It took me about five minutes to realize the class was a handful to say the least and it wasn’t hard to pick out the instigators, the ones who acted out verbally and physically on an incredibly regular basis. They were the ones screaming, throwing tantrums, hitting and pushing each other. I wondered how their teachers did it day after day. To think they are kindergartners… For my benefit, the other teacher put name tags on them all which I very much appreciated. To be fair, there were a couple of good kids among them and there were times they were all even reasonably behaved. Not for long periods, but those times were there.
Besides trying to separate the kids from pushing each other and getting them to do something along the lines of what they were supposed to be doing, I reprimanded one child by name and he looked at me with wonder and shock asking me, “How do you know my name?” Very matter-of-factly, I told him, “I know everything.” Then the boy at the front of the “line”, just as non-chalantly added, “I know everything too.” Looking at him, I sincerely responded, “Isn’t it nice to know everything?” He answered, “Yes it is.”
Before the last recess, we had about fifteen to twenty minutes and the other teacher needed to use the restroom. She asked me if I could handle the class for a while, maybe read them a story. No problem. I could handle it and there was a parent in the room as well if I needed backup. I went over to my laptop bag and took out a book I had borrowed from Richmond that morning so I could scan in some of the pictures for a Read poster, The Pout-Pout Fish. Though I hadn’t read it before, Kim really likes it and she has good taste. I took one of the chairs and had them all sit on the carpet. First I told them this was a special book loaned to us from another school with great excitement. We then talked about what an author and illustrator are, things I’ve heard Adria teach to her students. I waited until they quieted down, and I started in stopping every once in a while to ask them a question or explain some word they didn’t know. There was a repeated “bluuub” throughout the narrative the kids chimed in for and I kept waiting for them to be quiet or to settle down and stop complaining about who was in who’s space before I went on. But most of them were sitting quietly listening as I inflected my words to who was speaking, and told them the story of a fish who learned he was not made to be glum and to “spread the dreary-wearies all over the place” but instead to smile and spread cheer.
Even as I read the story and made the kids behave, best they had behaved all afternoon, I realized just how much I’ve learned listening and watching Adria teach the kids at Richmond. I’ve seen plenty of teachers at work at all levels around the district and she is one to watch. From a comment she made some time ago, I think she knows how wide my ears are opened while I work on the posters, how much I am observing both her and Kim’s interactions with the kids, teachers, volunteers, and parents. Teaching kids has not been a career goal for me but I am realizing how invaluable working in the schools has been. I have learned how to manage a group, I have learned great teaching skills, have graded papers, edited student’s writing, and worked with parents and volunteers. I have learned confidence in teaching a class whether elementary or high school. For example, earlier this week, the teacher after asking about my educational background, turned over the math explanations to me so I got to work through problems with the class, explaining them and encouraging them to where they understood the concepts. That made my week.
While in Kenya, I had an experience with God that has affected me even more deeply than I thought at the time. The authority, assertiveness, and power I took up fully there in the green fields is here with me, came to fruition, steady as a rock, tall and strong as an oak tree, within the garden of my life. Those qualities have been developing in me for quite some time but it was under the African sun, the tree fully opened to the sky. I’m enjoying exploring all that means to me and to the lives I touch.