Today I was the crier

Last week was the first week of school, so naturally a few of our kids broke down and cried at one point or another. But today the tables turned.
One of my little girls, who is normally quite happy, was looking a bit blue at story time. The KG teacher was on for reading the story and, since I was free, I pulled her aside to find out what the problem was. She told me she didn't like living in Egypt and she didn't like coming to school. She said the only classes she enjoyed were Arabic and Art. So basically, every class I teach her, with the exception of the hour a week I teach art, is painful to her. So I did my best to cheer her up and let her know that I had been pleased with her school work thus far. But when she went back to story time, I sat at my desk and cried. Silly, yes. Irrational, maybe. But I felt like I was and am trying so hard to do a good job, to make the lessons interesting, to make school fun and really teach these kids well. And in one fell swoop this 6 year old lets me know that I am failing miserably. I'm telling myself that this girl is probably dealing with some other sort of issue with culture shock or at home or even with another kid at school. She has always seemed to enjoy school up until today (granted "always" includes all of 7 or 8 days), but this just appeared to pop up out of nowhere and doesn't really make sense. So hopefully it is just something else. Sigh. These things happen I guess. I'll just have to keep trying harder to make things more interesting.
Anyhow, after spending so much time with kids lately, I have become like those moms who only see their kids all day long. So when they finally get to talk with an adult they are so thrilled they don't know what to do with themselves. After work I met up with a friend for coffee and a croissant. It was like therapy, just not talking about kids, not being around kids. Truly a breath of fresh air. I love kids. They are great. They are honest and genuine. But it was so nice to have a break.