A Day at Alps Park

A few weeks back we spent the best day at Alps Park. The sun was shining, the kids were smiling, and everyone was in the best mood. Couldn't have asked for a better day with my Shooting Stars!

You know life is good when this is what you call a day at work.
So fortunate.

わたしはロボト

Working in a Japanese preschool there are often times I forget that I'm in a foreign culture and not my own with a bunch of little kids. Through my experience working in various countries I've learned that although every culture is unique and different, children all behave like children and before they've learned specific cultural behaviors they really are very similar. 

And then there are moments like these, where one of my students spends the morning building a giant robot from blocks and speaking in a robotic voice and then I suddenly feel thrown back into Japan and I love it for how special and silly this memory will be.

The Sweetest Things

Working in a preschool is hectic. It's crazy. It takes a certain amount of energy that I never realized I had. From the moment I walk in the school, my day is non-stop…. until nap time. Nap time is that small break in the day where the children calm down, the noise stops, and the energy is turned to a low level, and if I'm lucky, they all sleep and their energy level is off.

At nap time that I am able to talk to each child as I lay next to them, patting their back and helping them fall asleep. It took months to earn their trust when I first began the job; months for them to feel comfortable and safe falling asleep next to me. But now, after almost eleven months, some of them are so comfortable they like to fall asleep on me, holding my hand, or they won't sleep until I am close to them.

It is during these moments where the day slows down, that I am able to look at them and really appreciate the tiny people that they are. Each child has something so incredibly special about them, and their lives are only just beginning. Being in Aurora reminds me of the beautiful innocence only childhood holds, and how as we become adults we lose that. The world becomes complicated and hard and the things that once seemed so simple, are lost in a memory of the past.

Spending all day with tiny kids is a reminder of the excitement that life holds, the fact that each day is a new start, a refreshing beginning. It's a reminder that life is sweet and sometimes the simplest things are all we need.

Controlling My Kids

With only two months to go until the beginning of the next school year, I've began to focus on the behavior of my class so they are prepared to move to the next class level at The World International Preschool. 

I've redirected most of the English I am using throughout the dayto focus on behavior and classroom rules.

To remind the kids of the appropriate ways to behave, I made picture cards that we review every morning. Rather than telling them, "Don't run, or, no hitting!" I use positive language such as, "Our feet can walk, or, our hands can clean up." I prefer to tell them what they can do, rather than what they can't do. I want the first thoughts that go through their head to be positive, and for them to think about what they are able to do, rather than unable. 

To focus on each student's individual needs, I made a goal chart. Every week the kids in Aurora have a goal that targets the one thing they are struggling with the most. Throughout the day they have reminders of their goal, but if they fail to meet it, they receive a sad face at the end of the day. Throughout the week, if they do not receive five happy faces, showing they met their goal, the goal repeats the following week. All of the children in Aurora know what their individual goal is, as well as what their friends' goals are, and this helps them keep one another on track. This chart helps them remember what they need to work on, as well as allows us to use English in a new way, because now I am asking them what they need to do, rather than telling them. They have been doing really well with meeting their goals and hopefully with enough time no child will need to repeat the same goal.

We also have a new tool called Magic Quiet Spray. Understandably, the first day the kids thought it was pretty funny and it didn't work as well as I had hoped. The squirt bottle is filled with air, and when the class gets too noisy I walk around and give them little "Shhh" sprays, and they have to capture the air in their mouth and keep their voice inside. Using it still makes me laugh, but it's starting to work and that makes me smile.

I can easily say that at twenty-six years old, managing a classroom of three and four year olds is the most challenging thing I've done. It amazes me that I began this year with a class of twenty kids, all but two who knew any English, and now I'm able hold conversations with most of them about what is and isn't ok in the classroom. They are able to articulate themselves in a way that I understand that they are aware of what is appropriate, and they are able to explain their behavior when something goes wrong. 

I went to university for a degree in English, and somehow I have managed to translate that into becoming a preschool teacher and focusing on childhood development and children's behavior. While I never expected that this is what I would be doing, nor do I expect to be a teacher when I finally return to America, this is an incredible experience if I ever choose to have children. I've learned more from watching them interact with one another and myself than I could have ever imagined in a million years. For only being three and four years old, the kids in Aurora have big, strong personalities, and it's exciting to see kids with so much confidence at such a young age. 

Dear Santa…..

Dear Santa,

       

        For Christmas I wish that I had the ability to understand everything my students say to me. Although their English and my Japanese are both improving, there is so much lost in translation that I miss out on everyday. For Christmas, I want to understand what they whisper to one another right before they burst out in laughter, what they are saying as they cry and reach to be picked up, and what they are saying as they tug on the bottom of my shirt, excitedly telling me a story where I only pick up a few words here and there. I know it's too late for you to grant my wish by this Christmas, but can you please work on it for next Christmas? Thanks Santa, and enjoy the cookies!

Love,

       Allie