It seems strange to have the first day of the school year in March, but there we are. I had a nice start to the school year, although the rain was heavy, turning the grass and roads into mud baths and dirtying my smart black shoes!
School started at 7:00 am. Yes, you read that right: 7:00 am! Eesh. I didn't have anything to do for the first couple of hours, but later we had an opening ceremony for the school where there were lots of formalities and lots of fidgety children.
I had a first grade class, double period, just before lunch time. And I really enjoyed it! There are about 30 in the class, so they're quite a handful. But their energy and enthusiasm and frank comments and questions are just so endearing. We were learning how to say 'what's your name?' and 'my name's ____'. It was obviously a novelty to have a foreigner in the class, and I got lots of stares and shy smiles.
When I introduced myself, I asked them if they knew where Scotland was. I explained it was really, really far away, and one little boy in the front row stated solemnly that it really was far - like, 40 kilometers! :-) Another little boy grabbed my wrist as if he was testing to see if I was real or if my skin felt the same as his; and a little girl started playing with my frizzy hair (the humidity is doing nothing for me!), declaring that she loved it!
Later I had a fourth grade class, which wasn't quite as fun, since many of them didn't have any drive to learn English and wanted to mess around. Pilar, the teacher I'm working with, says it may be a difficult year with this group!
Overall, it was a good first day, and tomorrow I'll get to meet the adorable preschoolers in their first English class!
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