Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Update on my student graduating

Great news! I just found out yesterday that my CTM is going to be school Valefuckingdictorian. I'm so ridiculously jazzed. It's like the prodigal son. He was lost and now he has returned. He is going to give a speech at the graduation and everything.

One of the qualities that helps in teaching is compassion. To train in compassion, I went vegetarian. This was a precept of my religion so it really helped me spiritually and in teaching. A quality that helps with compassion is empathy. Empathy is very important in working with kids when they are hurt, but it's even better when the kid does well. To be with someone's suffering is very important, but to share in someone's joy...that rocks!

So this Friday I get to share in the joy of my students graduating and my CTM being the valedictorian. Graduation is what teaching is all about. Whether it's the joy of getting rid of kids that get under my skin or the joy of seeing kids graduate when the deck was stacked against...I'm a happy man!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

End of the fucking year

Hell yeah! 2 more days till the school year is ovah! Then I'm teaching the summer bridge program and then it's off to Peru and Brazil. AL and I are going to Machu Picchu and then to Salvador and Rio. We were supposed to go to Paraguay but AL's dad backed out and then her mom didn't want to go. Then it was like...what the fuck is there to do or see in Paraguay. So I decided we should go to Peru and check out Machu Picchu.

AL is really excited to go to Brazil. We have both been dancing samba de gafieira, afro-brazilian samba, and capoeira, so she's juiced to go. This summer I got 5 weddings I'm going to be going to. People are either having babies or getting married. Either way it means my cheap ass is going to have to shell out money for something.

I got 2 students graduating. I'm proud of them both but one of them I'm really proud of. He comes from a crazy family and environment and at one point he was talking about dropping out. Then he turned everything around and started to excel. It's good when a student does well but it's even better when the student completely changes. It's seeing and being a part of that change that makes my job wonderful. It's what makes me get up in the morning and happy to be doing what I'm doing.

It's good that we're having break too cuz I was starting to not like kids. Nothing like the summer to recharge my batteries and make things better.