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Published: January 26th 2014
Jesse
Loves to hugOn Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, Kendall and I get up and go to Huijia Kindergarten. There we teach 2 to 6 year olds English in 20 to 30 minute segments. I have 4 classes of the younger students and Kendall has 5 classes of the older students. Some of the students in the Kindergarten also go to our evening and weekend training school and I have one of Kendall's students in my evening class.
First of all, many of my younger students have never been to school before. They don't necessarily want to or know how to sit, stand, clap or do anything on command. We have a curriculum to follow that uses an interactive white board but none of the classrooms have an interactive whiteboard so we end up watching on small computer screens. There are flash cards, stories and songs too so its not so bad. Most of all, the kids are super cute and we love seeing their smiling faces each morning. So we have to laugh when we try to teach them "My name is Kendall, what's your name?" and they say "My name is Kendall." or "How are you?" and they repeat "How
Tiger
Used to just mess around but now participates! are you?" so I say "I'm fine, how are you?" and they repeat "I'm fine, how are you?" The best is the girl who just loves to hug and when I say "Can you find the strawberry?" and she gets up looks around then just gives me big eyes and a big hug as if to say "Let's just forget the strawberry!"
Kindergarten itself is really a fancy preschool. From what we have seen students do a range of structured and unstructured activities from playing on the playground, to learning dance routines, inline skating with an outside instructor, napping, art, blocks, reading and more. There are 2 main teachers in the classroom and then 1 or 2 older helpers who seem to work on set up, food and clean up. When we are teaching, there are varying levels of support from the teachers. Most of them check out and work on other things. The teachers spend A LOT of time making materials for the school and making the school "look good." It is quite disturbing to see a nice teacher spend her whole morning on a bulletin board rather than with her students. Other teachers hang out and discipline
Cindy
Has not said one word in 5 months. the kids. The best teachers join in the activities and model good learning, encouraging the students as we go. Discipline is the dark side of Kindergarten. Many, not all, of the teachers kick, hit and push the students. If a student gets out of his or her seat at the wrong time it is pretty typical for the teacher to sit down in that child's chair and then kick or push them when they try to sit back down, yell at them when the child starts to cry and cause quite a commotion. Once in one of Kendall's classes, a student accidentally hit another student (because they are so young and not totally in control of their bodies!). The student who got hit was upset so the teacher took the upset student's hands and hit the offending student repeatedly making both more upset. We have both successfully communicated that we prefer students who are being repeatedly and obviously intentionally naughty to sit away from the group and most of the teachers support us in that structure.
On Friday mornings we go in early and sing and dance with the whole school on the playground as parents and grandparents look
The center courtyard of the Kindergarten
Since this photo it has become an elaborate mini marketplace with an electronics store, food market, hair salon, hospital and more. on. This "all school sing" used to be my most dreaded part of my job. Being in the center singing and doing movements as the whole school looks on and tries to follow was a lot for me at first. Now its no big deal and can be kind of fun. We usually get there a little early and enjoy greeting the students and watching them play or do routines for their chinese songs.
There is plenty more to describe, but here's a start. We'd love to hear your comments and questions!
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Abi
non-member comment
thanks!
Hey there Shannon, This post soo much reminds me of my time in Korea. It's the same! From the discipline, to the teachers spending so much time prettying up their classrooms, to the age of the students and their beginning to learn a new language. There was so much pressure on the teachers to make everything look perfect. We even had these high-pressure plays twice a year that were in English, that the teachers had to make sure went off without a hitch. Big money. Thanks for writing this!