Karen People are Special

La La Mu giving her version of the I-Love-You sign

Law Ray Htoo's paper

Mu Jel Htoo's paper

Paw Leh Say's Paper

Mah Keh Keh's paper

May June's paper

I think Mu Jel Htoo was attempting to use a new vocabulary word I had just taught.

Fourth Grade: The boys side of the classroom. The boy beside the wall in the second to last row is Zaw Myo Htet.

The girls side of the classroom. Mu Jel Htoo is the girl in the blue striped hoody in the front, and Law Ray Htoo is beside her. Ma Kay Phyo is the girl in the red and white stripes behind Law Ray Htoo.

The students were not sure what to do for the picture

Fourth Grade English is the last period before lunch. The students are tired and ready to go to lunch.

Karen culture is so different from American. Here are some differences I have noticed:

1. The people will ask you straight-up questions.
  (i.e. ""Teacher, how many kilos do you weigh?" "Teacher, are you crying?" "Teacher, did you have your bath yet?")
2. Actually, the traditional Karen greetings are, "Have you eaten yet?" and "Have you had your bath yet?"
3. Students are very polite and respectful to their teachers. (generally)
4. Girls hold hands or put their arms around each other while they walk together. (so do the boys)
5. The people like to wear this funny yellow paste smeared on their faces like war paint. (it's a cosmetic, apparently)
6. People constantly visit each other, and just sit on each other's porches to talk.
7. People like to work, even if they don't get any pay out of it. If a weaving project is sitting out, the girls will take turns working on it, just to help.
8. The people are very musical; they can all sing on tune, and remember songs really well.
9. The kids love to participate together loudly in class (i.e. phonics and vocabulary words)
10. The kids love to sing loudly together.
11. The kids love to be together all the time; they also happily share any sickness they have.
12. The teachers never speak up and say anything during teachers' meeting.
13. The Karen are matchmakers. They will pick a guy and a girl to put together and tease them mercilessly, just for fun. (It's not actually fun, though. It ruins friendships) (thankfully in my case, I'm too tall for them to pair with anyone here. At least, I think I'm safe.)
14. Karen people don't have last names. Their names are always more than one syllable long, and they often have more than one name. Also, they sometimes spell their name differently than usual. 
(i.e. Naw Nu Nu, Mu Wa Wa, Htoo Baw Mu, Htoo Plo Paw, Saw Jaw Htoo, Naw Paw Hbo, Maung San Aung, Maung Soe Aung, Saw Pah Noh, Saw Kho Noh etc.)
15. The girls always wear their hair tied back in some way, usually with something colorful.
16. The boys wear skirts and carry purse-like bags, and they still look masculine! (you would just have to see it to believe it)
17. Karen do not know how to value items. They also leave their trash everywhere.
18. Karen do not use toilet paper.
19. Karen sleep on a thin, woven mat on concrete or wood and do not use a pillow.
20. Karen sit on the floor, not on chairs, and they have very straight backs.
21. Karen believe in ghosts and are afraid of the supernatural world.
22. In Karen culture, it is very rude to step in front of someone, or to step over them or any of their things. Even the babies know this, and will go around behind a person, or around their things.
23. Karen laugh at everything. Even when you are passing a car on the road and you narrowly miss hitting a car in the oncoming lane, the Karens riding with you will just point and chuckle. They laugh when they get hurt. They laugh when they don't understand. They laugh all the time.
24. If you pass a kid on a narrow sidewalk, they will cover their head respectfully and duck past you.
25. The people love to see pictures of anything.
26. The kids are almost unused to technology. (amazing!) You can't hand a phone to a three year old and expect them to know how to use it.
27. Karen kids do not know when their birthdays are, so they don't know exactly how old they are.

I like living with these people, actually. They remind me a lot of Hispanics. It's a little hard for a space-loving American to get used to never being alone, but I think I'll like it by the time I leave.
I'm definitely getting my daily quota of laughs in.

