Tom and Jerry

Wear a cape. Like a boss.

Tom chases Jerry. Jerry runs between the teeth of a metal garden rake. Tom steps on the rake, flipping it up and braining himself. Korean kids lose their minds. I'm talking earsplitting peels of laughter. Kids are hanging like ragdolls from their bus seats. If not for the seatbelts, they'd be rolling on the floor. Did I ever love Tom and Jerry this much? Or anything?

Classic

KCTY takes the kids on a monthly field trip, and August's was to the Children's Museum. I got the school at the normal time (9 AM), and helped load munchkins into their assigned bus. We're a private academy, but, as far I can tell, we still operate a shuttle service of some kind. I'm already in the building when the kids get here, so I'm unsure if they ride the bus everyday or if it's a special thing. At any rate, we rode a fleet of swanked-out KCTY buses to the Museum. These things had tasseled, velvet curtains hanging in front of the windows. Looked more like a hooka bar than a school bus. It also had a TV/DVD system, operated by a battle hardened and savvy man who knew exactly how to handle a 45 min ride with 12 kindergartners -- that being copious amounts of Tom and Jerry. 

We sit by class, and as I'm the Swan's (all the kindy classes have bird names) designated foreign teacher, it was with the Swans that I rode -- all geared up with my child sized KCTY packback full of first aid supplies and a giant foldout snack-mat (pad for the kids to eat on). We piled in, snapped up, the doors closed, Tom started chasing Jerry and we took off for the museum. 

Dramatization

The ride went well. Silent, save explosive bouts of ogre laughter. "Do you have a schedule?" My Korean teacher asked me (she teaches the Swans when I'm working with the Doves or planning). I did not have a schedule. Band-aids, yes. Snackmat, check. Authentic, first edition Swans nametag, of course. But a clue? Never.

Turns out the schedule was pretty simple. Kayla (Korean teacher) tells me that for the first few minutes we'll be letting the kids run wild in an open concrete area, then we'll eat snack, and then we'll just follow the Doves class around, "because they're smart." Easy enough. 

When we got the museum I briefed the kids on the buddy-system. "Find your buddy!" I said. The kids where already in a line, and "found" their buddy by putting their arms on the shoulders of the kid in front of them -- a la choo-choo train. I did not get a picture of this, but it was pretty hilarious/cute. Whatever we did for the rest of the day, no matter how crazy the kids were or who may or may not have been crying or bleeding, when I yelled "buddy up!" the kids would run, and I mean run, back to their line and form the train. And then they rolled out -- train style. So everyone elses kids are walking in columns, lines or clumps, and my squad is linked up and looking like the conga line that forms at the end of some wedding receptions, everybody's hanging on the everybody else and falling all over the place. 

Like this, but more violent

The museum was pretty cool. I would compare it to most of the science-based museums I've seen. You know, the ones with the Tesla balls and stuff. There was a water room, where the kids got to play with a lot of Rube Goldbergish water wheels and stuff.

If you were teaching about currents, or hydroenergy, or density, you could have done a lot with it. I felt more like I was giving a lesson in cat-herding, or perhaps receiving a lesson in futility.

Our school was there in force. Maybe 100 kids, give or take. They're all wearing the same shirt for the most part. Then there are like 4 different schools, all with different t-shirts, sure, but still, that's a lot of little bodies running around. 

Dramatization, sort of

Kids were having a blast. I was too. There was another room where they could all dress up in fairly elaborate costumes and get on a stage. Pretty hilarious to dress up your ninos in squid and shark costumes and then set them on each other. 

I've never taught kids this young, and even though I've only worked with them for a month, we're bonded pretty closely. It's just a different kind of relationship building than my high schoolers, obviously. The little kids open up to you a lot. No holds barred. Day one you're swabbing bloody noses and consoling criers in the hallway. It's a lot like being a designated driver. 

All day my kids hung on me. Hung on me. They share their lunches with me when we eat together. Two little girls brought me a coffee, two boys gave me fruit snacks, and one kid's mom sent him with an entire fruit tray (fruit is worth its weight in gold here. Much more expensive than at home). I had a little dude pulling me around the museum all day. I had a line of kids waiting to be firemen's carried. They all wrestle. It's a good group of kids. I was thinking at first that walking the kids around all day felt a bit dad-ish, but on second thought it's probably more like being a cool uncle. I get to hold them by their ankles and pendulum them over the ball pit, I get to count their ribs until they scream and fall down, and then I get to send them back to their parents. Being an uncle is sweet. 

I really love the kids here. The curriculum, even for the kindies, is pretty nuts. These kids are doing 2-8 worksheets a day, creative writing assignments -- working at productivity levels that it would take me 3 months of "culture building" (getting to where the kids don't hate me, my class, and/or each other) to get my high schoolers to meet. That said, it can feel like we're just crushing them with paperwork sometimes. Days like the museum trip, days when the kids can spend more time being kids, really makes me want to work harder planning their classes so that they're meaningful and fun, and not just busy. It seems like a lot of the worksheets and curriculum is non-negotiable (this is a thing in my older classes too), but that's the status quo here. Everybody wants the kids working all the time. It's expected that you give 20-40 minutes of homework for every class. Most kids take 2-3 classes, and for the older ones, they come here after regular school. Some might even go to other academies after ours. So we're talking whatever homework they have from their regular school, maybe an hour or two from my academy, maybe some more from another academy, and ALL of this to be done when they get home (assuming they don't have an extracurricular sport/art) around, what? 7? 8? Later? 

These kids work like whoa, and they're able to do it because that's been the expectation since they were kindergartners. But they work well. And they all speak at least two languages. Many play instruments and sports. Still, busy busy ninos. Makes me all the more glad to have a fun day with them. 

This was before tag. Note the intact knees.