I was so genki for my students today. I bounded into class, tossed my chalk into the air and caught it behind my back, did a little fake "running man" and looked up... to find a whole classfull of ennui. Bemused, thoughtless, slothful and sleepy (the new dwarves?) my students were immune to my antics. They stared at me from dead cow eyes. I amused myself by having impromptu puppet shows on the backs of the sleeping. "Hi, mr. sleepy student!" "Hi, there mr. couch!" This got some play. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not there to punish them for not understanding me, but to facilitate their learning no matter what. When they glaze over with incoherence I have to rewind and go slow, even for the sleepiest kid.

I have to stop myself from taking out my frustrations with this culture and my inability to understand IT on them and their inability to understand ME.

This should dovetail nicely with my martyr complex.