--So I don't want to change everything to past tense because I wrote this while I was still in China... so lets just all pretend that I am still there for this post ;) --
The whole reason I am in China for a whole semester is to teach English. I feel like a lot of my post are more about the fun activities that I do outside of teaching everyday. So I figured I would designate this post to be just about teaching and the kids.
Schedule:
Monday-Friday
8:30- Prepare for Classes
8:45-9:00= Opening
9:00-9:20= First Rotation
9:20-9:35= Snack Break
9:35-9:55= Second Rotation
9:55-10:15= Third Rotation
10:15-10:25 = Water Break
10:25-10:45= Fourth Rotation
10:45-11:05= Fifth Rotation
11:05-11:15= Closing/Store
Our Classes are split into 5 classes. 2 are the Younger kids (First year in the program) and 3 are the Older kids (Second year in the program).
THE YOUNGER CLASS:
The younger classes are definitely quieter than the older classes. They are all just so cute and loving. Everyday after lunch, I always walk through their classroom to put my bowl away in the supply room. And everyday, I get flooded with "I LOVE YOU TEACHA CHERISH". It is the sweetest thing and is my favorite part of the day. <3
Purple Group: Purple Group are full of sweethearts! They are all so cute and are always trying their hardest to learn English. At the beginning of the semester, the kids (all of them) would always say "Can I go to the Buffalo?" We were so confused until we realized they were trying to say "Can I go to the Bathroom?". How cute is that?! ;) This class also loves when I do ""High Five! In the Sky! Down Low! Too Slow!" It has gotten to the point where now the kids come up to me and do it to me! I usually on purpose go too slow so that way they can "win".
Yellow Group: The Yellow Group are just so cute... I say that about every class but for real, I think ALL my kids are the cutest kids in China! These kids are all so sweet. Every morning when I walk in, Spencer runs over to me and says "Teacha Cherry I love you!" He then gives me a hug and says, "Teacha UP!" So I pick him up. He then says, "Teacha, sit down". It is so cute! This class also loves when I do the "High Five! In the Sky! Down Low! Too Slow!"
THE OLDER CLASS:
The older classes are definitely more rambunctious than the younger classes. It doesn't help that we have 10-11 students in each of the classes. But somehow, no matter how how crazy they can be, they still manage to pull at my little hear strings. Its so hard to stay mad at these cuties.
One day, one of the boys, Johnny, came up to me and says "Riley..." and then he motioned to his Wa-Wa and pulling on it. I put the pieces together and discovered that Johnny was trying to tell me that Riley kept pulling on Johnny's Wa-Wa... I brought the boys together to try to tell them that they shouldn't do that, when James Bond comes over and whispers in Riley's ear in Chinese and Riley then grabbed Johnny's wa-wa again! I called Kelly over and she talked to the boys in Chinese. Later, Kelly told me that in China they used to never talk to the kids about sex, but now in recent years, they started to explain to the kids that boys and girls have certain different body parts, which has caused a lot of act ups like the story I just told.
Green Group: The Green Group started out as the worst class, a vast majority of the kids were CRAZY and never listened. However, as the semester is coming to a close they have been passed by the naughty Blue Class. On the first day of classes, Vivian hissed at me. From the very first second I met her I knew that she would be trouble. Justin, another kid who usually gets at least 3 strikes a day, was sooooo bad in the beginning. There were a few times that I had to have him sit on my lap during class and that would usually help him pay better attention. Now that the semester is almost over, Justin has improved, he still isn't necessarily "good", but he isn't as bad anymore. Now the teachers have started to tell him that if he is being reallllllly good during class they will erase a strike. That has helped. One of my favorite Justin stories is that at the start of one of Autumns classes, I was telling Autumn something before class started and he stood in her spot and acted like the teacher and started going over the rules. It was precious.
Blue Group: The Blue Group has a few kids with major attitude problems, and now that they have become the naughtiest class I have to have daily chats with a few of the kids. Ryan is one of the worst kids because he has a terrible attitude. Most of the time, if a kid is being bad, they'll stop when we get upset at them and give them a strike.. not Ryan. He just gets mad and pouts and then doesn't care and keeps being bad. It's been rough trying to get him to be good. One of the blessings of the blue class is Charlie. Charlie is the sweetest kid, no lie. He is always good and always tries his hardest to learn English. Seriously, even in the picture I took of the whole class he is standing sweetly with his arms folded.
