The Antics of 5 Year Olds

Heading to Kitti church!

 Each day I spend with my kids in the classroom makes me realize more and more how much I am going to miss them. Sometimes the chaos in the classroom is so tremendous, I want to just hide under my desk until they all calm down. Other days though, the kids are paying attention to almost everything I say, understand everything I teach, and participate in all the games we play. Lately, the chaotic days seem to appear less, which makes life a lot easier on me!

If I get frustrated with my kids because they will just NOT be quiet, I say, “Kindergarten! Zip-it!” while doing a zipping motion in front of my mouth. This seems to work pretty well most of the time. Last week, during reading circle time, I was waiting for all the kids to be quiet so I could start reading. Finally, Pria, who seemed to be frustrated with the rest of her classmates for not quieting down so she could listen to the story, yells: “Hey! Zip-it!” I couldn’t help but laugh at my sweet little Pria yelling at her friends! Now that the kids have seen me laugh at that though, the zip-it and be quiet thing isn’t as effective as it used to be.

Kody resting on my lap during recess

My children have become a lot more affectionate toward me lately. Especially this one boy named Kody. He’s got crazy hair that is dyed blonde at the ends and he is just always making me laugh with his ridiculous comments and/or actions. He likes to call me “The Boss” because he says that I’m the one in charge. So now once in a while my kids will call me Boss during class. Today at recess, everyone was just running around wild and as I was sitting on the bench watching the mass chaos, Kody came up to me, put his head on my lap, and just laid there for a while. It was such a sweet gesture and I thoroughly enjoyed those 5 minutes of peace before he jumped up and joined his classmates again. 

Because of parent-teacher conferences today, we had just a half-day of classes. From 10:20 until 12:00, when we got out of school, I had to go and teach my high school classes, leaving Mrs. Jano to sub for me. When school got out, I was locking up the gym when all of a sudden I heard, “MS. C!!!” and felt 3 sets of arms grab my legs and hang on. I look down to see Kody, Alain, and Yuree all staring up at me with big eyes and bright smiles. “Hey guys! How was class?” “Good! We missed you!” “Awh well I missed you guys too. Now I need to return this gym key to the office, so can you let go of me for a minute?” They all let go and start to follow me to the office. “Are you guys following me now?” “Yeah!” Kody says. “We want to be with you!” How on Earth am I going to leave these little munchkins? Can they all come to America with me?

Swingin' round and round the tire.

We had parent-teacher conferences from 1-4 and 5-7 today. I had four sets of parents come. Three Kindergarten, and one high school. Mr. Santos, Haylee’s dad always comes to the conferences. Today after we spoke about Haylee’s attitude and schoolwork, he told me that he really saw a lot of improvement in all her schoolwork and said that I was doing a great job as a teacher. He also said that he appreciated me doing the parent letters every week because they like to know what is going on in class. I was so grateful to hear all that. Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing that much for these kids. Although I have seen quite a bit of improvement in each and every one of my kids, I sometimes feel like I haven’t done enough. Hearing such encouragement from Mr. Santos really helped me feel better about my teaching. I just hope I am making a difference in my kids’ lives.

My first ever picture of EJ (left) smiling!!

Almost 3 weeks ago, I developed a deep chested cough. Each day consisted of many coughing fits, making it difficult to teach at times. I decided that this was nothing serious, since I have had bad coughs in the past. After a week though, my roommate Jen encouraged me to go to the doctor to check for bronchitis. (She was probably tired of constantly hearing me cough at night.) So I went to the doctor and was told that I have bronchitis. I got my antibiotics and the first couple of days of taking them helped. After that though, my cough got still worse. I went back to the doctor and he gave me stronger antibiotics and a cough syrup. I have gone 18 days with constant coughing, and needless to say, my lungs feel like they have been ripped to shreds.

Thank you for all your prayers and support! My time here is almost up and I am enjoying every last day I have left here!