Day 385: Exhausted!

The personalities of each of my kids slowly becomes a little more revealed each day that I spend with them. They're not just 12 pairs of black eyes staring at me, they're starting to become 12 cute little individuals with their own little quirks and needs. Gotta love 'em for it.

Danny knows the most English and can actually speak in small sentences already.

Ariel can't speak a damn word of English - at all - and has been silent the whole time.

Judy is as good as gold and sits quietly waiting for my next command.

Roy speaks Korean constantly and can't seem to sit still in his chair.

Paul is emotional for the first block in the morning cause he misses his mom and often cries, but is all smiles and laughter by the time second block rolls around.

Justin is the cutest little boy you can imagine and I can tell already he's going to be my favourite.

Nicole - just like her older sister Joanne who I used to teach in Grade 2 - is shy at first but is slowly warming up to me, and has the same nervous smile as her sister.

Laney's gonna be the princess - and always has perfect hair.

Eric is the class translator and translates other kids' Korean for me when they don't know the words in English.

Ryan is cute but also rather stern for a five-year old, and always answers "yes" to every single question in such a matter-of-fact, near-authoritarian manner, even if it's not a "yes or not" question.

Jeanie (who, also like Roy,) seems to have to use the bathroom a lot, and also speak too much Korean in class.

And then there's Colin...

Colin actually has the greatest command of English in the class, or at least he talks the most. He's cute, but certainly precocious and high-maintenance. He demands constant attention and reassurance. And he certainly has high expectations of us teachers! Sonya forgot to close his backpack in first block and he was mad at her for the rest of the day. He kept saying "I don't like Sonya Teacher! Sonya Teacher bag close no!" He was so put out by it and had this little angry face it was so hard not to laugh. Sonya eventually had to make this big formal apology to him and then he was okay with her.

During second or third block I walked in though, and he looked like he was about to cry. I went over to him to ask what was wrong and he looked at me with these big, sad eyes and said "Teacher...I'm ugly!" Honestly, it nearly broke my heart! Where did he learn that word from? Who said it to him? Where did this come from all of a sudden? I consoled him and gave him a big hug and told him how handsome he was and that seemed to help. But seriously, you should've seen his face - it was *so* sad! I can tell that Colin is probably going to be the source of most of my stories this year.

By the time the day ended I was so completely exhausted! My afternoon classes have been really draining as well, and things have just been so chaotic in the school. It seems I ended up with a lot of lower level classes this year and makes things a lot more challenging for teaching. No more cake-walk easy-breezy schedule for me, I guess. Time to buckle up and show what I can do with these kids. But all I can think of, is where the hell am I going to get all the energy needed for this? 12-hour sleeps at night? Mid-afternoon naps? 20 cups of coffee a day spiked with RedBull? Cocaine, every hour on the hour? (kidding!) ;-)