A Great Day

Some days at school are harder than others. Some days a lesson plan that I thought would be fantastic turns out to be a disaster. Some days the kids are bouncing off the walls, getting into fights, and some days I just don’t have the patience for it. Some days I can’t handle the fact that my co-teacher’s idea of “teaching” is writing things on the board and sitting down at her desk. Some days I just don’t have the energy. I’m sure all teachers in every corner of the world experience these days, but boy is it hard to remind myself of that some days.

But then there are days like today. I had one of those “some days” yesterday and pretty much had no interest in coming to school today. However, as it usually works out, today ended up being a great day. After my first class I was in my room cleaning up when a bunch of students came in. They always come in during recreo, or recess, because my classroom is off of the dining room, where they’re all getting their free warm milk and sandwiches. I have an electric heater in my room and let whoever wants to come in and eat in front of the heater since the dining room is SO cold (I’ll have a whole separate post on how cold my one hundred year old school is at some point…). Anyway, once recess ended the kids all said their goodbyes and ran off to class, and I turned and looked at the board where they had written “Miss Kelly cools” (cool was one of our slang words of the day). Not exactly perfect English, but it was awesome to see and definitely slapped a smile on my face.

Later today, I had one period with a seventh grade class that I teach on Fridays. I have to miss their class this week, though, because I need to head to Santiago tonight to get my visa squared away. When I told my students I’d be missing tomorrow’s class, you would have thought I said I’m never returning… which is what some of them thought, I guess. They ran up to me with their pain-stricken faces to make me promise that I’d come back. That slapped an even bigger smile on my face.

Then today at lunch my host mom told me a story that made my day. My host mom works for the city of Los Angeles, and she is responsible for handing out vouchers to single mothers – part of a government welfare system. A poor, single mother can come in every month and pick up $5.500 pesos (about 10 bucks) per child. A lot of the students at my school come from poor families and neighborhoods that I’ve been told I should NEVER go to alone because they’re so dangerous. Well a woman came in to pick up her vouchers from my host mom today, and my mom asked her where her kids go to school. After hearing that they go to my school, my host mom asked her if they take English. “Ahhh, Tía Kelly! Yes I’ve heard alllll about Tía Kelly and her fun classes.” The mom went on to say some really nice things that her kids said about me, but I won’t bore you with the details J

The point of writing all this is that I could care less about all the struggles I had with my classes yesterday because today reminded me that I am having a positive effect on these kids. Sure, there will be days that don’t go well, but why dwell on the negative when there’s so much to be happy about? The fact that my kids are writing in English and going home and telling their parents about me is a great reminder of why I’m here and the impact I can have. A BIG thanks again to everyone who made this experience a possibility! Here’s to many more great days!