I've got jumpstarts!

Everything is blocked. Or maybe it's not and it's just really slow these days. In any case FB was definitely blocked for a while, several key Gmail features (such as call phone) were severely limited for a while and I'm not sure when Blogger was unblocked, but hey...who's complaining.

So much has been happening and it seems mundane sometimes but I want to remember it all. I'm trying to post as much as possible but when internet problems plague the country, there isn't much I can do.

First of all, I finally have a full class schedule. I have 4 two-hour classes on the weekend. My first two classes of the weekend completely drains all my energy. I start at 7:30 am, teach for 2 hours, have an hour break to plan or nap, whichever is more necessary, teach for another two hours, have 1 1/2 hour break until the next class during which I take a nice long nap in the TSC (teacher support center), I then have a really chill class during which I could fall asleep and they wouldn't wake me up to teach them because they're so shy, then I have a 1/2 hour break and then JUMPIES. Jumpies is short for Jumpstarts, which is the 4-6 year old group at ILA. My class is K1A which means they are the first level EVER. They literally know nothing. Not even the word "No." I only have 8 kids in my class so they only gave me one TA, which is unusual, because they thought I wouldn't need the second one with such a small class. I can't begin to explain how wrong that is. These kids know nothing. When my Vietnamese TA is out of the classroom (because the kids need to use the toilet or they're crying and she needs to pay attention to them, what the heck am I supposed to do with 7 active 5 year olds who don't speak the same language I do? Well most of the time I take the soft ball and throw it at their little bums when they're beating up on their friends. Or I run away when one of them decides he's a dinosaur/tarzan type creature and he wants to hit me. I can't begin to explain how adorable they are though. My TA decided that we should give them English names, which I initially thought was a good idea, but when I have to spend an hour teaching them their new names, I have to rethink the brilliance of the idea. In the end it was worthwhile because getting to name them was like having 8 new babies without any of the labor pains. Well five really, because three of the kids either named themselves or had their parents insist on names for them. Tom named himself and the mom's of the only two girls in class gave them names like Lunar and Yumi. Seriously? Lunar. I had Alice and Kate all ready to go. How cute are those names?! Anyways, I'll get over it. So I have Tom, Lunar, Yumi (who I'm about to kidnap because she is all kinds of chubby and cute), Dave, Ben, Jerry, Matt and John. Yep there's a Tom and Jerry and Ben and Jerry. I taught them "My name is", "What is your name", the letter A and "A is for Apple". I'll have to reteach it next weekend because I'm sure they'll forget it all by then.

There's more to come but I'll make several different posts so I don't confuse everyone, i.e. myself.