This May, I am writing history so as to remember things that happened in the past. Later in life, I will be going back to read them as a reminder of myself as a teacher.
The beginning. I was offered to start up a small preschool in a village which has a good concentration of expat children. It was tough as the school building was a townhouse that was rented for school's purpose. I started with three preschool aged children from different countries: America (Kyla), Brunei (Jeff), and Hong Kong (Wai Ming). They were of different ages. I was assisted by a Vietnamese-American named Margaret and sometimes her two wonderful children would join in my class. Later, I got two brothers from Switzerland (Lukas and Jan). During the start of the second term, I got two more students from Korea (Min Jee and Tewook), one from Switzerland (Shane), and another one from Japan (Keiko). I was then dutifully assisted by a Canadian (Marie R.) and an American (Debbie S.).
It was a great beginning considering that the school's premises were limited. I fondly remember even meeting the children and their moms after school at the pool of the apartment where I resided. In the afternoon, we gathered together and I taught some of them to swim and we played a lot. It was bonding time for a whole year. It was a wonderful experience.
Growing within the years. Then we moved to a bigger place where the Child Centre as it is now called grew into seven different classrooms. I remembered being the head where we had an enrollment of 120 preschool children with a staff of 19 adults. It was an experience I would not forget. Being a head entailed responsibilities and they were maddening. The experience though made me a better leader and took me to new heights until I begged off when I pursued further studies.
The enrollment dwindled through the years but I still had the most number of students in class, always full as in every year. During my last post, I was assisted by a Filipino (Aida) who became the lead teacher when I left the school for good. My almost ten years stay at that school had been treasure trove of memories, experiences, hardships and glory. My growth as a person went full cycle as I learned the rudiments of administration, the struggles of a beginning teacher, the success of an experienced teacher, and the emotional strength I had to build throughout the journey.
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