Graduation Week - part 2

Top picture: ChewJia Li, Me and Vyshane. Middle: Me and class ARed watching the slide show I made for them. Bottom: Russell (wearing my sunglasses) and Ikhwan goofing off in my office

Thursday, Nov. 19, was a day of celebration. It was the end of the year class parties and it was full of food, sweets and games. I mainly spent the day in class ARed (6 year olds). As I have mentioned before this is the class I got closest with since I was teaching them twice as much as any other class. I also floated around briefly to the other classes and spent some time in classABlue (6 year olds) since they would not be back next year.

For the class parties, I believe most of the children brought some kind of food or treat to share with the class. Li Mei (teacher for ARed) had a list of games on the board that the kids would play through out the morning. One of the games was similar to the game I know as Hot Potato. The kids put their chairs in a big circle and pass around about 6 water bottles. Music is playing as you pass the water bottles and when the music stops then you must go in the middle of the circle. After about three times of this happening, all the children in the middle have to sing a song or recite a rhyme that the teacher tells them to do. I did get stuck in the middle of the circle once. I was a bit worried because I don't know any of the songs or rhymes that they say. But when it was time for us to "preform" Li Mei asked us to sing Pharaoh, Pharaoh, a church song which I had taught the kids a couple months ago. The kids, of course, thought it was great that I was in the middle.

On Wednesday night I was trying hard to think of something I could do for the children. I thought about buying them all small treats and would have loved to buy them all graduation presents, but obviously it's not really in my budget to get gifts for 60 kids. As I was uploading the massive amount of pictures I had taken that day, I got the idea to put together a slide showof pictures for the kids. I have taken many pictures at school just over the past three months, and I know the kids love seeing pictures of themselves (when I take pictures of them, they often ask to see the result after I take it). So I made a slide show especially for ARed of all the good pictures I had taken of them up through graduation day. Unfortunately, I didn't have many pictures of the other 6 year old class, class ABlue, but I did show them a slide show of all the pictures I took on graduation day.

So after we spent an hour playing games, I sat the kids down and showed them the slide show I had made. No surprise, the kids really enjoyed it! While they were watching the pictures, Li Mei and I prepared breakfast for them. While the kids were eating I took some time to visit the other classrooms and see what different foods had been brought in. They were fairly similar and involved lots of candy and sugar but there was one classroom that topped them all. In ClassCRed, Teacher Ivy had a small stove top set up and was making french toast for her kids (See pictures at end of post)! I was pretty amazed by this since I've never seen a teacher cook for her kids like this. The kids were sitting in front of the table very quiet just watching and eating their french toast. It was pretty adorable. I will write more about Teacher Ivy at another time but from what I have observed so far she is one of the most talented teachers at our school.

By the end of the day it was pretty evident that the kids were all hyped up on sugar. There was difficulty keeping structure to the games. The children were having more fun just jumping and dancing around. Luckily, this day was all about the children enjoying themselves so the teachers didn't mind and just let the kids have their fun. The day was very enjoyable for me but definitely took the energy out of me. I'm pretty sure I went home and napped that afternoon! That day as the kids were leaving school I tried to make a point to say "bye" to each 6 year old. I was told that many kids did not come to school on Friday, so to prepare for this to be my last time seeing them. I made a huge point not to let my mind wander to the fact that none of these wonderful children would be at the kindergarten next year. Instead I put all my focus on the present and the fact that I was able to spend some very fun, quality time with them that day. I feel so blessed that I was able to spend so much time with them (over the past 3 months) to the point where I really got to know their different personalities. I often forget that I can only hold a simple conversation with a handful of them. It truly is amazing what can be learned just through observation and how much can be communicated through actions and quite simply through eye contact...instead of words.

On Friday, I was quite pleased with the number of 6 year olds that came to school. Li Mei was not able to come to school that day so I was technically in charge of class ARed that day. I say technically because they spend half of the morning with class ABlue watching a Disney movie. About a month ago I had promised the teachers I would bake them a chocolate cake at some point before the year ended. I had not yet had free time to make one so we decided I should do it on Friday. The teachers wanted me to show the kids how to make the cake, but I didn't think this was such a good idea since they wouldn't be able to eat any of it... so I made it in the kitchen. It was so nice to get the chance to bake. I don't have an oven at my apartment, so this was the first time I was able to bake since being here. The only hitch was that I didn't realize our school kitchen does have any measuring cups or spoons. I was a little nervous about how the cake would turn out since I just estimated on everything but I was lucky and the cake was quite delicious (if I do say so myself)! After I put the cake in the oven, I helped serve the children breakfast. Then, as requested by many of the children, we spent the rest of the morning playing Heads Up, 7 Up... a favorite game of mine, which I had taught them a few weeks earlier. It was a very good day and a perfect ending to a wonderful week.

Through out the week I tried my best to talk to the children about the fact that they were graduating and going to primary school next year. I knew it would help me to hear that they were excited to move on to the next school. From the little that we were able to communicate it seemed that yes, the children were very excited to go to primary school. I also made a point through out the week to tell the children how great I thought they were. Again with the language barrier this wasn't quite as easy as it would be at home but I still think they understood me. On Friday evening I received a text message from Li Mei asking how the morning went. She went on to tell me that she thought I was a wonderful teacher and that she could really tell how much I loved the kids and how much they enjoyed me. I wish I had saved the text or at least wrote it down, but unfortunately it got deleted when my inbox was full. Regardless, it was one of the best compliments I have received since being here and it meant a lot coming from Li Mei. She can not speak English well at all and until two weeks ago, she was one of the teachers who I talked to the least. So this observation came more from her seeing what I was doing and not necessarily understanding everything I was saying.

Last week was a kind of tough transition. Myself, Kelsey and Erika taught English to the teachers of three of the kindergarten schools in the area (including my school). The teachers loved having us there to help improve their English and it was fun spending more time with the teachers at my school, but it certainly wasn't the same as teaching children. Several times through out the week when I was feeling a little sad, I looked through my pictures of the kids from the past few months. Although, it still makes me sad to look at the pictures and realize I probably will never see some of these kids again, the happiness that comes from looking at a picture and remembering the child, their story and their demeanor... remembering that moment in which the picture was taken... greatly over takes the sadness and always brings a smile to my face.

When I started working at Kindergarten Petagas in September I realized that the end of the school year was in a few short months. I (ignorantly) thought I would be better off if I tried not to get close to any of the 6 year olds since they would be graduating. Of course, that proved impossible, but I am so glad that was the case. I can not imagine not getting to know these children. Although I wish I had more time to spend with them, I feel quite lucky that I was able to spend the past three months with them; to get to know them and to learn from them. I feelprivileged to have been given the opportunity to mold their brains, and I am only hopeful that they did learn something a little something from me, too.

Top picture: Teacher Ivy making french toast in her classroom for her kids. Middle: Teacher Ivy's class watching her cook and enjoying their french toast. Bottom: Class ARed taking a goofy picture.