Canadian Thanksgiving

Last night I was an “honorary” Canadian, really I just wanted to be able to have at least one Thanksgiving dinners while here. It was delicious; it was the closest I felt to being home, all the yummy Western food. It was also free flowing wine and beer, too bad it was a Monday night. I went with 9 other people from ISSP and we had our own table, it was a great time.
I know I worried a lot of people after my last post, I think I should have titled it differently, I wasn’t necessarily homesick, I was more fed up with the situation. Don’t get me wrong I miss my family and friends a lot and the securities of home. I just hit a wall after the equipment debacle. They are telling me now that I am going to get the rest of my equipment, but it hasn’t been placed so I don’t know about that. But last Tuesday I was finally allowed in the multipurpose room, my gym. The floor is less than to be desired, but I’m just glad to have my own space to use. I am not sure if we are keeping this floor or what is happening, it is kind of like a rubberized track, but not as nice or thick. I asked for a hard wood floor like a gym back home but they went this route, just not sure it will last long. When the kids fall down they scrap off skin, the floor is not smooth so it just makes me cringe when I see the students fall. Also I have these four HUGE pillars in my room, they are padded (I told them I wouldn’t teach in there unless they were) and the children love hiding behind them. In fact all of the Pre-Kindergarten class can fit behind one of them. It is really tricky teaching with these in there; I can’t see the whole class from any one spot in the room so I have to constantly be moving. Also there are concrete stairs with wood paneling over them jutting out from the stage, another safety problem I am trying to work around. Part of the floor on the other side wasn’t covered so that is another spot of concern. I am not so much as complaining as stating facts about my “space.” I just want to provide a safe learning environment for the students, that is my number one thing as a PE teacher and it is challenging but I am finding ways. The workers that are still in our school are trying to make it harder though. They like to start cleaning the floor right before I have a class, they turn off my AC (big boo) and do work in my room at night and don’t clean up. They actually started installing speakers in the room until I asked them to wait till after class. Ahh Vietnam! But the biggest thing is the students enjoy coming to my class and love learning and being active. You can throw more obstacles at me and I will keep on finding ways to teach these students because it is my passion. Just this past week one of my 3rd graders that still can’t jump rope, finally got it in long rope and we looked at each other, both kind of shocked and excited. I live for those moments, it is what teaching is about and when I get obstacles in my way here I just try to keep that in perspective.
I love my job and I know there are people out there that think physical education in a joke and that I don’t do anything. It hurts that people, especially teachers feel that way, because we all need to work together to make things come together in our school. We are all important, all subjects in school. I work hard at thinking of ways to teach students how to be active and learn new skills. I reinforce things they learn in class as well. I am just going to keep on doing my job and people will see that I really do make a difference and until then I am going to do my best, because that is all I can do. You can’t make someone see something differently if they don’t want to, but you can do your best!