Shapes R us

I went for a walk
My daughter tagging along
She begins to talk-
To various geometric shapes we belong
Did I learn from her.

“I’m so puzzled mama,”
She claims, picking up dirt
“I feel a triangle in my heart.”

We walk further
“I can see so many things
That I see my eyes going in circles,”
Says she.

“Oh! This sun,” she complains
“Now I’ve become a square,”
Saying so, she squats
And doesn’t move an inch.
I carry her back home,
feeling so cylindrical.

And if you see
No connection
Whatsoever
Between the shapes and us
Don’t point your finger at me
Point it at my daughter
Who has become a rectangle
On the bed, just now!
(shhh! She is resting!Taking a nap!after that walk!)

The substitute

I remember watching the movie "THE SUBSTITUTE" long time ago when I was a student myself; save for the action packed grim things I don't remember much about the movie. But few days ago, when I was given a substitution class in Class PP, the first thing that came in my mind was the name of that movie.Whatever, there is no link between that movie and my substitution class anyway.

So, I went. twenty plus students were crawling, literally crawling all over the place. The first thing I had to do as a teacher was to get them seated. So, I started," Choe duetsu good boys da good girls eenna?" Immediately many of them sat on their tiny stool and replied, "een la madam!"

"Mo dhi naughty een la," they were pointing to a little girl sitting on the extreme left of the class. "Mo gi ngachey dramm may la." They added before I could ask them why they felt that little girl was naughty. "menn la!" the girl retorted and hit the boy next to her before I could blink. No wonder, they called her naughty.

I went near her, held her tiny hands and told her," drangni meyong tup?" she nodded religiously but pat went her hand as soon as I reached near the teacher's table. She was irked with one of the boy who seemed to be bent on proving her naughty.

To steer them away from this topic,I began, "choe duetsu gi zhapdra shey....." I couldn't even complete my sentence, a chubby boy sitting beside the so called 'naughty girl' started, "ngesem ngesem" and the whole class followed him, singing the famous song from Singlem. What was interesting was the boy who actually started the song knew just the "ngesem ngesem" part, he was mute after that. Seriously! :)

"Can I teach you all songs?" I asked them. All of them shouted,"yes"

So, I began with 'twinkle, twinkle' which many of them knew and sang with me. Then we sang "mary had a little lamb". a little boy knew this song too and he proudly sang with me while others couldn't get the words. So, I stopped after one time. I knew some were getting bored. PP kids can be so restless, what excites them one minutes ago, bores them to hell the next minute.

So, then I called five students and lined them up in front of the chalkboard. So, then began the literal enactment of the song. I made them jump while we sang, " five little monkeys jumping on the bed," and I too jumped with them. And as the monkey goes bumping its head, I literally pulled them near the table and gave them a little bump, just a wee little bump and "hahahahahaha......" went the whole class. Before long the whole class wanted to be the monkeys so we landed up singing that songs for more than six times.

I was panting after the last round but they loooked as fresh as the morning dew. As I took my seat on the chair, one of the boy came near me and said, " madam, toilet."

"No, wait for the bell," I told him sternly. He straightened his two lower limbs together,clasping his hands right inbetween the thighs. I saw an emergency there. So, I said," ok, go!" But as soon as I said that magic word 'go' the whole class went out, like a sheep following one another.

But they returned soon. and getting them to say, "please may I come in," was a cute adventure.

"doro zhabdra thengay la!" they pleaded. and we had more songs and jumping inside the classroom. The bell rang and as I came out, thanking them with a big smile,they pleaded "Madam naba ya sho tupga?"

This single line of plea made my day. It felt so good to be wanted by these twenty plus restless kids!

Cleaning Campaign

October is here. We, in the school measure our milestones by the important ocassion we have to prepare for. So, as I was saying, its October! and a week from now, we will be celebrating the Royal Wedding Anniversary. So in preparation for the same, we conducted a cleaning campaign from our school till Kurje ( our senior students are there participating in the Baza Guru Dungdrup).

Here are some pics I took of my kids: