My cute kids!

1.10: Some cute things the kids have said/done recently: We had a new student arrive, whose name is Timofy, or Tima. He’s adorable with wavy blond hair and blue eyes and is crazy but well-behaved for the most part. Savva, our five-year-old high-energy wild child with the broadest English vocabulary out of all the students, upon seeing his friend sit down opposite from him, stood up and ran over to sit by Tima. As he ran, he exclaimed, “I want to sit by my little friend!” It reminded me of the cook in The Muppets, the new movie with Amy Adams, who says, “Say hello to my little friend!” I couldn’t help but to burst out laughing. One of our students, Nikito, is a little spoiled brat who makes every teaching day difficult (he hits us and his Russian teachers when he doesn’t get his way) and I usually have to sit right beside him to keep him in his chair and from tearing apart the room. One day, he was being particularly bad so I took away all three of his “good behavior stars” and pointed out to him, showing him the markings on the teacher’s white board, that he had no stars while everyone else had three. He quieted down and became somber. “Please, star, teacher,” he whined. Using mostly body language, I explained to him that he needed to listen to the teacher, keep his hands to himself, to not speak Russian, and to be good in general and he’d get his star back. Miraculously, he was an angel student for several minutes after that. Finally, I caught his attention and let him watch as I drew a star under his name. Immediately, his face lit up and he said, “Sank you, teacher.” When I walked out of the room to go help another teacher, he waved goodbye to me. For the following few days, he would only sit still when I sat beside him, and then he was an angel student. One day, he grabbed my arm and spread kisses on it from my elbow to my hand. It was cute, but I pulled away so he would pay attention to class. His face fell, and he reached out toward me. “One, please,” he whimpered. Suckered into it by his big brown eyes and the unexpected cuteness in his words, I offered him my hand and he planted one last kiss on it, then smiled like I gave him the world. (Not really sure how I won him over, as I am also the one who reprimands him most often). I don’t know how or why, but my heart is a sucker for the wild kids. Speaking of which, later that day at dinner, Sofi noticed me and waved excitedly, her sweet face brightening. When she’s not throwing a tantrum, she’s hopelessly adorable. In one class, Whitney was teaching the kids how to make pop up papers, with a little pop-up vase and tulips. Egor took to the project very well and seemed rather excited to finish it. Egor is four and has short blond hair, gigantic blue eyes, and full lips—he also has the deepest voice I’ve ever heard come out of a child, which is amplified by his Russian accent. While he is perfectly adorable in physical traits, he is also precious in all other ways—he says silly things spontaneously, he’s well-behaved, he participates in the lessons, and even helps the teacher get supplies and clean up. He’s probably all our favorite, to be quite honest. When he finished his pop up paper, he asked for a crayon and proceeded to write his name, Егор (Egor), and then he wrote, “Mama.” Whitney and I looked at each other and simultaneously melted. Egor had made the art project for his mother! He turned to me and asked, “Mama Rooski. Mama English?” He was wondering how to spell “mama” in English; I tried to explain to him that they’re the same, but when he didn’t understand I wrote “mama” underneath his writing. I pointed to his and said, “Rooski,” and mine and said, “English.” Finally, he understood and a giant smile spread across his face; he exclaimed, “Thank you!” You can’t get any more perfect than that right there. In regards to the students and teaching in general, it’s going quite well. I heard my teachers say that they missed the students over the weekend; Ally said she was looking forward to seeing them again and Shelley, who has never had experience with little kids before, admitted to realizing that kids really aren’t that scary and that she actually likes them. This is all fantastic to hear—a teacher’s teaching experience and attitude toward teaching can make or break the entire semester, regardless of how awesome the vacations or excursions are. The students are progressing well: they’re learning how to respond to questions like, “Who wants the glue?” or “What color is this” and today Egor even asked for help without the teaching having to model the language first. I heard Sofi singing one of our opening songs in class and she knew all the words. Sasha the girl can sound out written words; she may not know what’s she saying, but she can pronounce them. It’s so exciting to watch them progress and to be able to communicate with them. I love that about teaching English.