Monday, September 2
Happy week 3! Yesterday and today have been pretty crazy. All of the students came to school yesterday and it was kind of crazy! I met with the students in the classroom and we started them working right away! The biggest thing with them is listening to directions and learning how to be obedient. The teachers here are much more strict and want everything to be done a certain way, even how you sit and which hand you raise. Hannah is the head teacher and takes care of most of that so she basically did all the talking. We had talked to the parents for a little bit then kicked them out. It was funny cause they were all peeking in the door and trying to get pictures of their kids. Then, Hannah asked me to start teaching something and I panicked! I hadn't prepared anything! Well...I had some word cards that I had made up and I practiced these with the students. They speak A LOT more English than I expected! I am definitely going to have to come up with a lot of things to keep them busy and do much more than what is in their English textbook. That's good though because I'll be able to teach them lots of new things that will blow everyone out of the water! Haha. So after the kids went back to their dorms, I went back to my room and got some well deserved rest.
Today, was another day. The first full day. It was kind of crazy because the other teachers in my room were kind of going by their own schedule so I had to feel my way around that for awhile haha. I know now though, so nobody freak out. We started the day with flipping a few classes so I taught a few hours earlier than I'm originally scheduled, but that's okay! We went over some basic directions and rules from the posters that I had made this weekend. The kids need a lot of time practicing these, which is going to be done a lot this week. The kids are wilder than we had expected so Hannah is very strict with the kids, but they need it in order to become those well oiled machines that we all think of as Chinese students! We then went over some greetings that they should know and most of them knew them already, which was again, a shocker. The first week is so hard already! That was pretty much the first lesson that I taught, which lasted about 40 minutes. The next lesson that I was to teach, Hannah took over to teach them more discipline things, which I had no problem with. She can be the bad guy! Haha. Then we had lunch, the kids did some more activities and I went back to my office and room to hang out for awhile (which is what they do here I'm told) and then I had my music lesson at 3:30. I wanted to give the kids a feel for some English songs so I went through several of them just to get them used to it. Kuo was sitting in on all my lessons to observe me and suggested that I go one song at a time and slow them down so that the kids can actually learn the words, which I definitely plan on doing next week. I just wanted them to get a feel for some of the songs. After that, we had supper (silly word) and then the kids went with their life teacher to go practice making their beds the correct way.
Hannah, Kuo, and I walked back to the office while the life skill teacher had the kids. We ran into the elementary principal and apparently she told them that I looked very professional and they should do anything to please me...haha...I feel so spoiled here! They literally will get me anything I ask for. They asked if the kids needed iPads and I said no, but now I'm thinking maybe since I basically have 2 extra classes (my activity time) that I have to fill with things to do. I'll have to ask. Plus things are a little crazy cause I don't have any supplies that I'm working with right now, so I literally am just talking to the kids all day and demanding them to do things with nothing. Poor little things were soooo tired today. They run a tight schedule here, even for the 6/7 year olds! I'll have to get a copy of the schedule and let you guys know. They are literally up from 6am to 8pm doing something all of the time. By the end of the day, I could just tell they were done and just had them read their Chinese books cause its easy for them. They actually read English very well too. I think I can challenge them a lot more than planned and give them a lot of new vocabulary to learn. I've just got to make the preparations to do so...and get all my materials. So all in all, today was a huge learning curve and I definitely have a lot of work ahead of me! I'll probably/possibly post some pictures tomorrow. I have to bring my camera so I can get some pictures of the kids and possibly get a group picture so we can see how much they grow! Tomorrow is another day, I'm whipped, and I have a lot to prepare in the morning so that I don't run out of things to do....I may have scrambled a little bit today to find things to do haha. Well...smell ya later!
Oh and FYI, there's 16 boys and 7 girls. Weird. I know. And they all have English names that either they had or I gave to them. Not all of them answer to their names yet. They also try to speak to me in Chinese and I have no idea what they are saying. I feel helpless haha. oh and here's the link to the site where all the pictures are of the kids. They're really cute and the posing with the peace sign up is soo typical Chinese...I love it haha. (the website I originally inserted is not working, I'll have to mess with it) It's on this website called QQ which is a very popular instant messaging site that everybody is on. I have the English version so it's nice to be part of the cool crowd haha. There is a group page for all of the parents of our students and even now, they are writing things back and forth to each other and I Google Translate everything so I at least have some idea what they're talking about haha (even though 80% of the time the translations make no sense!) So yea...now I'm going to bed...Goodnight!
