Parents' Week

Throughout this month my schedule has been changing, and I am never sure until I arrive at school which classes I will be teaching. One class had half the students move to another day, but I got quite confused and just erased the entire class from my schedule at home. So I got a call 4 minutes before class was supposed to start asking where I was and that this was the first day of Parents' Week!! It is when the parents get to come and watch how their little snowflakes perform in class and criticize or praise me.

I hadn't even showered yet. So I quickly through on some clothes, mussed up my hair and hopped on my bike. It did pretty well and was able to start class only 6 minutes late. Halfway through class it was obvious (to me at least) that in my rush I forgot to put on deodorant. I was quite stinky the rest of the day.

As for the parents watching, my second class involved 2 usually well behaved kids smacking the hell out of each others' head. Nice. All the while the parents were telling the kids to keep their feet of the chairs and to sit up. These are things I don't bother with. I am just happy that they are participating and given the short amount of time I have with them, the less I spend on correcting their posture, the more time I have for actual English.

Every class that had more than one parent show up was chaos. The parents would be sitting in the back (maybe a few feet or so from the students) chatting with the other parents at full volume, their phones would be going off and they let their other kids (younger siblings) run all around the classroom while I was putting on my show. One mother had the nerve to write in her critique that I need to discipline more so the students will stay focused. But overall, most parents said good things (even the one that is notorious for never saying anything good!)



I did have one boy start crying in the middle of class because he didn't answer the question fast enough. He went on for about 20 minutes ruining my lesson. His mother just sat there. Another student cried after she lost at UNO. Both students are in 4th grade. What the hell?

All my adult classes loved me.

Last weekend I went to the mall to see the newly opened Krispy Kreme. I came home with a dozen glazed and finished them off for dinner.

Last night I went out with 2 friends for some booze and food. We ended up in an Italian style Denny's that sold beer and little pizzas. Good times.

On the way home I got on the train.It pulled up to the station and everyone got off but one guy. It is a terminal station, so it's the last stop and turns around to go back the way it had come. I tried to be a nice guy and wake up the drunk sleeping salaryman but had no luck. So instead I took his picture. You can see the drool coming out of his mouth. I wonder when he finally woke up?

I think they are prepping for the G8 Summit