The Adventure of Every Day

Since September, I have had a great job.  I have been a teacher of four-year-olds.  We have done some wonderful things.

We built cities out of blocks.

We used paper bags to make some really cool scarecrows.

We decorated turkey feathers and talked about what we're thankful for.

We decorated gingerbread man cookies and delivered them to all the teachers.

We recycled toilet paper tubes to make Native American and 

Pilgrim puppets for Thanksgiving and a menorah for Hanukkah.

We used cardboard boxes to make a train and a fire engine and a gingerbread house.  We pretended to be aliens and pumpkins and dinosaurs.  We read and read and read.  We sang songs and played instruments and danced The Tooty Ta and the Hokey Pokey.  We learned to play together, and played to learn together.

Here are a few reasons that I know they're learning:

After we made Pilgrim bonnets out of paper, one little girl wanted to dress up like a Pilgrim the rest of the way.  So she walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book with illustrations of Pilgrims so she could see what they wear.  That's research.

In their journals, the kids draw pictures and dictate a description of their drawings.  Together, we stretch out words to hear the sounds, and then write the letters.  A few of them can do it without help.  That's reading and writing readiness.

One of my girls told me that something was "irritating."  That's vocabulary (although maybe not the kind I should hope that they pick up on.)

When someone is the plate helper, he or she counts the number of students in the class and puts out the corresponding number of plates.  And if we need eight plates and the child has put out five so far, I can ask how many more we need, and the child can figure it out.  That's math.

Last Friday we made Jello in Christmas shapes.  The Jello needed to be refrigerated for three hours before we could eat it.  That was the day I told the kids that I am moving after Christmas.  I told them I am moving   to be closer to my family, who live three and a half hours away.  I told them that I am happy to be moving closer to my family, but also sad because it means I can't be their teacher anymore. They processed this, and one of my girls said, "Like the Jello."  It took me a second to realize that she was making a connection between the Jello needing to be refrigerated for three hours, and me moving three hours away.  That's knowledge of time.  

It's also kind of heartbreaking.

I didn't explain all of this to the kids, because it wouldn't mean anything to them, but I am also moving back home so that I can finish grad school.  I have six classes to go to complete my Master's degree in Reading.  The plan is that I can finish this summer, and then apply for reading specialist and regular elementary teacher positions next fall.  That is the plan.  Of course, nothing in my life since college has gone as planned.  And I couldn't be more grateful for that, because if I had landed an elementary school teacher position in central PA right out of college, I would have missed out on a lot.  I wouldn't have discovered what a rockin' preschool teacher I am (confidence bordering on arrogance, I know), and I wouldn't have had any Adventures in Philly.  I wouldn't have discovered an awesome church or learned how to interact with city school-agers or deepened a friendship.  For all of these things and many more, I am grateful.

So yes, I am going to go back to school and get the degree and watch my brother tear up the basketball court, and after that, I will see what happens.

One thing is for sure: It's bound to be another adventure.

  

Welcome to China(town)!

We went a couple of places today after church.  First, we went to Macy's and watched the light show. It was cool! If I had grown up in Phildelphia, I think my parents would have taken me to see it every year and it would have been a holiday tradition.  These pictures are not great because they were taken on my phone, but here they are:

 

Then we went to Chinatown.

 

 

We ate lunch in Chinatown.  It was the first Chinese restaurant I've ever been to that wasn't a Chinese buffet place.  But there were literally 362 choices on the menu!  They were numbered.  We got General Tso's chicken and Lo Mein with pork and duck.  Yum!

 

 

 



Life is Short and the World is Wide

I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday. Becky invited me to a South Philly Group gathering.  An Indonesian family from the church that most of them attend, the Philadelphia Praise Center, recently opened up a new restaurant in Center City.  They invited us to come for an opening party.  So, as I said, they are an Indonesian family, and they make Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and American food.  There were nine of us there, and we represented at least four different countries.  First, there was the professor and his wife who head up the group.  They spent years as missionaries in Indonesia.  There are also two women from Peru; Becky, who grew up as a missionary kid in Egypt; a girl who spent five or six years as a missionary in Ethiopia, and her Ethiopian friend who just happened to be visiting the US for the first time.  It was really interesting to hear his take on Philadelphia.  He wondered where all the people were!  I guess in Ethiopia, there are more people who spend time outside.  He thought there was something wrong because everyone was in their houses.  He asked if there was a war!

We ate cole slaw, ginger cookies, tuna salad sandwiches, tofu, and lemon grass soup.  Near the end of the party, our jovial host broke out his guitar and sang an original song.  We did our best to sing along with the chorus.

There probably isn't enough time to go everywhere in the world in a lifetime (although it seems some people get close.)  If you spend time in a city, though, a lot of the world comes to you.  And you are a part of it. :)