3rd ohhh....I hate white sheets. They get dirty so easily! Okay, I'm really going to bed now. Gotta be up at 6!
Tuesday, September 3
I'm actually writing this on Wednesday because I was too tired to write last night. I'm up from about 7 am to 9 pm everyday...95% of the time in the office or in the classroom. This is really hard. The students don't know what I am saying so they aren't listening! Ahhh my worst nightmare! I need to come up with a better classroom management policy that will solve this. I am trying to come up with one that both Hannah and I agree upon but I don't think she's understanding what I am saying. I'm sure will we talk about it later. As far as the content, the kids know more than I expected so I think they are getting bored with the material, so I will have to make things more difficult. These little buggers are gonna learn whether they like it or not! It was a pretty rough day and I was definitely wanting to come home ASAP. When I got back to my room, I took a deep breath and started to figure out how I could change things up. Hannah and I need to collaborate more so that she can tell the kids what I want them to do in Chinese and then they will actually know what I want them to do. Since it's actually Wednesday, I'll probably just write more when I get back to my room, but overall....it was a stressful day. Very very tough. Very. :(
Wednesday and Thursday, September 5 and 6
Yeah. I know. I'm slacking....deal with it haha. The past few days have been very rough and this has probably been the hardest week I've every worked but TGIF!! Seriously. Thank God. I've got a lot of work to do this weekend. My plans for this week didn't help the students because they came in knowing much more than I thought they would know, so I was really boring! Not a good start. Yesterday I broke down when I was outside with them and they just wouldn't listen to me...I was so frustrated! It's hard when I get left by myself with them cause they just go crazy cause they figure they don't have to listen to me since they don't know what I'm saying anyways. So yeah. Rough two days. I've talked to both Hannah and Kuo though and hopefully things will get resolved. I think I can only go up from here. Well...that's all for now. We we will how Friday goes. It's only a half day since the kids go home so maybe they'll be better. Cross my fingers.
Friday, September 6
Well today was better than I had expected it to be. The kids actually were listening and excited about my lesson : ) I think I've had a bad attitude lately so it really rubbed off on the kids. We even played a little bit together and they were all fighting over who got to hold my hand! Strange thing to make me happy haha. So I learned that I definitely just need to change my attitude and learn to be more fun with the kids! They are only 6 years old after all. What really helped was a new behavior chart that I put up on the door so that they all could see who was on target with their behavior. It's pretty simple: green smiley-good, red frowny-bad, blue star-extra great! At the end of the day we gave each kid on green a sticker to put in some books that I made for them, no stickers for the kids on red, and two stickers for the kids on blue. We made a really big deal about it and one of the boys who was on red and didn't get a sticker actually cried! Bad thing to say it made me happy but that just means it was an effective method and hopefully he will listen better. So the kids actually went home after lunch...around 1:30. I knew it was a half day but that's like a quarter of a day! So easy!! Pretty much everybody was gone off campus by 2:30 so I just went back to my room and had a Friday night movie night with myself. The movies showing were Hercules, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Nemo. I also had some Louis C.K. stand up at the end but fell asleep within 15 minutes so I don't really count that haha. Overall, it was a pretty good Friday and relaxing night. Finally.
Saturday, September 7
It's early in the day but I've done a lot! I read some of a new book...very interesting. It's strange but I love books about the end of the world and now people survive post-apocalypse. Verrryyy interesting to me. Weird? Yes. haha. This is my third..no...fourth book that I've read this week. I've been very hesitant to start reading because I knew this would happen. I get soo into a book and don't want to stop reading it that it's literally what I do all day and night. I've been staying up too late reading (the first book I actually read in like 2 hours...it was pretty short but good). So yeah, I had put a bunch of books on my kindle (like 15) and thought that would last me the year, but I'm starting to think not. Thank goodness Linda and Big Grandpa gave me some great sites where I can get free books...thanks again!! Plus it's nice that I can go on Amazon still which I didn't think I would be able to. So after reading for awhile this morning, I decided to go out for a run and then a walk. I ran around the track (which is so conveniently practically outside my door) for about a half an hour and then went for a walk around the school to give you guys some pictures. When I say it looks like a prison, it really does look like one. Especially the different block numbers. I also figured out yesterday where I was so decided to go for a walk. I'm actually a lot closer to some things than I originally thought I was. There is a little river (kinda swampy looking) and then once you cross that bride, there is some kind of park. There was something going on today cause there were a bunch of balloons and banners all around but I didn't go check it out since my main goal was to find a store. I'll have to ask one of the people on campus what it was all about.
