Teaching

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I am not teaching Kindergarten any longer. I am now a “Primary One” teacher, which in the U.S would translate over to first grade. Sunday was one of the first days that I have been in front of the classroom. The other Sarah, who use to have the class I am overtaking, taught the first two classes, and I taught the last one. For the first two classes, I basically just walked around and helped kids understand what their worksheets were asking them to do. My secondary job was breaking up fights and taking kids food. I am a basically a bully. Yet, for some reason at the end of the classes, three girls gave me a hug and one boy told me he loved me. That surprised me, since I don’t think I really talked to them very much. A couple of the girls asked my name, and giggled when I told them it was the same as their original teacher’s. I’m not too sure what was so funny, but it amused them a lot.
One of the biggest problems I have had so far is that when kids are upset they talk to me in Arabic instead of English – since that is what is natural for them. Sarah knows Arabic so she can understand them but she said that she has to pretend she doesn’t know what they are saying since we aren’t suppose to respond to them talking in Arabic. A useful procedure for me! I did ask one boy to explain himself in English, and he said that he didn’t know what his problem is in English.
The last class went over well, I basically repeated the same thing that Sarah had said to the first two and then assigned the worksheets per usual. The little kids are cute, and they all speak English pretty well. I always have to ask if they understand before I move on, because otherwise I feel like I might explain something too quickly and they’re just going to be confused forever.