nice and don't really mean it, at least you're not completely ignoring the fact that I work here with you like my other job. One super nice lady was born in Mexico but her family moved to Illinois when she was three. She helped show me around the school and we bonded over the extreme weather of the midwest. She loved when I mentioned how I had never been colder than when I visited my friend at Northwestern because she went there. You could tell she loved being able to talk about her alma mater to someone who had been there too. So thanks for that Whitney!
I've been teaching the fourth and sixth graders because their teacher (the super nice girl who interviewed me) is in Mexico City taking care of her sick mother. Yesterday the director helped me during the classes so I could get a sense of the kids and how she teaches and get ideas for what I would do with them. It was nice not to just be thrown in blind to the classroom. The fourth grade English class is 2 hours long but the kids were so good and the director made sure I had plenty to do with them so the time flew by.
So now I'm just enjoying this new job and hoping things stay this good!
No comments:
Post a Comment