Wednesday Writeup

So, after the somewhat intense events of Tuesday I’m happy to say that Wednesday has been more positive and gratifying. Specifically, three things happened that give me reason to hope that I’m on an upswing.

1) The Child was in one of his, “Hello Julie, I love you” moods. He was affectionate and talkative before class, and went on to be both engaged and interested in the Stevie Wonder PowerPoint that I showed. After class, he took me by surprise and brought up the Othello rap that I’d tried to get him to do with me back in May. The conversation kind of went like this:

The Child: So, we’re not doing that stupid rap thing, right?
Me: No … because you said you didn’t want to do it.
The Child: Exactly. I don’t want to do it. It’s stupid and boring and embarrassing.
Me: Okay. We don’t have to do it.
The Child: Good. Because I don’t want to do it. I definitely don’t want to do it. I couldn’t do it, anyway.
Me: Yes, you could do it. I’m not sure we have enough time to prepare it for the festival, but you could definitely do the rap.
The Child: Except I don’t want to do it. … … … … But you think I could? Not that I want to.

You get the idea.

The Culture Festival is on October 30th and I really don’t know that we have enough time to put it together. Still, it sounds like he may want to give it a try, so I’m going to bring in the script next week and see if I can do a run through with him and Clemente. Who knows? My crazy idea born of Spring Fever and Big Dreams may in fact produce something interesting.

And you know, speaking of Clemente

2) I had lunch with him today. Or, rather, I had lunch at his table. This is something that I haven’t done in a while, and I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder because he was super enthusiastic about talking with me. We discussed Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, the lyrics to We Are the World and how he can go about memorizing them, the Japanese band Monkey Magic, and (of course) soccer. I think it’s probably one of the most thorough conversations I’ve ever had with him, and it was even nicer because I totally wasn’t expecting it. It reminded me why I like this kid so much.

3) We have a new character! I’m going to call him Mr. Bayblade, after his favorite comic. About a month ago, one of the first year boys did something kind of unfortunate to his leg and so he was on the sidelines a lot during all of the sports festival preparations. I took the opportunity to talk to him and get to know him better and now I have a new friend. He likes to talk to me before and after class, and he’s also started to come and talk to me during lunch time. He usually comes with his friends and they like to teach me about whatever it is that they’re obsessing over. I now know more than I ever thought I would about Bayblade, as well as the different spinning tops that each character controls within the Bayblade universe.

What’s extra nice about my new friendship with Mr. Bayblade is that he’s using the opportunity to practice his English. He tries to explain his interests to me in English, and I’ve noticed that he’s become one of the more vocal and active participants during class. This is a big surprise because he wasn’t all that interested in the subject when he was in elementary school, and he began the year … creatively.

Still, it’s nice to see him opening up to me and how, along with him, I’m getting to know a group of the first year boys that I’ve never had many opportunities to interact with. They’re good guys, and setting up this level of camaraderie with them has been a lot of fun.

O-oreo
What’s in the middle?
The white stuff