Kids: you can´t stand ´em and you can´t beat ´em...or maybe...

Obviously I am joking, but we have realized that the way teachers interact with students is quite different than we have been instructed at Whitworth. Child protection laws are...well we don´t know, but we haven´t been reprimanded for anything yet, and we´re enjoying it while we can. Case and point, this picture of me taking a swing at a kid to sit down during Dodgeball. They wish I didn´t understand them...but you can´t play dumb with Mr. Jake!

Because of great moments and realizations like this, I thought it was an appropriate day to compile a few of them along with pictures. I thought I would share a few of the better pictures I have gathered with my fellow teachers.

Oh dear Maglio: As with most of the students, he wants attention but has no idea how to get our attention because we don´t understand his fast mumbly español. This picture to the left captures the slow motion instant replay of him taking a frisbee to the face when he was running through our game to get my attention.

"Mr. Jake, Mr. Jake..." WHAM!

Notice the bloody lip and the hidden smirk behind the pleasureful attention he is getting on camera. Oh what a special child!

Speaking of special, what about Juan...no not the kid who swears (whom I adore just as much). This Juan is special. So very intelligent and tries harder than any student to get us to understand him. He is the butt of a few jokes that he doesn´t understand, but he runs off to get his dictionary to explain what he wants to say and runs his chubby little self back to speak broken non-sensical words until we get his point. So adorable...I think there will be a photo-montage devoted to him on Doss´ Blog soon...stay tuned...just wait for the air-guitar picture...I´ll let you know!

And then there are the boy-crazy girls. It takes me back to a day when an attack to the point of a bloody noses means "I like you". I have instilled one breaktime rule: "No fight". "¡Mr. Jake...No fight...they fight...Mr. Jake...aiaiaiaiai!" The kids are insane and there is really no stopping all the touching and wrestling, but my favorite is this picture of Nacho (the depressed young man in the middle of obsessed chicas!) As much as he loves the attention, you can almost read in his eyes: save me from this estrogen hell!

And then there is my class. This picture isn´t actually of them, but this effective displays my teaching style when they don´t understand me. Sit, listen and then I talk really loud and hope that if someone understands the intelligence will spread. Alright, that´s just a break time trick, but I am loving my class and my kids. Playing games and making funny sounds to accompany english words is not just a cool trick that Peggy taught me...it works. I have a lot of fun, and I can´t wait to share with you more. I just hope I don´t come back to Central Valley and have an impulse to whack a kids for standing up or talking. Just kidding, I don´t whack ´em...not too hard at least! Hope this gives you a great glimpse into the school.