Kindergarteners

Frankly, I don't know that kindergarten is the grade for me, but I know that these particular students ARE for me and the Lrd has placed me with them for that reason.

I praise the Lrd that I have a TA (Chinese national named Nancy,) who knows all the school's systems, is a hard worker, organized, stays on task, is often self-motivated, and is like-minded. (Her job as my TA is to do many of the mundane tasks that I do not like about teaching -- INCLUDING grading, submitting attendance, and submitting the lunch count.)

I also praise the Lrd for the other kindergarten teacher. This is her 6th (7th?) year teaching kindergarten and it is her second year teaching at this school in China. She is willing to share all that she has. That is SO wonderful. I am thankful. (But I don't want to take advantage of her and "slack off".)

My students are unique. I have some characters.

Whenever I tell Chinese people that I teach kindergarten, their first response is, "AHH! They are naughty."
From this comment I have made the assumption that in China 5/6 year olds (and below,) are not made to obey.
This could be true for Asian culture.
(But I don't know enough to be entirely sure.)

I have noticed this:
--English learners know how to pretend they don't know that you are saying their English name.
--American children do not touch/hug as much as (stereotyping,) Asian children. (I say "Asian" because I have very touchy Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students.)

One Chinese boy likes to hit my booty, and wrap his leg around my leg while he calls me his mommy or "Miss Partin". (He is actually one of the smartest kids in my class and knows English very well. He is very good to consistently remind me that he was born in Boston.)
One Chinese girl likes to ferociously grab my arm and kiss it multiples of times. (She was born in Australia. She is a lower level English speaker, but she is understanding more and more each day.)
One Korean girl likes to sit close and cling to my arm.
One Japanese boy (the only one in my class,) likes to stand SO close and likes to HUG and likes to HOLD my arm.
My American students, (there are two of them): I initiate the hugs. The girl has hugged me of her own accord...maybe twice.

"Whoa! Whoa!" I have wanted to exclaim a few times, "I enjoy hugs, but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all this loving."

I have had to institute the expression, "One kiss and you are done." "One hug, and you go change your shoes." "Right action at the right time."
(Most all equipped with body language signs and cues.)

Bin has had to move his bee for swatting my booty.
It's not okay in the States and it's not okay in my Chinese classroom either, little buddy.

The curriculum is interesting.

Math is first grade Saxon. (Whoa! Language can be an issue.)
I teach social studies and the other kindergarten teacher teaches science. (Sad day!)
I am trying to make social studies as exciting as possible. My lessons have been on (according to their pre-written schedule/curriculum,) rules (snoozer-oony!!) and maps.
Maps was only supposed to be one lesson, but I extended it to two. We need to learn the terms north, south, east, and west. It takes longer than one 45 minute lesson to cover maps adequately.
(Remember, they are kindergarteners and require movement and singing and change of pace.)

Language arts is interesting and can be slightly frustrating. The school has a good system in place, but I am not mentally there yet. From my "still newcomer" perspective, I don't agree with all that the system does. I feel like I need more decodable books. And, it also seems like they are chugging along a bit too quickly for kindergarten, especially for English learners. I need to focus my mind, remind myself of what teachers do, and use some reading groups to teach how to blend sounds together.
(The curriculum already wants them reading and soon we'll be going into long vowel sounds, digraphs and consonant blends! Oh my!!)

In "the book" we just finished creation, fall, briefly went over the flood, this last week we discussed Babel, and this next week we will be look at Samuel's life and how we must hide Gd's word in our hearts.
Last weeks' theme has been "Gd sees my sn." I tried to emphasize that nothing we do on our own can make us good.
Perhaps I need to edit my teaching a bit because we did a fun "VIP" poster for a student to express our love for him, etc and one of the kids (without malice,) suggested that we write, "Kevin is not good." On his poster. HAHAHA!!!
The consistent question of late has been, "Why did Gd put the tree in the garden?" "Why did Gd make Satn?"
I have taken them to Romans 9 and encouraged them to learn how to read, to continue to ask questions, and to study His word.

The resources at this school are INCREDIBLE. Wow! Far above my expectations.

The guards at our school are great.
Our maintenance man is FUNNY. He speaks no English, though I am sure he understands quite a bit, and he likes to speak to the English speaking teachers in Chinese even if we have no idea what he is saying.
The other day my TA said that he called me "healthy" looking...I do wonder if she translated correctly...

Overall:
The principal is wonderful and very supportive.
Open house went well. I used an interpreter for my non-English speaking Korean moms. (Interesting experience. Nice to have time to think things through between statements.)
Parent interaction is much less than what I experienced at Grace Academy. (I do miss that aspect some times!)
It is "hard" to get used to ALWAYS having people around: TAs, ayi's, guards, etc. I was telling my TA, "I can never just close my door and take a nap, or close my door turn up the music, and dance to exude energy." There's always the chance of someone entering at an awkward moment.
I'll get over that.
Soon enough, I'll sleep when my students are watching me! (Just kidding.)