Happy Labor Day, fellow workers :) Let us pause... and take a moment... to celebrate "the economic and social contributions of workers" (source: Wikipedia) I just love Google, despite its aspirations to take over the world. Now onto our day OFF work! I'm wearing white! I'm swimming! I'm barbecuing! I'm chillin and relaxin on this bonus-weekend-day :)The new school year has begun and with it, the frenzied excitement, as well as sheer physical exhaustion. But also around this time, I tend to get all nostalgic for last year's kiddos:
- I think about and miss the kid who threw backpacks and chairs and growled at me, yet wrote and drew with such ferocious creativity. I can't help but dream for him - maybe he's gonna produce some stunning action movies one day about the redemption of angry superheroes :)
- I wonder what will become of the incredibly talented yet insanely shy little girl whose concentration had me beat. Will she ever learn to sweep that hair out of her own face to show the world how truly, she embodies 'diamond in the rough'?
- I'm hoping the boy who entered my classroom with labels of deficit but left proudly confident continues to dance, even if its not "at grade level."
- I think a lot about the ones that I wanted to take home with me... wishing I could give them even more attention, hugs, and whisper my prayers: this world is beyond what meets the eye. don't ever harden. seek Truth. you are loved by Someone beyond your wildest imagination.
And now comes this new class 2011/2012... I'm kinda liking them already :) I've got a set of quite the characters so stories are sure to pour out soon!
Many of you have been asking, "how are you transitioning, gail... like, really?" So I do want to say an enormous THANK YOU to all of you who have kept encouraging me to return to teaching here in the US before giving up my professional career altogether after this past year, for I'm now going into week three of school and... pretty much loving it :) Even after a day where I cried on three separate occasions from overwhelming meltdowns, I came home excited to see my students the next day. Even after one of the longest days, where exhausted thoughts were so scrambled it took me two tries to accurately put toothpaste onto my toothbrush, as I lay there about to fall asleep, I was smiling :) And even though, I've recently gotten not-so-nice-nor-accurate comments about all I do as a teacher is "pass out snacks" or "play with kids all day" - I am honestly in content mode right now where thankfulness is constantly oozing towards my Maker for creating teacher passions within me. And so yes, all is WELL in teacher-land-gail :)
Sad to say but in fact, my greatest issues right now involve social awkwardness... it might just be all in my head but there have been SO many moments where I'm still having very surreal experiences. I feel like this greatly insecure teenager, who just isn't sure how to act/react in certain social contexts. Now that everyone around me speaks English, I don't really have the same excuses of simply smiling and nodding because I don't really know what is going on ;) So here's some wisdom I thought I would pass forward from a blog that I quite enjoy... but please don't judge, for there is some non-clean-G-rated humor involved. Hyperbole and a Half: The Awkward Situation Survival Guide
2 comments:
hyperbole and a half is funny :D i am so glad all is well in teacher land with you, even though i am jealous of your labor day vacation! i GUESS you deserve it :P
Hang in there! The transition awkwardness situations come less and less often over time. The funny thing for me is when my family tries to speak to any foreigner, they start speaking English with this Moroccan/French accent and cadence.
Have a great day!
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