June 9, 2010

June 9, 2010

The sun has fleeted away into the distance, the day has gone by like so many before it, and my worries of Andrea have been washed away. I am able to rest peacefully tonight. Today I awoke Andrea with a phone call. Her mother woke her to the new day, for me the day nearly passed; I had already finished my last class of the day. To her voice despite its quietness and it not yet being fully there, still drowned by sleep, was refreshing for she had was in new spirits. I could hear these new spirits even through the drowsiness. She spoke happily, and as I listened to her whisper to Ernie who I could picture laying next her all curled up, also, still half asleep, I was refreshed by the news shared. Two of the things which had caused her much anxiety the day before had already been resolved. While there are things involving our move to Chicago, so I can begin my Master’s degree, which still hang in balance, I believe everything will come together. I will continue with my optimism.

I even got another chance to speak with Andrea later on in the evening right before I started my one lesson of the day. And yet another one of the matters, which had caused her alarm the night before, through just a matter of hours, had been resolved for the better. I truly have been blessed in this life. I have been bestowed with so many gifts from the people I love around me and I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I have been given. I only, now, hope I am strong enough to use those blessings I speak of to make Andrea happy in every sense of the word.

As for my classes today, I started with the first of my two conversation lessons at 6:55 this morning. I know I am not the best of teachers at times and I should be chastised for what I am doing for these final couple of weeks with this particular conversation course, but to defend myself, these classes have gone bonkers. With summer rapidly approaching I don’t think I could hold their attention longer than 30 seconds at a time. Anyway, with giving my excuse, and you still being the judge, I showing my conversation class Spiderman 3, the worst part about it is, I choose this particular movie because my parents sent me a copy of the first Spiderman movie and I have yet to see the third one. So, my desire to watch the third installment of the trilogy weighed on my decision. Let me; however, add one more bit of fact to defend myself. As I worked in a Mexican restaurant for nearly five years and all of those five working closely with the kitchen staff, which was all from either Mexico or Guatemala, I learned that they, the kitchen staff, had learned the majority of their English from watching television and films with the subtitles on. I will end my slight embarrassing telling of that conversation class at that.

I had yet another class cancelled because the ninth class is on their school trip and the other two ran rather smoothly. One I had work on a work sheet, interviewing one another, as I heard complaints about every minute about how we should go outside. For the next class I had, I did take them outside. They are working on dialogues within their textbook. I had a plan of assigning them all roles then having them perform something like a play. However, as I was exiting the building I ran into another teacher who was with about five or six of the ninth graders who had not gone on the school trip. This teacher pressed me to take these students along with. I did, as I could hardly have a decent argument with him. First, because he is the size of a truck and second because he wouldn’t have understood a word I said and so there I was, with too many students. I did take them to the park and I did get them to perform the dialogue from the book for about half of the class length, but then with the disturbances from the kids I had been given and a general discontent for doing any type of school work everything fell apart. The first half of class ended with me, not at all frustrated, but simply telling them to enjoy the sun. I simply could not manage attempting to get my class to perform a dialogue as I had these other, older students, under my care. Trying to watch them, make sure they didn’t walk off somewhere and directing my students proved too much.

My last class of the day, another conversation course, had a test I had been preparing them for weeks for and as I should have known; maybe a few of them were actually prepared to take the test. The rest of them pleaded with me to not give the test and then whined through the entirety of it. After receiving the tests back I could see why they had moaned so loudly. I had given them nearly three weeks to prepare for the test, given the directions in Czech. Therefore, I do not pity them. I will, however, be very liberal when grading these tests.

That is about the account of the whole of my day. Nothing out of the ordinary to write about, but always happy to be able to write with a clearer mind now I know Andrea is feeling a little more optimistic about our future.