It's 2:30 in the morning, and my apartment still smells like buttermilk pancakes, mmm. SJ and I held a breakfast dinner at my place tonight, and the pancakes (one batch made from a buttermilk cornbread recipe and the other from an actual buttermilk pancake recipe) were divine. I've got my favorite poprock CD playing on my flat-screen tv- “Drops of Jupiter”, Augustana's “Boston”, Something Corporate's “Konstantine”, and the like. One more day, and it's the weekend again, I can do it!
I talked with Sarah online tonight and learned that she'd met up with a couple of our old teachers over winter break. She said they looked exactly the same, though it's been what...6 and 11 years. Wow...They taught me, and now I'm doing what they're doing! As a first-year teacher here in Kurdistan, I often think about my own teachers and especially Mr. and Mrs. Chon, who taught me, Sarah, and James all throughout elementary, middle and high school every Saturday. I often thank my lucky stars that I don't have to teach the kids like the ones I went to middle school with, or the disrespectful Korean kids I went to hakwon with. Some were good, but some were so bad, it's no wonder he got a heart attack that one year. I feel their influence in my classroom even so far away and so long ago. Just as they had us memorize all the squares from 11x11 up to 21x21, I challenged my 2nd graders to do the same. Some of them actually succeeded, and these are the ones who I can see are far more brilliant than I was when I was their age, and who will be far more brilliant than me by the time they are my age. Then there are the ones who, no matter how many times I drill them, can't seem to retain anything. Today, I spent like 20 minutes after school, helping one of my 2nd graders memorize 9x9, 9x8, and 9x7.
“9 times 8 is 72. 9 times 8 is 72. 9 times 8 is 72,” we chanted together.
“What's 9 times 8?” I then asked.
Nothing. Nothing! We just said it!
“We just said it, Raen!” I said in semi-frustrated, semi-encouraging tones, if that is even possible.
Sigh...hopefully, she will practice during the car ride home and in the bathroom like I told her to. Just like Mr. Chon told us to at hakwon. “The best place to study is in the bathroom,” he used to tell us kids. Of course, we would giggle at the idea, just as my 2nd graders giggle when I say it to them. One day, Shano came up to me and said “Miss? At home, I can't go to the bathroom because I don't want to practice my times tables.” Hehe. Silly kids. I love how they their jokes always fall flat because their English is still stilted.
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