That's Mr. Rich To You!

For those of you who don’t know, I was a teacher for six weeks. I taught 7th and 8th grade English (as a Second Language) at Margaret’s school (name withheld due to, uh, ahem, work permit issues). I was filling in for a teacher on maternity leave. Before I get into how great of a teacher I am and how much patience I don’t have, I have to say that I have a new respect for teachers. That is probably a pretty obvious point. But I felt wiped out at the end of the week, and I had a lot of work to do at night and outside of school. And this was in spite of the fact that the teacher I was subbing for had left me with detailed lesson plans and copies of just about everything I needed for the whole six weeks (homework, tests, assignments, hand-outs, etc). So I had it pretty easy. Maybe it was harder and more stressful for me in my situation because I had never taught kids before and had no idea what I was doing. My one major hope was that six weeks with Mr. Rich wouldn’t screw them up for a lifetime.

Ok – so ESL class – basically English for kids who are behind or struggling. And some of my kids are really struggling. These kids don’t have it easy. They are being educated in a language that is their second (or third) language. They have impossible hours (at least I think so – they were impossible for me) – school starts at 7:15am and ends at 3:10pm. They only get one break in the morning and a lunch break. Oh, and they also have both Thai and Chinese classes too. So whenever I thought some of my kids were a little down or they said something like they wish they were as smart as Mr. Rich (if only they knew), I would remind them that I was fluent (and this may be debatable) in only one language and therefore they were by definition already smarter than me. I also told them that this was no big feat, so not to get big-headed and think they don’t need to study.

I had two 8th grade classes (8A and 8B) and one 7th grade class (7A) as well as a homeroom. I saw my 7A, 8A and 8B for two periods of 45 minutes each every day. So we got to know each other pretty well. I already miss “my” kids. They gave me a lot of laughter and I think (cliché or not) that I learned as much, if not more, than them. I do not think I have the patience to deal with 7th and 8th graders on a regular basis. It is just such a weird age and there were times in my six week stint that I know I messed up because I didn’t have enough patience. And these kids are a lot more respectful than we were. There is a line that they don’t cross. And I’m not saying that they listen to everything you say, never talk in class and all just can’t wait to learn. Not at all. But I guess the best was to describe the difference between them and us (or at least me and my friends at that age) is that if we had had a sub like me, we would have torn him apart and sent him home crying on the first day. Easy.

So here is a picture of my 7th graders (the two girls were too shy to be in the picture). Note Pong is at the very left (more about him later) and Ton in the middle must be a young Kyle.

My 8A class.

My 8B class. Woiy is the tall one in the middle (again – more on him later). And note the “boat” they have made (more on this later as well).

My teaching method (if you can call it that) was pretty laid back. After getting advice from the teacher I was subbing for as well as from other teachers, I figured that most of the kids kept pretty quiet in other classes, as they were hesitant to speak up for fear of being made fun of. I think their ESL classes were maybe a safe haven or whatever. So I decided that unless they were really disrupting class (and they were at times) I was not going to stop them from speaking. And it is a tough line to draw – but I felt that I would rather have them get away with some things, than be afraid to say anything in class. And the more they speak, the more they learn! Or I keep telling myself that.

Ok – so on to a few things I think might be interesting. The first student I have to talk about is Woiy. Or Dr. Woiy if you will. This kid is a born actor. He wasn’t my best student academically, but when I needed someone to try something or start things up he was always ready. On the second day I messed up his name when I was taking attendance – calling him Roy before correcting myself. And he tells me that if his name is too hard to pronounce I can just call him “Doctor.” I just about fell over laughing. And of course to his delight I called him Dr. Woiy. Note that the principals in our school are called “Dr.” and all the teachers are referred to as Mr. or Ms. Feel free to refer to me as Mr. Rich from now on. Later on I learned that the Dr. was quite a hoops star (the only 8th grader on the varsity team and the back of his jersey has “Dr. Speed” or something like that). So good. And think what you might, these kids would have beaten some of your high school basketball teams. They certainly would have taken down my Commie High squad. My favorite Woiy moment was when I gave the class a skit to do. My 8As looked at me like I was crazy. I had to walk around to the groups and get each one started and it was a real chore. My 8Bs were a bit better – and Woiy just took over. They had to come up with a skit about a time they were nervous to talk to someone. So Woiy’s group (two boys and a girl) came up with a skit where one of the guys is too shy to ask out the girl, so Woiy helps him get up the nerve, etc. And at the end Woiy gets the girl anyway – pretty clever I thought and not playing to what you are “supposed to do” – I loved it. But that wasn’t why I described this. Woiy managed to use the phrases “Now wait just a ma-nizzle” and “Fo’ shizzle!” perfectly and in the exact manner they should be used in. And I had only taught them these phrases on “Slang Friday” the week before. I was floored. He was totally in his element. If you see the kid on the big screen someday remember that I told you so.

