Teach English in Xinchang Zhen - Jingzhou Shi

Being raised in a Mexican American household, my very first words were in Spanish. My parents both knew English but it was much easier for them to speak in their native language. I enjoyed having the best of both worlds, eating tamales for lunch and having McDonald’s for dinner. I was very appreciative of being born in the United States because man those burgers are good. Everything was going swell in my life until I went to kindergarten. I had no idea what the kids around me were saying and would sometimes laugh unexpectedly due to my nervousness. My teacher was such a sweetheart, always pronouncing the vocabulary words with wide mouth gestures and slow sounds. She always smelled like coffee in the early morning, I remember it as if it were yesterday. I always wondered why I was never put into preschool prior to going into kindergarten, but it was the best mistake. As I got a little older, I went to first and second grade with an even more wonderful teacher. I remember that in second grade I decide at the beginning of that year, that that was the year I would speak out more and make new friends. I felt ready! So I did. That second grade year got me pumped for my next year in third grade. I was very motivated to keep learning and making new friends. Then, third grade happened. All of my enthusiasm and motivation to keep learning fell to the floor. All thanks to that one teacher, Mrs. McDaniel. I never really understood why she would pay more attention to the popular girls and attend to their needs rather than be equal in fairness with everyone. There were times that I thought she hated me and punished me for no reason at all. To this day, I still remember the way she treated me and I remember the sad feeling I had every morning til the point of not wanting to go to school anymore. On one occasion, I remember that we did a writing worksheet were we had to fill in the gaps of the sentences. I remember she told all of the third graders to settle down to begin a lesson on how ‘not’ to do your homework. I raised my eyes to the overhead and saw that it was my paper, my work. I looked around to see if my classmates had recognized my writing but no one knew whose paper it was. I did. She covered my name so no one would see, but that made me feel like the worst human being alive. I held in my tears, but was very close to running outside of the room. There were many other things that happened to me during that grade that are too sad to even discuss, but I do remember praying every night before I went to sleep. I prayed to God that she wouldn’t treat me bad in the morning. I told my parents but they didn’t know they could switch me out of that class and put me with another third grade teacher. So I stayed there, and guess what? I had her for fourth grade as well. Two years of my young life being treated miserably. Al though I can’t say she ever physically abused me, she did punish mentally and emotionally. So if I ever saw a teacher punishing a student, I would absolutely without a doubt step in immediately right then and there. Firstly I would speak to the teacher in private, never in front of the student. I would pull he/she apart and have them explain their reasons for punishing the student. If I found their explanation without a reason, I would simply tell the teacher to talk to the school board or even the counselors to take control of the situation and the student depending on what they did, but I would not allow the teacher to leave our conversation without a true solution to the problem. I would definitely talk to the school principal myself and have the student switched over to another class, or better yet, to my class. I would treat them very respectfully and would cater to their needs as I would to the rest of my students. I wouldn’t care about losing that teacher’s friendship, that would be the least of my problems, but I know I would be the voice for a student who is being punished, while there are other forms and ways to deal with problems in class. Even if the problem wasn’t related to school, it wouldn’t matter to me because I feel that when students and teachers bond in a way, there is trust built and the students have the trust and confidence to ask anything. In conclusion, I still wonder if Mrs.McDaniel hated me or was just trying to get my out my own little world and bring me into the real world, but whatever reason she had, it helped me grow and learn all 4 skills. She did it in a wrong way, but I thank her for it anyways. I do know that if I ever saw a teacher mistreating a student, I would step in immediately at that moment,and I would ensure that the student never wants to quit learning because of one single person.