My First Week of School!

I finished my first week of school teaching--successfully exhausted! It was such a wonderful experience. Most likely, due to the fact that everything leading up to the first day was stressful (preparation from furniture and unpacking boxes that contained a lot of things that I had to figure out what they were...), I felt pretty at ease the first day. Things did not go exactly as planned, but for the most part, they worked out well. A bunch of teachers ended the day by going to McDonalds, which to us is a big treat!

I share a classroom with a woman named Martha. She is such an awesome woman, who loves the Father. It is so great to be able to collaborate with her and bounce ideas back and forth throughout the day. She's very supportive and easygoing. Most teachers are very possessive of their classroom, their students, their time etc...but she is not at all. I enjoy going to work everyday! It's so nice to start off my career like this.

Martha and I go into the 1st and 2nd grade classrooms during Reading and Writing times, and then for 30 minutes in the afternoon, we pull out 14 kids total from both classes and provide more content literacy support. The kids love coming to the class, which makes it a fun time to be with them, and have a bit of my own classroom. It is such a short time though, so it is hard to be productive and get much done.

Most of the children I'm working with are Korean. I have one Japanese student, and one Chinese student...and a few from Hong Kong. One of my favorite little boys (I know, I shouldn't have a favorite already!) is from Japan. His family owns 3 restaurants in Kunming. His mom comes to eat lunch with him sometimes too. He is such a chatter box, and he makes me crack up. It's hard to be serious when kids say some of the funniest things. For example, this particular little kid was in our CLS class (where we pull them out for 30 minutes), and he looked at the fruit of the Spirit poster and said, "Oh! The fruit of the Spirit! I know all those. (pause as he walks toward the door to leave) Self-control." Haha... Martha asked him if that was one he needed to work on. Another little first grader was in my class on Friday. I pulled him out because he can't hear the sounds yet. He knows most of the letters, but not all of the sounds that match them. He cracked me up on Friday when we got to the letter 'I'. He looked at the picture card with the letter on it and pinched his nose up like he was thinking real hard. After waiting for him for a bit, I asked if he needed help. He shook his head no, so I waited a little bit longer. He finally said the letter I. Then I asked him if he knew what the picture was. He didn't really respond, and his eyes were all squinted...he was thinkin' real hard. So I waited for him, and finally he said, "ICE HOUSE!" I busted out laughing. He got this huge grin on his face and started laughing too. I affirmed that it was an ice house, but that we called it an igloo. He laughed and repeated the word igloo. ...Today I had him again, and he was doing a lot of the squinting, and pinching his nose up, so he could think better. haha. I love working with kids!
It's so great when they finally understand something too. Last week, I had a second grade student that is fairly low...beginner english level. We were on the mat in the back of the classroom reading Arthur's Reading Race, and Arthur challenges D.W. He has her prove that she can read 10 words, and if she does, he'll buy her ice cream. She does, and at the end, she teaches Arthur a word: WET PAINT! This is after the fact that Arthur sat down on a bench that was just painted. One of my students was not really comprehending what had just happened. I took a moment to lean over and point to the picture where Arthur is sitting on the bench, then turned the page to where Arthur's pants are all white, and I pointed to the words Wet Paint. This little boy started laughing and saying "wet paint! haha. wet paint!" Oh I love learning and little kids. So much fun!

Thank you, Father for confirming over and over that this is where I'm supposed to be and this is what I'm supposed to be doing!