These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

Today I will take a break from whining about my inability to handle 7 year olds and, instead, talk about some of my favorite things that have happened in school.

-I am “assigned,” or she is “assigned” me, I should say, a Korean Kindergarten Teacher. These teachers do not have to speak much English because this is supposed to be an English school and they are mainly there to help when there is a bigger problem with the kid that requires native tongue explanations (fights/getting hurt etc…). However, they also do tons of behind the scene work such as decorating classrooms, feeding the kids, paperwork etc. They truly are the heart of the kindergarten section of the school. My Korean Kindergarten Teacher (and that really is what they are called) is Winni-Teacher.

She is new to the school like I am and absolutely has the sweetest temperament (I will eventually be able to get a picture of her!). Now the story to tell on her is this: she observes the class from time to time and also helps out once in a while. On Friday afternoons we participate in a science class; last week we made little paper crabs and used rubber bands and putty to make them walk (demonstrating the elastic properties of rubber bands). She came in and was a big help with the kids; then observed as I tried to explain the properties of rubber bands to them. As I passed by her I noticed she was taking notes, but not about the kids and wanted to make sure it wasn’t about me because she also looked a little puzzled. She was taking notes on what I was saying to the class-studying English! She learned rubber band, stretch, move/movement, and several others; I couldn’t believe it. Then, at the end of class, she thanked me for the lesson…My jaw was on the floor.

-Cassandra-Teacher is actually a mouthful when you think about it, but originally there was a Kacey-Teacher so trying Cassie-Teacher made it rather confusing and Cass-Teacher sounded like Ass-Teacher as they are lazy about making the “C” sound (even now I am often called Sassandra or Sandra-Teacher). My afternoon class informed me that Cassandra-Teacher has a real ring to it. But this is all beside the point. One morning the kindergarteners were particularly hard to settle down and one said yes “Mama-teacher.” Which lead to half the class breaking out into the chorus of Mamma-Mia! When they wouldn’t settle back down I thought when you can’t beat them join them and started to sing along with them. They loved it.

The next day they requested me to sing Mamma-Mia to them, so I told them if they were good and finished their work I would; and I did. Even funnier: when one of them answered me “Yes, Mamma-Teacher” another said “No, No-Sister-Teacher” and then they started calling me “anything and everything-Teacher” that they could come-up with and I played along with all of them: Snake-Teacher, Gorilla-Teacher, Uncle-Teacher, Apple-Teacher etc etc etc. It was hilarious to hear them trying to outdo each other in their limited English vocabulary (but at least they were using English!)

-Now a story from the older kids that eventually relates back to the younger kids. Fred is a student in my 4:30 class. (10 year olds) He is a pure energy; he cannot sit still for more than 2 seconds and loves to talk. Actually the first week f class one of our vocabulary words was energy and it is now one of Fred’s favorite words and a nickname. That is not the story I am going to tell on him/ this class. One of the assignments in the book was to draw something in your neighborhood. Innocent enough, a few buildings some drew a playground and Fred drew both, but he also added people. I had no problem with the people until he started drawing gigantic (bigger than the people and buildings) cocks and balls on them; then, on the women, huge breasts. He is ten! It has since become a theme when he draws to add both of those and for me to tell him that is inappropriate for this class.

This relates to my kindergarten class through Dan. On St. Patrick ’s Day we had to color a shamrock with a leprechaun in it. Easy enough, a simply color the picture, right? Dan adds a cock and balls to the leprechaun! I know that is not acceptable for a 7 year old to do so I make him color over it. He was not happy about that. I couldn’t wait to share my story with everyone; Chris-Teacher says that he has the same thing happening in his afternoon classes.

-Not related to the school: I posted a picture a while back of a pile of calling cards on the side of the street. Well, I am not sure that people understand that they litter the street you don’t walk on pavement but on these cards. As I was passed the other night by a two guys on a scooter, one driving and one flinging these cards onto the street, it dawned on me that I think it would be an interesting collection to begin. Kinda like baseball cards or Garbage Pail Kids or was it Pokémon that was so big a few years back-see how many different kinds I can collect in a year. I can see it now: my prized “Call-Girl Card Collection.”

-Back to the world of Kindergarteners: Chris is the proud teacher of first year 5 year olds (though all the five year olds are technically first year)-and remember that they are actually 3 by American years. So Chris is constantly running after these minions as they do not sit still or know much Korean let alone English. One of his biggest problems is durng bathroom breaks. The girls and guys are just learning that there’re separate bathrooms and which bathroom belongs to which sex. One day he noticed he was missing Sue and Claire from the post bathroom line-up. So he went to the Girls bathroom to check and heard two voices coming from one stall. Knocking on the stall door Sue opens and proudly shows Chris a poopy piece of toilet paper and says “Teacher I’m helping” and Claire is bent over for Sue to help her because she cannot wipe herself.

-LCI knows that kids love to play; thusly there is a playroom on the fourth floor. It is just a tiny little room with a little bridge and slide to climb up over down, but let the kids expend energy and run around a little. They cannot wait to go down there. It has become my greatest bribable asset and also is what made me less scary to the kids. Turns out that chasing them around and tickling them is less scary than making them sit in a circle and recite there ABC’s! So when they were being so bad I taught them the word “playroom” wrote it on the board and told them that if they are bad I will erase letters from the word and unless it says playroom they cannot go down. It is working I think, but I have only done it a couple of days so far so this week will be the true test.