Oh my goodness. This is about to be the craziest, coolest, weirdest, hardest, most entertaining teaching experience ever. Today was my third day with the students. They are something else. As I mentioned before, I teach a craft and a conversation class (in English) to two different groups in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade. As I share a few stories about my classes, keep in mind that my 1st graders know minimal English, the 2nd graders know a little more, and the 3rd graders know a little more than the 2nd. (They are supposed to read and write in English by the time they are in 4th grade.) Do you know how some kids say the darndest things? Well picture that but only with a child who has a limited English vocabulary, and thick Russian accent.
I will start with the 1st graders. They are quite the handful. They have difficulty listening to their Russian teachers, so imagine the work that will go into classroom management for me! Whoever said teaching is 90% classroom management or whatever, was not lying. I introduced to them a management system that I believe will take a few more lessons to catch on with some of the children. This is what I do: Each child has a "behavior card". Their name, and a number is on it. (I wanted to make these cards with actual notecards..but my conclusion from hunting around the city is that Russia does not have notecards...or most of my classroom needs for that matter. There is a lot of improvising going on here.) I made the behavior cards out of plastic folders that I found. I rounded the edges so they are not a poking hazard for the wiggly little ones. At the beginning of class I pass out the behavior cards. (I color coded them too...green for 1st grade, red for 2nd grade, and yellow for 3rd). As I see that the students are following my rules, trying really hard, etc...I give them a paperclip. They place the paper clip on their behavior card. I see each group of children twice a week, so they have until the end of the week to get 5 paperclips on their behavior card. If they have 5...they get a Dr. Seuss sticker in their planners for their parents to see! The idea of stickers makes them very excited. Like winning the lotto. At the end of the week, I clear the cards and each student starts fresh on Monday. I can tell which students understand the system, and which ones do not. The student who continues to get out of his seat , babble at me in Russian, and with zero paperclips on his card by the end of class, does not understand yet. The girl who comes up to me after class with 2 paperclips on her card asking "Prize? Prize? Meese Zhena! Prize?"..she thinks she understands. This job takes more patience than anything I have ever experienced. I cannot get upset if they do not follow directions to a "T"...well because frankly they do not know 50% of what I say! I need to speak very slowly, and clearly, use pictures, examples, models, and basically play charades. On the surface it may appear that the children are misbehaving or not listening, but really they might be trying hard. I need to get used to hearing a constant echo in the classroom. What I mean is it feels like my classrooms are filled with parrots. What I mean is the children repeat random words I say as I am addressing the whole class. In the US if I heard English speaking children repeating my every other word...I would need to put an end to that pronto before I pulled all of my hair out. But here, they are learning the language and are trying out these words! I have found that I often times need to show/explain to students what simple words mean, so my brain feels mushy by the end of the day.
Yesterday at recess (which they call "a walk" here) one little fella kept kicking the other children. So I held his hand and shook my head "no", and kicked my foot into the air as I said very seriously "No kicking. No kicking". He responded with "Sank you. Yes." I highly doubt he was genuinely thanking me for correcting his behavior. This must just be the easiest phrase for him to remember.
Here, instead of lunch, they call it dinner. I always want to laugh when the other teachers say "time for deeenner, Zhena". I usually say to myself really fast under breathe "butreallytheymeanlunch". So at breakfast and "dinner" when I pour tea for the children, I make them say first "May I please have some tea?" Here is how it goes when they repeat me:
Gina: Say "may I.."
Child :Say may I
Some children are downright frightened by me. I mean I can't blame them. If some lady approached me saying "khdjgjshd suhfkshv i iusefius fjhj oiesh kjdh!!!!!" when I was little, I'd look like a deer in headlights too.
My second and third graders are adorable! Their English is better than 1st grade, so communicating with them is a lot of fun. Some of the students know more English than others, so they are always trying to help each other. They are also very quick to tell me if someone in the room does not understand what I say: "MEEESE ZHENA! Sasha not understand what you say this soccer. Can I tell him...translate?" we were on the topic of soccer because when I asked the class "How is your day?" one guy responded "Bad, very not good. I loser in football on walk." He had a bad day because he lost a soccer game during recess. :(
Speaking of recess, thank goodness I am not on recess duty alone. That would be dangerous. It would make me really uncomfortable to be out there by myself, with dozens of children who do not understand everything I say. What if i had an urgent warning!?
Yesterday a slew of little boys were playing "football". I could tell by watching that one specifically was being outcasted from the game. He suddenly burst into tears and came running at me rapidly speaking in Russian. A tattle most likely. The only thing I understood in his rant was "MEEEESE MEEEEEEESE!!! MEEEEEESSSE!" (short for Miss Gina) I felt so bad! I wish I knew exactly what he was saying. I took his hand and we went back to the field, and I said "Boys, you need to let everyone play". I repeated this a few times slowly. One of the "football" players just shook his head "no". I countered that with a head nod "yes". I'm not sure what words were exchanged after that, but the game resumed without tears.
This photo is backwards, but I had my second graders draw and color a picture of what they did over summer break. One little girl gave me hers after class saying "These eeees prize for Meeeese Zhena!" Look, I got a prize. This little girl went to a beach with a smiling sun this summer.
You know those bells that you ring in a store if the cashier is not at the register? It goes "DING!" Well I have one and use it to get students attention. After I rang it today, a third grader shouts "LIKE RECEPTION HOTEL! RECEPTION HOTEL!!"