I only walked for about 15-20 min and then found a store and loaded up on some drinks and snacks. Ramen noodle type bowls are very popular here and very convenient for me when I don't want to get up in the morning to go have breakfast at 7 in the morning on the weekends. It's actually what I had last night for dinner. They're really good actually. I had to get some water here. There are those big water cooler jugs in almost all the offices and classrooms but not in my actual sleeping room. I have an electric kettle though and Kuo said that most people just boil the water and drink since drinking cold water is not popular...something about it not being digested well when it's cold. Very weird. So I tried to boil the water, let it cool down, and then drink it but it made my stomach hurt reallllyyyy bad so I decided to stop that right away haha. I guess I just need to either keep stocking up on big bottles of bottled water or see if they could put a water cooler somewhere on my floor so that I can use it. Nobody really drinks water around here but they tell me to ask for anything I may need so I guess that's next on my list. That and possibly a gate opener thing. There's a few gates but you can only walk through the main gate on the weekend. The others are closed tight. Hopefully I can ask for some type of pass that will open up the gate closest to my building since it is in the back and walking all the way around to the front is really inconvenient and out of the way where I need to go. There is a gate very close to my building which also towards the store so it would be very nice to be able to get in and out of that one. So those two things are next on my list of asking. So hmm...yeah I bought some things for my room again (only spending about 65 Yuan which is about $11) and then walked back to the school. Stupid me didn't think about how heavy everything was going to be so I tried to hustle haha. I was tired after running earlier though so it was a long walk. Maybe tomorrow or next weekend I will try to venture the other way to see if there is anything interesting there.
So yeah...that's my day so far. I got a lot of stares...again. It probably didn't help that I had on bright pink running shorts and a florescent green t-shirt with a monkey on it (from zip-lining in Honduras!). I'm doing a load of laundry now too. Very productive so far. This week I asked Joy if she would take me to the store again and she said yes. I need to get some more laundry soap, some cleaning supplies, and a few other things to be a little homier. Oh yeah...I'm not coming home until November now so I made need to get a few warmer clothes to wear since I didn't pack too many. Apparently, to get your workers visa in China to work in a school, you need to have 2 years teaching experience, which I don't have, so I have to go take a week long class in Beijing the week after next and that'll give me a certificate that says I can work here. Then, it takes a few weeks to get some other paperwork done and that then leads me into leaving into the middle of November. The school has to get a sub for me for those 2 weeks so we shall see how that goes. I feel like I'll have to leave lesson plans but they'll have no idea how I want the things to be taught! The teaching methods are so vastly different. That'll have to be another post since this one is getting pretty long already. So yeah, middle of November sometime. I'll have to come back since my visa will run out by then anyways. Very complicated things going on here! Well, the rest of the day I should do some planning for next week and possibly the next. And hang my laundry to dry once it's done in the washer. Thank goodness I don't have to wash by hand like I thought I was going to have to. Enjoy the pictures!
Oh yeah, and maybe sometime this week I'll give a rundown of how the school day goes. It's very detailed and lengthy : )
Happy week 3! Yesterday and today have been pretty crazy. All of the students came to school yesterday and it was kind of crazy! I met with the students in the classroom and we started them working right away! The biggest thing with them is listening to directions and learning how to be obedient. The teachers here are much more strict and want everything to be done a certain way, even how you sit and which hand you raise. Hannah is the head teacher and takes care of most of that so she basically did all the talking. We had talked to the parents for a little bit then kicked them out. It was funny cause they were all peeking in the door and trying to get pictures of their kids. Then, Hannah asked me to start teaching something and I panicked! I hadn't prepared anything! Well...I had some word cards that I had made up and I practiced these with the students. They speak A LOT more English than I expected! I am definitely going to have to come up with a lot of things to keep them busy and do much more than what is in their English textbook. That's good though because I'll be able to teach them lots of new things that will blow everyone out of the water! Haha. So after the kids went back to their dorms, I went back to my room and got some well deserved rest.
