"China is a country... Chinese is the language"

Being a male teacher in an elementary school provides you with a certain specialness in the eyes of kids, mainly because there are so few male elementary teachers.  As an Asian male elementary school, I'm practically a celebrity.  My first couple weeks in the school I would walk down the hall and, I kid you not, every kid's head would turn and follow my steps.  It was pretty creepy until I got used to it.  This is probably what Ryan Reynolds has to deal with all the time.  =P

Anyways, As an icebreaker with my students, I offered to teach my class Chinese as an incentive to learn my procedures.  It was really surprising how enthusiastic they were to learn.  I started with the basic number system.  They learned how to write the numbers 1-10 and how to say it aloud too.  All those studies that show how young children can pick up languages quickly are dead on true.  After 3 days, almost 80% of the kids knew how to read any Chinese number from 1-100!!! I was so blown away.  For fun we would do simple math problems in Chinese and they would compete to see which team could solve it the fastest.  haha

I guess news had spread to their siblings cuz in the hallway one day, this 2nd grade boy came up to me as I was passing by and we had this approximate conversation.

boy: Mr. Lee!  Can you teach me how to talk China?
me: Hey buddy, sure I can teach you how to speak Chinese.  China is a country.
boy:  Cool!  How do you say "hello" in China?
me: Well, first, let's get it straightened out that China is the country that speaks the language Chinese.  Right?
boy: Yeah!  So how do you say "hello"?
me: Alright, it's very easy.  It's knee like your knee *points to knee*, and how like how are you doing?  Put them together and it is knee how.
boy:  Cooooool!  Knee how Mr. Lee!  I can speak China!
me: *mentally slaps forehead but nods and smiles*

Work? gooood (pt 1)

Wow I realize that I haven't let you guys know how things have been since getting hired as a 4th grade teacher @ Creedmoor Elementary.  Quite simply, it's been amazing. 

I really thank God for being totally in control.  I was sad at being laid off last year (my first time ever) after surviving my first year teaching, but I think He knew what was happening there and wanted something else for me.  At this school, two of my co-workers from Camino Real Elementary actually called and texted me to apply for the opening the day it opened up.  It was really humbling and such an encouragement that so many people were looking out for me. 

The reason they opened up a teaching position so late was because they had an overwhelming flood of 4th graders enroll, and I ended up getting a group of kids from each of the 5 other teachers (yes, a total of six 4th grade teachers!).  I kinda felt bad for the bilingual teachers, cuz I ended up poaching some of their smarter kids, but hey, I wasn't in charge of it!  =p

My biggest fear in starting in the middle of the year was knowing where all the kids were at academically, and trust me, it was freakin crazy trying to figure that stuff out.  Add on top of that trying to get to know kids and have them trust me after they've already bonded w/ their old teacher.  I had 2 girls tell me that I was their first male teacher and they wanted to go back to their old teacher.  haha! 

2nd grade kids singing Feliz Navidad for our class

Despite those misgivings and trying to get used to a new school culture/ new grade level/ get my class set up as quickly as possible, it was really cool because of all the support and love I received from other teachers in the school.  There's this special camaraderie among those in the teaching profession, I think experiencing the same intense stress and weight, you naturally pull for your fellow teachers and there was a steady flow of people visiting and offering help.

All in all, the feel of the school just felt a lot more free and inviting to me.  Maybe it was a bit of self confidence because I knew a basic flow of how a year goes, but I felt very hopeful.

Highs and Lows

Something they don't warn you about in teacher ed... the pressure to get kids passing on standardized tests is insane. I'm in a constant state of stress and panic at school, and I think it's affecting my attitude towards the kids. My temper is shorter, I'm more impatient, and overall, I'm definitely a lot more strict on them. (Which may or may not be a good thing)

In the midst of it, God definitely keeps me from going insane by providing moments of levity. So since yesterday, the kids have started begging me to play tag w/ them (not sure why it randomly got started since I never did before). It was non-stop begging, and one of the girls literally grabbed my leg and wouldn't let go. Partly to get them to be quiet, I said OK and played w/ them for a couple minutes before the bell rescued me from showing how out of shape I had become.

When they asked if I would play tomorrow, I realized I finally had leverage on them to behave in class! For the past 2 days, the kids have been working hard. YES!

Today after recess, some of the girls asked me if I was married, and the conversation turned to how old I was. When I asked them what they thought, one responded, "38", another guessed "42", and one even guessed "58"! I had never been so blessed before. Apparently the long hair worked! I no longer looked like I was 18!

