The Four Powers

It's been a really rough week for me. I can't say it enough: teaching is hard, especially when it feels like the administration is not working with the teachers, but over them. I learned something important today- a few important things. 

One: the power of positive thinking. A day can start out really amazing and end up so bad that you completely forget about its amazing beginning until you have a chat about it later with a colleague over a cup of tea. The moment you remember the amazing beginning, though, is like a ray of sunshine that gives you the energy to keep chugging along, and acts as a reminder of the power of focusing on the positive. 

Two: the power of the happy face (and the sad one). No matter how mad or sad you feel inside, it is terribly important to never go into the classroom with that negative feeling showing on your face. Nowhere is this more important than when you are dealing with kindergarteners, who catch the negative vibe as easily as the common cold. No matter how distraught you feel inside, you must always put on a happy face for the sake of your kids. 

Three: the power of consistency. Being “firm”- that oh-so-abstract concept that all the experienced teachers keep throwing at us inexperienced teachers as advice in handling young ones- is less about the toughness or decibal level of one's voice, and more about consistency. Wow, that's a misnomer if I've ever heard one. Why don't they just call it being “consistent”? 

One way I have invented of recapturing the attention of my 5-year-olds is yelling out “KG1!” with my hand over my brow, and having the kids salute back and respond with “ay-ay captain!” They love doing it, and it's really adorable the way one of the little girls, Liya, yells it, with a pirate-y growl. You can almost see a parrot on her shoulder and a bottle of rum in hand. The only problem, however, with this trick is it keeps them quiet for about 3 seconds, and then you lose them again. 

But the important part is repeating this act over and over again, until they understand what you expect of them with this act, and follow through. And telling them what you expect of course is also important. They will (I hope) come to understand what you tell them, despite their age and despite the language barrier. Because of their age and language barrier, it may take weeks, but the key is to be consistent in not letting a single incident slide by if you can help it, because it will send the signal to the other kids that you're not serious about your expectations. 

Four: the power of light. One of my colleagues has really interesting, lovely eyes. I noticed today while we were having tea on her balcony, that in the sunlight, they were a transparent sea-green. But when we were standing indoors without the aid of sunlight, they appeared an opaque, cornflower blue. I wish I had chameleon eyes, too! I claimed them as my own once she passes away into the land of non-corporeals. I wonder if she is an organ donor?

Of the four, I prefer the power of light. Light has interesting features like immortality, finite speed, and of course, the wave-particle duality. Moreover, as I found out recently, fire and light are one and the same, so I would likewise have firepower, which is so so cool!