Happy Humpday Haiku #3

Tears

Monday’s was shyness.

Tuesday’s was from a crushed toe.

Today’s was fury.

At least one student has cried out of all my students each day this week. The child on Monday was a new student, in a new class (I didn’t teach the class last week). Ten minutes left in class, I ask him a question – the same question I asked three other students immediately before him – and his eyes get puffy and red and he starts tearing up as he attempts to answer the question. Apparently (as it was made evident after a Korean teacher called home to see what the situation was) my student gets very frustrated in an embarrassed kind of way if he thinks he cannot answer a question properly.  So there’s that.

            The next day a different boy in the same class as the boy from Monday was finished with an assignment before the others, and he went to look out the window. He leaned his body on some shelves to get a better look, and one of the boards came loose under his weight. The corner of the board found its way to this boy’s left big toe.  He seemed pretty fine, until he saw the pool of blood accumulate underneath his toenail, causing it to turn jet black. Then he started bawling. However, I was able to get a bandage on it and make the boy laugh before he left for the day: great success!

            For whatever reason, not a single one of my students wanted to learn today. One boy, who is usually very mild and helpful, kept distracting some other students. I gently moved his chair over, so he would stop being disruptive. He moved back. So I moved his chair again. Twice more this happened in all of 15 seconds, until finally he starting making huffing noises and eventually broke into tears as he tried to knock my glasses off my face and slap the back of my hand. Thankfully he returned to his normal demeanor in a matter of minutes. And to think I’d forgotten how moody small children can be.

            If by some stroke of misfortune I have at least one student cry for each of the next two days, you can expect a limerick on the subject, because frankly, I don’t think a haiku can capture that sort of sentiment. Happy Humpday.