My kids are taking the Benchmarks (practice test for the real standardized test in 2 weeks). please pray that they all pass!

Downing them jaded pills

One school year down (well, technically 4/5 of a year). It seems like an eternity since I started working as a teaching assistant at the middle school. I came in bright-eyed and bushy tailed, eager to tackle the challenges of meeting the needs of pubescent kids. For almost half a year, I was able to keep a positive attitude and earnestly believe that they could change for the better.
Unfortunately a person can only give so much of himself with little to no positive reinforcement before he seriously questions his idealism. I hit that will after Christmas break, which is when the kids start ramping up into "I don't care about anything" mode. It's really sad when you learn about their home situations, as 90% of them come from broken homes and burdened with its baggage. Many times it's painfully obvious where much of their mentality and personalities come from when we end up talking to their guardians. Like they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Long story short, I went through a really tough last couple months at work. Many days I would flirt with the idea of quitting, but kept reminding myself that this was a job that God provided for me, and I needed to stick it out. I'm definitely really thankful for my experiences. Seriously. I think I am so much more equipped for dealing with classroom management now after working with all those punks. =) Even outside of the things I picked up firsthand teaching, I got to rub shoulders with some teachers who really inspire me to want to be like them. You hear in the news all the bad educators who sleep with their students or are incompetent, but you never hear anything about the inspirational ones that give you hope for our future. Trust me, there are some great ones out there who give 100% and daily give everything they have to see each child succeed. Props to them for the unrecognized work they do.

Below is the only picture I was able to take on my last day (it was filled with assemblies and packing/cleaning). If you're wondering, yes, that is, indeed, the famous Round Rock Donut. I had been raving about it to them the entire year, and as a reward/ celebration for surviving, I got each class one. Hahaha, their reactions were amazing, I wish I could have video recorded it. But yeah, I'm definitely going to remember this past year, and hope I continue to grow a greater heart for my future students.

A tiny glimpse of Hell

I've always heard teachers complain about how much the last couple weeks of school suck because normally good kids develop ADD, and kids who already have ADD go buck wild. Well, I would say that is definitely true.

In my 3 classes, we've had 3 kids suspended in the past 3 days: and one kid even got suspended the day he returned from a previous suspension! It's simply mind-boggling how the whiff of summer vacation will whip up all kinds of rebelliousness and devilishness in kids.

What compounds the problem is the fact that teachers take this time to get "sick". No joke, we've had an average of 6-10 teachers call in sick every day now which breaks the structure many of my students need to stay on task. (Students in my program don't take well with subs) When students get sent down to our punishment room, they naturally feed off each other's craziness and as more kids join the mix, the results are often headache inducing and stress-filled.

Needless to say, I've gone through many daydreams where I'm yelling at a kid or even punching them (usually in the face). In return, I've been cussed out every day, ran into and lightly punched and elbowed (as I'm preventing students from running out of the room), and inadvertently headbutted on the nose.

Last day of school can't come soon enough...

Flatulence is Funny

Fridays are called "Fun Friday" in our classroom. For my first period class, they wanted to go outside so we brought a basketball and decided to play a game of 21. I was just messing around, keeping it close, then let one of the kids win. That was a mistake because he started gloating and talking trash like crazy. I got a bit annoyed and when he asked to play again I said "sure", inwardly vowing to crush his spirits.

The game starts off and it's back and forth cuz the kid is actually pretty good. 6-6, then I start tipping him, which drops him back to 0 each time. I know I am jacked up, but as he got more frustrated, I got more amused because he kept talking more trash. By the time the score was 19-4, he was literally hustling after every play and kept mumbling, "Oh hail no..."

He pulled up for a mid range jumper and as it clanged off the rim, he sprinted past me and skyed up in the air. With a primal growl, he grabbed the ball and immediately protected it with both arms as he landed. As he landed though, I think he was straining so hard that this loud booooop escaped into the air. I immediately pulled up half in surprise and amusement. Part of me had to make sure it didn't come from me, but when I realized the student had farted, I almost couldn't stifle my laughter.

I played it off like I didn't hear what happened, though, and promptly ended his misery with my next shot. Student's lesson for the day: Don't mess with Mr. Lee.

What Once was Great...

As a kid, I would always look forward to our class field trips. Didn't matter where we went: a science museum, a historic farm land, even the local park was great. Field trips meant that we didn't have to stay cooped up in classes all day and we got to hang out with our friends in a fresh new environment.

