I started work today at a daycare. Only 7 students, 2-3 years old. I was dropped off at 9, went down the outside stairway under a store to a lower level room no larger than 8x10 with two small tables, rugs on the dirt floor, a single light bulb, some alphabet posters, a shrine area featuring what the teacher's call an Alien - apparently a free give away from a movie of outer space. One small set of plastic blocks. No paper, crayons, clay, pencils, scissors, glue or space to do anything but sit. They are not allowed outside because we are right under a curve in the main road. All cars and trucks speed by honking and we have to have the door open for light and air. We did see horses go by, too, and that was fun.
I started at 9:15 and by 9:30 the teacher said, "OK - you go ahead and do what you want." I ran through every song I had listed, all the pictures I had cut and put in photo albums. By the end, 6 of the 7 children were responding - doing "hands in front, hands behind..." and the last one actually gave a little twitch that might have been a smile. (Sort of like what Bob makes when I get mooooving on the cow jokes...) At noon we ended and I felt like I had done a week's worth of teaching. I hope they want to hear the same things tomorrow.
Outside it is cool and gray - I hope the sun comes out to get some pictures of the mountains and do some hiking.
