Numbers of My New job

Oh joy unbounded I was hired! Purely as a fluke too. I was not working on Tuesday when I got the call that another supply teacher had called in sick for her job interview at a school but they still needed someone to cover the Reception class (Kindergarden). I was excited for the work and after spending a day in the class, I was told that another staff member wanted to see me. It was a particularly exhausting and trying day, as the children were just settling in from coming back from Christmas holiday and were a bit wild. I assumed that their animal qualities reflected poorly on me, and therefore I was getting some sort of lecture.
The staff member was a Deputy Head (like our vice principal) and she began asking me questions about my experiences and my educational philosophy. I prattled on, thinking it was small talk to see how my day was and if she wanted to have me back as a supply in the future. Well after I finished, she told me over the break, the primary section of the school technically closed and was absorbed by the junior school next to it. This caused a lot of teachers to be moved around, leaving them without a staff member for the Nursery class (our junior kindergarden). She asked if I wanted the job and could I start tomorrow. I still can't believe it and after meeting my nursery nurse (our version of a TA) and the class, I am even more over the moon.

I am so blessed because:
- The children are absolutely hilarious and uber cute
- My TA is such an amazing and supportive woman, who constantly laughs with me and views teaching from exactly the same perspective. I could not have found someone to click with better in a classroom than her
- I get to use funny voices, sing, dance, dress up, splash in puddles, build castles, read on pillows, and practice writing my name all day. Hurrah!

I have faced some challenges being thrown into full time and I am learning so many things so quickly. Some things to ponder:

- I currently have 16 children in the morning and 15 in the afternoon (two separate sets of students)
- In England, children are phased into Nursery and Reception, so a whole new group of students don't start at the same time. Also, in Nursery/Reception, we do a September intake (like Canada) and then again in January. Any child who turns five between September-December, moves to Reception from Nursery in January, and any child who is advanced enough aka toilet trained and ready for school between September - December, goes into Nursery. After that long-winded and confusing explanation, I will be receiving one or two new students every Tuesday and Thursday, for both morning and afternoon, leaving me eventually with 24 children in the morning and 24 in the afternoon. A grand total of 48 reports I have to do.
- I work full time only until the end of February, when they reopen my position and interview other people, including myself to see who will continue to work in the nursery
- Of my 48 children, two have only two students who have English as a first language
- In my class a total of eleven different languages are spoken as first languages which are: Albanian, Arabic, Kurdish, Bangla, Filipino, Urdu, Tigrinya, Somali, Japanese, Pashto, Indonesian (I had to wikipedia some of the languages and felt very sheltered/small)

You can imagine my class looks and sounds a bit like the U.N. and how special that is to me. I am learning things about different cultures and worldviews that I have never come across. The children all get along very well and hand gestures forms the universal language in my room. Sometimes there are sad moments when I can see a child REALLY wants to communicate with another but can't find the English words to express themselves, so they either stomp, scream, or push each other in tears. I can't imagine being in a room where it feels like no one can hear you.

Anyway, I love my children already and have connected with them immediately. Today, two boys did my hair for half an hour while I read on cushions to a group of girls dressed as assorted animals. I then had to untangle the pencils from my hair for the next half an hour. I regret nothing.

Another boy, who is four, has found a special place in my heart also. He has a hard time saying good bye to his father in the morning, but he always tries to put on a brave face. His dad is very sweet and says a nice good bye, leaving the boy with me. As his dad walks away, you can see his poor little heart breaking and his face starts to mirror his feelings. I can slowly see it contort and start to wrinkle when the tears well up, but he always shakes his head to make the tears go away and if I ask him to do an activity he always responds with ok, while a little hiccup of sad comes out. He is such a good sport, that he will do anything with me, while quietly crying and trying to stop crying. He gets distracted and plays for a bit, then stops and the tears quietly come and he might ask me when his Abba is coming while hiccuping back sadness. Normally I am actually revolted by the sight of tears and children crying, as I find it quite irritating, but the brave face he tries to put on makes me want to scoop him up.......and I usually do. Today was a particularly hard time for him, and the tears suddenly came while he was eating his snack, and unfortunately his tiny hiccup came right as he was swallowing a couple of tangerine slices. This resulted in the immediate upheaval of his food and the emptying of his entire stomach contents on my shoes/carpet. Now at this point, I hadn't quite realized how much the children pick up on the phrases we use around them, but being here in Britain, it draws even more attention when the children pick up a purely Canadian phrase. Some phrases/words you wouldn't think are Canadian that are would be "that's sweet" or just "sweet" "alrighty" "right on" "rad" basically all my vocabulary I picked up from the 80's that hasn't left me. Well now I am looking at this sweet boy and the first thing he says after projectile vomiting is, "that sucks." Imagine a four year old who is really small and sweet, with a British/Bangladesh accent saying "that sucks." I just about died and I had to hide how funny it was to me because he was already so distraught from missing his dad, that vomiting did not make him feel better. I told my TA and she lost it too because she noticed he had totally picked it up from me as no one in England usually says that sucks, and I say it whenever a child tries to make a big deal out of something small i.e. "Kipper took a doll that I once held in my life!" I would respond with an "awww that sucks."

Anyway, we cleaned him up and gave him a cuddle until he was on his way again to do a puzzle. I wonder what adventures I will have tomorrow.