The Nonsense Teachers of the Strawberries

The teachers without the certifications here, and yet, they have a special way, of instructing these children in their early childhood years, translated…

The teachers of the strawberry class are mostly, childish, and full of nonsense, and had brought along the “funny effects”, because making the atmosphere happy, that, is what we need to be able to do………

Other than the Professionalism Required for the Job, We Also Need to Know How to Make the Children Laugh

There are five classes in the First Social Welfare Organization’s First Children Development Center, the Strawberries, the Watermelons, the Bananas, the Apples, and the Oranges, and I am the early childhood educator of the strawberry class.  The teachers in this class are mostly, very childish, full of nonsense, and can bring the laughter effects to the children, because keeping and maintaining a happy atmosphere, is one of the required skills in this profession of ours.

The teachers of the Strawberry class is in charge of children with cerebral palsy, a class of primary physically handicapped children—the kids here, in order to maintain a simple action of keeping their hands raised, they’d needed to start to train themselves in the seconds increments.  There are a lot of children who are three, to four year old, but still hadn’t managed the simple sitting up, standing up, and walk straight.  In order to help them, the educators in the Strawberry class needed to follow the “guiding method” of education, to incorporate rehabilitation into the daily routines, for instance, using their voices, to get the children to lift up their arms, or to take the steps.  After all, for children who are physically handicapped, they may have started doing these muscle training activities that’s become, boring to them, and so, with the help of music, the materials that are colorful and active, and the teacher’s waywardness, their joking, it can help make the activities more interesting for the children, and, “playing” for children, is never tiring, and they’d be, more than willing, to continue working.

illustration from the papers online…

We often called the students separately as “strawberry”, and we’d, taken photos, documenting the strawberries’ actions: how they’re, hard at work, in physical rehab, how they looked as they’d played with the toys during breaktime between classes, how they’d felt so helpful, as the teachers played tricks on them…………all of these, isn’t just for us to remember how they were working so hard, but also, to help the kids see just how amazing they are, how they’re, excellent, just like ordinary students too.

Compared to hearing the teachers exclaim, “Wow, you can stand up so straight!”, being able to see how straight one is standing is, more meaningful, it can help the students better understand the teacher’s purpose of making them perform the actions, and gain more self-confidence.  And, the unexpected effects of this was, it’d made the young Strawberries photogenic, they’d loved posing in front of the cameras when they see one.  Some of the strawberries are very intelligent, as they’d performed the harder actions, they’d asked us to taken photos of them.  There was a teacher who’d used the selfie app of the cell phone, to get the young child to pay attention to where the teacher wanted him to look.  And, after photographing them became a sort of a habit, getting their pictures taken became, a best sort of a positive reinforcement for these young children.

With a Heart of Passion, Nothing Can Defeat Us

My parents were, the BEST witnesses of the progressions of the children since I’d started working.  They’d watched me come home tired out, and still wanted to make the gadgets, the materials that can help the children learn better, and on the weekends, I’d gone to the courses, to better my own knowledge of special education.  Because the children with cerebral palsy have the problems with their muscle tones, we’d needed to help them rehabilitate, and, because as the students were tensed up, their muscles became tightened, making it more difficult for us to help them stretch, we’d needed to use all of our strengths, and for a long term, feeling muscle sores became an everyday thing, and in order to alleviate the aches and pains, I’d gone to get acupuncture treatments at the traditional Chinese clinics, and being wrapped up in bandages, became norm for us.  There was a period of time when my colleague and I had gone to get acupuncture treatments, and we’d, streamed the various places we got treated.

a video from Youtube of what is done in the class…

And some may ask, why are you continuing this, if you get injured, and it’s, so trying for you?  But, truth be told, which job in this world isn’t easy?  Besides, as we have passion for our work, no matter how trying, it would be, more than worth it for us.  Although my parents would look sorrowful toward me, they’d still, not told me to quit, to find another job, they were, by my side, very supportive of me.

Sharing my workdays with my families long term, sharing with them the progresses the children are making, and the concepts of early intervention, my parents got infected with my habits of going out and shopping for toys, and they’d even taken the photos, and asked, “can your kids play with this toy?”, but I can’t take credit for all of this, my cute students are responsible, because their cuteness had, taken over my parents’ hearts.  Actually, not just my parents, these little strawberries had collected the hearts of many interns, driving them to return to the center when they’re available, to volunteer, just to be there, to witness the young strawberries’ progress!

And so, special ed is hard, but, if you have the mind of wanting to help these children recover, and that love for children, then, you would also find this line of work very rewarding, just like the writer does.  Watching these young children get better little by little each and every day, must be rewarding!