ABCs of a Pre-school Teacher

Being a pre-school teacher is definitely not as easy as 'ABC'. It requires patience... and LOTS of them too. Not to forget 24/7 listening ears (if I only had a bunch of them). All the children expect attention to themselves ONLY, which was easy to see why; most of them are the ONLY child in the family. All want to talk at the same time. All want you to listen ONLY to them. And you know what? They have NEVERENDING stories to tell too. Simply amazing.

I am still trying to get used to these little buzzing bumble bees, while one or two are loudly crying (or screaming?) in the background. It's the beginning of a new term, where newcomers are still crying for their mummies. Our favourite phrase, "Yes, mama/papa will come later" to try calm them down: sometimes it works and sometimes not. But that is not the hardest part: to differentiate "I am playing with you now" tone against "I am serious and you'd better listen" when talking to them IS. Jenny is really good at that.

Some of the children also get too attached to their own teacher that they refused to move up to another class. For example, Joel (half-German) who refused to move out of Toddlers class to mine (Junior 1) because he is used to having Mimie as his teacher. Then Elio, the Italian boy who refused to move up to Junior 2 because of me. Wherever he goes, he wants me to join him. Even to the toilet, he would not let anyone else bring him if I was around. Joel now willingly goes to Junior 1, though he can't sit still and walks in and out of the class, while Elio only agreed to enter Junior 2 last Thursday. Keeping my fingers crossed he will adapt to Junior 2 soon.

Anyway, I have a lot to learn, but I will go easy on myself. Though it's not a long hour job, I can get really beat up at the end of the day :P Undoubtedly, there is a very good remedy for all the exhaustion:

Steal a BIG hug from them, which sometimes comes with a bonus kiss .