It’s Not About Me

August 29, 2012

It’s Not About Me

I know that I haven’t blogged about school yet, and we are halfway through the third week. So… here goes. It’s hard. I’m trying really hard to process it so bare with me; this might be a bit rocky. (My Dad is laughing at me right now. External processors unite!)

Alright. So it is intimidating to talk to 17 4/5 year olds that don’t speak much English [yeah, they are 4 turning 5, not 5 turning 6]. I have no idea if that was the proper use of brackets, but I felt like a change up from the parenthesis. It is a daunting task to try and teach them content all the while they are learning the language. It is tough for them. Think back to when you were learning words like “Top, bottom, middle,” you had heard them before in your 5-6 years of life. Now try to image that you are in a new school, with a new language you don’t understand, and you are trying to figure out what the teacher is telling you. “What is top? What is middle?” Two tasks at one time, and you are 4. TOUGH. {Having fun with font today J}

As I am sitting here trying to think about how to describe school to you, I’m realizing I should blog more often, or journal, it’s really helping me work through some things. (Now my Mom is laughing at me. She’s been telling me to do that for years. Mom’s are always right!) I have been frustrated, exhausted, squeezed dry of ideas, and just plain lost. My kids are in “Adventures of the Random Teacher!” Anyways, I have been frustrated with them because they don’t listen, they don’t pay attention, they are rolling around on the ground, they are poking, hitting, spitting, karate chopping, and screaming at each other. AH! There are days that when they leave, I just sit and stare for a while. What could I have possibly taught them today? The whole time I am thinking about me. I don’t know what to do. I am failing them. I am a horrible teacher. I can’t get them to do what I want! I, I, I, I, I!! What is the first thing you learn when you go out for a sport? There is no I in TEAM. I had a good think today and decided that I have forgotten why I am a teacher. It’s not about me. I am here to shape students lives. I know they may not remember me much in the future, but I can help prepare them for the rest of grade school, which in turn will become high school and college. (There is a lot of I’s in there, but you know what I mean!) So, My goal for the rest of the week is to turn my focus from what I can’t yet do, to what they have learned so far:

o   Get in a line

o   Walk to different parts of the school in said line (Sometimes! Getting better!)

o   Tell me the rules of the classroom

o   Eyes on the teacher

o   Ears listening

o   Mouth quiet

o   Criss-cross applesauce

o   Hands in your lap

o   Several letters of the alphabet

o   Key phrases in the classroom (stand up, sit down, put a bubble in your mouth)

o   Several songs

o   How to read, write their names and numbers (they are in a number system)

o   Keep your hands to yourself (still working on that one)

o   And many more

See? I’m not failing. it may not be the content or level of progress I expected, but the more I learn about MY STUDENTS, how THEY learn, WHAT they are learning, and how much I am learning from THEM; the better it gets. I’ve learned [or realized, rather] that in order for meaningful learning to happen, there must be a baseline of structure, a level of expectation. Once we learn to control our bodies, and learn some more English, it will be better. Everyday something gets a little better. Even if it is SHORT LIVED, there is some measure of improvement.

Are you still there? I think that was more for me than for anyone else. Sorry. BUT, don’t think I don’t love it! We do have a lot of fun, and I love my class. We are still learning a lot about each other. They can ALLLMOOST say my name. It more comes out like Mista Rystal, Ms KA-rick-i-kis-tals, Kittal, or teacha. One little guy always yells at me TEACHAH NOOO TEACHAH NOOOO!! I thought for sure this kid is not telling me no. He wasn't he was saying Look! haha. 

Some funny things they say:

-       Teachah, so nice? While shoving a picture in my face.

-       Teachah, so haaaaht!! With sweat running down their faces at recess.

-       Teachah, I go pee-pee. Yes, please go pee-pee.

-       HIYAAA, RAWR (like tiger, but so strange), YAAAA.. they like to practice martial arts of some kind haha.

I once told them they could practice their ‘fighting’ as long as they had enough space that they wouldn’t hurt one another. I scolded a young man who forgot the rule and as he saw others doing it he says NO NO NO NO, sits down in criss-cross, and says, “Ohm.” HAHAHA so funny. Whenever I talk to him he raises his eyebrows every 3 seconds. So funny.

OH! Same kid comes barreling out of the ‘toilet’ {not actually IN the toilet} as we were waiting in line, and whips down his pants! What the heck kid?!  

: ) they keep it fun and interesting, sure they wipe me out, but they are 4-5, they’re learning!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to! (they are are of order but I don't care. Sorry :P)  If any of you are teachers and have some advice for me, PLEASE COMMENT!! J Thanks!

Listening to books

Practicing standing up and pushing in our chairs

Looking at books

Crawling through tunnels (they were nuts, rolling all over the place)

Again

They have a funny obsession with rolling pool balls around

Balancing bean-bags!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Smartboard fun (those things are amazing! Use mine everyday!)

Finding shapes!

Finding colors and shapes!

