Final Friday Explanation Point!

Today is my last Friday as a kindergarten teacher in Nonthaburi. You'd think that would be the same same as my last day as a kindergarten teacher, but no, I still have to work four more days next week. However, the finals have all been taken, the grading is about halfway done, and all thats left is for me to spend hours and hours wasting away at my desk, organizing picture cards and dreaming about the next 7 weeks of adventures.

Looking back on this semester, I am honestly amazed at how much my students have learned. All of them say "Good Morning, Teacher!" when I walk into the room. 75 percent of them can say the words "cat," "ice cream," and "fish" when they see a picture of that item. When they say the word "kangaroo," they jump up and down (sometimes I wonder if I've just trained them to do things that make me laugh - I also have them make lots of silly faces every day). Three year olds have a much huger capacity to learn and remember than I ever expected.

Even now, when I'm not quite done with my job, I look back on it and think, "well, that wasn't so bad, I probably ought to do this again sometime." That thought in my head is a funny thing, because I honestly have to force myself to remember the times when I was so frustrated I wanted to walk right out of the classroom and out of the school, the times when all of the assistant teachers left and I was stuck with 36 screaming children hitting each other in a pile on the floor or jumping up and down on top of their desks. Memory is such a wonderful, crazy thing that those moments are already fading.

Yup, I think I want to do this again sometime.