What an awesome experience! Today was the best day yet! Our bus pulled up to the Elementary School before the students entered the building so most of them were playing in the school yard. Well! Everything else came to a stop and they ran right to us! We all joked that we, as teachers, finally felt like rock stars! They wanted our autographs immediately and they were willing to have us sign anything, it was so sweet! The awesome reception didn't stop there!
We were brought into a special waiting room while the students got ready for their assembly. In the gym we sat right up on the stage and the students took over. Yes, in an elementary school, it was a student run event! The principal greeted us, we introduced ourselves, the marching band played, and they even sang us their school song. It was very impressive!
I followed a second grade class around for the day, more I should say, they led me around. I had more kids crowding around me than my family would have ever thought possible! I was most impressed with the responsibility of the students. They immediately came into class and set up for Math, without the teacher being in the room! I figured that would wane, but sure enough, the students continued to amaze me. As the teacher was helping individual students with their seat work the students that had finished pulled out their multiplication cards for practice. It impressed me that they were up to memorizing their 8 times table in second grade. I thought, "Is this normal?" There were 28 of them!
Then it was time for Home Economics class! The bell rang and the students got to work. They began tying on scarfs to cover their hair, putting on aprons (a few did ask for me to tie their bow) and then rearranging their desks in a circle. Then we walked down the hall to another room where the teachers had already gone to set up. They were given butcher knives and took turns cutting up potatoes and mixing muffin mix! They had made fig jelly the day before to go with it.
The students then got ready for lunch, which they set up and served to each other, assembly line style. They pulled up a desk for me, and one little boy even pulled out my chair for me and loaned me his cloth napkin for my tray!
I joined them for recess after they cleaned up lunch and they took me to their rabbit pen. It was neat to see the older students catching rabbits so they could hand them over to the younger ones to hold. After recess it was clean up time, which us American teachers were really amazed by! The students are assigned jobs by grade level, and they literally clean the school! They sweep the stairs, the entrances, and the hallways; they even clean the bathrooms. Now I understand why it was so neat to begin with, they have to clean up their own mess!
At the end of the day we had a chance to meet with the teachers and discuss what we had seen as well as answer some questions for each other. It was great! They really do have quite a system in place! The teachers were so warm and genuine, both to have us there and to their students. The Principal even made each one of us a beautifully decorated picture of Kangi lettering. I will be framing mine to hang at home!
They lined up to wave us off when we drove away and I was a little sad that my day of fame was ending, despite the cramp in my hand! Although, I have decided that teaching is more rewarding than having paparazzi or a fan club, even if my students don't want my autograph!
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