Today was by far the greatest moment of my teacher’s life.

I organized some activities for my Hums 8 students to do. The activities were just aids to help them imagine themselves in the character’s situation. After the activities, we had a little discussion about the activity. We talked about the impact of inequality, especially focusing on the stratification of social class. It was interesting how the discussion somehow moved to a direction that I did not intend. It showed that students were the driving force of the discussion. We talked about bullying. It was one of the big themes in The Outsiders, and it was an important issue to discuss. Therefore, I did not stop students from talking. They were so excited to respond. They were talking about how bullying could not really be stopped. I asked them if telling an adult would help the situation. Many of the students surprisingly told me that teachers did not care. I was surprised by the response. I did not understand. Therefore, I asked why they said teachers did not care if someone got bullied. Apparently, in another class, they tried to complain to a teacher about a bully. However, the teacher did not take any action. The teacher might have told the student to stop; nonetheless, no further action had been taken. It was sad to hear. It was even more upsetting to hear that the students did not think teachers would do anything against bullying. I was happy that they were so willingly and openly to tell me about it. I was not sure how I could help. I could only tell them that I would not allow such thing in my class.

I was also happy that the discussion happened in my quieter class instead of the louder one. I felt like I connected with them more because of the discussion. I felt we bonded after this. Hopefully this would last. I want to know more about them. I want them to know that I will be here for them if they need me. It was also heartwarming that the kid who usually behaved poorly in my class said something like it was mean to ask when miss lui would leave since I told them we would have a pot-luck before I go. I did not expect him to say something like that. Even though that did not seem to mean much, I was happy to hear him say that. Ahhhh kids.

In my last block, we played a little game before I would take over the class. It was fun. The students would ask me join their group. They even suggested to name the group after me. One student was funny. He told me that we were friends, so I needed to tell him what was “hula-chuan”(hula-hoop) in English. Another student said that the would sit over here because I was sitting at this particular table. I just hope once I take over the class, they would not be hating me for giving them assignments. Right now we are on good terms, but who knows….After a month or so, they may be complaining how boring my class is. 😛 I had a good laugh with them though because they were not afraid to be goofy. They are just adorable kids. I think I am in love…in love with my job, with my students.