Day 1
Today I turned into my Mom.
I was in the preschool today and while they were working on Khmer letters, something I can’t teach, I started thinking. I was thinking about what I was going to teach the students. How bout colors?
But lets get one thing straight first. Teaching in the states is hard, exhausting work. Teaching abroad, to kids who don’t understand you language is in a whole other ballpark. On top of that, my current students are in preschool.
So instead of droning on and on with repetition with colors (also teaching fruits, vegetables, English alphabet and numbers) I was trying to think of ways to teach. I had in the past week have them say the colors, point to the colors, find toys that had the color on it. Anything simple that I can think of that requires little to no explanation of what to do. Let me remind you, they know absolutely no English. They are very good at repeating anything you say, but we all know that’s not really learning and understanding. I can hold up the colored rings in the ROY G BIV color scheme, and the kids can repeat what I say. But as soon as I deviate from the pattern, they have no idea. I don’t even know if they can tell me the color in Khmer. (super frustrating if you haven’t guessed)
So here I am, trying to think of SOMETHING, anything to do. Limited resources, very limited communication, and very limited activity outside of sitting in the small chairs. If I were a preschooler, I would want to physically do something, anything. I know this to be true for these kids too. The classroom erupts when Teacher Tony says break time, or what I translate into ‘break time’.
So here I am scrounging to find a piece of paper remotely close to white. I end up with a tan peachy color, good enough. Then grab the tray of wild assortment of writing utensils. Picture the end of the year in school, everything in disarray. Definitely no the beginning, where things are freshly sharpened, nice cardboard box with the lid on securely. Nope, this was the best I got.
So the kids are at break. (Video coming soon on what exactly these kids do in their breaks!) And here I am, sitting in my big red chair in the the back of the room. I pull out what I can find of BOY G BIV in colored pencils, and get started. I’m going to draw a rainbow. Now, I know you aren’t the least bit surprised about what I was drawing, this isn’t some epic tale of coloring. But as I start, a student spots me. She is what I would call the typical good student, first to yell (and I mean yell) out the answer, loves getting a sticker on her shirt, and loves being right.
I start with red. I hold up the color pencil and ask “what color?”. Hoping and praying that she answers correctly. The whole room has red, the chairs are red, so we spent a lot of time on red. So if she doesn’t get this, I’m forever doomed to teach something simple like colors.
“Rrreeeeddddttt” Red. She got it. I’m not failing miserably. Ok. I draw a little arch with red for my rainbow. On to orang. The whole class struggles with this color, I blame the pronunciation barriers. But the little one is starting to grasp the colors.
And bam next thing I know, I’m singing. Yes, SINGING. Singing about the color yellow. By now my arches in the rainbow are getting bigger, so I am spending more time coloring. This student, and a couple more that have accumulated are just watching me color. Entranced by the whole thing. And what do I do? Sing. I am currently singing about yellow, and how the sun is yellow. Granting these kids have absolutely NO clue what I am saying, but they are still in a trance.
Move on to green. Now it’s a song about the grass and the trees. Blue, bright blue. The color of the sky. Purple is for royalty and for kinds. And pink is the color of pigs and piglets. Also their backpacks. (no one struggles with the color pink!)
At this point, I’ve lost some kids to the toys. But I have gained more I also have gained the 2 kids that bawl, and I mean wet sloppy tears at the sight of me… or any American. Yup thats right, my singing just gathered the 2 that are terrified of me. (If it were me, I personally would be terrified of the singing, but hey)
Those that have ever been around my mom, especially with kids, you will know she is a perfecter at creating songs. Even now, 26 years of knowing this skill, I think to myself how can she possibly create these little dillies or songs? She will even sing them to me, age really doesn’t matter. But this is by far a very impressive feat. She can carry a tune, write her own lyrics on the spot, all while multitasking. I, on the other did not get this tale. I can sing along with the radio, but I couldn’t tell you the lyrics after the radio is off. I especially do not sing in front of people, alone.
Until Cambodia.
I now make up songs about colors of the rainbow in front a classroom full of kids. The kids huddled around me staring at me, but didn’t run off creaming, clutching their ears. So I would call that a success. I wouldn’t call me planning ahead a success though. Because unfortunately, after the break, I taught the English alphabet and went through numbers. No coloring the rainbow this day. But this is a true recounting of the time I turned into my singing mom!
