First Week of Work Reflections

Well, I have my first week of work under my belt. Granted, due to having Tuesdays off and Thursday being a holiday, it was not exactly a power-week, but still.

So... here is what I know. We, in the Mighty Monkeys Room at Noah's Ark, have over 40 children enrolled, many of them part time, such that we have 25 to 30 children there every day. As I have mentioned before, class sizes are much bigger here than in the US or Canada, but ratios are about the same, and there is plenty of room for all the kids, so it works pretty well. However, right now it means that I have over 40 children's names to learn, along with over 80 parents, let alone aunts, uncles, grandparents, and siblings. Yikes! I am focusing, of course, on the children's names first, and I think that I know about 35 of them, with frequent mix-ups between 4 boys who all have short, brown hair and names that start with 'L.' I have always been better with children's names than adults' names, so the rest will be harder. So far, I remember one older sister's name, because she comes in and helps me clean up at the end of the day, and I have a memory of a mum introducing herself as "Paula," but there is no face with the name, so that's not very useful. It will be an uphill battle, I know, but I'll get there.

I got to do mat times on Wednesday (my regular day for them) and Friday (because the teacher who usually does them then was gone), and they went really well. It is very different to do mat time with that many children, but it is also lots of fun. They pick up songs very quickly, and the majority of them know quite well how to behave. Of course, some of them would rather hit each other on the head and jump around during mat time, but they are the youngest ones, and they will learn. Some of them transition over from the Tiny Tigers (infant/toddler) room when they're not even 2 1/2, so a learning curve is to be expected. I am making a song book based on the songs that I teach them at mat times, so that teachers and children can use the songs otherwise. It is great to feel that I am really contributing already!

Building relationships with the children takes time, of course, but I already feel that I am getting to know them. There is a very wide variety of background, ability, language, age, and interests, which is great. Some of the children talk just like adults, while a couple of them use only one-word utterances, or mostly gestures. We have lots of Māori and other pacific islander families, as well as a Spanish family, a Canadian family, and some British families. We have a lot of families who work at the hospital nearby, and the vast majority of the families live in the neighbourhood. I think a lot of them walk or bike to Noah's Ark, which is neat.

I feel comfortable at work, which is great, and I feel that things are being done well, but also that I can contribute ideas to improve things. It is nice to be somewhere in the middle in that way, because I am able to feel productive and important, without being stressed over a bad situation. I think that that is one of the benefits of working at a new centre, and I am looking forward to growing along with the program.