20 March 2010

hello, hello! what's your name?


i never imagined the wiggles to be such a crucial part of my weekly routine. let alone so much as being played 2-3 times an hour for 6 hours each week day. i think i shook all the sillies i could possibly have out yesterday, but have no fear if there are any left... there's always monday.

i have been SO tired today. i have been working at the jardin since the middle of february, but just recently the kids started school, then just this past monday i started my actual english classes. and let me tell you, teaching a rambunctious class of 10-15, 4 or 5 year olds is nothing like teaching 5 adults, or 1 1year old baby. nothing. and the 3 year olds? wow. im drained and tired. the kids are pretty cute though, and they are getting used to me just as i am getting used to them. the youngest class warmed up to me on friday after our 3rd class and one of them actually gave me a high five. the other two classes of the week they nervously clung to each other and their teacher when i went to class. "they don't know you, they need to get to know you first" she assured me. one day in one four year old class we were talking about the letter A and about to draw and apple, to show them what i wanted them to do i grabbed a random marker and drew a big apple on my paper. since we were using greens and reds to color the apples becaues apples are green and red, one student very quickly pointed out to me (i had quickly grabbed a blue marker) "miss!!! your apple is cold!!!" kids pick up on everything. everything.
another day when we were going over the word angry (we are talking about emotions and how are you right now) when i showed the flashcard of a picture of an 'angry' woman. waiting for the kids to say angry! with their hands on their hips, one little girl exclaims "my mom!!!"
and another day one little boy insisted on asking me "and miss... your papa?" every day i told him that he was in the states and every day he asked.

its been a difficult week, but a good week. the kids are teaching me to be a kid and relax a little. my spanish is getting a lot better from talking with teachers and students, and im randomly coming up with kids songs for conversations outside the school, they just burst out! wokring with the kids is making me more like a kid outside of class. but its going well. yesterday at the end of what i thought was a mess of a class and i couldnt figure out how i was going to get any order there let alone teach any english (my voice as the other teachers like to tell me is soft and not made for yelling, so the kids can take advantage of me easily) one little boy whose name is pronounced remarkably like mine but i still cant pronounce it right, ran up to me (with the rest of the class amuck) and whispered 'miss i really liked your songs' i couldnt help but hug him and nearly cried on the poor thing. haha, he probably thinks im crazy now.

last night was something like an open house in the school. which... i had no idea about until the last minute. things can slip past me since im not a teacher that has an official class. i only rotate through rooms. but i found out that i needed to also rotate through the rooms last night around 7:30 because the parents would be there waiting to hear what i had to say about my plan for their children for the year. although i panicked a little bit for words in the first class, the parents were all super sweet and very encouraging. i was happy to hear many of them ask how they could help their child to practice at home, and that the kids are speaking in english in their house! one mom said "all he says is.. whats your name? whats your name?" they were all very encouraging and each class was very quick in their time to ask me questions, to ask me how old i am! EACH class. apparently they all love that i look so much younger than my age, because it makes the kids more comfortable. is that supposed to make me more comfortable?

anyhow, you can just call me "la miss de ingles"! and im ok with that :)

0 comments:

 

perandom © 2010

Blogger Templates by Splashy Templates