First Day!?

wow. teaching english to 5 yr old spanish speakers is TOUGH work. It helps that they are so darn adorable, and that I can understand spanish, but it is SO hard to get anything across first day wise to people who don't speak that language! I am not allowed to speak spanish to them as that would defeat the whole idea of immersion, and I am not technically supposed to answer questions asked in spanish either. Im going with 'if I repeat the question in english before answering then its ok to do it sometimes.' honestly, sometimes I just forget. Its hard to hear spanish and understand it and then change back to english only, sometimes I think of what I am going to say in Spanish too but then I realize...

Anyway, details on the day. The beginning of the morning went pretty well. We made nametags, they had a special (religion), and then we had flag salute, no biggie. The hour after that was not so great at all. I got them playing a game that practices "I am ___. Good Morning, (another student)" and they pass a ball while doing this. My coordinator comes in and sits in the circle so all the kids immediately start speaking to her in spanish (remember this is supposed to be an english only classroom?!). they ask her to play hot potato so when she got the ball thats what she did! I couldn't believe it, so for about 10 mins my classroom was taken over by my superior in a language she forbade me to speak. I lost them after that, all they wanted to do was play with the toys, the listening skills were turned off.

One boy in particular seems to be the trouble maker, he said one of my activities with the alphabet was for babies, so everyone else began to dislike it as well. He never follows directions and when I call his name or ask him to do something he doesn't want, he plays dead on the floor. Great. And through my discouragement, I cut a few of my activities short and therefore felt like I was grasping at the air for things to do a lost of the afternoon. By noon-ish they are done listening to a foreign language. Its frustrating, I understand, I was there, there were times in Spain where we just wanted to speak english so I get it. But as the teacher its very frustrating to have them all talking amongst themselves in spanish because they no longer want to try to understand or follow english. Their ears get turned off for much of the afternoon. I ended the day then doing toy centers, and it felt like a cop out. At lunch though, I honestly thought to myself if only for a split second if I could quit. of course I cant and I wont but it was a frustrating day and I can't wait until it gets better. Thankfully my roomies all had similar feelings after the day so I know it is not just me, first years are bound to be difficult...

at least we looked good :)