Now that I'm a teacher, I can totally understand why they always end up looking like crap after our trips. Field trips sap the energy right out of you! Today I had to help take the entire 7th grade class to the local park for 5 hours (since the 8th graders were taking standardized tests). Imagine being one of 10 chaperones in charge of 200+ kids making sure they don't hurt themselves, get lost, break anything, or any of hundreds of possible worst-case scenarios.

Unfortunately, I was shafted into taking the 7th grade field trip instead of the 6th graders cuz my coworker didn't want to deal with some of our kids who were in 7th grade so I said it'd be OK if we switched(I know, nice guy syndrome). So instead of getting to chill w/ teachers and students I was tight with, I was w/ teachers I had no real interaction with and 3 of the more troublesome kids.

In my head I kept telling myself that I should just use this as an opportunity to meet some of the rest of the staff and kids, but in the end I wussed out. I was cold and wet (it was misting and windy) and my allergies were making me miserable so I just wandered around by myself watching the kids.

It was pretty sad how easily I end up psyching myself out of new opportunities to meet people. Something I need to really look into...

Great Day!

Wow! Today was such a great day at work that I had to document it. The head teacher was gone again to sign paperwork for his new house so I was steeling myself for a rough day.

My coworker and I talked through strategy on how we wanted to split up the students and what we would do if different situations happened and then split up to take care of various responsibilities until the day started. When 1st period came around, it pretty much started as I expected. One of the kids came in with attitude not wanting to listen to us and had a good 10 minute battle before he gave in and was willing to stay in the room.

From there, the day was magical. Maybe it was a combination of it being "Fun Friday" (a day where the kids in our class are able to just chill and play games) and the kids realizing that I wasn't a pushover anymore, but the kids actually did what they were told.

I got to play ball w/ kids in one class, connect 4 in another, and Kemp and Killer in another, and helped students avoid emotional meltdowns in various other classes. Even the students who were under lockdown for the day were working hard or staying quiet whereas in previous days they were going crazy since they'd been in our room for the past 2 weeks.

It was such a welcome change of pace that all throughout I kept lifting up sincere praises to God for the great day so far. The day was so nice that I was even able to catch up and read a couple chapters of Luke!

Another great part of the day was that one student in particular who had started being incredibly abrasive to staff and unwilling to work in class actually listened to my advice on staying in class... and stayed out of trouble the entire day! For those of you who think this isn't that big a deal do not know this kid... he is the poster child of ADHD and near the end of the day he specifically came to tell me he got a "Recognized" score on his TAKS Science test. Man, I remember feeling so proud of him and I could tell he was proud of it too from the way he was beaming.

God, I wish I could just capture the day and bottle it up for the times when I want to quit.

Always be Prepared

Old cliched sayings actually have truth behind them. A couple months ago I was forced to attend 7 hours of SAMA (Satori Alternatives to Managing Aggression) training. Essentially this taught us how to deescalate a potentially explosive situation by identifying with and finding a "win-win" situation with the student. Most of the verbal training was pretty common sense crap, but learning how to take down a dangerous student was pretty exhilarating, if not a bit awkward to practice.

I was in a class full of middle-aged men and women and these techniques required a lot of very in-your-face grabbing and throw downs. When I had to come from behind and slide down a woman's arms to grab her wrist, I just prayed I didn't do anything inappropriate or hurt her. At the time, I never really thought I would realistically use any of these strategies in school, so I ignored the trainer's recommendation to keep practicing the strategies every couple weeks.

A couple days ago, one of our quieter students refused to enter school when his mom dropped him off. my 2 co-workers were checking in students while I was watching the classroom with some other students. Over the radio I heard one of them say that they were "containing" the student in the hallway. Apparently he had been trying to run away and escape, but when the teachers were physically escorting him back to our class he began kicking my coworker's shins and struggling.

After 5 or so minutes, an Administrator got radioed to provide backup and documentation and the student was brought into our class. We rushed the other 2 students in the room to the other room so they would be safe. I was told to take my co-teacher's glasses, walkie, watch, and various other objects and put it in a safe area. He then motioned me over to get the student's feet to assist in the containment since the student was ramming himself into the door and resumed kicking my co-worker's shins. I grabbed the blue padded mat from the wall and set it up next to the student and then my mind went blank.

I couldn't remember whether to grab the kid's shins or his feet. After a couple seconds of deliberation, I grabbed his shins and waited. My co-teacher looked over and told me to grab the ankles, not the shins. I silently called myself an idiot for forgetting; especially with my assistant principal documenting what we were doing. As I steeled myself for my very first real-life containment, I felt a rush of adrenaline but also a sense of fear because my memory was still incredibly fuzzy on the positioning.