Fourth grade is my last class of the morning, and it's the one I look forwards to the least. I actually need to go and teach now, so I'll finish this later. : )

...................................

 Alright, classes for the week are over! I'm sure I was the only teacher who
 threw her hands into the air and yelled, "It's over! I finished the whole week!"

But I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt like it. 

It was the same feeling I had when I finished my first whole week of canvassing. Yay!

Teaching is a lot like being a canvassing leader. 

Almost every time I'm walking to class I'm thinking, I have no idea what I'm doing. Dear God, please help me. 

And classes run smoothly. It's all Him; I promise. 

Fifth grade is finally starting to understand what a noun is. YESSSSSS....you have no idea how excited I was to hear them ask, "Teacha, student, noun?" 

Yes! Student is a noun! You got it! 

Ok, I taught them something. Good. 

Third grade is learning about uncountable and countable nouns. You might be thinking, why is third grade working on that when fifth grade doesn't even quite know what a noun is? 

I honestly don't know, myself. I'm just picking up where the previous teacher left off.

One of my third graders, Law Bwee Htoo has established himself as being the lazy one. He sits against the wall and smirks at me, when he's not sleeping. He's smart; that's the problem. I think he's not quite challenged enough. I have to keep my eye on him constantly to make sure he's staying on task.

Actually, I just want to mention that I'm super thankful for all the things I learned from working at summer camp with horses, and how they apply to my current role as a classroom teacher.

As a wrangler, I learned to keep a feeler on everyone at once. I also learned how to be comfortable circulating between people and answering questions and keeping things running smoothly. I learned how to keep the peace, and calm down people who were feeling panicky or uncomfortable.

I never understood how my summers at camp really fit into the scheme of my life, but now I'm realizing that I learned a lot of important skills. Thank You, Jesus. Things will all make sense, eventually. 

So fourth grade...

It's my biggest class; about thirty-three students in their early teens. Woo hoo! I like them! 

They were the most intimidating class, because the period I teach them is the last before lunch, and the students are antsy by that time. There are so many of them, too, that I was having a harder time feeling them all out at once. Also, the classroom is really segregated by sections. The girls on the right side are tight, and the boys on the left side are tight, and the mixture of boys and girls in the middle section are tight, but none of the sections fool with each other. 

I almost felt like I was teaching three different classes at the same time. 

The boys side especially intimidated me, because there were a few boys who were giving me a hard time. Than Nyo Lay, in the very row, sitting nearest the door, isn't a big guy but he can be stubborn about doing what I ask. He also doesn't smile unless he's being stubborn. 

I can be stubborn too, but I have to choose my battles. I won the first battle of the wills, so I started ahead. 

Zaw Myo Htet is another boy who I thought was going to give me trouble. He's rumored to be fifteen, but he looks more like eighteen. He also has nice handwriting, does well in his work, and doesn't goof off like the other boys who are also supposed to be fifteen, so I think he's older.

We're on good terms now, but he tested me first. Usually he would not give me his paper, and just stare at me, bemusedly. Because I'm a very gullible person, it took me a few seconds to realize that he was teasing me. The next time he tried to give me a paper I crossed my arms and wouldn't take it, so we're on the same page now. He hasn't given me any more trouble, other than the coolly amused smirks. I like him. 

Nay Kaw Lweh is always speaking up loudly in class, to make sure he's doing the right thing.

The girls on the front row seem to all have taken a liking to me at once. Yesterday they started writing notes to me on their homework papers. Today Law Ray Htoo and Mu Jel Htoo handed me paper hearts. 

One of the little boys came up to me as I was waiting outside the classroom and offered to carry my bag and water bottle to my desk. How sweet!

At first, I was a little cynical, and wondered if the kids were trying to get something out of me, but I'm realizing that they are just being affectionate.

I really like these kids a lot. Fourth grade is starting to become my favorite class, just because they were/are the most challenging. 

All the kids here can be pretty sweet, from the little-little ones to the big ones. 

I wish you could meet them all!