Week 18, Friday

I forgot to add that my fourth graders always request my “neck dance” when I play them this YouTube clip.

I can move my head independently of my neck like a chicken which they find amazing. “Abigail teacher, do the thing!”

S and the subject teachers had a special strategizing tea time (I declined the invitation) in which they schemed which grade to request for next year to maximize chances of success. Each year elementary public school teachers must reapply for their desired position. Subject teaching grants you few points so S has little bargaining room.

However, few teachers want to be the homeroom teacher to grade 1 (too young), grade 5 (my grade 4 babies! Who would reject them! Apparently there are “too many boys” so that grade is less desirable), and grade 6. Of the soon to be sixth graders, S commented “many students are violent and there are more with disabilities that you don’t know of because they don’t come to your English class.”

We’ll find out next year if S gets her preferred home room assignment. She wanted grade 3 or 4 but knows that with her small amount of points she’s safer requesting a less desirable position. I have no idea who will be an English teacher next year.

The school year is ending and students are behaving accordingly. I emotionally checked out of grade 6 today because they’re not worth the trouble. Some are good, some are bad, most are apathetic. As both a foreigner and a late comer, there’s not much I can do to curb their behavior at this point.

Two boys play fought and almost knocked over a cabinet and another walked across the top of the desks. I try to remember that there are kids that care. They are the ones who crowd my desk before class to play with Christmas props or ask me about WayV or make an effort to say goodbye as they leave.

In any case after next week I never have to see them again.