Observations while teaching Kindergarten in Spanish (my life is always random): 

1) I hate that in training, we created a rubric where I'm supposed to take off points if their drawings of humans did not look realistic. Apparently, I'm also supposed to take off points if they don't color using the "correct" colors or if they draw dragons, or princesses, or clouds, or birds, or butterflies. "No fluff" they said!!! It reminded me of the time when I saw my second cousin's self-portrait for every month, and saw how she went from seeing herself as basically a purple alien (in August) to a regular human (about March) over time- and it felt like observing the unfolding of the destruction of human imagination over time (Ken Robinson's critique of schools killing creativity is so right btw)! 

2) It is so much easier to sit in the sidelines (or ivory tower) as we learn about teaching theory based on positive reinforcement and emphasis on the teacher always being kind than to actually implement the theories into practice. Seriously, I found myself being so stern with one of the kids that he started crying. And then somehow, like a crazy human, I was even more firm. What the hell?? And then later found out he's autistic!! Clearly I need classroom management training because learning to deal with children is not something that just comes naturally. While I am not excusing crazy teachers or parents, I do have much greater empathy for them and recognize the need for training in empathy and child psychology and stress management. Also, many of the teachers just let the kids continue crying if they're upset, to toughen them up- which breaks my heart. (Stupid John Watson messed up America with his cold-hearted theories about the pros of time outs and efficient loveless parenting!) 

3) The kids are ridiculously destructive and indestructible (Rasputin heirs much?)- they keep falling and poking and kicking each other (mostly by accident) and then they cry for a minute and continue as if nothing happened...what?? If I fall once, I need to like rest or take it easy for like 2 weeks!! 

4) Some of these kids write a random string of letters and when I ask them to read, they end up telling me an elaborate tale. Is that what they think people do when they read books? Pretend to hold a book with random symbols and spaces but mostly just daydreaming? I told one of them that she needed spaces between each word, and she basically erased some random letters in her string of words instead of rewriting what she had written. How do I respond to that? 

5) Like an idiot, I've been super stern with one of the kids who never listens and has been misbehaving the entire time! He's in a different part of the class every minute and it makes me lose my mind since he makes everyone distracted. Only after about 2 weeks, and after a suggestion from a friend, did it dawn on me that he might have ADHD and I'm expecting him to be a robot!!! I'm so ashamed! :/

6) I was teaching social studies to the kids, and couldn't get them to give me examples of what services adults provide, so I started asking what services their parents provide as well- and from the 12 answers I asked, I got about seven who said "cut plants," two who said "clean homes," one who said "drive a taxi," and one who said "sell ice cream in a truck." Clearly a very unique subset of the population. 

7) I already taught the science lesson plan, so I decided to give them a public health lesson on vaccines, flu shots and prevention. And well, A) The kids did not know what the word "prevent" or "symptoms" meant (how is that possible?? it's like the same shock I felt when my sister told me she didn't know what atoms where when she was in 5th grade! I thought it was innate knowledge somehow). B) I drew an injection on the board and some of the kids started crying because apparently images of injections are triggering for six year olds! C) The message really went across when I compared vaccines to spies which go into the body to give the body secret codes on how to fight bacteria/viruses. 

8) I was trying to help them understand maps, and clearly that's not an intuitive notion as well. A) I kept asking them what country we were in, and they kept saying "Houston, Texas." Like a totally inexperienced teacher, I kept just repeating the question- what country are we in? What country. Country!!! Exasperated, I asked what country they were born in and the answers included: Houston Tx, Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, Peru...Clearly, one is not like the other, and I was the only one to catch that. Then I showed them Pakistan on the map and asked them what language they think we might speak in Pakistan, and most of them said, Spanish. I guess I can see that- English in America, and Spanish if you're not from Houston, Tx. 

9) I was teaching them about fairytales. In the fairytale they created together, a princess is stuck in a castle, then gets rescued by a unicorn who flies, then travels to reunite with her family!!! Can we please always have fairytales with no rescuing princes? A flying unicorn is a much better solution to being trapped in a castle!! 

10) One of the kids wrote about two queens getting married!! Another kid tried to correct her by claiming that queens can't marry each other! They most definitely do in my classroom and the kids sure got a piece of my mind! (I'm afraid I might get complaints from parents...the characters in our stories often defy traditional gender roles and gender expression...)