And now Pong. In case you are wondering, each of the kids picks an English nickname. I think most of them have one before they start school, but I’m not sure. And some of their real names are impossible, but this whole nickname thing still kind of rubs me the wrong way. But what do I know? Anyway – back to Pong. He is just a crack-up. So much energy and he is talking all the time. And he totally gets away with more than other students (at least he did in my class) because he is so interesting and funny (yes, I realize this is not fair). He pretty much talks the whole time. And he is a little bit chubby, but certainly not fat. But all he talks about is how fat he is and how much he likes to eat. But he is so funny about it and always cracks the class up. It is probably in some ways a defense mechanism I know – but you had to be there to understand. Anyway – a story to illustrate. The kids figured out that my girlfriend was also a teacher at the school and they really wanted to know who she was. Like typical 7th graders they would ask when we were getting married and all laugh and say “ohhhhhh” and such. Although for being so interested they were really bad detectives. It took them a long time to figure it out, and only because they spotted us walking down the hall together. Anyway the next time in class Pong invited himself to my wedding, whenever it might be. And the reason why? Because he was sure I would serve good food at my wedding. He says his mom is always surprised that he is excited to go to family weddings and such, but he says weddings are all about the food. Classic.

I also got to be involved in Spirit Week. This happened the second week I was teaching. Nothing like jumping into things right away! Basically the kids and teachers dressed up every day. And there was a water bottle boat race on Friday. The kids built the boats out of water bottles and the homeroom teachers raced. So the theme days for dressing up were as follows: Monday – Grandma and Grandpa; Tuesday – 70’s/Disco; Wednesday – Christmas; Thursday – Twins/Triplets; Friday – Fake Injury. Here are a few pix (note that Margaret teaches 1st Graders, and lower school’s theme days were not all the same – plus I had to put her Halloween Avril costume in here). Oh – and of course on the first day when I was all dressed up in my Grandpa outfit, the traffic was really horrible and the bus was super late. So we had to walk across the pedestrian bridge and catch a cab on the other side. Only about 1,000 people stared at me like I was crazy. Of course that was the one day the bus was so late.

And the boat race. So each homeroom was supposed to build a boat. I had all of 8B as a homeroom. So only some of the kids from my 8B homeroom were in my 8B ESL class. My homeroom was 23 kids and my 8B class was 11 kids. Why do I tell you this? Well if I completely failed at anything it was my homeroom. I just got 15 minutes with them every day and I never really connected with my homeroom. I think I connected with the kids in my 8B ESL class, but something about the larger homeroom just didn’t happen. They were just about the laziest homeroom ever – they would procrastinate about everything. Anyway – they kept putting off building the boat until we had no more homeroom time to do it. So I gave my 8B ESL kids a class period to do it and they came up with this.

And after getting some expert opinions from other teachers I was convinced they didn’t use enough bottles and that I would jump on it and sink. I told them so. And they were like, no – don’t worry – this will work. And they were right. At the beginning of the first race I jumped onto the boat, and it didn’t sink! Maybe I have shed a few pounds. Anyway, I won that heat and came in first place of all the middle school teachers! And then we had a final race of the top two middle school and top two upper school teachers and I won that too. So my 8B ESL kids came through! And so they got a pizza party – which the whole homeroom got to enjoy (even if most of them did nothing to earn it).

I know this is totally showing off and patting myself on the back, but I want to share a letter left on my desk by one of my kids. It was from one of my kids who really struggled with English and he wrote a page and a half, which probably took him more than an hour. I couldn’t help holding back tears when I read it, so forgive me if this seems like I’m congratulating myself too much:

“Give To My Best Teacher”
Hi! Mr. Rich, I’m Bill thank you for this half quarter, I’m very happy to see you, because you always help us to do the word or teach us grammar to be better, sometime we have a test, but I didn’t do well, and sometime we have a borring sentences, but I still not doing well (that’s all I think), but I still very happy you came here to teach us, sometime we have a good time or a bad time, I think we don’t have any bad time.

Do you remember the “Water Bottle Boat”? I remember when is our teacher to play, all the Grade 8B are shouting, when you stard to play, and I fell my body shaking like dancing, when you be a first, I shout to my friend, “He got it, Mr. Rich got it. Yeah ----.” I shout, I think that time I lose my mine and my voice too, but I’m very have about that.

I don’t know next quarter you will be back or not? Maybe not, but I don’t cared about that, know in my mine just one think, that Mr. Rich is my best home teacher.

Oh! Yeah, I don’t know you remember the borring sentence or not? That is “The teacher is mean.” Usually I don’t like teacher, because the teacher just teach like a machine. Ha-Ha. If next quarter or next year you will be our school teacher, I will very to see you again, bye-bye, my best teacher Mr. Rich.

That letter by itself made the six weeks worth it.