Wed. Oct 6 - I love teaching but I hate kids

My gr. 8s are a fantastic class. I wish I could start every day with them. Of course, when you start with your best class, there’s nowhere to go but down. My twelves were lazy. None of them did the homework and few of them did the in-class assignment. You’d think that the 8 kids who are showing up would be willing to do a little work.

Even still, that was better than my grade 9 class. They were all more than 10 mins late, because their homeroom teacher was meeting with some parents in their class room and they couldn’t get their books. Half of them hadn’t finished the homework and then when we were taking it up, they were arguing with me about the English. Like I don’t know the meanings of words in my native language. When it was finally time to work, no one would settle. Even my better behaved students weren’t on task. We got nothing accomplished and I was supremely frustrated.

The worst thing about my grade 9 class is that it is the only class I have Wed afternoon. If not for that one class, I would be done at 10:45. Since I had to go into Batumi today (returning an overdue library book) being done that early would’ve been nice. And since the only time it wasn’t raining today was during my 2 hour break between classes, I was not thrilled.

The trip into Batumi was uneventful. Bebia flagged down a car for me. I caught the big, yellow bus. It wasn’t full, so I got a seat near the front and the tunnel is open, so there was no detour. I picked up some essentials at Goodwill and made my way to the library to meet Sailor.

On my way to the library, I stopped to inquire about getting some photos printed (I want to frame some pictures of the boys and me to give to HM and HD as a thank you gift). Since I didn’t have the vocabulary to ask, they just printed my pics. They turned out really well and it was cheap. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry when I selected the photos, so two of them are not the ones I wanted. It’s ok, though, because now that I know how quick and easy it is, I’m no longer worried about getting it done in time.

I met Sailor in the library, returned my book and found two other books I wanted. She and I also discussed which Y.A. book would best suit one of her really advanced students, as far as content and English level. We finally found one, checked out our books and were on our way.

Poor Sailor is suffering from the same illness I had last week. Only she hasn’t rested and so it keeps getting worse and worse. Since she was so ill, we decided to head straight home. We caught a marshrutka and while we were waiting for it to leave, I showed her the texts that I had received from the Georgian English teacher that I met on my birthday.

*Sidebar: On the marshrutka going to Batumi for my birthday, I ended up sitting beside a local Georgian English teacher. She was very excited to talk to a native Eng speaker and invited me to her house and to the (private) school where she teaches. She was very persistant and in the week since my birthday I have received 6 phone calls and 3 (very long) text msgs. I arranged to meet her on Sat the 9th with Sailor in tow.*

We got to Sailor’s stop and she texted me when she got home. At my stop, the cab driver who knows me flagged me down (from inside his car because of the rain) and took me home. I had no sooner got home than Mom called and we had a lovely chat.

When I got off the phone with Mom, I went downstairs and was offered food. After I ate, I did a quick vocab lesson with HB1. I think my understood Georgian is increasing as much as his English with these lessons. I know my reading is getting better.

Now it is tv time. And Wed is Veronica Mars night. My plan is to watch Veronica and go to bed.