This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind. I made quite the international meal this week. I had cooked a pasta casserole with Pakistani beef, cheese from Saudi Arabia, peppers from India, and carrots from Australia. Truly international. It took some time to get over the idea of using beef from Pakistan. I don't know why...it took me about three weeks to buy meat here. Completely a mental thing.
Also, Thursday was my first day as a teacher! I had a second grade art class with 31 students. It was basically an hour of controlled chaos. Semi-controlled chaos. I decided to do a 'time capsule' project (close shave to calling it a 'time-turner' - Harry Potter is overinfluencing my life) with them. I had them trace their hands, color them, cut them out, and write their age, favorite color, and favorite game on the back. I had some children do it quite lovely, others as I would have expected from 6 year olds, and others who completely destroyed theirs (mostly chopped off the fingers). One little boy started crying because he ruined his so I gave him a second sheet and told him to make a new one...and he mangled that too. Epic fail. I didn't know what to do. I also had to make a rule: Only one pair of scissors per table at a time. There was a mini scissor war between two boys and I had to whip out my serious teacher voice. "I NEVER want to see that again or we will never do another fun project in this class." Everyone listened so I think they were scared.
Snippets of their comments:
Miss, I like your dress.
Miss, you are very kind.
Miss, I like Tae Kwan Do.
Miss, I have a yellow belt in Karate.
Miss, my birthday is 22 September. I will be six.
I have also learned that stickers are absolute MAGIC in the classroom. They were starting to run riot at the end of the lesson so I flicked the lights and said, "If everyone is cleaned up, sitting in their seats, and very quiet until the Arabic teacher comes I will give you each a sticker."
There was instant and lasting silence. Why? Not sure. Will I be repeating that? Yes.
Tomorrow the babies arrive.
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