Similarities and Differences

Questions

Monday, August 28

First full week with students. The first full week of anything is just kind of a drag. When you walk into a classroom on a Monday morning, you know that no one wants to be there.

In Alabama, I usually began every week with students writing five sentences about their weekend whether it was good or bad. I always gave the option to share. I decided to try the same thing here.

It's just different here because everyone is way more spread out, so I think it's harder for these guys to to hang out with each other, which is kind of sad. I don't see as many kids hanging out outside up north either, which just blows my mind.

I think the culture up here is just more spread out and less community based.

I feel like suburbs are more spread out than small towns and bigger cities, and I think that affects how close people get to their neighbors.

During my last period of the day, I had a girl raise her hand to tell me what she did over the weekend. I can't remember her name still. I'm learning over double the amount of names I'm used to. Goodness. 

"Okay," this student said, "On Friday night, I babysat. On Saturday morning, I babysat, and then I went home. After that, my mom and I went to get our hair highlighted, and then we got pedicures." She laughed a little. "We had to go to church on Saturday night, and then we had to go boating with our family friends. On Sunday, my friends and I went to the amusement park, and it was just a fun weekend."

"You Iowans really like to have fun up here," I told her. "In Alabama, my mom and I never went to dye our hair or get pedicures. Man, is that all you people do down here?" She knew I was just giving her a hard time. 

Granted, I did let Ava have her first manicure this weekend. It will be her last for a long time.

"Did they even have any of that stuff from where you came from?" this student asked.

I laughed a little. "I mean, we had the ocean, so we would go boating, but my family never owned a boat, so I didn't really get to go on the water often."

"Wait," another student said, "what did you guys even do down there?" He made it sound like I had no life.

I gave him a weak smile. "Do you really wanna know?"

"I don't know," he said, "do I?"

I shrugged, looking down a bit. "Well, I read a lot. I prioritized school. And now all y'all think I'm a nerd. This is a fantastic start to the week." That made the class laugh a little, which I was surprised about. "I ran track and cross country because I had nothing better to do, too." 

"Why did you live there then?" another student asked. 

I shook my head a little. "Well, it was where I was raised, and when I graduated college, that was the only school that would offer me a job, so..." I didn't want them to ask anymore questions because I didn't want them to ask me how I got this job. "Anyway, who else wants to read what they did this weekend?"