I have to say I am so impressed with my Kindies. It's astounding how much progress they have made in four months, especially considering that they couldn't even say "Good morning" when I first met them. Now they can actually communicate with me. Granted, sometimes I feel like we're playing a never-ending game of Guesstures, but hey, it's one of my favorite games. Just today, one of my girls came up to tattle on the boys: "Teacher Dana, Bob finger eye Dai: naughty!" (AKA: Bob was being naughty. He poked Dai in the eye.) Or yesterday, one kid said to me, "Teacher. Books, bleurk" (as in "yuck"). He then grabbed my hand and drug me over to the bookshelf, where I discovered a huge cockroach.
Teaching at this level brings me face to face with my ticks and verbal habits, and it forces me to watch every word I say. I realized this when the kids started plopped their books in front of me with a proud, "Are you finished!!" I didn't realize that I asked this question a million times a day, but never taught them how to answer it. Also, when they can't do something or they make a mistake on their worksheets, they shake their heads and sadly say "Uh-oh." The other day, I even overheard someone say "Oh my GOODness" in his cute little Thai accent.
One of the difficulties in teaching ESL is implementing new vocabulary. We can use tons of flash cards, and language structures, and contexts, but sometimes, the vocab still gets misinterpreted, or used in interesting ways. A couple of weeks ago, we learned "full" and "not full" in math class by looking at cups with different amounts of water in them. After the lesson, one of the students exclaimed, "Teacher, I am full hungry!" The next day, one of the girls said, "Teacher, beautifull full full full full" while pointing to my face and eyes and hair, etc.
John's favorite funny kid story falls into this category. One of his students who was so excited to use the new vocabulary told him that his grandma was extinct last year!
And then sometimes, they're just cute because they're kids. On Monday, during their one hour of play time a week, one of the boys was lining up a bunch of toy animals. He showed me one group that was standing apart from the others, and told me it was because they speak English. When I asked him what all the others spoke, and thought for a while and then said, "American!"
It's good to laugh in the classroom, because otherwise we might want to cry sometimes. This kids are so darling!
