Monday, September 9
Another week has begun. I decided to quit being such a Negative Nancy and have a better start to the week. It's kind of funny actually because several people have commented how smiley and nice I looked today. Guess I was giving off a worse vibe than I had even expected! So, my plans went pretty well today and Hannah even said that she really liked them. The kids seemed to have more fun too which is the main goal. I ended up missing breakfast with the kids because I had gotten up a little late but still went to the classroom afterwards and said hi to them. They were all happy to be back which is nice to see. They actually came back yesterday afternoon and I saw them for a little while but they were all in their little uniforms and looked so stinking cute haha. I will have to take pictures this week of them. They've really started to enjoy playing with me outside even though today, I mistakenly wore a dress and they wanted me to run all around and chase them. Needless to say, I was getting even more stares than normal since I was the crazy American girl running around like a nutcase in a dress haha.
Extra good news today....I am getting my own classroom! We are temporarily moving to a classroom that's right down the hall from my office which is nice. I was excited to stay there since it is nice and big, so I would be able to do whatever I wanted to do with it. Unfortunately, it is just a temporary move and I guess we are moving to a different classroom. I guess there's something wrong with the projector in the big room and therefore we will have to move twice, but the final destination is not known yet. We did some cleaning in the room and I rearranged the desks to a small sem-circle inside of a bigger semi-circle, which would either be really good or really bad. I want the kids to be able to talk to each other more in English and be able to do partner work, but then again, they could also just be extra noisy. My behavior chart worked some wonders today : ) During my art lesson, the kids were soooo quiet and worked so hard. I was so impressed! I teach two activity times as well and I had them do 2 of the worksheets that I had made up and they also worked really hard on those. I guess having them do things like that are going to helpful! I'm going to put together some Friday Folders that they can bring home the work that they did during the week and show their parents what we did all week! The parents here are EXTREMELY concerned about their kids, so I know they will like seeing the things that we do. Today we already made a weather book and did 2 worksheets. Not too shabby I would say. So yeah, it was a really good day....
..... Except for the extremely loud fireworks going off right now! It's crazy!!! The kids are all in bed now so it must be bothering them! I asked Hannah what was going on all weekend and she said there is a college nearby (right by where I walked on Saturday) so they must have had some kind of celebration or festival going on. Guess it's lasting into the week too though!
Oh and Happy Teachers Day! I don't know if it's today or tomorrow but I've already gotten 2 gifts!! Holy cow...one mom gave me a Swarovski necklace!! It's gorgeous!! I'll have to take a picture of it....I was shocked. I expected maybe some candy or something. Holy moley! She probably is trying to persuade me to grade her son easier cause he's a naughty little boy, is very immature, and never wants to do his work....so she's buying me out haha. I'll be wearing that bling all the time though! I also got 2 big boxes of mooncakes which I guess are a Chinese traditional cake, or something like that. I'm not really sure. The box looked really expensive and the looked very good. Hannah told me to hide them so the other teachers don't get jealous haha. Well, I think I am going to go back to my room now and get some sleep. I only slept like 2 hours last night so I should probably get to bed. I feel exhausted. Goodnight....or morning : )
Tuesday, September 10
Or Chooseday....as my Grandma Skiver pronounces it : ) Today was another good day. Mostly because I made it back to my room before 9 at night haha. As I said before, it was Teachers Day here today so all the kids were walking around saying Happy Teachers day. My lessons went pretty well for the day, but I still have to figure out how to make the English lessons more interesting for the kids. Hannah stepped in for one of the lessons and explained it in Chinese so I think that really helped them understand more. I told her I like it when she does that because then the kids have at least a good foundation and then I can teach the rest from there. She should do it every lesson that I'm teaching new material. I think I am about 60% there so I'm on my way. I'm going to the store tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to find some supplies there that will help me. I need inspiration! It stinks that there's no dollar stores here! The kids were pretty cute. They are definitely opening up to me now and always want to play like we do outside but then are a little wound up for a little too long, so I admit, I yelled at them for about 5 minutes and how they should behave with me. I'm thinking it kind of sunk in because they were way better for the rest of the day.
Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I got 3 beautiful bouquets which smell sooo nice. I love having them in my room already! Really spruces it up. I'll have to get a picture of my mooncakes once I bring them back to my room. I think Chinese people have a thing for plants because they are the main decoration in all the room and mostly what the teachers got as gifts. I would have to say it's something about life and living things and all that jazz. I like how Chinese culture has a meaning for everything and nothing is ever just what it seems like on the surface. For example, yesterday, I bit my cheek and told Hannah and she said that the Chinese people believe that it means you want to eat meat since it is like meat. Very interesting?! I think so. Well I'm determined to go to bed early tonight so I'll talk to ya'll tomorrow. Oh. Ya'll. Hannah wanted me to teach her something Americans say so I taught her that one. She sounds ridiculous saying it haha. See you later!M
Another week has begun. I decided to quit being such a Negative Nancy and have a better start to the week. It's kind of funny actually because several people have commented how smiley and nice I looked today. Guess I was giving off a worse vibe than I had even expected! So, my plans went pretty well today and Hannah even said that she really liked them. The kids seemed to have more fun too which is the main goal. I ended up missing breakfast with the kids because I had gotten up a little late but still went to the classroom afterwards and said hi to them. They were all happy to be back which is nice to see. They actually came back yesterday afternoon and I saw them for a little while but they were all in their little uniforms and looked so stinking cute haha. I will have to take pictures this week of them. They've really started to enjoy playing with me outside even though today, I mistakenly wore a dress and they wanted me to run all around and chase them. Needless to say, I was getting even more stares than normal since I was the crazy American girl running around like a nutcase in a dress haha.
Extra good news today....I am getting my own classroom! We are temporarily moving to a classroom that's right down the hall from my office which is nice. I was excited to stay there since it is nice and big, so I would be able to do whatever I wanted to do with it. Unfortunately, it is just a temporary move and I guess we are moving to a different classroom. I guess there's something wrong with the projector in the big room and therefore we will have to move twice, but the final destination is not known yet. We did some cleaning in the room and I rearranged the desks to a small sem-circle inside of a bigger semi-circle, which would either be really good or really bad. I want the kids to be able to talk to each other more in English and be able to do partner work, but then again, they could also just be extra noisy. My behavior chart worked some wonders today : ) During my art lesson, the kids were soooo quiet and worked so hard. I was so impressed! I teach two activity times as well and I had them do 2 of the worksheets that I had made up and they also worked really hard on those. I guess having them do things like that are going to helpful! I'm going to put together some Friday Folders that they can bring home the work that they did during the week and show their parents what we did all week! The parents here are EXTREMELY concerned about their kids, so I know they will like seeing the things that we do. Today we already made a weather book and did 2 worksheets. Not too shabby I would say. So yeah, it was a really good day....
..... Except for the extremely loud fireworks going off right now! It's crazy!!! The kids are all in bed now so it must be bothering them! I asked Hannah what was going on all weekend and she said there is a college nearby (right by where I walked on Saturday) so they must have had some kind of celebration or festival going on. Guess it's lasting into the week too though!
Oh and Happy Teachers Day! I don't know if it's today or tomorrow but I've already gotten 2 gifts!! Holy cow...one mom gave me a Swarovski necklace!! It's gorgeous!! I'll have to take a picture of it....I was shocked. I expected maybe some candy or something. Holy moley! She probably is trying to persuade me to grade her son easier cause he's a naughty little boy, is very immature, and never wants to do his work....so she's buying me out haha. I'll be wearing that bling all the time though! I also got 2 big boxes of mooncakes which I guess are a Chinese traditional cake, or something like that. I'm not really sure. The box looked really expensive and the looked very good. Hannah told me to hide them so the other teachers don't get jealous haha. Well, I think I am going to go back to my room now and get some sleep. I only slept like 2 hours last night so I should probably get to bed. I feel exhausted. Goodnight....or morning : )
Tuesday, September 10
Or Chooseday....as my Grandma Skiver pronounces it : ) Today was another good day. Mostly because I made it back to my room before 9 at night haha. As I said before, it was Teachers Day here today so all the kids were walking around saying Happy Teachers day. My lessons went pretty well for the day, but I still have to figure out how to make the English lessons more interesting for the kids. Hannah stepped in for one of the lessons and explained it in Chinese so I think that really helped them understand more. I told her I like it when she does that because then the kids have at least a good foundation and then I can teach the rest from there. She should do it every lesson that I'm teaching new material. I think I am about 60% there so I'm on my way. I'm going to the store tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to find some supplies there that will help me. I need inspiration! It stinks that there's no dollar stores here! The kids were pretty cute. They are definitely opening up to me now and always want to play like we do outside but then are a little wound up for a little too long, so I admit, I yelled at them for about 5 minutes and how they should behave with me. I'm thinking it kind of sunk in because they were way better for the rest of the day.
Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I got 3 beautiful bouquets which smell sooo nice. I love having them in my room already! Really spruces it up. I'll have to get a picture of my mooncakes once I bring them back to my room. I think Chinese people have a thing for plants because they are the main decoration in all the room and mostly what the teachers got as gifts. I would have to say it's something about life and living things and all that jazz. I like how Chinese culture has a meaning for everything and nothing is ever just what it seems like on the surface. For example, yesterday, I bit my cheek and told Hannah and she said that the Chinese people believe that it means you want to eat meat since it is like meat. Very interesting?! I think so. Well I'm determined to go to bed early tonight so I'll talk to ya'll tomorrow. Oh. Ya'll. Hannah wanted me to teach her something Americans say so I taught her that one. She sounds ridiculous saying it haha. See you later!M
Wednesday, September 11
Just to let ya'll know I remember, it was a somber beginning to the day as I remembered where I was that morning 12 years ago. Sad, sad day. But anyways....don't mean to start off on a somber note, but it did cross my mind first thing this morning. Soo yeah...today was another pretty good day. Two of the Chinese English teachers came in and watched my first lesson. Everybody is so curious as to how I teach and what I teach. The vice-principal of the elementary school sat in yesterday and gave me some good feedback. The one girl today said that she liked my lesson, so that's good! I went through the other morning lesson, then went to lunch with the kids. Oh...that reminds me. EVERY DAY during lunch time and dinner time, the school plays Adele "Someone like you" on the speakers throughout campus. It's really really funny and I laugh every time I go outside. It's such a random song to be playing during recess, at a boarding school, in China. Another curiosity of being here! After lunch, I played with the kids for a little bit, but it was so hot out that I didn't keep them out for long. After lunch and recess, I had PE but Hannah led them because she wanted to teach them how to walk in line. They are supposed to walk all military like with their arms swinging and their legs marching. Very difficult for first graders. A 40 minute lesson got them only about 50% there. Guess it's just something we'll have to work on!
I was then done with my lessons for the day until Activity time, which we did a small worksheet. I had them color certain shapes certain colors and then write down the number of each shape. It took a really long time for them to do, but they aren't used to seeing the names of the words written out so it took them awhile to figure that out. Not too shabby though, I think. We went to dinner after that. For dinner, we had these delicious dumpling sort of thing. They're like bread stuffed with I don't even know what. My best guess is pork, celery, onions....the stuff you make stuffing with, minus the bread. I think they are called bao (which I think just translates to buns). Whatever they are, they are soooooo good. Run to your nearest Chinese store and ask for some! After dinner, we went to the gym and there were some games set up for all the first grade classes to play. The other classes seem a little bit crazy but I guess that's because there's a minimum of 40 in each regular Chinese class. We are spoiled and have 23! So there's 8 first grade classes with 40+ kids and then 23 in our class (the 9th). Just giving you a little visual of how crazy a gym could get with all those little kids! When all the chaos simmered down, we took the kids back to the room and then I went back to my office. While wasting time and looking up things on my new favorite website (upworthy.com) I somehow came across a bunch of videos that teach kids English using a little character named Gogo and his friends. They are super simple for the kids to follow and cover a lot of the material that I want to cover with them. SCORE! I've been looking for something a little more fun for the kids to see and that's exactly what I found! I was very excited and downloaded around 10 videos off of YouTube onto my computer. They are only 5 minutes long so not too long for the kids to get bored but long enough for them to cover all the content. I'm going to test drive one tomorrow and see how it goes!
Well...that's pretty much my day. The kids all wanted to be hanging off of me again. I've probably said (typed) it before, but I'll say it again...I'm sooo glad the kids are finally opening up to me! Yesterday, one little boy cut his finger while we were outside and he actually came to me first and said "Becky, Becky" and showed me his finger. I think I'm a little nicer than the other teachers so they want my attention more, which totally makes sense. You hear a lot of teachers yelling at their classes a lot of the time. While I did yell yesterday and I do have my stern moments, I don't want to become a screamer and have the kids flinch at me, like I see them do with other teachers. Things are different here! Time for bed though. I was determined to be in bed by 9:00 and it's 8:59. Goodbye for now!
Thursday, September 12
Another Thursday gone by...and a good one at that. The kids were pretty good for me and I think my lessons went really well. I definitely am more tolerant of the kids laughing and goofing off but the other teachers definitely are not. They expect the kids to sit there like little statues all day at their desks and not wiggle around and talk to one another. They got yelled at for a good 15+ minutes several times today, thankfully none by me. During the Chinese teachers lesson (which was being observed) I guess the kids were really bad and goofing off the whole time. Then, during their morning exercises (which I will watch on video one day) they were also messing around the whole time. It's normally just Hannah that has them for that time but she says they're really bad so I may join them for that time. I'm sure it's embarrassing for her to have the kids all messing around when there's only 23 of them and the other first grades with 40 kids are standing there still and listening to directions. So yeah, the kids got quite the earful today.
