Why hello!
Today was a much better day. After I sent you my message, everything seemed to go downhill. I know Keri told you about what happened with Alexander when on our way home, and it stuck with us the rest of the day. I felt terrible for making him cry, but Keri assures me I didn’t say anything terribly hurtful. I was just in shock that he hit her and continues to try to... I grabbed him by the collar after it happened to pull him close and told him that we would leave if he hit us again and that only bad boys hit people. I truly felt awful, but the behavior is not okay and apparently he’s been hitting his resource teacher at school too. I think he’s modeling the behavior his mother has been showing him is the way to deal with frustration... I don’t want to assume or judge, but it seems that way. There was a lot him screaming and yelling at us yesterday. We’re not too excited for the next few days because his mom is gone on a business trip and he seems to have realized that the authority in the house is gone. He snuck candy all night and wasn’t hungry for dinner which was another battle... it was just a hard night. Not to mention I wanted to let Keri have a break after what happened so she was upstairs decompressing and I was feeling terrible. I finally had to escape and take a nap on the bathroom floor haha. A flu bug has been going around and it was really quick for me but also intense. I’m passed it though! And as far as the house is concerned, my mentor teacher has offered us her home for the remainder of the trip and we will be out doing things with school people most of the time so we won’t really be around much anyway. Just an update, don’t mean to worry you. All is well; we’re just getting a little burnt out with our host home... so we’re finding escapes!
Anyway, something very cool happened today. The kids all ran into the classroom at the start of the day, as usual, but they all stopped after they entered the door and busied themselves with something. I was on the other side of the room and thought, “what are they up to over there?!” When I got up to see, I noticed that each student was taking off their shoes. I then remembered the tea ceremony yesterday and smiled. The kids were quietly (though quickly) entering the room and removing their shoes because they still saw the room as a sacred place. Every last student removed their shoes before story time; one or two of them even came up to Mr. Denis and I to tell us we should take our shoes off as well! Yesterday, Mrs. B and I very seriously observed and showed respect for the Japanese rituals involved in tea ceremonies and the children followed them even after the fact. I guess this showed me that the respect and understanding of a teacher is a great model for students. If the teacher respects and values other cultures and belief systems, the students are likely to do the same if they have a good relationship with the teacher. It was almost humbling to see them so serious about it. That was an awesome thing today :)
I also interviewed Mr. Cloyed today, the vice principal and one of the IE (Intensive English) teachers, about his experience at QSI. It was helpful to see the administration aspect of it and talk through some things with him. You’ll be seeing that later though :) Then some ELL and some science and now some journal! My big take away from today though was how a teacher’s attitude towards cultures and differences greatly influences how their students approach those same subjects. In all, good day :) and it’s just going to get better from here!
Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Hope you’re continuing to feel better!
Chels
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