I want to go home!

Let's go back to Day 2. Taji really didn't want to be at school. He was so certain that he wanted to go home that he carried around ALL of his things ALL day. (He left most of his things in his locker the next day, and just carried around his blanket for a few weeks).

Here we go again!

I haven't added any posts lately, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been much going on. Quite the contrary! Since August 4th (my last post), I have gotten married, said farewell to my old class and welcomed twelve new two-year-olds into my life. (This all happened between the 1st and 5th of September....since then I've just been recovering!)

While the first few weeks of school were very hard...I was having withdrawal from my old class(now PRESCHOOLERS!), while coping with crying new babies (and there was a lot of crying)...things have finally started to calm down. I still get to see my preschool friends, (and they still shout at me like I am a celebrity every time they see me in the hallway or outside.) I get wonderful reports of how smoothly the preschool classes adjusted to the new school year transition, (having one full year in my class before entering preschool), and once most of the crying stopped, I realized that I have a wonderful new class.

While this years' class is completely different from last years', I think it's going to be a great year:

• Last year I had a very social class, everyone vying for attention and camaraderie, this year they are much more introverted. Perhaps this is because they are younger, perhaps they just have different personalities, in either case, there are a lot less struggles and battles with others, and we have plenty of time to teach them how to make friends.
• These new children are much more in control of their bodies...we have two children who started the year who weren't potty trained (as opposed to seven last year), and one of them is already well on his way to pull-up free days. But it's not just potty training...these kids know how to blow their noses! This is a skill I worked and worked on with last year's class, to seemingly no avail.
• Last year we had a good handful of children who wouldn't interact with me for months. I am, of course, the strange person who looks different and speaks a foreign language. Although it has taken a few weeks, my new class seems interested and excited to interact with me...and at least they aren't afraid of me anymore!
• These new children have much longer attention spans than last year. They are interested in circle time, singing songs and dancing, and don't run away to find something new to spark their interest after two minutes.

For these and many more, I know this year is going to be a great new journey.

Here's to my journey as a second year two-year-old teacher in a small, non-profit, dual-language, preschool in Chicago's Chinatown (serving low-income immigrant families who speak three different dialects of Chinese).

As always, names have been changed to protect the innocence of those involved.