Practicing our Rules. They never smile for pictures for some reason. They are actually happy, believe it or not!

Again listening

Almost got the line thing down, it's SO MUCH  better!

more balancing

this is the 'Karate Kid', eyebrow kid, and pants dropper

I'm balancing too!

Her name is Boi, nickname Polly :)

Cutting out our nice hands!

Ha! This is how I get their attention!

Writing Letters

Learning to play together and share... so hard!

Reading together

I can listen! I can read!

Boys are alligators and girls run away from them.. ;)

Team work!

The parachute is absolute chaos, but they love it!

:)

Playing with shapes

Make a new shape out of shapes!

Letters!

Making letters out of clay!

Letters on magic boards!

How they spell and say my name

SPECIAL TREAT. You made it through the whole blog! Here's me on my motorbike! ZOOM ZOOM

Fat, Feet, and Frogs

You know Russian Roulette? Well there is a Vietnamese version, Vietnamese Roulette (I thought of it, original right?) and this is how you play. You’re walking down the street and you’re hungry. So you spot a place with plastic chairs and tables outside (cheap usually) and sit down. They hand you a menu, and its solemente in Vietnamese.. so, knowing that bo is beef and ga is chicken you randomly choose something. And vua la (spelling?)! Vietnamese Roulette.

The first few times I played, it was awesome, fantastic! Last time… my meal was beef fat and vegetables. Fat and vegetables. Not my cup of tea. I ate most of it though. My friend Edwin ended up with some chicken feet, which to my amazement, spectacular. Really good.

Then the next day I was chatting with my TA and Kindergarten Vietnamese teacher Ms. Lam, and she was eating frog legs, so I took a bite. Not to bad! Where does this girl draw the line, you may ask? Quail eggs and fertilized eggs, that’s where. Here in Vietnam, some of the eggs are fertilized and then cooked. People will peel off the shell and pop them into their mouths… baby bird, feathers, bones and all… I just don’t think I can stomach that!!! I asked Ms. Lam if she like them and she did! I probably unconsciously was making a face because she laughed and said that she had been eating them since she was little because it is thought of to be good luck. Well, should I happen to have some REALLY unfortunate luck, I’ll think about it.. haha

There you go. Fat, feet, and frogs.

As some of you may know, I have rented a motorbike! I LOOOOVEEE it! I could seriously ride around on it for hours! It was highly intimidating at first since you couldn’t really learn with out traffic. Once you get the feel for your bike and the ebb and flow of traffic, it’s easy peasy. The freakiest part is left turns across traffic. There is no light or signal for you to go. You just do. And people wiz around you. You pick an even pace and direction and they go around you! SO CREEPY, but again, once you do it a few times and have a feel for your bike it’s not so bad. I will have some pictures up soon!

Speaking of pictures, the only pictures I have really taken are of my students and my view. Driving around and taking pictures doesn’t really happen, but I will try to take some more pictures! Probably the next blog will just be a photo dump.

Ok, school. The sole reason I am here. It’s crazy, exhausting, frustrating, fun, and exciting. I sound like a girl right? Too many emotions. The language barrier is tough. Most of my students don’t have much English and trying to get their attention and teach 17 of them English as well as content/routines (routines is what we are focusing on right now) is super hard. I have really high expectations for the students and myself, and I often feel they aren’t being met. There are some amazing teachers here who are a huge support.  I am so grateful for them. More about my school and class later, and with lots of pictures!

Until next time,

K

Have you always been like this?

Okie Dokie Artichokie

So. There’s this gym in the MALL below our apartment. Yep I live on top of a mall/arcade/bowling alley/gym. I haven’t even gone shopping yet. And that my friends deserves a round of applause… let’s hear it for Krystal!

Oh yea, the gym. So we go to check it out since some of our friends who had already joined said there was a deal that ended soon. The guy’s name was Tom. He gave us a rundown of the gym and what was offered and a brief history of the gym. It’s like a Glub; a gym/club. Apparently Vietnamese girls don’t want to get fat so they don’t go out and go clubbing very much like Americans do. So my philosophy is that they brought the gym and club together, air-go the Glub. The music is loud and bumping, there’s people everywhere, and rumor has it that some girls work out in high heeled shoes!

When we were signing up he asked us what our fitness goals. When, of course, weight loss came up, he suggested places for us to loose. Mind you that we had just got there, so he had sized us up before we even sat down and noticed where we needed to lose. We also stood on this machine that measure BMI, BF%, among other things, and I have to lose 5Kgs off my tummy. Hahah. It’s funny how if in the States someone came up to me and said, “Oh, you want to lose weight here,” and pinches the backs of my arms and grabbed at their stomach, I would be offended. But there is no demeaning tone to their question. They are just frank.

That’s not even the good part.

