This past weekend, all that love and affection, all that
desire to have fun, really paid dividends. Well, that plus two months of
seriously intense planning by myself and my Thai co-teacher, supplemented by
heaps of help from Win. Thanks to all that preparation and hard work, we were
able to give our students the most colorful English Day Camp you’ll ever see! 1, 2, 3, YAY!
Choosing to make the only goals those of a) having fun and b)
playing games in English, we went all out. Basically, we gave 250 first,
second, and third grade students an animal-themed English carnival day. They
got different colored shirts and bags, nametags and pencil cases, ridiculous
animal-shaped snacks, spaghetti for lunch, and a parade just for the school. Each
foreign teacher planned one games, through which the students would cycle,
while being bombarded with intense, joyful, loving energy.
They tossed balls, popped balloons, made masks, drew, spun
roulette wheels, fished, acted, sang, spelled, and balloon animal-ed their way
through the most absurdly exhausting day ever. And, damn, if all that planning,
exhaustion, frustration, and difficulty wasn’t completely and totally worth it.
The pure joy radiating out of their little faces made all the hard work seem
like nothing.
This might be what people mean when they say ‘maternal
instinct.’ That is, if that maternal instinct rolled around a color wheel and
ended up with screaming, enthusiastic games, giant smiles, and lots of English.
If ‘maternal instinct’ means never having to apologize for wearing yellow and
orange leopard print leggings paired with a yellow t-shirt and yellow and
orange feather earrings. Well, and if ‘maternal instinct’ includes the desire
to avoid seeing any children for at least 48 hours after spending 8 hours
straight entertaining them.
As an addendum of sorts, I have since learned that the day
of our English Camp, September 21, is World Gratitude Day. Personally, this
feels fitting in a way. It’s not always easy to teach such small children,
especially when they don’t speak your language – sometimes it requires an
immense amount of work, time, patience, and equanimity – but it is worth the
effort to be able to help these children grow and flourish. The laughter and
smiles are truly a gift that fills my life with immeasurable joy.
I am
incredibly grateful for all the wonderful blessings that have allowed me to
becoming a teacher of young learners. And I am grateful for the students
themselves; they help me to see when I am taking myself too seriously, they
help me to tap into the creative parts of my brain, they let me use my
imagination and act like a complete fool, they are forgiving and loving and
constantly remind me that the world is a big, beautiful, amazing place. And all
this without even being able to speak the same language.
