A rant...

Warning:
There will be NO cute pictures of Korean children or of anything else in this post. Instead, please enjoy my ranting and raving of recent events.

At LCI we all have a Korean supervisor for each class. My supervisors for my elementary classes pretty much leave me alone to do my thing. My kindergarten supervisor on the other hand, has done quite the opposite. Ok, I get that kindergarten at LCI is a huge deal and my kids are newbies, as am I. But is it really necessary for my supervisor to be in my classroom all the god damn time?!?!? But Tricia, you might say...you've been a teacher for years, you should be used to being observed while teaching. And I will say, yes, this is very true but I'm really starting to take this shit personally. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I don't care, I'm pissed!

Open Class is coming up next week. This means that all the mothers of my kindergartners will spend 45 minutes in my classroom eyeballing me and critiquing my every move. I can totally handle this. I've been observed by teachers who have taught for 30 years, I'm not going to be bothered by 10 Korean mothers. My supervisor and directors on the other hand, are bugging out about the whole thing.

Bugging out so much that within the next 5 school days, my morning routine will be observed 7 times! 7 fucking times! You've GOT to be kidding me!!!! Nevermind teaching science and math to these kids this week, we've got Show & Tell and our ABC's to take care of!

The 6-1 kindergarten routine is as follows:
Tricia Teacher: "Hello Diego. How are you today?"
Deigo: "I feel happy." Or sad. Or angry. You get the idea. This continues until every child tells me how they feel. Now, they used to be allowed to be creative with their feelings:
Example:
Tricia Teacher: "Hello Diego. How are you today?"
Diego: "I feel like a rainbow."
Let's be honest...sometimes you really do feel like a rainbow or a star or even an octopus. But oh no no no, we can't have 4-year-olds saying they feel like rainbows! What would their uptight mothers think of that?!?!? So now, they must use the expressions we have stapled to the wall.
So after their feelings, we do Show & Tell. My special helper of the day sits in the front of the room while the other 9 kids ask him or her questions from a list we have on the wall. The questions include "what is it?" "what shape is it? "where did you get it?" and blah blah blah. The child answers the questions and shows everyone what he or she brought. We then go over the questions one by one.
Then it's Target Language time. Target Language is pretty bogus. We have a question and answer that each child must say for speaking practice. The sentences can be fairly ridiculous. Yesterday, while I was being observed, the kids had to say "What is your favorite vegetable? My favorite vegetable is sweet potatoes." I mean, seriously?? They were all concerned that the kids didn't pronounce "vegetables" correctly. How many 4-year-olds can actually says vegetables correctly???
We do the calendar and weather next. Each child tells me the date, which might I add is something extra I do that is not required of my kids...but they do it and are awesome at it! We then sing some songs which they have been required to memorize...that's not so bad though, they love the songs.

And that's it. That's my morning routine. I think my kids are awesome at it! They've come such a long way from the beginning of the term. My supervisor doesn't agree. Apparently, the pronounciation of vegetables is extremely important! So important that the other 2 teachers she supervises are only being observed 3 times before their Open Class!

I was told not to take this personally. That it's probably because my parents are more insane than the other classes. But really, how can I not take this personally?? This chick is my class almost on a daily basis, she takes my kids out of the classroom for stupid shit WHILE I'M TEACHING (gggrrrrr!!!!!), and I just can't get my head around this whole "being observed 7 times" b.s.! It seriously makes me feel as if I'm doing something wrong. If I am, tell me! If I'm not, leave me alone and let me do what you hired me to do.

I think I need a shot...or 10.
Thanks for "listening."
Love you all