I Am Happy

As I mentioned last week, Shawney and I were put in charge of running an English Camp at a school that's about 45 minutes away. The camp was held over the past two days and I think it's safe for me to say now that it was very successful and SO MUCH FUN! Maybe I'm biased because I helped to organize it all, but here's a quick recap...

We taught twelve lessons yesterday. My topic? Greetings. That's right -- I taught 3-6 graders how to say, "Hello, my name is...," "How are you?" and, "I am happy/tired/sleepy" TWELVE times... and literally, that's all that I could teach them without overloading their brains with English. Why do I consider it successful? At the end of the day, I said something at their afternoon assembly like, "I am happy. How are you?" and a handful of students said, "I AM HAPPY!" back. I'll take it!

Today, we taught 1st and 2nd graders which was absolutely terrible... like, a million times more difficult. I started to teach them about weather and quickly realized how hard it was going to be (Maybe the give away was when I was acting out how to play "Four Weather Conditions," my take on Four Corners, and instead, they thought that I wanted them to play a class-wide game of Hide and Seek?). It was probably around this time when I decided to switch back to yesterday's lesson on greetings (yes... AGAIN!). The kids ended up having a lot of fun with it, but at the end of the day, when I made my same simple speech of, "I am happy. How are you?" the students gave me blank stares and I'm pretty certain that I could hear crickets. Then, a few students quietly responded with their pre-programmed response in a monotone voice: "I am fine, thank you. And you?" Aww nuts!

So, how do I know that today's English camp was personally successful despite all of these apparent train wrecks? Well, all it takes is one moment of glory. One kid was running back from the restroom and going past my class. As I was in the middle of playing a game with the next group, he ran by, pointed to the huge smile on his face, and said, "I AM HAPPYYY!" Done and done. Thank you, small child for allowing me to feel a brief moment of accomplishment!

As for me, I can point to the smile on my face and scream, "I AM HAPPY!" for several reasons:

1. English Camp went well and the kids are all still alive. (Hey, I can say that. Can't I?)
2. The school that we did the camp through was AMAZING! They provided all of our supplies, fed us very well, unnecessarily gave us a beautiful thank you gift, and printed very official looking certificates (I can't wait to add this to my professional development folder!).
3. This particular school introduced me to something fantastic that I will never forget: morning and afternoon snack break. Seriously! Both students and teachers take a school-wide, twenty minute break for food twice a day. It was glorious. Which leads me to...
4. The amazing-ness that was our morning and afternoon snack: individually packaged, strawberry-filled donuts. One volunteer, Courtney, made a bold statement by saying that these donuts were "the best thing she's ever experience in her life." I don't think this was a figure of speech by any means. So there you have it! Thailand is known for some great food: pad thai, Thai tea, and ... strawberry-filled donuts?

Today, I hope you can enjoy the simple things in life (like donuts...) so that you can also be happy. In fact, why don't you enjoy these simple things while pointing to the big grin on your face and telling somebody, "I AM HAPPYYY"? Better yet, say this exclamation with the accent of a Thai child. You'll get extra points. Who cares if points don't matter?! I promise that if you try the accent, it'll make you, well... HAPPYYY!