Bittersweet Goodbye

I don't like to say hello, because then you have to say goodbye.

Urban Seminar has officially ended. It was a wonderful 2 weeks, one I hope to never forget. I loved it! I was also blessed with a really great class. I didn't update yesterday, so here's a catch-up:

Yesterday was probably one of my most rewarding days. I taught a lesson on Adverbs and we played a game. After we did a graphic organizer to come up with adverbs to describe the verb "Walked", I had the kids take an index card and write an adverb on it. I put them all in a bag and then I had created sentence strips which I placed in a separate bag. Each kid had to take a sentence strip and an adverb and read that sentence according to the adverb. The rest of the class had to guess what adverb they were acting out. Because there were 28 kids in the class, it took up far too much time, but they loved it. The best part was that Ignacio, the boy that is most emotionally needy, a little slower than the rest, and is often pushed to the side and never participates, was up in the middle of it all, actively engaged, calling out answers, grinning from ear to ear. It was so cool to see him get into a lesson. Not only did he play the game, but as he was going to lunch he came up to me and said something along the lines of "Can I go to lunch?" and then said "Guess what adverb that was!" Haha.

I had a bit of an issue with Oscar, the Domincan boy, because he didn't understand the definition of an adverb or a verb. I learned to stop trusting Jaime's translations because more often than not, Jaime doesn't understand what's going on. Jeisson is a much more reliable translator and a good little teacher. I called him over to help me work on putting some adverbs into a paragraph that Oscar wrote. (They had to describe what they did yesterday and use as many adverbs as possible. Oscar wrote his in Spanish.) I threw in some adverbs and then had Jeisson translate the definitions of adverb and verb so I could write them at the top of his page. I'm not sure how much Oscar really appreciated suddenly being made to work in the regular classroom. Usually, he only has to work in ESOL and in the classroom, the teacher just lets him do his own thing because she doesn't understand anything he says. In conclusion, I would like to brush up on my Spanish -- maybe take some courses after college -- because not only is a bilingual teacher more marketable, but it would also help tremendously in a classroom in the urban setting. I know Oscar understands more than he lets on, which is why I used as much English as possible, but some of the key concepts had to be explained in Spanish.

Our last professional development seminar involved the Philadelphia School District Recruitment team. They said that December graduates have a much better chance of getting a job right after graduation and start in January to fill in empty spots where teachers leave halfway through the year. COOL! I'm going to look into interview dates. :) There are 280 schools in the district of Philadelphia. I forget the number of students, but there are a lot! Most of the classes are pretty big.

Today was my last day. It was quite sad. It started off with Ignacio stomping over to his line before going into school. He was huffing and puffing and giving a look that could slay an elephant. His anger was overflowing and I was afraid I'd have to restrain him. He told me that there were some older boys that were touching his sister. The boys were "no good" and he didn't want his sister hanging out with the wrong crowd and "they had no right to touch my sister like that." I'm not sure how much he exaggerated, but he was clearly mad. I think his sister might be one of the few people he has left to love in this world. I didn't know what to say. He told another teacher and I don't know what came of it. My co-op just said "Ignacio just had some drama this morning." Poor kid.

I didn't really teach today, but we went over a worksheet on adverbs. It amazes me how much backtracking I have to do! Some of them were still completely lost in how to do the worksheet. Most of them just plain old don't read the directions. (Sounds familiar.) I saw Ignacio was just reading a book while everyone was doing their work. I asked the teacher and she said "Oh get used to it. He just does his own thing." I walked up to him and looked over his shoulder. I forget what book he was reading, but there was a sentence with an adverb. I said "Hey Ignacio, find the adverb in this sentence." He picked it out. I said "Ok, great! How come you're not doing your work?" He said, "Oh, teachers just give too much work. It's so stressful." Hahaha. I said "Oh come on. Put your book down and get out your work book." He did it quite obligingly. I prodded him through the entire worksheet. I even left him on his own a couple times and came back and he had done it correctly. He was so proud of himself and went up to show the teacher. He came back and started reading his book again and all of a sudden called me over and said, "Can you give me another word to pick out?" :) He's really a sweet boy with a lot of needs. I can see how it's so easy to push him to the side because there are 27 other kids that need to be taken care of too. Ignacio is the type that needs a lot of one on one. I mentioned at lunch yesterday how he had gotten into the lesson and how I liked Ignacio. One of the teachers said, "Naz? He bad! He real bad! You only saw him for 2 weeks." Probably true, but he still needs a lot of loving.

I was sad to say goodbye to all those cute kids. Jalissa, Shaqueena, and Rahneesha attacked me with hugs. They were all sitting in their seats waving and saying "BYE, MISS BECKY! COME BACK SOON!" as I left. So cute. My co-op gave me a really nice "Teacher Bag" filled with pencils, sticky notes, a "Teacher Journal", bulletin board things, and other miscellaneous teacher things to start me off. So nice of her. :)

Well, it's over. I loved it. I wish I could stay longer. Maybe some day I'll find myself back in Philadelphia with a classroom full of children to love and teach. I can't wait!

But if I never said hello, I would have never met these beautiful children.