Stressing for graduation!

That's right, graduation. From kindergarten. All the kindy classes are having graduation ceremonies in a bit over a month and a half, even though three of the five of them are only going up to a new level in the kindy program. Hey, it's all in fun...right?

Well, yes. Mostly. Since most of the kids don't really know what graduation is or what it's supposed to be, it's just one more excuse for them to sing English songs and goof around with the teachers. And, in turn, it's kind of fun for us teachers too - at least it is now that they're getting pretty good at the songs they'll be expected to sing at graduation. Up until most of the way through last week, it was more stressful than anything else for us. I really was worried for a while that the whole thing was over their little heads!

My class will be doing a musical version of "The Ugly Duckling." I'm not entirely sure that they understand the story, but they do seem to like the songs. Fortunately, they have recently reached a point where they cheer rather than boo when they see me putting the CD on for them to sing along with. That's made it more fun for me as well; I'm betting I wasn't much fun to be around during those first few practices when I found myself thinking, "Dear God, they'll never pull this off by July!" Now, my thinking is more along the lines of, "We'll never get them all to behave throughout the event, but at least they'll know the songs.

My only real problem now is that two of the boys in the class are about evenly matched for the title role. Every time I settle on one, he decides he doesn't want to practice, and the other one steps in and does a great job. Then the whole cycle starts again. It's a good thing the kids are so cute; sometimes that's their saving grace!

In another step towards graduation, today was Picture Day. None of us were too happy about that, since it meant keeping the kids under control for getting their pictures taken, and having to leave them somewhat unguarded while we had ours taken. Also, the women teachers were required to wear skirts, which is highly inconvenient for kindy since you're going to spend a fair amount of time sitting on the floor and getting back up, often much too quickly to do so in a dignified manner. So that inspired a fair number of complaints.

I'm torn with respect to how much sympathy I have, of course. As a matter of principle, I am firmly opposed to any kind of skirts-only policy, as anyone who knows me will attest, and I definitely recognize how impractical such things can be when dealing with a room full of five year olds. But hey, it's nearly summer, it's Taiwan, and it's well into the 30s (the 90s in Farenheit) outside. I can think of worse fates than not wearing pants on a day like this. Indeed, I couldn't help but notice that at least one of my colleagues made a point of bringing a pair of jeans to change into as soon as possible, but she never made use of them!