1st time teaching....

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Imagine. You are surrounded by 15 students - all of them 3-years-old (okay, Willy is actually 2.) Half of them are running around, and the other half are sitting down watching you intently. Any sane person in this situation would tell the first half to sit down, and they eventually would. Right? Now, imagine these children do not know ANY English!

On the first day of school, I was greeted by the students I knew with big smiles - happy to have "Teacher Alison" as their teacher. Thank God I came to observe for a week before I began, so at least half of my students knew me. I have 15 students - 9 girls & 6 boys. Willy is the youngest and cries every morning and every day after nap. On the first day, 5 children cried.....ALL BOYS! I think my belief that boys are babies is proven true - hehe...just joking, guys :-) Nelson was the only boy who didn't cry, but he already knew & loved Teacher Alison.

By Wednesday, it was raining, and most of the children decided to be in bad moods. The day began with Nelson tripping as he ran (no running in school!) to Teacher Alison, fell down, and busted his lip 😞 I think seeing Nelson (the happiest kid) crying made everyone else sad. It was very difficult to engage the students, and I wanted to give up! You see, I was trying to teach these children from the textbooks I was given. Yes, I said TEXTBOOKS! Has anyone in the USA ever heard of giving textbooks to 3-year-olds? I can't say, "Turn to page 6." No, I have to literally turn each students' page!

Needless to say, Teacher Alison has become wiser this week (actually by day 4, I gave up the texts.) Apparently, since this is a private school, the parents dictate a lot of what happens, and the parents want textbooks! There is a lot of pressure on children here to learn a lot by a very young age. The 4 & 5-year-olds here can already read, in English! With my students, I have decided to use mostly pictures and songs, which work beautifully. The 10-minute attention-span of my students calls for constant changes, so we have a lot of song breaks. So far, we have learned about feelings, shapes, weather, greetings (hello & goodbye,) and our bodies. This week I taught watercoloring in Arts & Crafts; Phonics (letters A, B & C😉 Math (shapes😉 body parts in Health, Hygiene & Manners; writing letter B (Pre-Writing😉 and greetings.

It truly is amazing to watch these children learn! Hearing them speak in English is so rewarding because I TAUGHT THEM! They are such quick learners and very well-behaved (for the most part.) I should take this time to introduce Teacher Pauline, my Chinese co-teacher. She is AMAZING! As she taught half of the children last year in "nursery school," they know her well. She handles the discipline (very well,) translating, communicating with the parents, cleaning, & preparing the meals. I am very lucky to have such a good co-teacher, as I've heard stories about some not-so-good teachers. Pauline said she is happy with me too, so I think we'll have a good year 😊

I'll write more about each student later.... They are so cute sometimes, that I can't help but laugh even when they are being bad 😊 I'm sure I will have many, many stories in the future....

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Photos

My bulletin board
This was my assignment - to create a bulletin board in the classroom. After a few hours of cutting, my fingers actually became bruised & swollen! haha :)

After the students arrived
I added all of their pictures to the bulletin board. I'm not sure you can see them well, but trust me - they are adorable :-)

My class
My students, minus the 2 that are on vacation :-)

Willy & Ocean
Finally, I took a good picture of Ocean!

Eugene & Eric
Yes, "Eugene" is a girl :-)

Me & Apple
Ignore my zit, please :)

Ducks in a row
This is the wall that Teacher Pauline & Teacher Joyce decorated.

Cubbies
Where each child puts his/her backpacks every day & stores all necessary goods.

The white board
Where the teaching & learning takes place!