Everything Is New!

A friend of mine stopped me in the hallway today to see what I was up to for the weekend. Invariably our conversation shifted towards our students. We were discussing one student in particular when she said something that hit me sideways: kids don't know any different, everything is normal to them because everything is new to them. She then relayed a story to me about when she needed glasses for the first time. She didn't know things weren't supposed to be blurry because that's all she had ever known. (I got glasses when I was 2, so I couldn't really relate. Having glasses is all I've ever known.) #hpdayjob

Everything is new. Right.

I forget this sometimes. Scratch that. I forget this a lot of the time . . .  

It's all exciting and fresh and shiny-new! Sometimes it's hard to remember this when 24 students are talking at top volume, banging on tables, and clanging around metal chairs. And this is happening repeatedly, all day long.

This week was a good week, but a hard week. So for me to hear the above statement was really important. (It's true what they say: you always hear what you need to hear, when you need to hear it.)  

Report cards for semester 1 were due on Wednesday and semester 2 begins on Friday. I was given 2 new classes this week: a 2nd grade class and a 3rd grade class. Both bring my 2nd and 3rd grade class load up to 6 classes for each grade level. With the 2 new classes, I am now teaching 16 80-minute classes per week. #reportcards #teachingart  

Last week, I had a substitute because I was in Australia. So this week, all of the kids kept hugging me and telling me how much they missed me. It was hilarious because I was only gone for one week. But they acted like I had been gone for months! Oh Ms. Bailey, I'm so glad you are back! Thank goodness you're here this week! Where were you: we missed you!!! #australia

I teach two co-curricular classes (CCA) per week, hour-long after school sessions in whatever I choose. On Mondays I teach Parade Art. (We are planning a big campus parade for the second to last week of school: more on that soon!) On Thursdays I teach a general arts CCA. Today--Thursday--my students in general arts said that last week they sang a song to the substitute teacher about me because they missed me so much. The song was called Moods Like Bailey, and sung to the tune of Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5. They claimed that this song was about how my mood changes with the behavior of the students: when they are good, I'm happy; when they are bad, I'm not happy. Makes sense right? 4th grade boys. They threatened to make a video of their song and put it on YouTube. I told them I would see their YouTube upload and raise them a Vimeo upload. I may be getting myself into trouble here . . . They DO have iPads and could easily accomplish this. #moveslikejagger #nowplaying 

After singing a verse from the song for me, one of the boys said that it was SUCH A RELIEF to have an art teacher with an interesting personality who gets things and that I was the best art teacher in the whole world. I'm not sure what any of that means, but I'll take it.

Due to my class load, after this week I have to close my classroom during lunch. My lunch period is now my only planning period. The students were pretty miffed at me. One response was: you were nicer last semester than you are this semester. Um, okay. Except the second semester doesn't really start until Friday.  

Teaching is like the millions of escalators I've taken since moving here. Up, down, up, down. Today I was so tired when I started home. I kept thinking, I just want to sleep for 10 days straight. Just sleep. And then, as I got off of the escalator at my train station, out of the corner of my eye was one of my 3rd grade students standing there in a coral dress, glowing and yelling, "Hi Ms. Bailey! Hi, hi, hi!!" Like me, she was surprised and excited to see me at our mutual home train station. That's when it hit me: they like me, they really like me . . .  #singapore #quote

I just have to remember: everything is new. 

(I wouldn't want any other job in the whole wide world.)