This semester's schedule change means, for me, the rather terrifying addition of students who produce copious amounts of snot, spit, germs, and...fluids. Until now, I was fortunate enough to escape interacting with anyone who did not have firm training in sphincter control. The idea of small, soft fingers, covered in when-was-the-last-time-you-washed-your-hands was enough to make me want to slap my co-teacher, throw my papers out of the window, run home and start packing.
I mean, I didn't do that. Just fantasized about it.
What I did was begin frantically searching ESL teacher's websites that could help me plan activities for teaching the first grade.
Despite rigorous preparation, I kept picturing the worst. Blank-faced, snot-spewing, attention-seeking children who hurdle around the classroom, head first, at impossible speeds. And those heads are juust high enough that its easy to accidentally knee them in the face. Which would lead to me being put in the papers as a child-stomping-foreigner, then to general outrage and deportation.
Oh, yeah. And they CRY a lot.
Insult to injury.
Ready for the worst, I edged into the classroom sideways, trying to peak at the creatures before they spotted me.
And they were...
well, they were just...
cute.
Good gracious, they are so friggin' cute.
They were sitting at kid-sized tables, coloring. Do you remember when coloring books were the business? I'm having flash backs of crayola and aftercare, graham crackers and peanut butter. Paint-by-numbers, singing and nap time. In other words - a pretty happy time. And these kids looked like they were making the most of it.
We spent about 40 minutes trying to learn "what's your name". We sang songs. We wrote capital "A" and lower case "a". We put our hands on our bellies and blew through our teeth, "fff, fff, fff! fff, fff, fff!"
And it was fun.
Despite the extra work, I am actually looking forward to teaching my little boogies.
Boogies sounds better than Boogers. Which comes from Booger Squad. Which comes from the many times I've seen young children...
well, you get the picture.
I mean, I didn't do that. Just fantasized about it.
What I did was begin frantically searching ESL teacher's websites that could help me plan activities for teaching the first grade.
Despite rigorous preparation, I kept picturing the worst. Blank-faced, snot-spewing, attention-seeking children who hurdle around the classroom, head first, at impossible speeds. And those heads are juust high enough that its easy to accidentally knee them in the face. Which would lead to me being put in the papers as a child-stomping-foreigner, then to general outrage and deportation.
Oh, yeah. And they CRY a lot.
Insult to injury.
Ready for the worst, I edged into the classroom sideways, trying to peak at the creatures before they spotted me.
And they were...
well, they were just...
cute.
Good gracious, they are so friggin' cute.
They were sitting at kid-sized tables, coloring. Do you remember when coloring books were the business? I'm having flash backs of crayola and aftercare, graham crackers and peanut butter. Paint-by-numbers, singing and nap time. In other words - a pretty happy time. And these kids looked like they were making the most of it.
We spent about 40 minutes trying to learn "what's your name". We sang songs. We wrote capital "A" and lower case "a". We put our hands on our bellies and blew through our teeth, "fff, fff, fff! fff, fff, fff!"
And it was fun.
Despite the extra work, I am actually looking forward to teaching my little boogies.
Boogies sounds better than Boogers. Which comes from Booger Squad. Which comes from the many times I've seen young children...
well, you get the picture.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
COMMENT POLICY: All comments are reviewed by the author before they are published. The comment form is only for personal messages. Please do not include hyperlinks in your comment, or it will be deleted. For business inquiries, please use the contact form (link at the top of the page). .