The New Kindergarten

I now have a new kindergarten class. I won't lie, I really miss my old kids but these ones are nice too. This is another 3rd year 7-year-old class. I find myself constantly comparing them to my former class which is pretty unfair considering I started teaching the other class six months into their 3rd year. We have a lot of work to do but I'm hopeful it will all work out. Independent of that they're all kind of hilarious.

Angela, Helen, Matthew, Eric, Daniel, Lee

Now for a quick run down:

back: Matthew, Lee, Mike, Eric, Daniel, Nathan
front: Patty, Diane, Helen, Angela, Julie

The above picture is the class as a whole. You can't really read it but there is a message on the white board that says something like "Hello Julie teacher's class. This is the man in the wall." Another one of the teachers snuck into my room and wrote it on the board. The entire class is convinced that there is a man who lives in the wall between my classroom and Joel's. I prove this to them by pounding on my wall and then having Joel pound back. They eventually caught on and started to suspect Joel. That's when I sent Joel into my room while I went inot his room and did the pounding. I suggested to them that they write letters to the man in the wall. Some of the better ones include: "Man in the wall, I want to fight you! Lee" and "Man in the wall, I like to ride a bicycle. I love you. Helen"

Exhibit A. The first two kids are Lee and Matthew. Lee is awesome and he is a teeny tiny human being. I like to pick him up and walk around. He's also fun because I teach his older brother in a later class. They look remarkably similar and I often find myself calling his brother, Dave, "Lee". Oops.

The second guy is Matthew. He told me a few days in that he was Daniel S.'s cousin. I am not surprised by this as Matthew is also a bit of a space cadet. But he's a bit smilier and dancier.

Exhibit B. This is Helen. She's new to the class. She's a pretty good speaker and reader and yet she starts to cry during phonics almost every day. I'm not really sure why as she doesn't struggle with the subject at all. You know when she's going to cry because her eyes double in size and then begin to flood with water, just like in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. It's amazing.

Next to Helen is Mike. If you can't tell from the picture he doesn't really like to talk to me in the afternoon. Normally I would be upset by this but Mike is a really good studnet so if he doesn't want to talk for 30 minutes out of the day then that's fine with me. I like him because he makes jokes that go over the other students' heads.

Case and point:

I had been making up rhyming names for students in the class. For example, Lee the Flea, Mike the Bike and Helen Megellan.

Eric (another student): Teacher, what is meric?
Me: What? Merk?
Eric: No, meric.
Me: I don't know what you're saying. Spell it.
Eric: M-R-I-C
Me: What? Are you making up words?
Eric: No, teacher. Mike called me Meric.

As soon as Eric realized that Mike was making fun of him he got a little angry.






In other news...

A mom in one of the other 3rd year 7 Kinders didn't think her child was learning enough during the 5 hours he was in kindergarten every day. So she asked the Korean staff to give them a 40 word review test on all the spelling words the 3rd years learn in a month. Now, all of the 3rd year classes have to give this torturous spelling test. what is the matter with people?