School Happiness

Friday was the day for amazing happenings at school. It wasn't such an unusual day; it started much the same old way. The two students I live with were not going to school (one was getting sick, the other is still a mystery), and I was feeling like someone took me out the previous night and poured 20 glasses of Ch'ach'a (Georgian grape vodka, as in made from not flavored) down my throat! Not having had any alcohol the previous night made me think that perhaps I am not as well as I thought I was.

My first class or two went as normal as usual: the students weren't really interested, the teacher insisted on translating, and I felt kind of useless. My fourth grade class, however, was fabulous! I arrived early for some unknown reason and watched as they ran around chasing and hitting each other. The boys pulling the girls' hair reminded me of something out of "Little House on the Prairie". I was thinking about attempting to stop them, but then I figured if the Georgian teachers aren't saying anything, who am I to interfere? Besides, it is much better to have them like this now than in class!

After the bell rang, they semi settled down. We took out our books and started to go over the body parts they had learned the previous lesson. They were still confusing 'hand' and 'head' but they got the general idea. Then we moved on to the next lesson of body parts. The Georgian teacher didn't want to because they didn't fully have the other ones down, but I convinced her it was good if only for a preview of what was to come.

So, we went over the new vocab and just when the Georgian teacher wanted to not do anything more, I decided that we should sing. She thought it was a good idea, but didn't have the CD (not sure why she thought we needed the CD for this one!). And what did we sing? Of course: "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". The students loved it! They became all wild again, but within the confines of the song. They didn't quite get when to change to the face parts or get all the words right, but we went through it 5 or 6 times as a group.

Then, as one of the children who never even smiled in class before, had been participating all day, I asked her if she could do it by herself. This turned into everyone wanting to take a turn (something they are used to doing is standing up and reciting). Quite an adventure in 4th grade land.

After my classes were finished, I still had to stay for the remainder of the day. I went and watched my 6th graders attempt to play Mafia. It is interesting to hear the directions in Georgian, and then to watch them play as if they knew what they were doing. Of course they were playing wrong! I didn't attempt to correct them, though as that would have been too much work, and one of their mothers was there to do that for them anyway.

Then I went home and did nothing for the rest of the night, which was just what I needed to do!