So we got one free personal training session with signing up. They guy was really nice and he kicked Michelle and me’s butt! At one point we were doing lunges down the length of the gym and he asked how often I had been working out. I said I had been doing a boot camp back home for a few months. Naturally, if I had been doing a boot camp I should have been dropping pounds like flies so he asked if I had lost a lot of weight. I said that I did when I wasn’t drinking very much and watching my diet, but then I wasn’t and I was going out a lot so it came back! He paused for a minute and asked, “Oh, so you haven’t always been like this?” Bahaha. I had to laugh. No, Thank you Mr. Buff-tattooed-sculpted-PT Man, I have not. In high school I was quite pleasant. But once again, not trying to be mean. They just don’t beat around the bush. “You have fat here, here, and here.” What?! Where!??! Oh, ya; I am aware.

Movin’ on.

Most traumatic experience so far: I took my first Xe-om ride the other day.  A xe-om is a motorbike-taxi. They carry extra helmets and cart people around on their motorbikes so they don’t have to get in a taxi. It’s cheaper, but there’s no meter so you have to negotiate the price before you leave. So, price decided, helmet on, ready to go. We go not even a block and we come up on an accident. Two bikes were in the middle of the road. As we went around it, there was a young man, probably my age or younger, lying on the road. He was lying in a pool of fire-engine-red blood surrounding coming from somewhere behind his head... you know on crime shows when they have silhouette of the body all awkward shaped? Yeah, I saw that in real life… I don’t think he was living… … I was speechless.

The helmets they wear here are like glorified ball-caps and they don’t protect the head too much, obviously.  Until I saw this accident, I was going to get one. I’m definitely buying one that covers my whole head.

Besides that though, things have been going swell.

I met a young woman about my age named My Chi. She is a cousin of a friend of mine back home! Thanks for hooking us up Nikki! She came and picked me up on her motorbike and we went across town for dinner. Despite the previous story, I felt comfortable with her. I don’t know what what we had was called, but I call it “Vietnamese fajitas.” There was giant plate of greens (I have no idea what all was in there), some rice things that looked like tortillas, a plate of pickled vegetables, and a plate of meat. Put some of each in the tortilla things, dip it in the sauce, and bon appétit! Pretty tasty!

Then we drove around the city for a while and we went to a quaint little coffee shop. First you had to take off your shoes to enter the dimly lit room. Faint music played in the background. It was decorated with earthy tones and floral patterns. The furniture was the kind that you must sit on your rear on a cushion. I loved this place! The iced coffee was excellent and the complimentary tea was to die for. I got the name of it so I can go back.

I really enjoyed visiting with Chi. She speaks very clear but somewhat limited English. I thought she was doing a great job! She was kind enough and patient enough to teach me probably about 10 phrases! WAHOO! It was really fun to talk with her. We are planning to hang out again soon before she takes off for a month for a business trip. I’d love to hang out often and even make friends with other Vietnamese. They know so much about the town, all the secrets it has to offer!

We’re beginning training and planning for the beginning of the school year! I am anxious to get going and meet my first ever class! EEP! I’ll blog about that next. I have been taking pictures of the progress of my room! Can’t wait to show you all.

Until next time,

K

And it begins...

And it begins

So today was the first day of orientation. So far so good! Phew. All of the other new teachers were there, and it was fun to meet two other people from Iowa! Whoo! We are a powerful little state, ya’ll; don’t be discouraged because people get us mixed up with potatoes and Ohio... J From what I can tell from the first few days here, I really like my Elementary Principal, if not for the sole reason that he sports a “soul patch”. Just kidding, he is approachable and has expectations from us just as he acknowledges that there will be mistakes and rough days. I just met the principal from the High School and he’s a cheery fella who tells us that we are all currently being recorded for a reality TV series. So we’re encouraged to make things dramatic… J They pointed out that this a very young and developing school and we are all a part of what happens next. The school is still growing, adapting, and working out the kinks. We could be/are the cornerstones of this baby school. It’s empowering and intimidating all at the same time! I feel more willing (not that I wasn’t) to take ownership, and be proactive! If you know me you are laughing at that statement. Proactive! Bah!

Anyways. The other teachers seem really friendly and many phone numbers have been exchanged. I filled out many papers today: Bank account, insurance policy, IT stuff… This is real. Woah! I am ready to get this show on the road and meet my little peanuts!

It’s interesting, life is. When I was a little girl, playing with Stacie dolls and planning my life. I always thought I’d get married young and start a family right away. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be moving across the world to teach in Vietnam. It’s funny how life experiences can change your opinion and worldview. You think you’ve got it all figured out and BOOM! You don’t. Something happens [or doesn’t] and you’re lying face-up looking at the sky trying to figure out what’s next. It’s weird to think about how you got to where you are. I’m contemplating all of this while laying in bed listening to people honk at each other out my 29^th floor window, and I just heard a buzz saw… at 11:00 PM. Every decision you make has an effect on the rest of your life. Turn left instead of right, and you meet someone totally different. Go to the gym ten minutes later than you planned and someone new is there. These different people can affect your life in different ways. Weird huh? Anyway, life is interesting. You never know what’s going to happen.