Well, today was a bit of a mixed bag, you could say (that’s putting it mildly). Here’s some of the highlights…and the lowlights…

The good

• The Year 1 English class was replaced by a lesson in road safety from a local policemen. It was particularly amusing when the policeman asked the kids whether any of their parents broke the road rules, and about half of them put up their hands. He then pretended to jot down all the names, and said he’d visit their houses to arrest them. The kids loved this.

• I had class with my two favourite students, Camilla and Fernanda. They are both 5 years old, and so, so cute. Camilla wears huge purple glasses, and doesn’t speak a word of English, but chatters at me incessantly in Spanish. She loves showing me her sliding across the floor moves, which she thinks are particularly impressive. She also seems to get a perverse satisfaction when I say “No, Camilla! That’s so dangerous!” This causes her to grin away madly, with obvious delight. Fernanda speaks a bit more English, and is absolutely obsessed wtih my appearance. She always wants to touch my necklaces, and sits there and intones “You are so beautiful” throughout the class. This is excellent for the self-esteem.
• One of the Year 2 students gave me a present. It was a beautiful flag (???) he had made. I’m not too sure what I’ll do with it, but it was a nice thought!

• The other Year 1 class were learning about Red Riding Hood, and I got to use the Big Bad Wolf puppet to act out the story with the teacher. This was surprisingly enjoyable, particularly as I could be ask nasty as possible, and say that I was “getting in character.”

The bad

• Some of the kids got a little bit too “caught up in the action” with the Big Bad Wolf puppet, and thought he was actually attacking and eating Red Riding Hood. One boy got quite viscious, and tried to pull off the wolf’s legs in order to save Red Riding Hood. Unfortunately, the wolf puppet was pretty badly made, and now one of its legs is hanging by a thread. I hope no one notices that next time…
• I have blue and green plasticine embedded under my fingernails after spending 45 minutes helping the children make models of the world. I can’t seem to get it out now.

The ugly

• Things went TOTALLY pear-shaped in the Year 5 science class. They were having an in class quiz, which the teacher and I were supervising. Most of the kids clearly hadn’t studied, and kept putting up their hands to ask questions, which the teacher tried to deflect. When she had to leave the room, the kids turned to me, and began asking, then started talking to each other. I told them to stop talking. They pretended they didn’t understand. So I told them in Spanish to stop talking. This caused an uproar. “SHE SPEAKS SPANISH!!!!!” they shrieked, and began yelling at me anew. In desperation, I decided to move the two cheekiest students, but then the teacher came back, lost it completely, and screamed that the class were the worst students in the history of bad students.

Want to know what the class was like? Multiply this by 5 (there’s 25 students) and that’s an indication

All I can say is, thank goodness for my 3.5 day week!