Chaos: redefined.

Nothing cuter than 16 5 year-old Chinese kids, right?

That’s exactly what I used to think.

I just started a brand new class with that exact makeup. None of them have any ability in English, so 16 is about 15 more live, little, wiggly things than I can handle without the ability to communicate. They are slowly (or maybe rapidly?) sucking the life out of me.

Very few of them have started into Chinese school full time, so they’re not used to sitting in one place for an extended period of time. I have a hard time keeping them focused on one thing for any longer than 2 or 3 minutes before kids start falling asleep, flipping pages, crawling on the floor, looking out the window, picking the paint off the wall, or anything and everything other than watching me. You can imagine how much creativity this requires considering that, right now, I’m only allowed to teach letters, colours, and numbers. I have to fill 2.5 hours with this, and their attention spans allot me 90-second increments.

We’re doing basic phonics right now: “A, ah, apple, B, buh, bear…”. Each page of their book has one letter on it. I spend the better part of the class walking around and flipping their pages to make sure they’re all on the same spot…and therein lies the problem. Once I’ve got Cindy and Simon on D like everyone else (was), I look around to find Michelle's on Z, Danny's on Q, Jack's sitting on the floor, Jeff's sleeping, Sam's kicking Simon, Jane’s at the door with her legs crossed, and Tim’s got his hands in his pants.

Picture that scenario. Now try to imagine how you would get control of 16 Chinese kids who don’t yet recognize the sound of their English names.

150 minutes of complete and utter chaos.