Kindergarten Gems

            “Teacher, this dirty!”  Those 3 words may seem like something very little, but to me, they made my day. 

            In January, I got three new students, and all of them had very low English.  One of them had practically no English.  So, in order to communicate with them, my co-teacher and I have had to rely on 3 of our 5 year olds to help translate.  In March, I got another new student, who also had very little English.  My first reaction at seeing how low they were, was to wonder how on earth I was supposed to teach them anything when I couldn’t even speak their language.  However, I began thinking of a student I got last year.  He came on the 2^nd or 3^rd week of school, and the extent of his English vocabulary was the numbers 1-10, yes, no, home, and “batrum.”  I remembered being worried about the same thing—how am I supposed to teach him??  However, he is now one of the 3 that my co-teacher and I are relying on for translating.  He soaked up the English language at an incredibly fast pace!  He came the last week of August, and by November, he was speaking almost full sentences, and able to communicate much easier.  As each month passes, he becomes more and more skilled at the English language.  Whenever I think of that story, I remain optimistic about my 4 new Koreans, that they will also get to that point.

            The other day, we were cleaning up after an art project, and one of my new Koreans came over to me, and got my attention.  He looked me straight in the eyes, and said in clear English, “Teacher, this dirty!”  I was so surprised that he had spoken in a full sentence!  Until then, he would usually only say one word, which was good.  However, this was his first full sentence!  I grabbed him up in such a big hug, elated that he was also learning! 

            Another one of my students has no problem communicating and understanding English, but he STRUGGLES with academic stuff.  For the longest time, he could not recognize the numbers 1-10.  He could only add 0+0, 0+1, 1+1, and sometimes 2+0.  The English alphabet was also quite difficult for him.  However, it’s like something clicked in his brain over the past week or 2.  He has been learning quite fast, and doing amazingly well!!  The other day, my co-teacher called me over to where she was working with the lower Math group.  She had written “4+4” on the board, and asked our student what the answer was.  Before this, he would just give you a blank stare, as if he had no clue what you wanted.  But instead of staring, he looked at his fingers, got four on one hand, four on the other hand, and proceeded to count up.  He got to 8, looked up at her, and with a huge smile on his face, replied , “8!”  Once again, I embraced the child in a hug.  I find myself doing that whenever one of them does something very very well!!  (That’s one thing about teaching over here that’s nice—you don’t have to worry about staying a good distance away from the kids for fear of being accused of doing something naughty to them.)

            Whenever I get frustrated or upset and wonder, “Why don’t they understand this?  It’s so easy!”  I have to remind myself of those little gems from our year so far.  There are several more I could put in here, but then this post would turn into a book….It’s these little gems that get me through the hard times.  I can’t wait to find more of them!  They’re so fun!

            I made a mistake on the other post…this upcoming week is actually Spirit Week.  Not last week.  I will be taking pics daily, and posting on here for you to enjoy J  Tomorrow’s theme—Pajama and Crazy Hair Day!!  I get to wear PJs to school, and not get in trouble!!!!!!
            Tuesday:  Twin (or triplet, or quadruplet…etc.) Day
            Wednesday:  Fashion Fail Day (Mismatch clothing)
            Thursday:  Cartoon or Superhero Day
            Friday:  Fake-an-Injury Day

This will make for a fun week in pictures post!  Until next time J

March Madness

“Iiiiiitttttt’s….supercalifragilisticexbealidocious….”  The other night, several of us were walking from our apartment to another one for a movie night.  On the way, we decided to have some fun, and started belting out songs from Mary Poppins.  Here in China, there are security guards placed in random spots.  As we walked by one, we continued to belt out the lyrics, not really caring who was nearby.  The guard, however, did something that we didn’t expect:  he cocked his head at 3 Americans singing loudly, and then smiled, and began clapping.  “Hen hao!  Hen hao!” (Very good!  Very good!)  He kept saying, while clapping his hands and smiling.  We were quite shocked, but we smiled, and continued singing.  Just goes to show, you never know what to expect when you live in China.  It might be things that you see the nationals doing, or changes you see in yourself (such as walking down the street, singing Disney songs quite loudly, not caring what other people think of you.) 

I am slowly getting more adjusted to having 2 vastly different ability groups in my classroom—higher English, and lower English.  In Math, I’m used to planning for 2 groups, which isn’t actually as hard as I thought…My only struggle—one of my newest kids doesn’t seem to want to learn English.  Even when we use the most basic words, he still just points.  He won’t even copy us…he just points…How can we get this kid to use English?

Next week is Spirit Week.  Each day will have a different theme.  Monday:  PJ/Crazy hair day.  Tuesday:  Twin Day.  Wednesday:  Fashion Fail.  Thursday:  Cartoon/Superhero Day.  Friday:  Fake an Injury Day.  I’m assuming that “Fashion Fail” is basically mismatched stuff…we will get more details this week.  I will try to take pics, and post some on here, for laughs J 

Look for more next weekend, when it will be full of pictures of the hilariousness of Spirit Week!!  J  Should be great!