Today, was another day. The first full day. It was kind of crazy because the other teachers in my room were kind of going by their own schedule so I had to feel my way around that for awhile haha. I know now though, so nobody freak out. We started the day with flipping a few classes so I taught a few hours earlier than I'm originally scheduled, but that's okay! We went over some basic directions and rules from the posters that I had made this weekend. The kids need a lot of time practicing these, which is going to be done a lot this week. The kids are wilder than we had expected so Hannah is very strict with the kids, but they need it in order to become those well oiled machines that we all think of as Chinese students! We then went over some greetings that they should know and most of them knew them already, which was again, a shocker. The first week is so hard already! That was pretty much the first lesson that I taught, which lasted about 40 minutes. The next lesson that I was to teach, Hannah took over to teach them more discipline things, which I had no problem with. She can be the bad guy! Haha. Then we had lunch, the kids did some more activities and I went back to my office and room to hang out for awhile (which is what they do here I'm told) and then I had my music lesson at 3:30. I wanted to give the kids a feel for some English songs so I went through several of them just to get them used to it. Kuo was sitting in on all my lessons to observe me and suggested that I go one song at a time and slow them down so that the kids can actually learn the words, which I definitely plan on doing next week. I just wanted them to get a feel for some of the songs. After that, we had supper (silly word) and then the kids went with their life teacher to go practice making their beds the correct way.
Hannah, Kuo, and I walked back to the office while the life skill teacher had the kids. We ran into the elementary principal and apparently she told them that I looked very professional and they should do anything to please me...haha...I feel so spoiled here! They literally will get me anything I ask for. They asked if the kids needed iPads and I said no, but now I'm thinking maybe since I basically have 2 extra classes (my activity time) that I have to fill with things to do. I'll have to ask. Plus things are a little crazy cause I don't have any supplies that I'm working with right now, so I literally am just talking to the kids all day and demanding them to do things with nothing. Poor little things were soooo tired today. They run a tight schedule here, even for the 6/7 year olds! I'll have to get a copy of the schedule and let you guys know. They are literally up from 6am to 8pm doing something all of the time. By the end of the day, I could just tell they were done and just had them read their Chinese books cause its easy for them. They actually read English very well too. I think I can challenge them a lot more than planned and give them a lot of new vocabulary to learn. I've just got to make the preparations to do so...and get all my materials. So all in all, today was a huge learning curve and I definitely have a lot of work ahead of me! I'll probably/possibly post some pictures tomorrow. I have to bring my camera so I can get some pictures of the kids and possibly get a group picture so we can see how much they grow! Tomorrow is another day, I'm whipped, and I have a lot to prepare in the morning so that I don't run out of things to do....I may have scrambled a little bit today to find things to do haha. Well...smell ya later!
Oh and FYI, there's 16 boys and 7 girls. Weird. I know. And they all have English names that either they had or I gave to them. Not all of them answer to their names yet. They also try to speak to me in Chinese and I have no idea what they are saying. I feel helpless haha. oh and here's the link to the site where all the pictures are of the kids. They're really cute and the posing with the peace sign up is soo typical Chinese...I love it haha. (the website I originally inserted is not working, I'll have to mess with it) It's on this website called QQ which is a very popular instant messaging site that everybody is on. I have the English version so it's nice to be part of the cool crowd haha. There is a group page for all of the parents of our students and even now, they are writing things back and forth to each other and I Google Translate everything so I at least have some idea what they're talking about haha (even though 80% of the time the translations make no sense!) So yea...now I'm going to bed...Goodnight!
3rd ohhh....I hate white sheets. They get dirty so easily! Okay, I'm really going to bed now. Gotta be up at 6!