We ended up taking the student down quickly but gently and I had the kid's legs in a loose bear hug. For such a little 6th grader, the kid was surprisingly strong. I actually had to use a decent amount of pressure to keep his feet still, and I got rewarded with a jab to my jaw when an unexpected leg jerk caused my elbow to hit myself.

The first 5 minutes were fine because my blood was pumping and any pain was masked by adrenaline. Unfortunately since one of my arms was resting under his legs, there was some crazy blood-constriction going on and I was soon finding myself shifting positions to try and keep from losing circulation. After 20 minutes, my coworker took a break from talking w/ the student and looked at me. He let me know that the proper positioning was having both hands on top of his legs cupping his bottom knee. Once again, I was exposed in my lack of knowledge. I sheepishly thanked him and did what he said.

Well, that position was a bit better, but the pain was no longer caused by blood loss, but cramping in the shoulders and upper back. I had to keep pressure, but make sure to keep loose enough to prevent the student from hurting himself from my weight so my arms were partly lifted to provide room to breath. Altogether, we spent 40 some minutes talking him down until he was calm enough to take his carrel.

The experience left me with the realization that no matter how unlikely we feel like we'll need to show our proficiency in something, if it's even a chance of happening, we need to keep sharp by preparing and honing our skills. That day I felt like the event really challenged me to re-evaluate even how ready I am to share my faith with people. Am I so close w/ him at this moment that I can share with conviction and relevance or is my faith the faded and almost-forgotten faith of the past?

Murphy's Law

Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

Well, that law came to life today at work. I can't go into details but here's a quick rundown of how my day looked.

*Warning: This is meant to be just a venting process. It's a really tough job, but I'm definitely learning so much from this experience.*

1. Arrived at work 10 minutes late and was told that one of our students would be staying in our room for the next 3 days for punching someone in the face.
2. 15 minutes later (before school even started) we get radioed to come down and pick up the very same student for another confrontation. Security got radioed to come and help escort student to our class. (I'm in the classroom documenting and waiting to receive the student) 5 minutes later I heard someone say he ran out of the school and the campus officer is called.
3. 2nd period, we get a notice that one of our students was accused of bringing a gun to school. By law, we are required to treat every threat seriously so we search for his backpack and investigate his locker. He gets sent down to our room with a teacher and he is pissed. He normally has a huge anger issue, but thankfully we square everything away and assure him since nothing was found he is not in any trouble and he gets sent back to class.
4. 3rd period the student who ran off is brought back and disrupts our class. He ends up bringing another student into his mischief and they both get sent on an Intervention (discipline). It takes almost an entire hour to get them calmed down and able to do their punishments.
5. The student who ran away tries to get off of doing his punishment by asking for food, pretending to have a stomachache. (Funny how he didn't have one for the past hour he was tossing paper airplanes and talking with his buddy). We don't let him off the hook so he slumps to the ground and requests the nurse. By law we have to oblige and the nurse comes and inspects him. He really turns on the waterworks and after 20 minutes of superb acting, gets wheelchaired to the nurse's station. (We all know what he's doing but can't do anything about it)
   
6. During lunch, I go to the cafeteria to shadow the student who got drawn into trouble. We got halfway through before he decides to try sneaking up on our Assistant Principal and taking his walkie. I see this and am sprinting over to tell him to back off, but the AP notices it and tells the student to go to our room. The student gets pissed (who knows why) and refuses to, and refuses to listen to me as well. Our head teacher gets radioed and after 10 minutes, the student finally heads to the room, cursing.
7. On the way, another student in our program follows us saying he wants to join us. We tell him he's gotta stay in the cafeteria but he ignores us and just eats his chips and follows us. After escorting the student to the door, I escort the chip-eater back to the cafeteria and hear another of our students cursing and looking upset. End up calming him down (positive!) and am radioed to come back to help with the classroom.
8. Because both the students in Intervention are good friends, they are having a difficult time controlling, so one is sent over to my room and I work with him on calming down and doing his punishments. We actually end up having a good talk (positive!) and he promises to stay out of trouble the rest of the day.
9. As he leaves, another of our students comes and tells us that his friend showed him weed. I escort him to the AP's office and he asks me to stay with him (he's afraid of getting in trouble) and we take care of all the paperwork and I take him to his class. Later that period, the student who promised to be good stops by and requests to not go to the party because he's afraid of getting into trouble so he asks to go to study hall (positive!) and I take him there.
   
