My baby class

Today is Saturday and on Saturday mornings, we teach little children. My first class is 8-10 year olds (Ranger is in that class) and my second class is a bit younger. One girl says that she is eight. Three of the boys are six, and several of the smaller kids are two, a few more girls are somewhere in between, and one girl can't answer the question, so we just assume that she's two or younger.

Now at training in California, they talked about "the three P's:" Presentation, Practice, Production. We discussed what each 'P' meant and certain activities that can go with each section. The first night I was given this class, I had no idea what I was getting into and I opened the first page, prepared to start planning a lesson based on these three ideas. Here is a picture of Unit One:


Yeah, just try planning a lesson on that.

I quickly learned that this class isn't exactly orthodox. I was lucky to keep their attention for ten minutes. That first class was ridiculous. Whoever has taught them in the past has let them color in the first half of class, and then after the break, maintains no control whatsoever. So after one hour of class and 15 minutes of eating candy and running around, these 2-8 year olds come back into my classroom for another hour.

The boys push other kids and scream and run into the walls. A few girls play their own games and ignore me completely. One boy starts to go through my bag every day, and another tampers with the CD player. Other girls fight over who gets to hold my hand. Several of them will put on their book bags and just walk out of the classroom and I can't tell them to stop because they don't understand English. I do have a teachers' assistant (who I wouldn't survive without), but it still takes both of us to pull them off each other, clean up messes, and sing at the top of our lungs amidst the chaos.

I have learned more and more each week, and I take pride in being able to keep their attention longer and loner. They love the Hokey Pokey, Ring around the Rosie, and London Bridges. The kids and I both leave the room feeling accomplished, tired, and sweating profusely.

Today was a festival and the younger kids could go if they wanted to. All of the kids in the baby class signed up, so I didn't have that class this morning. And I actually missed them! Maybe I just missed the challenge...or the work-out, but my morning wasn't the same.

Here are some of the kids in my class. Erica says her kids are cuter than mine, but she's so wrong, it's unbelievable.