Learning to laugh in the face of frustration is required trait of teaching, I think. I have a MILLION stories I could tell about these little delinquents, but I'll try to keep it under five.
Lets start with the title of the blog post, "Guayaba Wars". A little background information for those who don't know, a guayaba, or guava, is a type of fruit. It grows abundantly in Colombia, and we have a few trees on campus. It is also very common for us to drink for juice at lunch. After lunch, I noticed a lot of the students coming from lunch with the shirts stained pink. Day after day I noticed it continued, and when asked, I was told they spilled their juice at lunch, or that they didn't know how it had happened. The day I realized what was really happening, I saw one of my students lurking around corners of buildings during the lunch break. It looked suspicious because I had never seen his eyes so alert, definitely not during my class. I thought he might be in trouble, or causing it. So I continued to watch for a while. Soon enough, two other boys coming running around the library and off ran the third after them. It may seem like an innocent game of tag to the untrained eye, but these are my most troublesome boys, so I followed them, eventually discovering the real culprit behind the pink stained uniforms. Guayaba Wars are like tag, except instead of tagging with your hand, you throw the fruit. They like the over ripened fruit, because it explodes when it hits one of them. I was proud of my sleuthness, and only threatened to tell their parents why their school shirts were always coming home stained. It would have remained a silly playground game, until the last day of first quarter.
It was the last Friday of the quarter and both 6th grade classes were done with their tests and allowed to go to recess early. Myself and the other teacher were watching them play, when >SMACK<, a little girl standing very close to the other teacher gets hit in the face with a guayaba. Luckily they are still at the age where they want to tell on each other for everything, so we hadn't even wiped the first tears off the little girls face when another student comes and tells us the whole story. First she tells us who threw it, then she tells us that another student bet him to throw it. Then she tells us that it wasn't the little girl he was aiming for, but the teacher. This of course ended in speaking with the principal, writing a discipline report, and a meeting with the parents.
To me, the funniest part was the reaction of the boy who threw the guayaba that hit the girl in the face. He denied it being part of a bet, he denied anyone suggesting he throw the guayaba, and he denied aiming at the teacher. This is what he said, "I just like to throw things. I like to throw rocks, fruit, whatever. I didn't know it was going to hit anybody, I just threw it up in the air."
Another funny tale from first quarter was the beautifully written note found by another teacher who doesn't speak any Spanish. She found the note, and generally would throw the note away, but the students acted so scared when she took it that she decided to get someone to translate. The first time I read it, I wasn't sure that I was reading it correctly, but we confirmed my suspicions with a Colombian. Here is the note, translated into English as closely as possible to the original:
Dearest J----
You are cordially invited to beat up S----- after school today at 3:05 near the snack bar. If you accept this invitation, please meet us promptly after school. If not, there is no danger for you.
Thank you very much,
P--------
J--------
Then, there was the day of the colorful clay. I had the students working in groups in science class when one student comes and tells me that they had been hit with a tiny ball of clay. I said to the class, "Whoever is throwing things needs to stop right now." A few minutes later, a group of three students come up and tell me that they were hit with another piece, and they knew which group threw it. I walked over the accused group and asked what was going on, with my most serious teacher face. One of the boys said, "Ok, you want me to tell you who has clay in here today?" Of course I said yes. He tells me who has clay, and he tells me that he has been throwing some, but only back at those who had thrown it at him. I call everyone who supposedly has clay to my desk. I tell them to explain to me why they shouldn't go down the principal's office right now. They said they would never throw anything again in class, and they would pick up all the clay that is on the floor, and they would work really hard for the rest of the class. I agreed to their conditions, and I said that if I find one piece of clay on the floor after class, they would all be getting discipline reports. Within in 5 minutes I was given three separate balls of clay, all over an inch in diameter, that they had picked up off the floor! By the end of class, I had another 2 balls that big!! How did I miss them throwing THAT much clay during class???? I don't know, but every time I look into my desk at the humongous wad of multicolored clay, I have to laugh.
Another silly game these 6th graders play is with these tiny skateboards, called Tech Decks. The skateboards are about 4-5 inches long and the kids build ramps with their books to "jump" off of. I cannot imagine why the are any fun at all, but the kids all have a collection of at least five. Not a day goes by that I don't take one of these tiny skateboards from the kids. One day, they had an entire tool kit out and were fixing these things during my class! I walked right over, and they were so consumed with their little mechanical work, they didn't even notice I was there until I had it in my hands. The kids were devastated. I have to figure out a way to incorporate these skateboards into my "Simple Machines" curriculum that is coming up later this quarter.
I have to enjoy these kids, otherwise they would drive me crazy. Sometimes in my most frustrated state, they can make me laugh. One day I was about to blow my lid, and I yelled "SILENCE!!!" at the kids. One of the boys looks at me and says, "Yes, we are in Science." I couldn't help but laugh, because I know that to these kids, those two words sound almost exactly the same. Then another boy says, "See, Meez (they don't say Miss, they say Meez), you laugh too!" Yes, I do laugh, and often. The kids are fun, sometimes they have to remind me not to take myself so seriously.
I got my payback on Sports Day, when my job was to spray the kids with water during the obstacle course!
Colombia is in the Northwest part of South America, the second most populous country in South America, and the only country in South America with both Pacific and Atlantic Coasts. The climate around the country is very diverse. The beaches in the Caribbean are unforgettably beautiful, and the Pacific coast has whales, surfing, and lots of wildlife to see. The equator runs through the Colombia, but there are mountains so tall here that they are covered in snow. The weather here is what you call PERFECT where I live, in Armenia. It is 60-85 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. Nearby Armenia is the National Park, Valle de Cocora, or Cocora Valley. It gets a little chillier there because of the altitude, but while hiking I usually stay warm enough to walk in a T-shirt.
