I have a short break and lunch on my own after teaching the 7th graders. One young lady had the courage to come up to me after class and in her best English asked me to return again. It was a very sincere and sweet gesture. I wish I had more time to see a classroom in action and the interactions between teachers and students.
There is so much that confronts them as I come and teach. First, my ethnicity is a shock for they have never seen, in person, the Japanese. They clamor in the halls and out of classrooms to see me, surely not something many teachers may appreciate. You would think that their favorite musical artist had arrived at their school. Second, it is the way I teach, moving tables together in cooperative learning with 'stuff' in the middle of the tables. Third, it is the activity that supports the learning, today's activity about Newton's laws of motion and collisions, a U.S. quarter, vs. a U.S. dime. I wish I could hear the interaction between students in my class, and their friends as they talk in the halls afterwards.
In many ways, these 7th graders are exactly like those I have taught, boys not wanting to sit or work with girls, and girls not wanting to sit with boys. Girls working diligently and wanting to do the activity, boys wanting to creatively 'extend' the activity after a few attempts trying something not suggested by me, the teacher.
I taught at this school last year, and will do so once again Friday. I will teach the same physics lesson and a chemistry lesson this afternoon at the high school. With great joy, I look forward to teaching at the vocational high school this afternoon and 'evening'. In Livno, they have two school sessions each day, a morning school day and an afternoon school day. Students attend one or the other, and teachers either teach both sessions, or some work another job before or after they teach. I was told of one teacher who is an auto mechanic and teacher, others who waitress, doing whatever is most lucrative.
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