it's just another manic... tuesday

we had a random day off yesterday (monday), which was much-appreciated and perfectly-timed for me.  i took the opportunity to beach myself (or more accurately, "pool myself," since my fat little toes did not touch the sand not one time in my 48 hours on the coast.)  we rented a beautiful house on the beach, some fisherfriends went pseudo deep-sea fishing, and the rest of us enjoyed the product of their efforts that night.  this weekend will always stick out for me since the resulting tsunami from the mega 9.0 earthquake in japan had been "scheduled" to hit the guatemalan coast at 4pm on friday afternoon.  at mid-day friday, i kinda wasn't sure if the beach trip would still happen.

but it did, and life went on.  for me. 

my students had come in friday morning in a complete frenzy.  they had heard about the earthquake, and some had heard about the tsunami, but many of them had misunderstood the radio announcer when he said that the tsunami would reach guatemala at 4pm on friday.  many of them heard that an earthquake was scheduled for 4pm.

(on a side note, i'm glad that they also misunderstand people speaking in their native language and dialect.  makes me feel like much less of a failure when i speak English with them.)

after assuring them that earthquakes can't be predicted (although, not sure if that's an assurance, but at least it's the truth, no?) we began to talk more about the earthquake and how it happened.  go 3rd grade earth science!  but, since they were still so worried about having an earthquake that very day, the discussion didn't go very far.  (this made me think of a discussion in grad school about kids who are stressed and hyper-aroused...  the physical reaction to stress doesn't decrease just because the stressor is no longer present.)

however, today, after a long weekend of absorbing images and information from various news outlets, they came in all riled up, again.  they wanted to talk this morning, and i let it go for about half an hour before i sensed that some kids were saying things just to say things... not unlike some adults i know. (this book i'm reading, "the boy who was raised as a dog" (b. perry), as well as common sense, both say that when children are ready to talk about trauma, you should let it ride.  it shouldn't be forced.)

we ended up having a really great discussion this morning...  the kids made connections to the earthquake in Haiti last year and seemed to have some grasp on the immense pain and suffering going on in japan.  the mood was somber; this is a significant, traumatic and catastrophic event for their generation.  hell, my generation, too.  i really had to work to hold it together. 

then we did our 12s tables.  life goes on.  for us.