Top 5 reasons why I love my students.

That pesky day job, again.

5. They care about each other.

Even though my students are constantly tattling on each other, hitting each other, and spitting out nasty sounding Arabic phrases… they really care about each other. Our school is small and the girls have all been in the same class together since kindergarten. The minute one of them starts crying for whatever reason… a swarm of girls is around her to give her comfort. If one girl forgets her lunch, the others all give her food. If a student can’t communicate her needs to me, the girls who speak better English step in to help. Students ask if they can bring homework to their friends when they are sick. One girl missed several weeks of school to receive an operation in America. The girls were so protective of her place in the class that they would point out her empty desk to me… just in case I forgot? When she returned to school the students brought her huge wrapped gifts. When you don’t understand the verbal communication, you have the opportunity to observe all the other ways people demonstrate their love for each other.

4. They care about their siblings.

Families in the UAE are large. I mean, large. My students tell me, “Ms. Jill…3 brothers and 4 sisters.” “…2 brothers and 5 sisters!” … If you’re counting that’s 8 kids… and it’s not unusual. Naturally this means most of my students have siblings at our school. My girls will walk around hand in hand with their younger brothers and sisters. They even proudly bring their siblings into my classroom each morning to shake my hand. It’s pretty cute. Sometimes at home you see the younger sibling cling to the older sibling, but this is different. It’s definitely not like the time in first grade when Ryan H. said he would pull my hair until my sister and her friends turned off their music on the playground and my sister said that she wasn’t going to let a first grader tell her (a third grader) what to do. Not like that at all, Jana!

3. They are exceptionally smart and love to learn.

Last week I introduced the segment “Help Ms. Jill Count in Arabic” to my students. We had a little time to kill. Um, it’s kind hard. I’ve mastered 1, 2, and 5… but 3 and 4 always escape me! Then sitting and listening to my girls help each other with subtraction problems in both English and Arabic caused me to stop for a moment. Really, I’m astonished. These girls come to me for two hours a day, listen to me speak entirely in English (with just a few Arabic sprinkles), and they are learning. They are really actually learning and improving. Our progress is slow… but it’s real.

2. They really love their country.

I’m in no danger of forgetting where I live. My students would never let that happen. Anytime the colors red, green, white, and black appear my students say, “Teacher! UAE!” I have a banner of the Skeiks in my room, “Teacher! UAE!” We have a small flag above the light switch, “Teacher! UAE!” … You can give my students any shape, any shape at all, and they will transform it into the UAE flag. (Almost a party trick.) It’s a nice change of pace to be surrounded by people who are so proud of where they come from. In fact, my favorite part of the day is watching my girls sing the national anthem. They sing it every morning in very tight militaristic lines. A few of them sing so hard I’m surprised they don’t fall over, face first. Pretty adorable.

1. They really really really love me!

Children tend to like me. We get along pretty well. But my girls this year… love me. I mean, really really love me. It’s not uncommon for a girl to get out of her chair in the middle of a lesson, hug me around the waist, and say, “Ms. Jill… I… love…you!” Last week I had to lift a girl down from a chair where she was standing and singing the Ms. Jill song into a marker. (It goes like this, “Ms. Jill, Ms. Jill, Ms. Jill… Ms. Jill…”) Today a girl stopped my lesson to point out to me that she had a hair pin in her hair, just like me! And when I put a girl’s ponytail into a topknot like mine, she didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the morning. It’s incredibly flattering that these very bright and beautiful girls think I’m someone special. I kinda think they’re pretty great too.

xo, jill