Crying Kinder

We had 4 crying incidents today. Two little girls cried for their Moms, a boy cried for being left by him Mom and another girl cried because I told her she had to put her book into her cubby. Hurumph, yes that last one was my fault, but darn it, she was told to put it up and needed to do so so we could move onto the next activity. The last girl who cried for her Mom was still crying when her Mom picked her up. The mom didn't seem to upset by it but that could be a front and my coteacher may be hearing something.

So if anyone has any ideas of keeping 4-6 year olds happy or distracting them from their tears. I tried to distract them, but am really not good at it. the last girl I asked if she had any pets at home. Hmm, I'm going to find some better questions for those kinder.

Also I'm doing much better with the kid's names and putting a face with a name. I get some of them confused, like Ted and Alex who look a lot like eat other and Rachel and Michelle don't look anything like each other, but I get them confused too sometimes.

I did my super elite club today and it was fine. I guess I've figured out what I need to do. Tell them the assignment for the day, then do it with them and have them finish up in the last few minutes. The second session this afternoon was actually finished with 5 minutes to spare. Oh, and one of my favorite kids from the graduation ceremony is in it. I hope I keep it because her name is Dorothy and she's great. I could be saying that because she reminds me of me. I don't know, like the moment I saw herr I thought she looked like a great kid. Of course a few minutes later her nose somehow started bleeding, probably the stress and dryness of the air. So she got some on her dress and I helped her wipe it off. So she's a sweet kid and I think so even now that I've taught her a bit. I think the spelling, phonics, and grammer is easier then the science I also did this afternoon. This is fine because I'll probably be switching from it. :shrugs: I do as I'm told.

Boys are horrible, argh, why can't they sit still for a few minutes at a time. Okay, I lie, they can sit still for short periods, but any longer and they freak out. This is consistent for all my classes so far. There are some girls who are the same, but it seems boys are the main culprit for classroom disruption.

Okay, so once everything is settled, we are so doing class pics because I want ya'll to see all my cute kids. Yes, I still thgink they are cute despite their energy.

What's sad is how much work these kids have to do. We haven't sent the kids home with any homework yet and I'm not sure if we are going to send them home with any, but they do plenty of work and some kids are so advanced and others are so behind that its hard to know what to do. Some kids'll finish their work in 5 minutes and others struggle though and will only do it when you stand over them telling them what to do for each one. I really don't know how much these kids are learning. I need to get some more interesting games, but they still need to do the pages to show the parents what they are learning and games would take away from time they should spent of worksheets. Today gave me a new appreciation of how good my coteacher is with the kids. She does a great story and song and keeps it really interesting for the kids. It's wonderful and intimidating, but I guess she doesn't expect too much from the foreign teacher. I know that several times over the past couple of days I've told the kids what the answer is so they can just write it down and get it done so we can move on. Also I've let slide some misshappen letters and errors. It's hard to know how harshly to grade at this age and English level.

So, more musings on teaching in Korea, hmmm. So some of the kids understand what I say and others stare at me and nod. We did a couple more sessions of teacher Sallie says today and I think I'm going to find some other games that are quick and can work reasonably well. There's the one kid, Cheny, who rarely smiles. She's a very serious looking child, even in the gym. The only time I saw her smile wass during the story and the moment she saw me looking, she stopped smiling, hmmm. What's up with that? I'm not commanding enough with the kids either and knew i'd have trouble with that from the getgo because I know kids need firm direction and structure, but I tend to bend easily, so if a kid suggests we do something else, I don't mind changing my plans even though I know I shouldn't. This hasn't happened yet, but I'll try to prepare for it.

Sayonara :) oops wrong language. btw, aching feet are mine.