Red Group: The Red Group, don't be fooled by their cuteness, they still have their share of rambunctious kids. These kids are so freaking cute. Lets be honest, these kids are like 5-6 years old and so it is expected that they would be a little rambunctious and full of energy.. Oscar was one of the worst kids at the beginning of the semester. However, randomly about a month into classes, he didn't get any strikes. When I saw that he didn't get any strikes it made me soooo happy because this kid was one of my favorites and now I felt like he could legitimately be one of my faves because he suddenly became one of the "good" kids. The Red Class has been "the best" older class since the start, and they continue to be.
OPENING: During opening we line all the kids up outside, we go over the rules, sing songs, tell the date and weather and then each teacher takes their first class off to their teaching area.
CLASSES: Every teacher teaches 1 lesson, 5 times a day (the same lesson to all 5 classes). Every teacher has 1 SPE (Synchronized Play Episodes...basically a category for the lessons) that teach for 1 week. For example, one week a teacher would teach Drama, then the next week they would teach Arts and Crafts, then Kitchen.. etc. As head teacher, I am usually going from class to class and helping teach and helping out where ever I see the need. I also have to talk to the naughty kids when they get 2 strikes. If they get 3 strikes, then I have to take them to a coordinator and she has some words with them.. and even sometimes fake calls there moms. That's pretty funny, but the kids find it terrifying. Another thing I do as Head Teacher is evaluations. Every Wednesday, I watch the teachers teach and do an evaluation. ILP gave me an evaluation form that I use to help me figure out where the teachers need to improve. My teachers have been awesome since the beginning, and have improved so much! Almost all of them have gotten a perfect score now that the semester is almost over. :)
CLOSING/STORE: After the kids go to all 5 rotations, it is time to close up and do store. The kids take out their tokens, count them, tell the teacher how many they have, the teacher then adds that amount to the number of tokens the kids have in "savings". Once the teachers show the kids how many tokens they have they can then pick an item from the store. The store is set up kind of like Chuck E. Cheese's, with different prizes for a certain amount of tokens. The kids have the option to pick an item or save their tokens. The younger classes love getting stickers and putting them on their name tags, the older class like saving up as much as possible to get really cool prizes!
AFTERNOON CLASSES: (4:45 pm-5:45 pm)
Besides our every day classes, we also have afternoon classes. The afternoon classes are HARD. We have 2 groups, Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday, and we only see these kids 2 times a week for 1 hour. Only 2 hours a week is not enough time to get the kids to remember anything. In comparison, we see our main kids for around 15 hours a week. It's the end of the semester and most of the kids still barely know their names. Sigh. At the start of each of the classes, we have them each say their names and then jump into the lesson. One of the hardest things is that we don't token the kids.. in our morning classes, tokens help motivate the kids to talk more.. Without that the kids don't have a reason to talk to us or behave...It's been a little rough, but these Chinese kids are still the cutest <3
We still do opening but only 3 rotations (so the teachers rotate each week what classes they are teaching..either M/W or T/TH), we also have "store" but we only give the kids who didn't get 3 strikes a sticker.
Monday and Wednesday Afternoon Classes: These kids are usually kind of interested and attempt to copy what we say. They are younger than the Tuesday/ Thursday class and therefore better behaved. For the first month of afternoon classes, one kid, Hunter, would cry and cry and cry for the whole time. Poor kid, but now he sits quietly in class and tries to copy what the teacher says. One funny story about this class is that one kid, Ethan was originally named Tommy, until we learned that his parents wanted his name to be Ethan. Well, the day we changed his name tag and had him say "My name is Ethan" He looked at us with a super sad look and said, in the cutest voice ever, "... My name is Tommy". IT WAS SOOOOO CUTE!
Tuesday and Thursday Afternoon Classes: These classes are generally, Terrible. No LIE. The usually don't listen and don't care and just run crazy. It is always really hard trying to make the activities extra extra extra interesting to keep the kids as calm as possible. ;) It is hard to be mad when the kids are so cute, especially when the kids start doing kung fu during opening and class! (Thankfully they don't actually hurt each other though)
Love these Kids :)
Billy
Charlie
Riley
Oscar
Spencer
Jimmy