One of the school guards at recess approached me and tried in his best English to say "Excuse me...where are you from?" Gina: "United States". Guard: "Here present, apple, from Russia." He pulled the smallest little apple from his coat pocket and gave it to me. I don't know what it is here with apples, but that was the third one I received today. One of my team teachers kept feeding me apples from her fathers orchard (or something like that).
I will start with the 1st graders. They are quite the handful. They have difficulty listening to their Russian teachers, so imagine the work that will go into classroom management for me! Whoever said teaching is 90% classroom management or whatever, was not lying. I introduced to them a management system that I believe will take a few more lessons to catch on with some of the children. This is what I do: Each child has a "behavior card". Their name, and a number is on it. (I wanted to make these cards with actual notecards..but my conclusion from hunting around the city is that Russia does not have notecards...or most of my classroom needs for that matter. There is a lot of improvising going on here.) I made the behavior cards out of plastic folders that I found. I rounded the edges so they are not a poking hazard for the wiggly little ones. At the beginning of class I pass out the behavior cards. (I color coded them too...green for 1st grade, red for 2nd grade, and yellow for 3rd). As I see that the students are following my rules, trying really hard, etc...I give them a paperclip. They place the paper clip on their behavior card. I see each group of children twice a week, so they have until the end of the week to get 5 paperclips on their behavior card. If they have 5...they get a Dr. Seuss sticker in their planners for their parents to see! The idea of stickers makes them very excited. Like winning the lotto. At the end of the week, I clear the cards and each student starts fresh on Monday. I can tell which students understand the system, and which ones do not. The student who continues to get out of his seat , babble at me in Russian, and with zero paperclips on his card by the end of class, does not understand yet. The girl who comes up to me after class with 2 paperclips on her card asking "Prize? Prize? Meese Zhena! Prize?"..she thinks she understands. This job takes more patience than anything I have ever experienced. I cannot get upset if they do not follow directions to a "T"...well because frankly they do not know 50% of what I say! I need to speak very slowly, and clearly, use pictures, examples, models, and basically play charades. On the surface it may appear that the children are misbehaving or not listening, but really they might be trying hard. I need to get used to hearing a constant echo in the classroom. What I mean is it feels like my classrooms are filled with parrots. What I mean is the children repeat random words I say as I am addressing the whole class. In the US if I heard English speaking children repeating my every other word...I would need to put an end to that pronto before I pulled all of my hair out. But here, they are learning the language and are trying out these words! I have found that I often times need to show/explain to students what simple words mean, so my brain feels mushy by the end of the day.
Yesterday at recess (which they call "a walk" here) one little fella kept kicking the other children. So I held his hand and shook my head "no", and kicked my foot into the air as I said very seriously "No kicking. No kicking". He responded with "Sank you. Yes." I highly doubt he was genuinely thanking me for correcting his behavior. This must just be the easiest phrase for him to remember.
Here, instead of lunch, they call it dinner. I always want to laugh when the other teachers say "time for deeenner, Zhena". I usually say to myself really fast under breathe "butreallytheymeanlunch". So at breakfast and "dinner" when I pour tea for the children, I make them say first "May I please have some tea?" Here is how it goes when they repeat me:
Gina: Say "may I.."
Child :Say may I
Some children are downright frightened by me. I mean I can't blame them. If some lady approached me saying "khdjgjshd suhfkshv i iusefius fjhj oiesh kjdh!!!!!" when I was little, I'd look like a deer in headlights too.
My second and third graders are adorable! Their English is better than 1st grade, so communicating with them is a lot of fun. Some of the students know more English than others, so they are always trying to help each other. They are also very quick to tell me if someone in the room does not understand what I say: "MEEESE ZHENA! Sasha not understand what you say this soccer. Can I tell him...translate?" we were on the topic of soccer because when I asked the class "How is your day?" one guy responded "Bad, very not good. I loser in football on walk." He had a bad day because he lost a soccer game during recess. :(
Speaking of recess, thank goodness I am not on recess duty alone. That would be dangerous. It would make me really uncomfortable to be out there by myself, with dozens of children who do not understand everything I say. What if i had an urgent warning!?
Yesterday a slew of little boys were playing "football". I could tell by watching that one specifically was being outcasted from the game. He suddenly burst into tears and came running at me rapidly speaking in Russian. A tattle most likely. The only thing I understood in his rant was "MEEEESE MEEEEEEESE!!! MEEEEEESSSE!" (short for Miss Gina) I felt so bad! I wish I knew exactly what he was saying. I took his hand and we went back to the field, and I said "Boys, you need to let everyone play". I repeated this a few times slowly. One of the "football" players just shook his head "no". I countered that with a head nod "yes". I'm not sure what words were exchanged after that, but the game resumed without tears.
This photo is backwards, but I had my second graders draw and color a picture of what they did over summer break. One little girl gave me hers after class saying "These eeees prize for Meeeese Zhena!" Look, I got a prize. This little girl went to a beach with a smiling sun this summer.
You know those bells that you ring in a store if the cashier is not at the register? It goes "DING!" Well I have one and use it to get students attention. After I rang it today, a third grader shouts "LIKE RECEPTION HOTEL! RECEPTION HOTEL!!"
One of the school guards at recess approached me and tried in his best English to say "Excuse me...where are you from?" Gina: "United States". Guard: "Here present, apple, from Russia." He pulled the smallest little apple from his coat pocket and gave it to me. I don't know what it is here with apples, but that was the third one I received today. One of my team teachers kept feeding me apples from her fathers orchard (or something like that).
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