Failure

As I leaned up against the wall of the classroom, I wondered how it could come to this.  I watched the kids squirrel around, play wrestling or going back to their seats to cut and paste or, in one case, running around the room like a hellion.  It was not working.  I was not working.  Let them paste all the pictures they want.  Who wants to learn about the color blue or the fur and paws of our favorite pet dogs anyways? 

The whole kids-don't-speak-English thing is challenging.  Little A. just looks at me, his big eyes staring at me intently.  "No entiendo," he says to everything I say.  Then, when his buddy starts rubbing his face with a toy as if he were washing it, A. closes his eyes and acts like he's in a spa.  E. continues running around the room and stealing other students' crayons.  C. dresses and undresses her Minnie Mouse doll.  J.P. pretends he can't hear me say his name.  Only tiny J.A. shows me his picture, trying to obey.  I've ceased being the novelty in the classroom and am now just one more person to ignore. 

The preschoolers won.  I admit it.  The score was twelve to zero, all in their favor.  Later, another teacher came in to take over--we were subbing for the preschool teacher this day--and she asked them what they had learned with me.  Nothing.  Bless those children, they burst out into song, curly-headed K. jumping up and down, most enthusiastic of all.  Of course, not one I had taught them.  But it is something they have learned nonetheless.

P.S.--You may be waiting for a happy ending.  I don't have one yet.  Hopefully I will soon--I get to sub regularly in the classroom in October.  Bless you, preschool teachers of the world.