(no subject)

Dear self:

Why are you writing Avengers fic? You're meant to be cleaning the kitchen.

GO CLEAN.

You'll thank me later.

Cheers,
Mean Miss Emily.

So long, Elementary Schoolers

The Homework Program (the after-school tutoring I've been doing at W.L. Elementary since October-ish) finished this week. I have learned things from it!

1) If I ever lose my mind and become a Proper Teacher, it will be in high school. Or maybe CEGEP.
2) I am not going to teach a group of third-graders ever again. Alone? Sure. In a group? Nope. There is a special skill involved there, and I do not have it.
2) Grade six is a lot of fun. It's really cool to see kids turning into themselves (which is a weird way of putting it, I know, but it's the best I can come up with.) My Tuesday group drove me up a wall but at the same time I loved getting shown D.'s new breakdancing moves after (and the quiet, hushed confession that he was going to take dance lessons, to which I responded with "AWESOME. Girls dig guys who can dance. Wait'll you show (name of girl he's been mooning over for months).") and hearing about L's ideas for car designs and talking superheroes with J.

My Thursday group was particularly amazing. What a fantastic bunch of kids. S. who wants to be a doctor and C. who is a total rock star (and occasionally had to be restrained from belting out "Don't Stop Believing" when she was meant to be doing long division) and P. who never said more than two words at a time and probably had the hardest climb but worked her butt off and never stopped smiling the whole time. They actually said "awwwwwwww" and looked really sad to find out that it was the last week. I kind of hope their folks ask me to tutor them in high school so that I can get to see them grow up to be totally awesome.

In summary: Would do again, but not with Cycle 2 students - I think grade 3/4 kids would be better off with someone who has the particular knack of keeping them on track.