07/06/10

On Saturday I received an envelope postmarked January 9th. Better late than never. And the fact an envelope could take so long gives me a little hope for the packages that are about as overdue.
Last week we did a lesson which required a ton of writing, so whenever I told the kids to copy from the board, they would all whine and moan about it. My last class of that day was my worst one, so when it came time for them to copy from the board I said preemptively, “now, without crying. Without crying, I want you to copy the board.” When one boy opened his mouth to complain, I feigned crying by making fists and rubbing my eyes and the whole class laughed and he just shut his mouth. Now, in that class, whenever I ask the kids to copy from the board, a few of them will say “without crying? Without crying everyone.”
Kids who are late to class or don’t do their homework have to sit on the floor. I walk around to see their homework, but I tell the kids, “don’t waste my time, anyone who doesn’t have their homework just sit on the floor, you don’t need me to tell you to.” Today in my “Life Group” class two of my students were sitting on the floor, one because I told him to, the other I have no idea why but I didn’t say anything because if he thinks he should be there he definitely should.
A few weeks ago one of my students whose aunt had met me when she came to receive the grades from first trimester for her niece, and was apparently somewhat enamored with me, told me her aunt was asking for my number. I made her swear up and down that she wouldn’t give my number to anyone else and then hesitantly gave it to her feeling that it would have been rude to refuse since she is a teacher somewhere too and thus we are spiritual colleagues (loosely her words). I hadn’t heard from her, so I was hoping maybe she had forgotten, but then she called this afternoon. Her phone kept cutting out and Mozambicans are always super quick to get off the phone (unless you have called them) so I couldn’t understand that well, but she is having problems with math (she is in school to get teacher certified) and I think her niece will be bringing some problems to school tomorrow for me to look at.