Being an outsider

We did an immigration unit with Spanish 4. The students did a project to show what it feels like to be an outsider (a poem or collage). One of the poems was so good that I wanted to share it - sorry if you don't speak Spanish! (I did not fix any grammar mistakes.)

No es divertido, no es bien
Ver todas las personas que amigos tienen,
Nadie responden cuando hablo.
No es divertido no tener un amigo.

No es divertido no conocer nadie.
Estoy muy triste y digo "¿Por qué?"
"¿Por qué personas no hablan a mi?
Creo que no soy importante aquí."

early bedtime

Spanish 1 students were learning how to tell time the other day. To introduce it I told them my daily schedule. It included the fact that Isadora goes to bed at 7:00 PM. One of my students gasped and said, "She misses all the good TV shows!"

What don't you see?

So we're all sitting at Mass - the whole school and a bunch of parishioners. The priest starts his homily asking the little kids, "When you look at someone, what do you see?" The kids aren't quite sure how to respond so he asks again a few times using different words. Eventually, one of the kids says, "God". That was such a good answer but not quite what the priest was looking for. So, he asks a young student to stand with him. "What do you see when you look at her?" The kids' hands shoot up in the air. "She's wearing a purple ribbon in her hair." "Eyes" "She's a girl." "She's wearing her uniform." The priest congratulates them on their responses and elaborates a bit. Then, he says, "What DON'T you see when you look at her?" Only one kid has his hand up this time.

"Evil."

the dark side of spending your day with kids

Monday was Halloween. The 5th grade teacher made a haunted house in her room and grade schoolers in costumes went through it. They waited to enter the haunted house right outside my classroom. As I walked up the stairs to get into my room, this 5th grade girl walks out of the crowd. She's dressed in something you'd see in a Christmas Pageant. She looks like a Wise Man minus the crown and minus the Man. She looks so proud of herself and her clever costume. "Do you know what I am?" I innocently replied, "no". She puffs up and gets ready to deliver a great line, "I'm an idiot foreigner." Dear God!