Mis estudiantes

Here are some photos of my students. I have two classes of twenty students. A morning class and an afternoon class, both grade three. The kids are very sweet. Initially I had some behavior challenges until they learned that I have eyes in the back of my head and that after a warning, any misbehaviour will result in extra homework or missing a game. Now their behavior is (usually) excellent.

Social Studies - 3B is working diligently on land forms.








3A is not on task quite as much, but it is the afternoon and it's hotter.








The back row is working away, but Miguel has been waiting for the camera.


We have several inside jokes. As the windows on both sides of the classroom are glass slats that are always open, wasps often fly in. Whenever one flies in I tell the kids that it is my friend Pedro. Now the students tell me when Pedro has come to visit. Surprisingly, this somehow keeps them from their usual reaction (freaking out) when they see a wasp.

I often draw pictures on the whiteboard and I always I brag unabashedly about my incredible talent as an artist. By 'incredible talent', I actually mean basic ability to draw stick people (a new phrase may need to be coined - false vanity). The students do not hesitate to point out that I am actually quite bad at drawing.

I do not speak Spanish in the class. In fact in the beginning I told them I didn't really speak Spanish (mostly true). Now and then one of them hears me speaking in Spanish on the playground with another teacher and questions me about this. I always insist that I don't speak a word of Spanish. Only a few gullible students still believe that I don't speak a word of Spanish after being told this in Spanish.

* By the way, today, Friday, September 15 is Mexican Independence Day. You can safely assume it will be a fairly huge fiesta in Parque Central today. I will be there, of course.