Kyle's World

As is the case every Monday for the past 13 months, today I found myself at the Elementary school teaching grades 1 and 2. Now at first, Elementary school kind of freaked me out. It was a source of stress for me, then I gradually warmed up to it as I ironed out my teaching technique. But I still think I love Junior High School more. There's still a little bit of the "damn, tomorrow is Elementary school" feeling. But I realised that it's no longer the teaching that gives me a weird feeling, after all the kids are all cute and great kids. They all seem to try hard whenever I come to class. On a side note, a grade 1 kid started to cry when he was eliminated from winning a prize I brought to class today. Am I that mean a teacher to make the kid cry? Or was the prize so desirable? Who knew, a pencil and eraser could launch you into the upper echelon on popularity...Anyway, I realised that no matter how much I thought I was part of their world before, I'm just a hired gun for Mondays, and not an actual Elementary school teacher. During the morning meetings, they announce that the ALT has come. All of a sudden, I have no name. And today, they were passing around a sheet for who would attend the drinking party. Right in front of me, they asked teachers "are you coming?" but of course they didn't ask me. An invite would have been nice, even though I would have turned them down. Hawaii seems way better than drinking with a bunch of co-workers who feel indifference to you...