Tuesday, September 3
I'm actually writing this on Wednesday because I was too tired to write last night. I'm up from about 7 am to 9 pm everyday...95% of the time in the office or in the classroom. This is really hard. The students don't know what I am saying so they aren't listening! Ahhh my worst nightmare! I need to come up with a better classroom management policy that will solve this. I am trying to come up with one that both Hannah and I agree upon but I don't think she's understanding what I am saying. I'm sure will we talk about it later. As far as the content, the kids know more than I expected so I think they are getting bored with the material, so I will have to make things more difficult. These little buggers are gonna learn whether they like it or not! It was a pretty rough day and I was definitely wanting to come home ASAP. When I got back to my room, I took a deep breath and started to figure out how I could change things up. Hannah and I need to collaborate more so that she can tell the kids what I want them to do in Chinese and then they will actually know what I want them to do. Since it's actually Wednesday, I'll probably just write more when I get back to my room, but overall....it was a stressful day. Very very tough. Very. :(
Wednesday and Thursday, September 5 and 6
Yeah. I know. I'm slacking....deal with it haha. The past few days have been very rough and this has probably been the hardest week I've every worked but TGIF!! Seriously. Thank God. I've got a lot of work to do this weekend. My plans for this week didn't help the students because they came in knowing much more than I thought they would know, so I was really boring! Not a good start. Yesterday I broke down when I was outside with them and they just wouldn't listen to me...I was so frustrated! It's hard when I get left by myself with them cause they just go crazy cause they figure they don't have to listen to me since they don't know what I'm saying anyways. So yeah. Rough two days. I've talked to both Hannah and Kuo though and hopefully things will get resolved. I think I can only go up from here. Well...that's all for now. We we will how Friday goes. It's only a half day since the kids go home so maybe they'll be better. Cross my fingers.
Friday, September 6
Well today was better than I had expected it to be. The kids actually were listening and excited about my lesson : ) I think I've had a bad attitude lately so it really rubbed off on the kids. We even played a little bit together and they were all fighting over who got to hold my hand! Strange thing to make me happy haha. So I learned that I definitely just need to change my attitude and learn to be more fun with the kids! They are only 6 years old after all. What really helped was a new behavior chart that I put up on the door so that they all could see who was on target with their behavior. It's pretty simple: green smiley-good, red frowny-bad, blue star-extra great! At the end of the day we gave each kid on green a sticker to put in some books that I made for them, no stickers for the kids on red, and two stickers for the kids on blue. We made a really big deal about it and one of the boys who was on red and didn't get a sticker actually cried! Bad thing to say it made me happy but that just means it was an effective method and hopefully he will listen better. So the kids actually went home after lunch...around 1:30. I knew it was a half day but that's like a quarter of a day! So easy!! Pretty much everybody was gone off campus by 2:30 so I just went back to my room and had a Friday night movie night with myself. The movies showing were Hercules, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Nemo. I also had some Louis C.K. stand up at the end but fell asleep within 15 minutes so I don't really count that haha. Overall, it was a pretty good Friday and relaxing night. Finally.
Saturday, September 7
It's early in the day but I've done a lot! I read some of a new book...very interesting. It's strange but I love books about the end of the world and now people survive post-apocalypse. Verrryyy interesting to me. Weird? Yes. haha. This is my third..no...fourth book that I've read this week. I've been very hesitant to start reading because I knew this would happen. I get soo into a book and don't want to stop reading it that it's literally what I do all day and night. I've been staying up too late reading (the first book I actually read in like 2 hours...it was pretty short but good). So yeah, I had put a bunch of books on my kindle (like 15) and thought that would last me the year, but I'm starting to think not. Thank goodness Linda and Big Grandpa gave me some great sites where I can get free books...thanks again!! Plus it's nice that I can go on Amazon still which I didn't think I would be able to. So after reading for awhile this morning, I decided to go out for a run and then a walk. I ran around the track (which is so conveniently practically outside my door) for about a half an hour and then went for a walk around the school to give you guys some pictures. When I say it looks like a prison, it really does look like one. Especially the different block numbers. I also figured out yesterday where I was so decided to go for a walk. I'm actually a lot closer to some things than I originally thought I was. There is a little river (kinda swampy looking) and then once you cross that bride, there is some kind of park. There was something going on today cause there were a bunch of balloons and banners all around but I didn't go check it out since my main goal was to find a store. I'll have to ask one of the people on campus what it was all about.
