"Ms. Enjoli! Ms. Enjoli! Come and get me!" shrieks of laughter followed as I chased the kids around the gym.
"Wow, I really love these kids. Sometimes they can be difficult and exasperating, but I think it's worth it." I smiled to myself.
This Summer, Carolyn and I were TA's (Teacher's Assistances) at TAAS' summer school. I was put with my mom in first and second grade, and Carolyn with Mr. Johnston in third grade (probably the most difficult class). My basic job was to lead my kids to each of their classes, and help them and the teachers with whatever they needed.
First on the schedule was chapel in the Gym.
"I am a C, I am a C-h, I am a c-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n, Amen!..." They sang as loud as they could. They never tired of that song. Some of them would even try to spell all the letters with me, but it got difficult when the song got faster and faster, haha! We sang some others songs such as I've Got a River of Life, Peace Like a River, Lord I lift Your Name on High, Jesus loves is a Bubbling Over, and our theme song; God is so Good. There are four verses to that song, so we added one every week.
After singing some songs, we would have a story. Some teachers told lesson stories, while others told Bible stories and had them act it out. When it was my mom's week, she told the story of Joseph, and each group acted out a scene from his life. The kids did a great job and I think they learned a lot.
After the closing prayer, all fourteen of my first and second graders would line up behind me and we would walk to the classroom where we had English Class.
During this class, we mostly taught them names of objects and simple, conversational English. We played learning games, watched fun learning songs and videos, read stories, colored pictures, and even did some easy worksheets. Some of the time I actually went down and helped Jeff (One of the other teachers) with the 6th and 7th graders during English. That was fun too. I (as well as they) thought it was hilarious when we did timed tongue twisters with them.
After lunch I would take them to their classes; first was Outdoors, second was Cooking, third was PE, and last was my Mom's Travel Class.
"Okay, throw your trash away from lunch and come line up!" I announced as I went and stood by the door.
Shoes scuffled around the room as they hurried to throw their trash away, grab their backpacks, and line up behind me.
"Okay, who's my line leader today?" I asked.
"Joy!' Came the unanimous response.
I led Joy to the front.
"Are you guys ready to go to Outdoor class? Good. Lets make a straight line and be super quiet!" I smiled as I then led them to the next room.
During Outdoor class, Mr. Johnston taught them about different animals and insects that live in the area. After a powerpoint of pictures along with a short description of the different parts of that particular type of animal, he would hand out some papers. I would go around and help the kids color their pictures and label the different body parts. Then, always to the excitement of the children, we would go outside looking for those animals and/or insects.
Soon, it would be time for cooking class with Ms. Machado.
"Everyone line up and wash your hands. Make sure you don't touch anything afterwards!" She would tell the kids as they came in for class.
During this time, the kids would help cook and make a different receipe everyday. The food they made would usually be what they ate for snack later on.
P.E. class was probably most of my kids' favorite class.
I felt bad for one of the girls, TingTing, who had a broken arm during the whole summer school. Part of the P.E. time I would stand on the side with her, but I also helped and joined in many of the games as well. The kids' two favorites were "River, Bank" and what they called, "Lions and Zebras." To play the first, Jeff would shout either River or Bank (the names of the two sides of the line.) So, they would jump over the line, then back, depending on which he said.
"River! Bank. River. Bank! Bank! Oh, I saw you, Hudson, come and judge with me." He called.
The latter game I mentioned is the equivalent of Rainbow tag, but the person in the middle (me) was called the Lion and the rest were called zebras.
"Lion, Lion! What color makes you hungry!" they would gleefully shout.
"Hmm... The color YELLOW makes me hungry!" I answered.
Squeals of laughter followed as the kids wearing yellow would dash across the Gym trying to avoid getting captured by the 'Lion.'
"Drink lots of water!" I called as they gathered their belongings to head back to our final class. Most of them were already downing their water with the remains trickling down their chin.
Their final class was Travel Class. It was always so nice to walk into the air-conditioned room after romping around outside in the humid, sticky heat. Everyone cooled off quickly, sweat ceased from dripping off the boys' hair, and they all became excited about the new country they were visiting! Each day, we would visit a new country, learn about it, watch a video about some tourist attractions there, and make a craft on something important to that country. They would also receive a stamp in their homemade passport.
