Since January 7, I have been teaching 5th and 6th grade Language Arts at a Catholic School in Hawai'i. After a brief rent-compelled stint at Macy*s, I called the Catholic school around the corner to see if they needed a substitute teacher; lo and behold, they needed a full-time replacement for the spring semester. Even though I've done this before, I still went in with big ideas. My sails were full to bursting on my ship of academic creativity and I had a full-fledged fantasy in place of bestowing the magic of at least 15 of my favourite novels from middle school, linking verbs, and of course, vocabulary. I love words, the subtle nuance and power of erudite discourse, and I was ready to shower my new students with all the love and wonder language and grammar can bestow. *This is where heartbreaking reality of fifty-six 10-12 year-olds with no discipline nor skills comes crashing down and I venture to cover it up with self-deprecating and cyni...