I only walked for about 15-20 min and then found a store and loaded up on some drinks and snacks. Ramen noodle type bowls are very popular here and very convenient for me when I don't want to get up in the morning to go have breakfast at 7 in the morning on the weekends. It's actually what I had last night for dinner. They're really good actually. I had to get some water here. There are those big water cooler jugs in almost all the offices and classrooms but not in my actual sleeping room. I have an electric kettle though and Kuo said that most people just boil the water and drink since drinking cold water is not popular...something about it not being digested well when it's cold. Very weird. So I tried to boil the water, let it cool down, and then drink it but it made my stomach hurt reallllyyyy bad so I decided to stop that right away haha. I guess I just need to either keep stocking up on big bottles of bottled water or see if they could put a water cooler somewhere on my floor so that I can use it. Nobody really drinks water around here but they tell me to ask for anything I may need so I guess that's next on my list. That and possibly a gate opener thing. There's a few gates but you can only walk through the main gate on the weekend. The others are closed tight. Hopefully I can ask for some type of pass that will open up the gate closest to my building since it is in the back and walking all the way around to the front is really inconvenient and out of the way where I need to go. There is a gate very close to my building which also towards the store so it would be very nice to be able to get in and out of that one. So those two things are next on my list of asking. So hmm...yeah I bought some things for my room again (only spending about 65 Yuan which is about $11) and then walked back to the school. Stupid me didn't think about how heavy everything was going to be so I tried to hustle haha. I was tired after running earlier though so it was a long walk. Maybe tomorrow or next weekend I will try to venture the other way to see if there is anything interesting there.
So yeah...that's my day so far. I got a lot of stares...again. It probably didn't help that I had on bright pink running shorts and a florescent green t-shirt with a monkey on it (from zip-lining in Honduras!). I'm doing a load of laundry now too. Very productive so far. This week I asked Joy if she would take me to the store again and she said yes. I need to get some more laundry soap, some cleaning supplies, and a few other things to be a little homier. Oh yeah...I'm not coming home until November now so I made need to get a few warmer clothes to wear since I didn't pack too many. Apparently, to get your workers visa in China to work in a school, you need to have 2 years teaching experience, which I don't have, so I have to go take a week long class in Beijing the week after next and that'll give me a certificate that says I can work here. Then, it takes a few weeks to get some other paperwork done and that then leads me into leaving into the middle of November. The school has to get a sub for me for those 2 weeks so we shall see how that goes. I feel like I'll have to leave lesson plans but they'll have no idea how I want the things to be taught! The teaching methods are so vastly different. That'll have to be another post since this one is getting pretty long already. So yeah, middle of November sometime. I'll have to come back since my visa will run out by then anyways. Very complicated things going on here! Well, the rest of the day I should do some planning for next week and possibly the next. And hang my laundry to dry once it's done in the washer. Thank goodness I don't have to wash by hand like I thought I was going to have to. Enjoy the pictures!
Oh yeah, and maybe sometime this week I'll give a rundown of how the school day goes. It's very detailed and lengthy : )
Sunday, August 8
Another end to another week. Today was actually a really productive day! School wise, that is. I didn't go for a walk like I had originally planned but I did a lot of other things! The day started off with me writing an e-mail back to Maureen (Terry's mom) while I was still half sleeping...sorry if it didn't make sense haha. Then, I got an e-mail from my mom saying that my Aunt Donna was trying to Skype with me so finally we connected and had a nice 45 minute long conversation. It's so nice to hear a familiar voice and see a familiar face. Anybody is welcome to Skype me if you want to! I've got nothing but time around here haha. The time difference is the only stinky part though, but it's workable. So after my conversation with her, I got to work writing my plans for this week. I had wrote them all down last night on paper but typed them out into a word document so they're a little more official now. I feel like this week is going to go a lot better since know I have a better idea of the kind of work that I can expect out of the kids. I have planned a lot more activities that go way beyond what is just in the little textbook that was given to me. Hopefully the kids will really enjoy what I've put together. I even make 8 worksheets for the kids to do that expand on what they've learned in class. Yep. 8. All written by hand, not even typed. I don't have a printer so it really puts a damper on things. Hopefully I'll be getting one this week...I'll have to bug my peeps some more! That will make things a lot easier for me. I've gotta figure out the copying situation too. I did it once with Hannah and you have to fill out this log and then somebody does the copies for you. Hmm...that's something I've gotta tackle in the morning.
