"Home is where the heart is," or could it possibly be reversed and stated of the likes? "Heart is where the home is." If this is the case, my heart has been torn into four pieces and placed in the same amount of places: Wassenaar, Netherlands; Provo, Utah; Forchheim, Germany and my most recent: Phichit, Thailand.
Often in the English language, we correspond our cardiovascular system with our emotions. "He broke my heart," "My heart is filled with joy," "My heart jumped," and it is physiologically so that humans have an increase in heart rate when feeling strong emotions such as the common fear, love, happiness... So it all makes sense.
Until my last day in Phichit Thailand, my heart never experienced such a pain. It literally began to hurt. I had never experienced a goodbye so hard as that one. My heart ached and pounded as I wrapped my arms around each of my students for the last time, as my eyes made their last glimpses of the school, town and what became familiar smiling faces, as the place slowly faded away with the night as we journeyed off to such a distant land: the United States.
"My kids," as I like to refer them as.. by the end of the semester it became clear to me that I could easily call them my best friends. Although they had the shortest attention spans and were sometimes impossible to control, I LOVED THEM. Hell, I still love them. As my life is still young, this was the first time I experienced such a love for six and seven year olds and actually felt that love in return. The first few days after arriving back in the states, tears slipped out of my eyes when thoughts of my kids came to mind and all I wanted was to go back to Thailand and continue improving their English. Luckily (I think), I've semi-moved on, though, I still am not able to remain completely emotionally neutral when I see photos of them as I grew to love each child for his and her own perks and personalities.
When I say "my kids," I actually mean these kiddos. I co-taught these students with Emi Bean three hours a day for four months. They were the K3 class and were the ages 6-7 including the genius 5 year old: Pordee. They had been in the ILP English program for a couple years so their English was already pretty proficient. I could talk to them about just anything an average 6 year old would be able to converse about. Yes, I take much pride in their English abilities. With this group I was teaching them: "basic reading," they had already learned the alphabet before I came, but I was there to help them put it in to use and teach them how to write simple words. After our reading lessons we would do a fun interactive activity in which I would try to get each student to talk as much as possible, I would also have a goal for the day, whether it be different verb conjugations I wanted them to perfect or pronouns or even modifying nouns and somehow associated the lesson with my goals. It was hard work, but it eventually paid off, especially having the sweetest/funniest students in the world.
As I mentioned earlier, each child had his or her own personality and tendencies. I'll give you a small description of all 12 of them.
AISHI: Aishi loved superheroes (hence the superman shirt.) His favorite superhero was spiderman and in one of our books we made, he named his character Spider-Aishi he also spent many days earning for the captain America shield I made specifically for him. His English was also superb, as his dad lived in the USA for a little while. He understood terms I thought the kids had no idea about such as: It's raining cats and dogs,etc. I remember distinctly one day going over the letter K. I asked the kids what all started with the letter K, Aishi shouted out: "Kick ass, teacher. Kick ass starts with K!" I asked him where he learned that and he just replied "it means very good, right teacher?" I said that was right as it was.
AOMSIN: Aomsin had the greatest ability to make anyone laugh, while at the same time maintained really good behavior and fair to everyone. I remember one day bringing a ball to class that squeaked and I let every student give it a squeeze. When it got to be Aomsin's turn he quickly slipped the ball behind is back and mimicked the squeaking sounds with his mouth. It was the most clever/funny thing.
When the other students jokingly claimed that they didn't like me, Aomsin reassured me that he did while still maintaining his position as the "cool kid." This kid had the sweetest heart and it was confirmed the final day Emi and I taught them. While I was choking up and ever-so distraught, Emi was holding back tears really well until she gave Aomsin a hug and he began to cry... This suddenly triggered tears all over the room.
AUTO: Auto was one of the most intelligent kids while still remaining humble and adorable at the same time. His face would completely light up and would yell "teacher McKenna!" every time he saw me outside the classroom. He picked up words and reading really fast and I never heard him speak a thai word once. He was known to have bursts of energy all throughout the day. Every day we would have bathroom break and on the way to the bathroom there was a room which had two doors on the ends of it. Auto would take advantage of those doors and run through one door and out the other to get to the bathroom and on the way back, he'd roll across the wall. Auto was known for his waddle, saying "oh my gosh!" and being the best big brother to Tipco.
LEO: Leo loved 4 objects: trucks, ships, submarines and helicopters. After finished with each worksheet, he would make sure to add one of these to his paper with the most detail a seven year old could draw. He loved giving hugs, giving things to others and sitting next to the teacher.
LIN: Lin was the top of her class alongside little Pordee. She loved english and learning. She was always on her best behavior and would even roll her eyes when the other students misbehaved. Lin's reading and pronunciation was phenomenal and I am sure she was aware of that as we gave her much praise. She loved playing London Bridges. singing "Where the Green Grass Grows all Around," and writing "I love teacher Emi and teacher McKenna" on all of her papers.
MAENI: Maeni reminded me most of myself when I was seven years of age. Maeni loved to joke around and when she smiled, her entire face would light up. Our first rule in class was "No Thai, English only." Maeni quickly figured out all the words I knew in Thai and would try her hardest to get me to say those words, and when she accomplished that she'd thrust her finger into the air, point it at me and yell, "Teacher! No Thai! English only! go to the Thai chair!" She attended the school with her sister Sydney and it wasn't until the end of our four months there that we discovered her mother's beauty shop in town. We loved visiting them and having the best conversations. We were also invited to her father's opening of his hotel and the sisters served us as often as they could.
MEEPHOO: Meephoo loved to laugh and sometimes one could not understand him as he'd start laughing before he could finish his sentences. He was very silly and often he used his silliness to an advantage. If he didn't know the answer to something, he'd crack a joke and start laughing to cover him not knowing. He was a great big brother to Moophee. He also gave me the nickname of Teacher Banana. The kids found it so funny that they held that nickname to me for the next four months.
(Aishi is on the left while Meephoo is on the right.)
MEME: Meme had quite the personality. She loved touching things and was always curious to waht we were going to do. By the end, her English improved tremendously. Meme also loved to joke around. ONe day after school, Emi was showing Meme and Maeni disney video clips which included beauty and the beast. Emi pointed to Belle, stating that it was "Teacher McKenna," Meme quickly pointed to the Beast and said "No. That's Teacher McKenna!"
PAN: Pan was an angel. She loved giving and being kind to everyone. She was always giving thins to the teachers. She was very smart and she knew it.... often she would hint to kids the answers when they were on the spot and were unable to come up with the answer quick enough. She loved drawing hearts over everything.
Pordee: Pordee was the youngest in the class (a year younger than his peers) but one of the brightest. His English was top-notch. He was often very silly but loved to learn. He would always answer questions and would define words for other students. But one thing about Pordee was that he hated taking pictures so the pictures we do have of him, he's not aware of. He would always play soccer after school with me and he was obsessed with the word TNT. He loved putting it everywhere and using it in any situation.
POST: Post was a very good student. He loved coloring and when asking for colors he would always roll his R when saying " I want rrrrrred teacher, no I want grrrrreeen." He was silly and loved making faces especially his adorable little smile.
TUNWA: Tunwa was the sweetest boy while being hilarious and so silly. Tunwa loved to make faces, especially a lion face. We had a joke that he was a tiny turtle in class. Once while compiling all of my students papers together, I ran into his paper with a big "I love McKenna" on the lefthand corner. Many of my kids had done that before, but this one especially hit home. Mind it was the end of the semester and I was getting pretty emotional anyhow.
As I have already written a novel, I figure I'll just put photos up now...
