The Dreaded Summer School and English

Summer.

The urge to get a drink every other minute because the weather overrides any good judgement about saving money. Throw in the want to stay indoors to stay near an air conditioner. I don't remember what life was like without one. Actually, I just remembered. Whoops. I was in pre-K and lived with my grandparents in Canada. She owned a grocery shop and I helped myself to a "Nesquik Ice Pop" whenever I wanted.

Then there's summer school. Yes, the dreaded summer school.

I guess this is a post to those who wants to or doesn't know what I'm doing this summer. Yes, I'm in summer school. No, not as a student. I'm a teacher and not enjoying it.

I now understand the pain and frustration my teachers had dealing with me when I was younger. No matter how many times a teacher told me to stop talking, I would always found a way to talk to my friends. I was disruptive and annoying. Oh, how I wish the kids I teach weren't like the annoying brat I was.

My "homeroom" class is the sixth grade, but I teach English to grades five through eight. While I'm on the topic of English, I would like to applaud the New York City education system < /sarcasm>. I can't think of anywhere else where I would need to teach eighth graders what a noun is. I mean, I would understand if they didn't know what a collective noun is since I had no idea what it was until I made the lesson plan. But for the love of knowledge, at least get proper nouns correct.

Ok, I'll stop with the educational disappointment. Probably not professional to blog about the intellect of the kids you're teaching for the summer. To make a long story short, let's just say I'm going to lose my voice pretty soon. I have to yell for my students to line up properly on a daily basis more times than I can count.

Oh summer, please go away soon.

Fun and Maturity

I should be sleeping, but my eyes won't close. Perhaps a drawback from napping earlier. Hopefully by the time I finish this post, I'll be tired enough to knock out until my 9:30 AM class.

I think I'll grow up to be the fun dad/uncle. I love kids. Well, not so much once their age hits a double digit number. Wow, I sound like a pedophile don't I? I've worked as a teacher's assistance for half of the summers I spent in high school. Both times, the kids voted me their favorite TA.

But a friend told me he thinks I'll grow up to be more serious. I shudder thinking about being the stern adult. I've always told myself that I'd never be like that. But, only time will tell how I'll progress. I adamantly wish to believe that I will remain the carefree guy racing friends to the train station after school. But, deep inside...I know I've changed.

I don't waltz around trying to put a smile on everyone's face anymore. I don't crack jokes left and right anymore. I don't do stupid things just so everyone can look back at it and laugh as much anymore.

When did I start to become such a bore? I looked through my old blog and stumbled upon a quote I came up with a while back.

I'm stupid. I'm immature. I'm reckless. But that's what makes me keep trying to be a better person.

In the process of becoming a better person, I resolved to shed my immaturity. I can see I've achieved some levels of maturity since I made this quote in my senior year of high school. I remember I was tired of being seen as the clown. I was tired of being a stupid little kid.

I was gonna make a list of pet peeves and tie it into what I was saying, but it didn't flow well. Pet peeve list will be on the list of things to blog about.