A Tour of My Classroom + A Typical School Day

Today I want to take you on a tour of my classroom and tell you what a typical day looks like for me and the students at school. 

I honestly don't know what a normal school day would look like for a teacher in America because I have never taught there. If you are a teacher in the States you will have to let me know the similarity / differences in our school days. 

I walk to school every morning. It is about a .75 mile walk and by the time I arrive I'm usually sweating buckets. I arrive between 7:45 - 8:00am and there are usually 3-5 students already waiting for me to get there. School doesn't start until 8:30am but the traffic gets so bad that the parents have to come super early in order to miss the traffic.  

My desk usually looks something like the picture below. When I arrive at school I review the daily lessons and get any visuals and paper work ready.

We always start our day off with prayer, calendar time, flashcards and just talking and sharing. This time lasts from 8:30 - 9:10 am.

From 9:10 - 10:15 am the other K4 class comes into our class for combined phonics, music and language development. The classes combine so all the kids can hear a native English speaker (me). There are 31 kids at this time .... aka a lot! 

From 10:15 - 11:45 am we do phonics, writing, numbers, a Bible story and a 'letter of the week'. I must tell you all about Bible. The kids throughout the day are wiggly, giggly, talkative, etc. but when we start telling those Bible stories they are focused in big time on listening. I'm amazed by it! Half of my students come from Buddhist homes so I know they have never heard these stories before. 

Sometimes the power goes out on us! #lifeinMyanmar. I have one battery powered light =). The kids always scream when the power goes out and they cheer super duper loud when it comes back on! Ha ha! 

The kids have lunch and recess for an hour. They then have Myanmar with my co-teacher for an hour. During this hour I go and teach the 7th grade girls Bible. After Myanmar is snack, a review, a fun craft and then they go home!

This picture below is the numbers 1 - 7 in Myanmar. I've been here 9 months and still don't know them.

The kids are in school from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm. It doesn't sound terribly long but for a 4 year old it is really really long!

I have a reward system for my kids too. Each kid has 3 lollipops at the start of every day. If they keep all 3 lollipops their hot air balloon will go up one level. When they reach the top level they get a sticker and eventually a prize. There is a little more to it than that but I'll spare you all the details. Let's just say 4 year olds + plus stickers and prizes = winning!

This is our 'Bible' wall. Every two weeks or so we all learn a new verse about "I AM". It has been good for the kids and really good for me too. I like that the kids are learning about God as I AM at an early age.

AND you should know we have 1 bathroom for 16 kids. Bathroom breaks take a looooong time.

And there you all have it, my friends! A typical day with 16 four year olds. I'm tired by the end of the day but they are worth it! If you have more questions about anything school related let me know in the comments. =)