Teacher Banana!

Thought i would share a few tales on this journal thing, so forgive me as i tend to ramble :)

I arrived in Yantai, Shandong, on the coast, with the expectation that i was teaching middle school but i soon discovered some interesting news!! i am teaching kindergarden....yes thats correct they have put me in charge of the little ones....cant see my degree coming to much use in the next few months, but hey at least i can release my inner child!

I begin my classes at half 8, not too early, i started the same day as the kids so there was lots of tears and "i need pee pee" as well as a babble of korean, chinese, russian (yes im in an international school) and some poor little girl cried all day, i felt like her at certain points!

The morning goes a little like this: from 8.30 til 11.30 we have circle time, then i do my 20min lesson (they start next wk) then we split the class up an do art, reading, playing, etc. we also have 30 mins doing outside activities an by this i mean....we sing!!! thats right after 23yrs of not infliciting my singing, if you can call it that, on anyone, i have to sing to a bunch of kids!! it is not a pretty sight, these kids ear drums will be destroyed in no time....so laugh at will guys, i sure am :) After this outside stuff, in which numerous kids fell and cried, we go back inside for another lesson or well play time who knows :)

Then at half 11 we have lunch....rice again anyone??? The food isn't bad, sometimes its best not to ask and just eat, had a massive craving for beans on toast earlier though! At lunch we met some of the other foreign teachers who were really friendly and invited us out with all of them and said if we needed anything just to ask!

After lunch the kids have nap time....now that was stressful, trying to get 20+ kids to sleep, there was tears and screaming, i just gave up and thought kids if i were you i would take a nap...but thankfully we were called to the office :)

After this i wandered about the kindergarden building, sat in the smallest of chairs until half two when the kids returned!! I was suppose to be doing lesson plans but no one has yet to inform me of anything, but its the first day so i'm bound to get information soon...i hope!!  My next class who are roughly 4-5yr olds are a lively lot and quite entertaining but they caught on to Hannah Banana....so im now teacher banana...good times! we did some drawing an playing and then it was a little girls birthday so we had cake....apparently we tend to have birthday parties every month and you cannot beat free cake :)

After the kids had their share of cake and singing it was home time, so by the time it takes to take shoes off, put slippers on, get water bottles, go pee pee, put shoes back on etc the day goes in ok!! However it also tests your mental health, i mean being at the level of 3-5yr olds is difficult....but thankfully my purple feet keep them entertained :)

So im back in my flat, have to figure out my lesson plan/new songs/games, but thankfully have internet and Hannah Montana the Movie is on....cant beat a wednesday night in Yantai!!!

Shall keep you updated on my life as a 4.5yr old :)