So I’m at a middle school, and there is a break before the class starts, so I bust out my strawberry yogurt nutrigrain bar and head outside to eat it on the ramp (it’s a portable classroom). A few seconds into chomping down on it, greeting students coming in, I sudden notice a little asian kid looking at me.

Asian kid: Hi!

Me: Hi!

Asian kid: What are….<pointing at the classroom>

Me: Oh! I’m part of this class. ……… Are you in this class? (thinking he just added the class or something)

Asian kid: oh! no…no….

Me: Okay!….<nodding and eating….trying to avoid eye contact because the kid is still staring>

Asian kid: Are you….Japanese…..Chinese…..

Me: I’m actually Taiwanese…..yup…mmhm….

Asian kid: ooooh okay….so do you speak Chinese?

Me: Yeah, I can speak Manderin. ^_^. <slowly walking up the ramp to the front of the door and I stop in front of the trash can>

Asian kid: Ni tsai tse su muh? (What are you eating?)

Me: Oh, a bar.

Asian kid: Ahh! So you cannot speak Chinese!

Me: No no, I can

Asian kid: Then why don’t you speak it? Is your Chinese poor?

Me: No, I just choose not to.

Asian Kid: Why?

Me: It’s…..just…..weird….here….

Asian Kid: Ahhhhh! <shaking his head, as if offended, and walks away in a huff>

Me: <I turn around and my co-tutor is like @_@>

Too funny. I hope he’s okay.

But seriously, what is up with that? It’s like he was walking to class, and suddenly sees an asian person and he just had to see if it was someone he could speak Chinese to? It was really uncomfortable. You’re a kid! Go make friends!

After taking a nice week off from work (working at schools is great like that), I came back to see many boys with their hair freshly cut! It was almost alarming, because I had never thought about guys getting their hair cut, but I guess during the holiday is when they have time to get their hair cut.

There is one class in particular that gets me depressed. There are some kids that just don’t care to be in the AVID class. AVID is an elective class, similar to drama, choir, orchestra…and some kids just don’t want to be there so they don’t do the work even when they are already in class. In that case, I would just let the kid go to do what he wants. He’s not getting anything from being in our class and he generally has a bad attitude about it and it’s starting to affect the other kids. That stuff gets me depressed. Kids that give up easily…and then make a big deal about it.

I was working in our groups in one of my schools today and I realized that there are so many different kinds of kids and lots of kids who have gone through many experiences, some they shouldn’t even have. Since the program I am in deals with kids who might not have the motivational support at home, I meet kids who may have had a troubled past.

I forgot how it came up, I think we were talking about birthdays, and one of the girls said

Girl1: “oh, ____(whichever month it was)___, that was my brother’s birthday.”

Girl2: “Waaaaaaaas?”

Girl1: <completing problem on board> “yeah, was. He’s dead now. He died in January.”

Me: @_@……..I’m…sorry….

Girl “Yeah, it’s okay. That’s why I’m always sad” <shrugs>

~*~*~*~*~

Wow…..and she’s one of my favorite girls now. Not only that, she wants to work in the police force and become a CSI agent. Why? She likes David Caruso and his character, Horacio Caine on CSI: Miami. In fact, her friends call her Horacio and that’s how she introduced herself. She said related to him because he lost his parents at a young age…….. at any rate, through all that she’s been through, I was really happy she was here with me and I thought she was doing really well and was extremely nice and patient. She even explained how her hands were dirty (and there were reeeeally dirty) because she was working on her dirt bike this morning. Dirt bike?!?! She also goes to the shooting range to practice her shooting, and likes to draw guns. Totally my girl. What a cool cat.

Working is schools has been reeeeeally fun, reeeally busy…and leaves no time for myself with the schedule I have now. Here are two highlights.

I was in one class and I worked more closely with a group of boisterous boys on their math questions. Keeping them on track was a little tough, but it wasn’t too bad. At some point, they started asking me questions about myself. These are middle schoolers.

Read the rest of this entry »