Currently, I am in the midst of about three months of subbing kindergarten. I thought I might give you an idea what a typical day is like.
7am: Sleep through three alarms before finally admitting I do indeed have to go work.
8am: I walk to work through the day market, which is already in full swing at 8am. I pass and wave at certain vendors. People drive up on scooters buying cong chua bing, a breakfast pancake, or drive up to the meat vendor who has every part of the animal hanging from hooks on his cart. I pass by the fish vendor who has fish on ice in baskets on the road and the fruit stand selling types of fruit that I didn't know existed six months ago. I pass the cages full of chickens, which you can purchase and have plucked fresh. While crossing the street, I zig and zag, and I am almost hit by 2 – 4 scooters. You enter a zen like state when crossing the road or walking in the street.
I walk by at least four 7-11 stores on the way to work even while walking in the back alleys (to unsuccessfully avoid scooters and buses). Have I mentioned that I can do everything at 7-11? Even pay all my bills.
8:30am: Clock in at work and run around the corner to the breakfast shop. There are perhaps three to four breakfast shops on any street. There are four within about 50 feet of my building. I pass about 8 on my way to work. I get a breakfast sandwich and a drink for $1. (Why wouldn't I eat out?) I collect my thoughts and experience the last few moments of calm before walking up to kindergarten.
9-11:30am: I spend the morning teaching kindergarten This includes exercise time, snack time, teaching English and some other activities. When I do exercise time, I use French songs. Seeing about 100 kids sing in French always makes me happy. They don’t even understand it’s not English. We go over the basics like ABCs, numbers and spelling. However, the kids learn fairly advanced sentence patterns about different themes, Growing, Performing Arts, Foreign Countries.
Kindergarten also includes breaking up fights, crying, disciplining, and finding my “happy place.” Kindergarteners like to ask a lot of questions. I really wish we had never taught them the phrase, “What are you doing?”
Eric: Teacher Beth, look at me!
Me: Do I really have to?
Frank: Teacher, may I blow my nose?
Me: You’re almost six years old Frank, you don’t really need to ask at this point.
Teren: Teacher, may I go to the bathroom?
Me: No you’ve asked four times in 45 minutes.
This child will then pout, cry, and not speak to me for the next 2 hours.
I like kindergarten because I find them a bit more interesting than students who take English only twice a week. The kids are very confident and love to converse unlike my shy students who are in elementary school. Plus there is the unconditional love, which is great.
11:30am: I grade the previous nights homework while yet again trying to decide what I want for lunch. Should I eat out of 7-11? No, that’s probably not a good idea again. Fried rice? Again? Dumplings? Again? Mostly we eat street food, which can be better than anything you would find on the streets in the states.
12:30pm: At this point, I’m done for a while, and either I grade all afternoon and run errands or head home for some rest, to study Chinese, or a possible nap.
3:30pm: Head back to the school. The breakfast vendors and shops are now all closed, and new lunch and dinner vendors are open. Many times they just share the same space and put away their carts. Scads of Taiwanese children walk along the streets in their sweat suit uniforms. It’s like seeing 1,000 children all on the same basketball team in their sweatshirts and sweat pants. They all head to the tea shops and vendors who sell fried chicken and custard cakes.
4pm: Plan for two more classes that night as tons of kids start to flood into the building, kindergarteners leaving and the elementary students arriving. I run and grab my own snack from the market behind the school. It's hard to get things ton as lots of kids try to get your attention. I can't even imagine the number of times a child yells "Teacher Beth" at me in one day.
5-7pm: Teach for two hours, usually a younger class.
7-9pm: After a twenty-minute break, I teach another class of slightly older students.
9pm: Grade a few workbooks and leave. I stop at the grocery for supplies, then walk through the market by my house. It is now a full-fledged night market with vendors selling soups, noodles, meat, and vegetables. Everything is much cheaper than the supermarket and usually looks better. If I’m really tired, I just buy a dinner to go from a street vendor for about 2 dollars.
9:45pm: Get home, eat dinner, relax, and prepare to do it all over again the next day.
This is what the market looks like on my way home.
(Oh yeah, then I have to be at work at 8am on Saturday mornings.)
