On Sunday, the Roslyn AYLUS branch helped out at a school of the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island.
It’s interesting to work with kids of different ages and maturity. Younger kids around three or four requires a lot of help with directions but are very well behaved. However, extra attention is necessary, especially when it comes to things like a stool in the bathroom for them to stand of to reach the sink. Around 5 or 6, kindergarteners now are capable of following directions and flipping pages but have acquired an extra dose of craziness. With thanksgiving coming up, there are kids running around, running away from an imitated a turkey. It’s important to let them have fun and still be careful. The desks and sharp corners can be very unsafe and the backpacks on the ground are very easy to trip over. Teacher assistants must be prepared for all situations and pay attention to all details. Slightly older than that are the 7-8 year olds. Against popular belief, they are actually less mature than 5-6 year olds and are very undisciplined. They require little help with opening snack packages or using the bathrooms, but you must be firm when they don’t listen to simple directions and break out in a fight.
Overall, it’s fascinating to get to work with children of all age groups and learn about their needs. A classroom full of little kids can be a real handful for one teacher to manage, so we try our best to do whatever we can to lessen their workload. It makes us much more appreciative of our parents, now that we know what they went through to raise us.
Because thanksgiving is approaching, instead of cultural hour, they had a fundraiser in the cafeteria. There are many traditional games and competition as well as food that can be exchanged with a ticket. There are a lot of people and the kids are often very short, so it’s important to watch out for them and make sure they don’t get trampled.
Members who participated include:
Yang Amy Wu (3 hours), Fanxi Xia (3 hours), Isabelle Tsui (3 hours), and Zihan Wang (3 hours).
Reporter: Yang Amy Wu
