I Love My Job!!

I am really loving my job so far this semester! I have been working at Hillcrest Elementary since January 2008, and I have really grown to love it there. The school is incredibly diverse--there are kids from all over the world, including Mexico, South America, China, Japan, Korea, Burma, India, Africa, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, and more. Some of them have been living here for years and some came just days before school started, and have absolutely no knowledge of English at all. Some are from rich families and some are refugees with almost nothing in the world at all. I am lucky enough to work with the ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in the afternoons, and a good part of my day is spent with kindergartners. They are so adorable!! We did testing today, to determine which kindergartners need to be in ESL. A couple of the kids I tested turned out to be completely fluent, in fact they were talkative and told me things like, (pointing to a picture of an octopus) "That's an octopus. Did you know they have poison glands? Did you know I have a Star Wars game? And my mom didn't like it at first but now she does." Others just gave me blank stares when I'd ask "What's your name? What is this picture of? (a rabbit, banana, mother, etc) Can you put this pencil on the table?" They are so adorable! One little girl just barely came here from China and knows no English. She is so cute and reminds me SO much of the kindergartners I taught in China three years ago. I am really excited to work more with these cute little kids!

I also started working in the After School Club again today. I've been working in after school since I started at Hillcrest, so I have known some of these kids for almost two years now. They love me. :) The funny thing is, they put me with the kindertartners in ASC too, and all but two of them are in ESL! So I'll be seeing these adorable little kids with their lisps and accents and broken english for about three hours a day. I am just really really excited to work with them for the whole year and see them progress and become English speakers. I am so lucky to have a job I love!