St. Patrick's Day and the everyday teachings of non-american holiday's by Americans...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I feel compelled to write today, I don’t know if it is me specializing once again in “Productive Procrastination” or if I actually feel inspired, but what does it matter?

I coined Productive Procrastination...

A quick life-update: I have read 80 of 95 works of literature for my Masters Exam and am feeling pretty confident about getting the rest of them finished this week (some of them are articles I’ve read already, and a few of them are short stories). I know that my exam is in three weeks, and I am fully aware of the crucial time-management that needs to be done in the next week to finish so as to give me the proper amount of time to review my notes, make literary movement charts, flashcards, and the like, but once again, I am writing instead.

I do not read books, I devour them...

I have limited my teaching to doing activities that I created in the years past, quickly stealing teaching ideas off of the internet, or merely following their textbook in order to maximize my time outside of the classroom. This has actually been wonderful, because I am at a new school and none of the activities have been repeats for the students, and are actually working quite well. I have even found a way to do all of my grading and planning while at work, bringing none of it home as to ensure that I’ll be focused and can complete the reading that I have left.

I know I am technically an assistant, but that is just code for non-contracted native English teacher... 

With that being said, today is Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as St. Paddy’s Day - NOT St. Patty’s Day. I have always spelt this with two T’s, but my coworker today kept telling the children to write it with two D’s, which confused them because I had written it with two T’s on the board. This probably didn’t help their phonics any either, but being asked on the spot, merely because I am an Anglophone, to teach about St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday I know nothing about and do not celebrate, I did my best.

OH, That's the Holiday you were talking about when you asked what today was...

Normally when there is a discrepancy in spelling, even if the teacher is incorrect, I just tell the children that one spelling is the American way and that the other is the British way. As a side note, I am not being a bad teacher, this is generally a valid explanation, especially for words with Z’s in American English that carry S’s in British English, or if there is a u or not in color, and the list goes on and on. These spelling differences even have a wiki-page there are discussed so frequently.

However, this time, I was wrong. I did a little research today, the usual “type it into google and see what it says” way, and the first link that popped up had a wonderful sign explaining how much it is NOT spelled with two T’s. I’ll share that with you.

Sorry... no one taught me proper English...

Again, you can’t be sure with just one resource, as every good Masters student knows…. So I continued the search and found an even more explanatory site that basically said we were idiots if we ever thought it was spelled with two T’s, as that is a reference to a woman’s name, not a man’s name, thus impossibly referring to St. Patrick’s, and most definitely insulting the “ole bloke” by calling him a girl. This website was very helpful, and a bit intense, so it got its point across and I vow to always spell it with two D’s from now on. I’ll share this lovely article with you too.

http://paddynotpatty.com/   for the full explanation ;)

Although this error may seem unimportant and small to most people, I always feel terrible when I accidently give my students bad information, especially because they are counting on me, trusting me, to know my own native language and be an expert in all things associated. Even if I know nothing about the holiday…

At least we both celebrate it the same!! 

Luckily children supposedly only learn 7 new words a day, so perhaps they won’t remember if I spelled it with two T’s or with two D’s on the black board. However, I like to give my student’s the benefit of the doubt with their incredibly good memories and ability to find fault. So, I’ll bank on their laziness instead, hoping that the majority of them didn’t copy their new words into their home-made English dictionaries or their messy half-destroyed notebooks and have long since forgotten about our final lesson today and moved onto other more fun afterschool activities.

Yeaaaaa, they're never gonna find that again..

In my own defense, St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish celebration, and being an American, I hardly understand how I’m supposed to teach these children about the origins, legends, and Irish celebrations related to St. Patrick, when the American version of it only teaches us Drink, Drink, Drink and Green, Green, Green. So I’d reckon, despite the spelling mistake, these Spanish kids are actually getting a better education than I did on the holiday, they even taught me a valuable lesson today!

Sometimes... Sometimes... I don't know!! I'm so sorry, don't shoot me!

Happy St. PaDDy’s Day everybody!

Until next time,

Raely