This week went by pretty quickly for me. The kids were wonderful, and everything in the program seems to be moving along smoothly. We had both PTMs and the PTA this week. During the Parent Teacher Meetings, we were able to discuss a student’s progress, and any difficulties the students are having, both socially and academically. Parents had a lot of ideas and suggestions that we will look into implementing. I’m not sure if many of you are aware, but I get just as nervous at Parent Teacher Meetings as the parents do. I really enjoy working with every single student in the program, and whenever I talk to parents, I am always afraid I will say something that sounds more negative than I meant. The students are doing great, and we have become the envy of the whole school. I hope that I convey that with each meeting. In Canada and America, Parents Meetings are strictly business, the room teacher (Ban-jo-ren) shows parents what the student has done, discusses the positives and negatives of each child, and how to help them. Each parent has about 15 minutes. So far we have done that, but we have also had time to share fun stories about the children as well, and the parents have had a chance to talk to a few of the child’s teachers.

We held our second monthly PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meeting in the classroom this month. We discussed the Upcoming charity Bazaar, Lunches, Halloween, Thanksgiving, World Fair, and the Job Fair. The bazaar and Halloween seems to be very confidently handled by our PTA, and I look forward to seeing what they have put together. We discussed the Parent Lunches: Commonly called the “Mommy Lunches” but to call it that seems to not include fathers from cooking, which I don’t want to do. They have some ideas about what they want to prepare, which seems good. We are still preparing a play for Thanksgiving next month.

This past week we started lunch time etiquette classes. We moved the children’s lunches from the school cafeteria to the school cooking room. (Same room the parent lunches are made in.) Of course we get a lot of non-APS observers during this time, but the purpose of this was that during the lunch period we are teaching the children western table manners. Each day we introduce a new aspect. Last week we learned what a place-mat was, and how it should properly be used, we learned not to put your elbows on the table, we learned that you had to finish your main course before you can ask for second helpings of anything, or have your desert. We learned that it is polite to keep your voice low during a proper dining experience. We also learned how to tidy up the table.

On Tuesday we went to Heng Chun Senior Citizen Center nearby. Once there we talked to the people there. The children sang their songs very well. They danced well. When there was difficulty with the sound at one point we sang “I love you” acapella (with voice only, no music). We did sing the song again later when the music was working. The children then gave some Chong Yang cards they had made out to the residents of the center, and then they gave out some warm socks. The children had a very good time, as did I. The Senior Citizen trip is related to the topic I chose for Show & Tell this week, which was “My grandparents.” It is very common for young people around the world to take advantage of the fact that they have older members of the community there, and not realize how important or interesting these people can be.

Children began to borrow books from the class library this week. They are each allowed 1 book at a time, and they can only borrow it for 1 week at a time. Most of the students chose a book to borrow. Even some of the children who stayed in the school borrowed books to read. Students are welcome to send me videos of them reading any of the borrowed English stories, but I don’t want them to feel pressured to do this. It is my feeling that in Grade 1 stresses like extra homework and responsibilities be slowly added to the children’s lives so they have the time to adapt and understand what they are doing and why.

We have started having the children help clean the room, no shoes on the library carpet is part of this. We talked to them about outward appearance, and impressions. They learned that if a guest comes to our room and sees a lot of dirt and garbage around they will have a negative impression of the class. Same goes for Uniforms, and public actions. I let them know that it’s ok to play and have fun in private time, but certain times are Public times (Flag raising, and other ceremonies) that they need to show that they are respectful. The kids have been very good at following this. This coming week, we are adding sweeping the floor to our chores list.

On Friday at lunch I introduced the children to the game “UNO”. We will be doing it again this week. Some of the children were already aware of this game, and helped to teach the others. Uno is a card game that can be found easily to play at home. The word “UNO” is actually a Spanish word that means “one”. The concept is really simple: match the colour or the number of the card placed down by the last person in a circle. If you have only one card you say “Uno”. If you have no card that can be played you must pick up a card. First person to have no cards is the winner.

This week the children had a moment to play Halloween games on their tablet computers in class. Some students chose later to try the Schoolbo program. If you have this program at home, you can log in.

Choose “School account” at the opening. Then the School code they are asking for is “BD938FM”. The student list will open. Make sure the children chose their own name only. The first password is Black- Bee. This can be changed easily after they have logged in successfully. We will be doing this later this week as well.

This coming week the children have a trip to the Military Museum for the 80^th anniversary of “The Long March”. I am interested to learn about this, but I will research some stories to tell the children during class. The children also have a school-wide grade 1 poetry recital competition on Thursday. They have been practicing poems with Ms. Qian, and it seems to me that they are doing great. Unfortunately in this subject I am not the best judge, as I cannot understand the poems, nor know how they should be pronounced. But I am a great judge of my students and I know they will put their best foot forward in this, and do great.