Changes on the School Front

(One of the videos Herman took when they came to school--Small Class doing the Hokey Pokey. These kids are probably my favorite thing about this country. How cute are they?!)

Between all of the wonderful traveling, I haven't written about the day-to-day goings on at school in a while. I wish I could say "same old" and post adorable pictures, but I can only do one of those things (see below!)

My direct boss left Scholastic over Spring Festival, leaving a few unanswered questions regarding days off and instructional changes. Luckily, my new boss has been really responsive and very helpful :)

I was told in January that 17 of the older kids (3-4 years old) would be moving to the Big International Class after Spring Festival, which would have been the 14th. Of course, when I arrived on the 14th, things were status quo, and after several other dates being pushed back, the transition finally occurred on Thursday. I had planned ways to deal with this (having kids ages 3 to 6 in the same class...very different development and English skills, among other things), but the school decided on FRIDAY, that I would be teaching in 2 different locations for 30 minutes each, instead of the usual 1 to 2 hours. It's pretty hectic at the moment!

You might have been thinking "Well, at least there are only a few kids left in the other class, so that should be easy!" My thoughts exactly. Until we got 2 new kids 2 weeks ago, and again today, when there were 5 more, including a screamer with no English name. I did get to name a few of those kids--Kevin (his Chinese name was Kai something and the L in Kyle would have been an issue:), Danny, and Jenny!

Tons and tons of kids have been absent since the break, and most returned today. I guess being that it's March 1st, they had to have exactly 1 month off? It was fun to see some of those tanned faces (many went to Hainan, a resort island near Hong Kong), though I didn't realize how 4 or 5 kids on top of 25 can really add to the noise level!

Par for the course...I have not been paid in 3 months for my "promotion." Because I am already full time through Scholastic, the school needs to pay me directly. My principal has been pushing it off and basically lying for some time, so if I don't get paid this week, I will stop teaching those classes. Have I mentioned my principal kind of sucks (according to those who speak her language...haha!) 

**Funny principal story: she came up to me at lunch one day, pointed to my ring, and said a whole lotta Chinese. I understood that basically I was not supposed to be wearing it in school because it could hurt the children...so I feigned misunderstanding. Love it.

On a better note, today we had the March Birthday Party. If I had known in advance, I would have brought my camera, but advance isn't in the Chinese vocabulary. So all March birthdays went to the front wearing goofy hats while the rest of the school sang "Happy Birsday." Then we each received a gift; all kids (regardless of gender) got a pink purse, while all of the teachers received thin towels with pink bunnies. Thanks, YiXianGuoJi :)

This was the November Birthday Party. Same hats, same purses, different teacher gifts :)

Johnny had a neck brace for 2 days in January because he slept funny. I could not stop laughing at him!!!