"Today we are visiting California!" my mom exclaimed one day. "Do you know where California is or tell me what continent its in?"
Hands shot into the air.
"Okay, Ryan," my mom said, "Can you show us on the map."
Jumping out of his seat, he ran to the board and pointed at a colored region.
"No, that's Africa. Let me give you a hint, it's in the United States of America. Where is California?" she asked.
Soon, he found and pointed it out.
Afterwards, she showed a fun video of some of the tourist attractions there as well as famous national parks. The craft that day was making Redwood Trees.
After they finished and everything was cleaned up, they ate their snack which they had made in Cooking Class.
The last hour of the day was "Fun Time," which consisted of us entertaining the kids outside. About fifteen minutes before the vans came to pick the children up, Jeff and I would gather all the kids into the gym and sing some fun songs with them. "Silly Songs with Enjoli" He liked to call it. Soon, the vans would come and take all the children home and we were free to go home.
Every Friday (with the exception of one because of a Typhoon) was a field trip day. The first Friday we went to a pottery place. The kids had lots of fun painting their own cups and later playing with the molds on the machine. I didn't know what to draw on mine and finally decided on a simple wreath of flowers along the top of the cup.
Another Friday we went to a Butterfly Conservatory. We did all sorts of fun stuff.
"Wow! There are
so many butterflies!" I exclaimed when we walked past the bushes loaded with the beautiful insects. I tried to avoid them flying in my face though.
"Teacher Enjoli! Teacher Enjoli!" one of the kids called as she pulled on my arm and pointed ahead. There was a HUGE spider. Just then our tour guide directed our attention to it and started talking in Chinese to them. Later, we made a craft that flies up in the sky (maybe like a helicopter thing? I don't really know how to explain it.) We also went through an obstacle course with the kids.
"Scary, teacher!" Some of them whined as the clung to my arm.
"Oh, it's not that scary. It's just like a spider web and we get to climb over it. I'll go with you, don't worry." I smiled at them as they squirmed and clung to my arm. Once I got them on the 'web,' they were fine. Then, we looked at some other insects and even made cotton candy! (I can eat
that, haha!)
Another field trip we went to a chocolate factory. I helped the kids as they made decorative chocolates and such. It looked really good!
"Here, do you want some?" our tour guide asked as he gave me a chocolate.
"Oh, uh, sorry but I'm allergic to dairy." I kindly rejected.
"Oh really? That's too bad. I think we have some dark chocolate with no milk in it though." So later he gave me a few small squares of dark chocolate. Sure, it was a little bitter but it was the first time I had eaten chocolate in a
long time and it was amazing! :)
The last field trip we took was to a water park! Of course, the kids had an absolute blast! They like to climb on Jeff and I's shoulders and we would shoot them in the air. They also like to 'capture' me. Thankfully it wasn't too big of a hassle to get all the kids out, changed, and into the buses.
I learned a lot from helping at Summer School. First of all, I got another chance to teach, especially when my mom was sick the last week. I ended up having to teach English Class by myself quite a few times. But, I think that most importantly, I began to understand more of how God sees His children and how every child is beautiful, amazing, and unique in their own way.
Like the first week of school, (without realizing it) I had labeled and categorized most of my kids. You know, these kids are really good and obedient, these ones are trouble makers, those kids are difficult to teach and are really slow, ect.. But I quickly learned that I shouldn't be so quick to categorize people.
For example, we had one 'trouble maker' named Star. He didn't like to speak English and didn't have a problem with saying no to teachers. I found out later though that he is a really sweet boy and he actually decided to become best buddies with me and became a leech! During fun time, or on field trips he clung to me and made me laugh at the silly little things he would tell me.
I ended up become very close to most of my kids and at the end of the four weeks I was very reluctant to say good-bye. I had learned to value and love each and everyone of them.
"I kind of wish I could just start my career now and have these kids as my students." I remarked to my mom one day.
I'm so glad I could have another great experience teaching God's precious children.
