Gabe and I have developed alter-egos. These egos come out strong on school function days when our presence isn't so much necessary for the education of the students, but rather vital for the appearance and presentation of a white foreigner on behalf of the school.
We call each other by our best prize-winning-at-the-fair cow names: Angus and Bessie.
On Fridays, we get to dress up in traditional Northern Thai clothes and stand in front of the school for 45 minutes while the students arrive. It's actually kind of fun to see all the parents drop their kids off, but we do feel rather like we should have blue ribbons tied around our necks (or, at least we HOPE we'd get blue ribbons!)
A few weeks ago we went with the Principal and our Office Administrator and the Grade 1 Homeroom Teacher to be visible at a presentation at the local government office regarding the school. We were asked to speak (we've become what I'd like to think of as GOOD at off-the-cuff, public addresses) about the school, and then greeted all the community members that had come, and then we went back to school.
This all happened during our normally schedule time for Grade 1, but we were later than the start of Grade 2 when we got back to our classroom. With only about 40 minutes left in their classtime, Grade 2's appointed speaker (our smart, sassy, fun student Hannah whom we love and would be delighted to scoop her up and keep her forever!) came into our classroom where we'd just set down our stuff, walked boldly up to me and said:
"Teacher Dani, today we are learn?"
Yes, Hannah, I sure hope so!
We call each other by our best prize-winning-at-the-fair cow names: Angus and Bessie.
On Fridays, we get to dress up in traditional Northern Thai clothes and stand in front of the school for 45 minutes while the students arrive. It's actually kind of fun to see all the parents drop their kids off, but we do feel rather like we should have blue ribbons tied around our necks (or, at least we HOPE we'd get blue ribbons!)
A few weeks ago we went with the Principal and our Office Administrator and the Grade 1 Homeroom Teacher to be visible at a presentation at the local government office regarding the school. We were asked to speak (we've become what I'd like to think of as GOOD at off-the-cuff, public addresses) about the school, and then greeted all the community members that had come, and then we went back to school.
This all happened during our normally schedule time for Grade 1, but we were later than the start of Grade 2 when we got back to our classroom. With only about 40 minutes left in their classtime, Grade 2's appointed speaker (our smart, sassy, fun student Hannah whom we love and would be delighted to scoop her up and keep her forever!) came into our classroom where we'd just set down our stuff, walked boldly up to me and said:
"Teacher Dani, today we are learn?"
Yes, Hannah, I sure hope so!
No comments:
Post a Comment