Seno Nic

Friday wrapped up our first week of teaching. Wow. While our week of spanish school as students seemed to pass by slowly, our week of school as teachers seemed to fly by! I, Seno Nic or Seno Nico (pronounced Neek or Neeko) can’t believe how quickly the week went by.

While this is familiar territory for some of you teachers out there, this was my first foray into the wonderful world of molding young minds…Those of you in the biz have already figured this out but I am learning that, well, kids are pretty neat. There are the stoic kids who don’t say much but you can’t help but wonder what they are thinking, the kids who are constantly calling your name needing affirmation after every pencil stroke in their notebooks, the kids who wiggle in their seats and can‘t wait to play, the kids who jump out of their seats to come to the front to write on the board and the kids who look around so as not to make eye contact for fear of having to come to the front to write on the board... Whatever it is, they each have their own trademark personality trait to challenge us or, more often than not, make us laugh out loud.

I tried to think back to when I was in school for some inspiration in planning lessons and while I’m sure I learned many valuable skills at the tender age of 5, the only thing I really remember crystal clearly about my early school years are the songs. There seemed to be a song for everything! A Good Morning song, an Alphabet song, a Number song, a Cleanup song, a Day of the Week song, and on and on, and I still remember them all. And so, after an evening of using the trusty internet, I am now equipped with “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” and “Where is thumbkin” in Spanish (“Si estas contento y los sabes, aplaudiras” and “Pulgarcito”) and can’t wait to teach the kids this coming week! I know, I know, clapping your hands and finding your thumbs are not exactly life-skills but who doesn’t love a good actions song?!

What has been very apparent in getting to know the students this first week is the importance placed on family and the order of things within the families. The older kids always walk their younger siblings to their class and at fruit break, if there is extra, the older kids always make sure that their younger brothers/sisters get seconds before taking an extra for themselves. On at least two occasions this week, students have come to school only to say that they cannot attend that day because their mom is sick and they have to stay home and take care of the little ones. And today a child was misbehaving waiting to be dismissed from my class and her sister came over and gave her a good pull on her ear! One of the first questions they always ask me is how many brothers and/or sisters I have. I am always delighted to tell them about my sisters and though I don’t remember them ever tending to me when my mom was ill, I can relate to the protective nature of siblings as I do remember my sister once spitting on a bully on my behalf…