My Students Feed Me

There are definitely perks to teaching in an international private school. One of those perks that I experience on a daily basis is the general kindness of all of our students. I realize that in public school, there are plenty of nice kids, but the student teacher relationship in America is significantly colder than here. In the States it is common to ask a teacher, "how was your weekend?" and it is equally as common for the teacher to respond with a simple "it was good! Ok, take out your books..."

Here, I have a much stronger connection with almost all of my students because, frankly, I have to. We are a boarding school so all of my students live here without any sort of parents involved. A lot of them are even alone on Parent's Day...which is twice a year. It's sort of sad when you think about it.

Lucky for me though, they sort of treat us teachers as their parents/mentors/older siblings I guess. They ask us how our weekend was and expect a real answer, so I have gotten in the habit of telling them the rundown of what I did on the weekend. They know when I clean, when I go shopping, and what my favorite restaurants are.

Another great thing about our teenage students is that they are always hungry. Thus, they always have food in class. I allow it in my classroom because I have a standing rule about eating: it's fine as long as you give Ms. Pint some. I have them trained so well that one of my students, Jason, just walked into my classroom and without even sitting down walked over to my desk and offered me a cracker. I'm starting to get nervous that the American school children won't share their candy with me when I return...