God's Kingdom

Everywhere I look, kids continue to amaze me. I read this book called "Amazing Grace" written by Jonathan Kozol about kids living in a place called Mott Haven, a ghetto in New York City. It is a sobering, depressing read, but necessarily so.

This is what a 12 year old (grade 6 or 7) wrote in response to the question, what is heaven like? I found it really challenging, amusing at times, and even enlightening. As children usually tend to be...

God's Kingdom

God will be there. He'll be happy that we arrived.
People shall come hand-in-hand. It will be bright, not dim and glooming like on earth. All friendly animals will be there, but no mean ones.
As for television, forget it! If you want vision, you can use your eyes to see the people that you love. No one will look at you from the outside. People will see you from the inside. All the people from the street will be there. My uncle will be there and he will be healed. You won't see him buying drugs, because there won't be money. Mr. Mongo will be there too. You might see him happy for a change.
The prophets will be there in heaven. There will be no guns or drugs or IRS. You won't have to pay taxes. You'll recognize all the children who have died when they were little. Jesus will be good to them and play with them. At night he'll come and visit at your house.
God will be fond of you.
How will you know that you are there? Something will tell you, "This is it! Eureka!" If you still feel lonely in your heart, or bitterness, you'll know that you're not there.

The author adds:
...on the back there is a picture of a bird with flapping wings. From the mouth of the bird...he has drawn a line to a bubble, as in a cartoon. Inside the bubble he has written in big letters: "NEVER MORE!"
...he is just a 13 year old, in many ways mysterious and even mystical and still a fairly normal kid and not a "child prophet"...but a thoughtful person nonetheless who has been forced by life to think more often about death than are most children of his age.

A few stories about the last week.

We were having a little class discussion (class discussions are the best times, when you just get to sit and talk with the kids and find out what's really going on in their little minds), about air pollution. I was teaching them about fuel, and how using less is better and how planes use a LOT of fuel (yes, I'm brainwashing them). Of course just at the mention of the word "plane" a million hands shoot into the air, eager to tell their plane stories. After dealing with those, I talked about how you can drive your car almost anywhere in Canada, but if you want to go somewhere like China (I have two international students in my class, one of which was adopted from China), you have to take a plane because there's an ocean between us and China.

I asked them, "How do you think people traveled across the ocean before we had planes?" One suggested helicopters. Another, submarines. I explained that they did use submarines a long time ago, but not for traveling long distances, and that if we didn't have planes, we didn't have helicopters either. Of course a few of the kids knew this whole discussion was silly, because the answer was obviously boats. They used boats. "Oh!" said one kid upon discovering the idea of boats, "like a ferry!" This brought on another avalanche of stories, this time about ferries, and how they are scary when there's an 18 wheeler on board... I explained that the boats that go across the ocean are MUCH bigger than a ferry, and how it would take WEEKS to make the trip. This was totally beyond them. The whole discussion was very entertaining, and if I may say so, I think they did learn a thing or two.

So, through out the year I have implemented a system of noodle jars. This is where each table group (4 or 5 desks pushed together) has a jar, and their goal is to fill it with noodles first. They get noodles added when they are behaving well, and removed when they are not. When the jar is full, they get to have a "noodle party". Of course when I explained this system to them, they knew they were supposed to be excited about having a "noodle party" (because of the tone of my voice), but they obviously weren't quite sure what it was. The obvious response was "You'll see!!" (with the appropriate voice again), which, as far as I know, they have not realized means "your guess is as good as mine!" It's shocking how much we teachers make up as we go along.

Anyway, it just so happened that they were nearing the top of their noodle jars by the time it was my last week there. So I was especially generous with the noodles and all of the jars were declared full on my second last day. We were to have the so-called "noodle-goodbye party" the next day. So we prepared by painting our noodles. I dumped the jars into trays, squeezed out the paint and away we went. The pictures above depict this colourful and exciting event (no pictures of kids though, sadly, I'm trying to be responsible here). They LOVED the fact that I suggested they put the noodles on the tips of their fingers to get the best control. And that they got to paint as many as they wanted, however they wanted. And, since it was my second last day and I had forgotten about the stress of report cards and all that jazz, I was in a fantastic mood. I put on our favourite cd and we had a ball. I'll never forget it.

In the midst of all this, my teaching partner snuck in (which is normal) and suddenly clapped her hands to get the students' attention (which is not normal when I'm teaching). She then presented to me a book of writing that the students had done for me about why they think I'm such a great teacher and what they're going to miss about me. Working VERY hard not to cry, I graciously accepted the very thoughtful and meaningful gift. Sigh.

At our "noodle-goodbye party" on Friday afternoon, we made our painted noodles into necklaces. Many noodles ended up crushed on the floor, and there was a significant amount of frustration with keeping the noodles on the string until I could come over to tie it for them. But overall, the noodle party was a success.

After finishing our necklaces I opened a few gifts. I told them I would gladly open them after school but of course they insisted I open them in front of the class. Those two who had given me their gifts earlier, were sure to mention that so as not to miss out on the glory of giving me a present. They are so sweet and adorable. I read them one of my favourite stories Scaredy Squirrel, and reminded them of the moral of the story, that it's okay to take risks. We talked about the message I had put in each of their cards, "What makes you different is what makes you special" which we had learned a while back in a unit we were doing on making connections. I blabbed on and on about how each of them is special and if we were all the same we wouldn't be special...and on and on. They humoured me by listening and appearing to care ;)

Of course all this time I am continuing to fight the tears and trying to keep on smiling and laughing. And then, to make matters so much worse, I told the kids to come up and get their cards, and give me a hug. Well, then the fight was on. The tears were insisting and the smiles were starting to waver. One little girl sitting right at my feet said "I think I'm going to cry!" "So am I!" I responded, with a forced laugh.

I did manage to keep it all under control, realizing that if I cried, our entire class would be a giant ball of snot and tears and weepy 7 year olds. But on the way home from school that night I ended up having to pull over because my makeup was getting in my eyes and I couldn't see through the tears.

Sigh. Yes, it was a hard day. I couldn't have asked for a better school, class, teaching partner... and the list goes on. I am regrettably aware, however, of the fact that I am now doomed to find every experience following this one, sadly disappointing...

Ah well, such is life. And on the bright side, I am scheduled to be a supply teacher in my very own class on the Wednesday after March break. Yay!

the end is near and so is spring

So this is my last week of teaching grade two! I can't believe that it's already March break and I'm writing report cards and packing up my stuff. Most people ask if I'm excited to be done work, looking forward to getting back to my thesis and a few other things that have been put off...the truth is, I'm not! I'm actually sad about leaving my little kids and my classroom and my school. As I usually do, I have gotten too sentimentally attached to all of these things and it doesn't feel right to let someone else come and take my place...I don't want anyone else teaching my class! It just feels like a bit of a rip to have to leave in the middle of everything...

But, such is life, and in reality it is a good thing. The timing has worked out perfectly. I can take some time to get my brain out of grade two and into my masters thesis, and then pack up and move! Wow.

Besides crying about being done my LTO, I also wanted to post a little story. It's not about my grade twos, but about a 3 year old that I happen to know. She is the most wonderful little girl you can imagine, and two nights ago during the thunder storm her mom said to her "it's a thunder storm! That means spring is coming!" In her adorable three year old voice she asked, "Where? Where is spring?"

Her parents later filled in a bit of background explaining that, after telling her that spring is "just around the corner", she continually asked "what corner?" and while riding the car would ask "this corner? Is spring here?"

How sweet!

So, it's back to the world substitute teaching: shorter days, the ability to say "no thanks!", and nothing to do in the evenings...Truth be told, I can't complain about that!