my first day of teaching

Oh boy was this an exhausting day. All I wanted to do after those three hours were over was sleep. It’s hard enough having eight four year olds that speak English in a room and get them behave but when they don’t speak your language it’s almost impossible to keep them under control. I wish I had filmed my classes this first day. There was one point where I had absolutely no control of the children. They were speaking Chinese a million miles an hour, running around pushing each other. They were not paying attention at all but why would they; they don’t understand what I’m telling them to do. For all they know I could be saying run around. The Chinese teacher saved the day though! The Chinese teachers are very strict with the children. They give no sympathy. If the child isn’t behaving they get forcefully pulled away from whatever they’re doing wrong or smacked in the back of the head. These teachers are pretty brutal to the 4-6 year olds. Most of the children are away to school for there first time and often times they’ll cry because they miss there moms and dads. One little boy Sam was crying and the teacher was just yelling in his face to stop crying. I wanted so bad to just take that little boy in my arms and say “Sam, its ok. I miss my mom and dad too!” The first class was chaotic but I think with time it’ll get better. The children are adorable!

Besides teaching my ILP classes I teach an additional ELE class for 40 minutes. This class has nothing to do with the program I’m here for; it’s just service to the school. Each one of us girls was assigned a class. First grade, second grade, or third grade. I got the special class. Sometime this year there was a mudslide in China. Many people were killed and it left many children with out parents. The school I’m teaching at has offered to take in those children and let them come here for free. So I get the privilege of teaching those children. They are 6-8 years old. They haven’t arrived here yet so for now I’m team teaching the ELE class with Rachel. We sure have a rowdy group. They’re first graders and misbehave. After each class the Chinese teacher apologizes that the kids were so naughty. Sometimes they throw things at us and think it’s so funny when we flinch. I was so upset inside one day I decided if they hit me one more time I was going to just walk out of the classroom. The teacher sure hits them hard when they hit us though. She does not let them get away with misbehaving. They’re adorable but need to work on the respect and behaving area a little.