Two weeks ago Isikkent added 5 extra hours to my schedule. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it at first, but Maddy needed some help in her 5th grade class. And to compensate for the additional hours, they took away my yearbook responsibilities, which was quite a relief. They put me in charge of the 8th grade yearbook, when I just got here and I hardly know any of the kids. Plus, all of the yearbook publishing companies conduct their business in Turkish, so I was pretty much useless in that department. One of the guidance counselors started helping me out and soon the administration realized that there was little to nothing I could do for them, so I was happy to have that yearbook burden off my back. At first I thought they wanted a simple yearbook, but they actually want a really fancy, glossy page, full color plus a binding sort of yearbook. I think they want to come up with a really impressive, fancy-looking book to impress the parents and show them where their $10,000 tuition money is going.

In regards to Maddy’s 5th grade class, the kids that comprise it are a tough little bunch. Some are rude, some are loud, and others simply can’t pay attention, plus three of the kids have near-native English skills while the other 8 kids are light years behind them. It was impossible for Maddy to teach a class with such an enormous split in English learning ability. So I was called in as back-up, roving around the classroom with my arms folded across my chest with the sternest, most disapproving look on my face that I could muster. Whenever Maddy would ask a question, one know-it-all girl would yell out the answer from the back of the class, not giving anyone else a chance to come up with the answer. And this girl would do this for almost the ENTIRE 80 minutes. That alone was enough to drive me up a tree, but almost every kid in the class had an annoying or aggravating trait.

For a few weeks, I tried my best to help Maddy out and ease the burden of teaching this group, but I’m not sure how much good I did. My presence alleviated things on the 1st day, but it went downhill from there…quickly. Occasionally we’d split up and I’d take the 3 native speakers and do something separate with them in the back while Maddy would teach the regularly planned lesson to the rest of the kids, but my three students, two of them bound to star in the Turkish sequel to Mean Girls five years from now, weren’t very productive. I was trying to help in the best way I knew how, but I don’t think I was effective as Maddy hoped I would be. But…. (continue on to next column)