An uneasy first time

The moment I stepped into the classroom, their faces turned to me. I had the feeling it was going to be a special day – and it was indeed. Something new for all of us: a group of four-year-old children who were about to take their first step in learning English, and my first time as a kindergarten teacher. I had accepted the job at a local language school because I felt it would be a new experience, different from everything I had done before, and I love challenges.

I knew working with children demanded long hours of planning. “Materials and activities” my methodology teacher would insist “have to be varied and appealing because children’s span of attention is short”; and I followed that rule to the letter. I had made a colorful puppet to introduce myself and ask children their names. It would take between ten and fifteen minutes according to my schedule. I also had some cardboard cutouts they should color with crayons, another ten minutes would pass; and a “goodbye” song to teach them before I left. I thought that was enough for a forty-minute lesson. Besides, children that age are restless, they all want to speak at the same time and some minutes are always lost as you try to restore order and silence.

So there I was, standing at the door. The twenty-five of them staring at me with a blank expression on their faces and a silence I thought would be over after I said the first word. But I was wrong. Soon after I sat on the floor, all of them were sitting around me, waiting patiently for instructions, quiet as a mouse; nothing to do with the noisy talkative kindergarten children I had read about in books, and I felt there was not much I could do but start the lesson right away. I took the puppet out of my bag and adjusted it onto my hand. The children’s eyes opened with curiosity, but they did not speak. So I – or the puppet – uttered the first word, “Hello!”. They all said “Hello!” in chorus. Then, silence. The puppet asked my name and I answered, so as to show them how to introduce themselves. The first activity started. I turned the puppet to a girl sitting next to me and asked “What’s your name?”, “I’m Anna” she said, self-confident and proud. The situation was repeated by the remaining twenty-four. Nobody hesitated, shouted or changed the pitch in their voice. They listened to the question, answered back, and remained silent again.

By that moment, I had begun to feel a little bit uneasy with the situation. Too much silence, I did not know whether they were bored or tired. What I did know was that children are spontaneous and honest when showing their feelings, and I could see they were not having a good time. I tried making a joke, they laughed and went back to silence. “Maybe, they’ll enjoy painting” I thought, and I drew on the cutouts. It was just the same, they worked in silence and finished at once. When I glimpsed at my watch, I could see that only fifteen minutes had gone by, though it looked like three hours to me!

I knew it was part of a teacher’s job to improvise when things turned rough, but I felt at a loss. I still had an ace up my sleeve, the song, but I was discouraged and a little bit sad. I was disappointed and I felt kindergarten was definitely not for me. Hoping against hope, I said “Let’s sing a song” and, to my surprise, they started to shout “Yes! A song! A song!”. They easily learnt the lyrics and the tune and we kept on singing and dancing till the end of the lesson. They looked happy and interested, but I still had a bad taste in my mouth. Had I known they liked music, I would have started with a “Hello” song. At that thought I realized, ironically, “Or do they like it because it says goodbye?”