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The End of an Era My little ones all grew up.
When I started teaching this class, they were so small and most didn't
want any part of the goofy wei-gworen blabbering in some weird language.
I got to watch the kids grow up. They learned how to read Mandarin
Phonetic (BoPoMoFo), Chinese Characters and English. They can speak
Mandarin and English like natives-- most of them can also speak Taiwanese,
too. And, they were durned cute at graduation.
Rachel, their Chinese teacher, was with this class for three years.
This was a huge deal for her. Last year, for middle class graduation,
the kids performed Cinderella. This year, we had a much more riskier
English performance -- a variety show including magic tricks, Dr. Seuss
poems and dancing. I was just glad to survive. The kids also had Chinese
performances and a graduation speech.
To add to the joy, the air conditioner broke on this sweltering July
day. I had to dry-clean the salt marks out of my suit I sweat so much.
It was pretty insane. |
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Afterwards, the entire staff of the school went to a karaoke bar and made total fools of ourselves. It was a fine ending to a long, long day. For me, this is the culmination of my stay here. I remained 6-months longer to see my kindergartners graduate. Happily, I send them all off to elementary school and the rest of their lives. The Chinese teacher for the class, Rachel, was promoted to being an administrator at another school -- she was able to put up with me for a year and a half, so they figure she can do anything. A good teacher has a sad goal: making his or her self obsolete. My job is to guide my students toward independence, so they do not not adult help and can make decisions on their own. How do I feel now that my students have moved on? I am proud of them and my coworkers, and I am ready to move on. | ||||