10. Last period, the student who ran away just does not listen to any directions and is such a handful it drives all of us crazy. I have to escort a different student to the bus because he tends to wander, and he keeps trying to run off, but I finally bring him to his mother who was to pick him up. 5 minutes later I get radioed asking if I dropped him off, because apparently his mother is looking for him. This is freakin confusing cuz I specifically remembered bring him to her, but apparently he went back to get his work and his mom was looking for him.
11. Got to go home with a throbbing headache.
    

Work Update

There are so many entries that I would be writing but honestly, I just don't want to do anything when I come back from work. Ever since Thanksgiving week, the kids have been acting increasingly crazy, and not just the kids in our DARTS program but all over the school. You can notice it from the morning because they just seem so much more restless as they're sitting at the lunch tables or in the way they talk to each other... it's like something's in the air and they're going stir crazy.

I can't go into specifics about stuff that goes on, but last friday we had two fights happen our classroom and multiple student meltdowns every day. At this point, all my coworkers in the program are counting down the days to break this Friday.

There are definitely bright spots throughout the day, so not everything is a downer. During freetime last week after mock testing, I got to work with one of my students in building a popsicle stick ship. As we were working on it, he was explaining that because he was starting an E.T club (extra terrestrial), he wanted to build a ship to hold a tape recorder that would test to see if there were any strange activity happening in a pond near his home. I found that hilarious, but of course you can't show negative reactions so I nodded along and asked him on specifics on his boat design. Over the next couple hours, we kept adding different things to it and eventually it actually turned out really well! I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow, but it was really tight and it actually floats!

One of the Good Days

Today was CRAZY. I don't even remember all the stuff that happened today, but two of the students that have been having the most trouble behaving in class really got their act together and were great all day. We had a new student join our program, so we started explaining procedures, but we decided to let the two students explain things to the new guy (partly to make sure they remembered the rules and because we were so swamped). I was working on some paperwork near them when I overheard them talk about us as teachers.

Student A: "All three teachers are OK. They're actually really nice. Mr. B is cool, so is Mr. Lee. They're all cool except for Mrs. S."

*i mentally cringed*

Student B: "Yeah Mr. Lee is tight."

Student A: "Yeah, they're nice when you're good, but when you break a rule... boyyyyyy, you better be ready for some punishment. It's really gay but just don't get in trouble."


Aside from the dig @ the female teacher, it warmed my heart to hear him say that he respected me b/c the past couple weeks I felt like he was a brick wall. Even yesterday he was incredibly stubborn when he kept asking for help in math, but refused to try learning it my method. Secondly, it was good to hear him verbalize that he understood the purpose of the rules; they were there to teach them acceptable social behaviors.

Success! for now at least.

Also during some break times, they drew pictures for my side of the room. Coming from them, it was actually a really huge gesture that I really appreciated.

Kids Say the Darndest Thing

When our students throw fits, they say the most hilarious things that I want to start documenting cuz it's so funny. The hardest part is trying to hold in the laughter in front of them.

Yesterday, as one student was just getting over a tantrum, he was sitting on top of his desk breathing heavy when he looked up and saw the two other teachers laughing (they were laughing at an email a teacher sent) and said, "Why're you laughin? Stop lookin' at my face! Why you always lookin' at my face and laughing? Does my face look funny to you? Do I look like a fu**in monkey to you?" We could only look at each other puzzled and just suppress our laughter.

Hmm... after writing it down, it doesn't seem as funny, but at the time it was hilarious. Probably a case of the "had to be there's". ahh well.

Ladies Man?

This conversation happened for real @ school about a week ago...

During lunch, two students were eating in the classroom and we're just talking about random stuff when one of them (whom I'll call Francis*) started bragging about how he was able to pick up girls 2 years older than himself. Billy* thought Francis was full of crap, and they went back and forth about each other's game (or lack thereof).

This entire conversation was extremely amusing for me, so I was content just to eat and watch both of them explain what they thought girls wanted in a guy. After a lull in the argument, Billy turned around and asked, "Hey Mr. Lee, are you a ladies man?"

I had no idea how to respond so I just asked back, "Umm, what do YOU guys think?"

Francis went right ahead and blurted out, "Yeah, I bet he was," while Billy nodded in agreement.

Outwardly, I just laughed and shrugged, but inwardly I was so filled with joy. That was quite possibly the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.