Friday, June 2, 2017

Finishing Strong! (Or, Silly Stories from St. Dominic Savio School)

School is over! Finished! We have given the awards, handed out the report cards, taken down the decorations, and sent those chillins home for the summer! ALLELUIA, PRAISE BE TO GOD!

But actually, school really has finished up! Today we had the end of the year mass and picnic for the kids and they are off to their various vacation spots for the rest of the summer. (There are like, fifty kids going to Hawaii. It’s ridiculous and I am super jealous.)

In honor of this, the last day of the 2016-2017 school, I thought I would present a few of the different things that have happened while I was here for your entertainment. So, without further ado, I present…

Silly Stories from St. Dominic Savio School:
  • One of my students, Luna, is making a planet size comparison for Mrs. Brewster and I (Mrs. Brewster’s is going to be a surprise though, so I can’t tell). She is doing this out of the goodness of her heart since the class wasn’t able to learn much about the solar system in science this year. I thought it was just going to be a size comparison of the planets in our solar system, but I dramatically underestimated Luna’s love for space, despite her having told me that she plans to become an astronaut. It will in fact be a size comparison of apparently all the named heavenly bodies ever. She is going to decorate it with stars. She is very excited about this.

  • I saw a first grader reading a book before school one day and asked her what it was. Sideway Stories from Wayside School! I loved those books as a kid and she asked my opinion on which chapter she should read for her class that day. We decided on Another Story About Socks. She was pleased with the choice.
  • Last Friday was Field Day and the 7th graders had an extremely competitive kickball match with the teachers in line with years of tradition. In the end, everyone accused everyone else of cheating and the score was either 6-5 in favor of the students or 7-6 in favor of the teachers. The teachers said the students won and the students said the teachers won. Nobody was quite sure.
  • The kids have to line up before lunch every day inside (usually in number or alphabetical order). One of the class troublemaker’s names happens to start with an A and he jumped up before the teacher had called for him and ran to the door. Sighing, the teacher told him to go the back of the line. Then, from the other side of the classroom came a solemn voice: “The first shall become the least.” Mrs. Brewster nearly choked trying not to laugh. At least we know the second graders are paying attention in religion!
  • Did you know that children are capable of making themselves throw up on cue to get attention? ‘Cause they are.
  • Zachary doesn’t like to sit in his chair. He likes to crawl on the floor instead. However, sufficient bribery is capable of making him stay (relatively) close to bottom-in-seat. It’s truly amazing what clothesline clips on a rainbow-colored behavior chart can do to incentivize kids. (He got all the way up to green – ready to learn. He was very proud.)
  • Some children are very well trained on what is appropriate for their age group. Jacob demonstrated this when he informed me that the book he was reading was “inappropriate for his age” because it had the mention of a murder and gun shot in it. I mean, I would have read first and asked questions later at his age, but hey, self-policing kids is probably a bonus for mom.
  • On the last day of school, they give out the student awards. This year a new award was instituted in honor of Sr. Rita, who was known for her cheerful and kind attitude. It was awarded to two 7th graders, one of whom is sister to a girl in my class. When I asked if Venice also wanted to get the Sr. Rita Award one day, she looked me dead in the eye and said, “I am not going to follow in my sister’s footsteps.”
    • For further context: This is the same girl who refused to vote for her sister for student council because, I quote, “She tried to murder me.”
    • Their cousin is also in second grade. When the older sister lost, he started to cry. The juxtaposition between the two was kind of hilarious.
  • Teachers kind of make bank on the last day of school because parents feel the need to give random gifts as a show of appreciation for all the work that the teachers have done during the year to educate their kids (or they suffer from guilt because of the same reason. Either way). Even though I was just a teacher’s aide for a little while, I still made out with some interesting things, like my new, blue, Ralph Lauren blouse. And my light-up butterfly lawn ornament. Bouquets of flowers were also popular and have been smelled, appreciated, and handed over to Sr. Lupe so she can make super cool flower arrangements with them.


In conclusion, I have had an absolutely amazing time here with these kids. Before this year in VIDES, I would have told you that I was totally not cut out to be an educator (mostly because standing in front of a large group of children? Utterly terrifying), but now I’m definitely going to miss the school environment here. Kids are actually awesome (if also crazy)! Who knew!

My next stop is Corralitos where we will begin preparing for the overnight summer camp run by the Sisters there. I’ve worked summer camp before, so this will probably be more familiar territory, but I can’t wait to get there and brush up on my archery (‘cause guess who’s gonna be teaching it?)!


Until next time!

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