Just a quick update. I now officially have 10 students. A new little boy from Syria just arrived. It was a super hectic morning. He was bawling for the first hour. Refused to leave the entrance, thank god his parents didn't try and drag it out and just left him there crying. It was definitely challenging to work with the other 9 while this one was in tears, but I understand how overwhelmed he was. A little background, he is 4 years old, his family just moved to Venezuela from Syria as refugees. Arabic is his first langauge, though he knows some Spanish too, and he knows 0 English. I can only imagine what this kid who was torn from his country and put into a school that teaches in a language he doesn't understand was going through.. He was put in this school because the family plans to move back to Syria eventually, so they need him in an international school so curriculums and grades can transfer easily.
I was very happy that my kids are so established in their morning routine, I was able to stand near the door with my new, crying, student while I verbally gave the kids directions to color, get in circle, do their good mornings, say the days of the week, count what day of school we are on, etc. Once it was time to go to gym, he was still crying and refused to go so I let him stay with me (therefore I didn't have any planning periods at all today..) He calmed down and began exploring the classroom. I didn't want to upset him so I let him look around and use whatever he wanted. Eventually he felt comfortable and began talking to me (in Spanish) Thank god I understand Spanish for the most part so I was able to talk to him. He must've started to feel comfortable because after a little while he was sitting on my lap while I was doing my work and writing out his names and the names of his sibling/parents. This was probably the most interesting part of the day because he was speaking in Spanish but writing in Arabic. It took me a minute to realize, but he was writing from right to left and in an alphabet other than ours. When we were on the carpet he was also looking at books the opposite way too. It should be interesting to try and explain to him in English how we read. I think he's a very smart boy though, his Spanish was good and one-on-one we were able to communicate pretty well in Spanish. It's just going to take him some time to adjust to his new life.
I was very happy that my kids are so established in their morning routine, I was able to stand near the door with my new, crying, student while I verbally gave the kids directions to color, get in circle, do their good mornings, say the days of the week, count what day of school we are on, etc. Once it was time to go to gym, he was still crying and refused to go so I let him stay with me (therefore I didn't have any planning periods at all today..) He calmed down and began exploring the classroom. I didn't want to upset him so I let him look around and use whatever he wanted. Eventually he felt comfortable and began talking to me (in Spanish) Thank god I understand Spanish for the most part so I was able to talk to him. He must've started to feel comfortable because after a little while he was sitting on my lap while I was doing my work and writing out his names and the names of his sibling/parents. This was probably the most interesting part of the day because he was speaking in Spanish but writing in Arabic. It took me a minute to realize, but he was writing from right to left and in an alphabet other than ours. When we were on the carpet he was also looking at books the opposite way too. It should be interesting to try and explain to him in English how we read. I think he's a very smart boy though, his Spanish was good and one-on-one we were able to communicate pretty well in Spanish. It's just going to take him some time to adjust to his new life.
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