So, yeah, I hand wrote 8 worksheets and then also made a few PowerPoints that highlight new vocabulary that the kids will be learning. I'm actually pretty excited to see how it goes because if it works out well, I'll hold the same plan every week but then just change the content. Around 4:30 I left my room and went down to see the kids. They were all getting settled back into the room (they came back at 3:30) and I think they were taking a test. I'm not really sure....they'll have another one tomorrow though haha. Oh yea, I hand wrote a quiz too on the content from last week that they should have learned. We'll see how that goes. Back to dinner...I went down and ate with them and they were all so cute wanting me to sit next to them. 6 year olds can really make you smile : ) and frown haha. After dinner, the kids went back to the classroom and I went to the office for a minute to grab some things. Hannah was there with her husband and she invited me out to dinner with them but I declined and just went back to my room to finish all my worksheets and PowerPoints. I'm thinking this week she'll be a little less stressed since the first week is over now. Hopefully she'll also be on board with all my plans that I've got going. The kids should really learn a lot but not become bored.
I've been in my room pretty much the rest of the night. I finished my work and then played some games and now here I am. There was that awful festival going on again that was SOOO loud outside my window! I googled it and I think it was some festival about the Qing Dynasty and how they came from this area. At least that's what I think. I'll have to ask somebody tomorrow. I've got a few videos on my phone cause it was so obnoxious. It went on from about 6-midnight yesterday and then on and off from 10 this morning to about 9 tonight. Weird. But, it's time for me to do some reading and go to sleep. It's going to be another long week. I can already tell!
Another end to another week. Today was actually a really productive day! School wise, that is. I didn't go for a walk like I had originally planned but I did a lot of other things! The day started off with me writing an e-mail back to Maureen (Terry's mom) while I was still half sleeping...sorry if it didn't make sense haha. Then, I got an e-mail from my mom saying that my Aunt Donna was trying to Skype with me so finally we connected and had a nice 45 minute long conversation. It's so nice to hear a familiar voice and see a familiar face. Anybody is welcome to Skype me if you want to! I've got nothing but time around here haha. The time difference is the only stinky part though, but it's workable. So after my conversation with her, I got to work writing my plans for this week. I had wrote them all down last night on paper but typed them out into a word document so they're a little more official now. I feel like this week is going to go a lot better since know I have a better idea of the kind of work that I can expect out of the kids. I have planned a lot more activities that go way beyond what is just in the little textbook that was given to me. Hopefully the kids will really enjoy what I've put together. I even make 8 worksheets for the kids to do that expand on what they've learned in class. Yep. 8. All written by hand, not even typed. I don't have a printer so it really puts a damper on things. Hopefully I'll be getting one this week...I'll have to bug my peeps some more! That will make things a lot easier for me. I've gotta figure out the copying situation too. I did it once with Hannah and you have to fill out this log and then somebody does the copies for you. Hmm...that's something I've gotta tackle in the morning.
So, yeah, I hand wrote 8 worksheets and then also made a few PowerPoints that highlight new vocabulary that the kids will be learning. I'm actually pretty excited to see how it goes because if it works out well, I'll hold the same plan every week but then just change the content. Around 4:30 I left my room and went down to see the kids. They were all getting settled back into the room (they came back at 3:30) and I think they were taking a test. I'm not really sure....they'll have another one tomorrow though haha. Oh yea, I hand wrote a quiz too on the content from last week that they should have learned. We'll see how that goes. Back to dinner...I went down and ate with them and they were all so cute wanting me to sit next to them. 6 year olds can really make you smile : ) and frown haha. After dinner, the kids went back to the classroom and I went to the office for a minute to grab some things. Hannah was there with her husband and she invited me out to dinner with them but I declined and just went back to my room to finish all my worksheets and PowerPoints. I'm thinking this week she'll be a little less stressed since the first week is over now. Hopefully she'll also be on board with all my plans that I've got going. The kids should really learn a lot but not become bored.
I've been in my room pretty much the rest of the night. I finished my work and then played some games and now here I am. There was that awful festival going on again that was SOOO loud outside my window! I googled it and I think it was some festival about the Qing Dynasty and how they came from this area. At least that's what I think. I'll have to ask somebody tomorrow. I've got a few videos on my phone cause it was so obnoxious. It went on from about 6-midnight yesterday and then on and off from 10 this morning to about 9 tonight. Weird. But, it's time for me to do some reading and go to sleep. It's going to be another long week. I can already tell!