During one of my lessons, I finally took some pictures of the kids and a video of a song that i taught them. They're learned 4 songs...some better than others. Tomorrow I'll try to catch all of the songs that we do and post them. It's so cute cause there's this one little girl named Emily (picture of her follows) and she understands just about every direction that I give and then translates it to the other kids who don't understand so that they do what I want. There's another girl, Katty, who does the same thing. It's really cute actually and I'm glad they're like my little translators. I'll get some more pictures and videos of them tomorrow so you can finally see how cute they are. It's so funny because when they pose for pictures, they all put their peace sign fingers up and are soooo typically Chinese haha. It's cute. They love the songs that I have shown them, especially this weather one that I showed them today. They laughed so hard but actually sang along. It's so exciting to see them actually learning! And they always are fighting about who I sit next to during meals. So cute. The other kids in the school are always trying to hang around me too and saying "hello teacher, hello teacher". I probably say hello 50+ a day. They all love practicing their English.
After my last class for the day, I rushed back to my room, got my purse, and Joy took me to the store again. I totally forgot folders for the kids though....one of the main reasons why I wanted to go. DARN IT!! Oh well. I guess I'll just have to live with it haha. I bought some things for the classroom, but not a lot since I'll be going to Beijing in about a week and there's a bigger store with a lot bigger selection that I can get some things for the classroom. Aunt Donna, I looked for plastic plates but didn't see any! I would guess that Chinese people would think them to be wasteful and not use them. I will look for them in Beijing though at Carrefour. Kuo said they already booked my hotel for my training week and it's pretty close to the store, which is nice. But today at the store, I got some things for the classroom and then some more groceries (just little munchie things). I saw a black guy there and him and the Chinese girl he was with kept staring at me. I think they expected me to talk to him but I was busy talking to Joy. Maybe they were just surprised that Joy spoke English and could understand what I was saying.
Either way, I got some good things. I bought some window cleaner (Chinese windex) to clean my bathroom since it's getting gross. I totally feel like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I'm going to start using it for everything. It smells like bug spray though so it's a good thing that I got an air freshener too. Chinese grocery stores are always so exciting because there are always promoters trying to get you to buy their things. Plus, it's exciting that I have no idea what anything says, so it's always a gamble on what I'm buying. Joy laughed at me because I drank all the coffee from last time we shopping and ended up buying a huge box today. I told her I was addicted! The tea that I had to drink today was just not cutting it. Hmmm...what else. I always wander off by myself in the store and Joy would get sooo worried and come to look for me. We went with two other teachers from the school. Chris (the one who I gave him his English name and is always too scared to talk to me) and then his girlfriend, who I don't know if she speaks any English. Chris wanted to ask me a question and Joy kept telling him to just ask but I think he's not confident in his English skills so he wouldn't ask haha. He is very nice though. Joy went to pick up this milk drink and I read it and it said "lactic acid bacteria drink". I told her it didn't sound good in English and I guess that freaked her out cause she put it down and said no way haha. They have sooo many different kinds of milk here, it's crazy. Even imported milk for South Korea. LIterally, 2 aisles full of milk selections.
Oh and grandma, yes, they do have uniforms. The young kids have like sweat outfit uniforms though, as you can tell from the pictures. It's been really hot this week and they all have long sleeves and sweaters so I feel bad but I'm sure they'll be needing them in another month. The older kids wear with sweat suit type outfits or I've seen some wearing the white shirts with blue or black bottoms. I don't really know what the differences are but it is what it is.
Well...that was pretty much my day. I like filling you in on the quirks and weird things that I encounter here. Makes me feel that I'm not laughing alone! My Thursday was good so I hope yours is too. On to Friday for me!
Just to let ya'll know I remember, it was a somber beginning to the day as I remembered where I was that morning 12 years ago. Sad, sad day. But anyways....don't mean to start off on a somber note, but it did cross my mind first thing this morning. Soo yeah...today was another pretty good day. Two of the Chinese English teachers came in and watched my first lesson. Everybody is so curious as to how I teach and what I teach. The vice-principal of the elementary school sat in yesterday and gave me some good feedback. The one girl today said that she liked my lesson, so that's good! I went through the other morning lesson, then went to lunch with the kids. Oh...that reminds me. EVERY DAY during lunch time and dinner time, the school plays Adele "Someone like you" on the speakers throughout campus. It's really really funny and I laugh every time I go outside. It's such a random song to be playing during recess, at a boarding school, in China. Another curiosity of being here! After lunch, I played with the kids for a little bit, but it was so hot out that I didn't keep them out for long. After lunch and recess, I had PE but Hannah led them because she wanted to teach them how to walk in line. They are supposed to walk all military like with their arms swinging and their legs marching. Very difficult for first graders. A 40 minute lesson got them only about 50% there. Guess it's just something we'll have to work on!
I was then done with my lessons for the day until Activity time, which we did a small worksheet. I had them color certain shapes certain colors and then write down the number of each shape. It took a really long time for them to do, but they aren't used to seeing the names of the words written out so it took them awhile to figure that out. Not too shabby though, I think. We went to dinner after that. For dinner, we had these delicious dumpling sort of thing. They're like bread stuffed with I don't even know what. My best guess is pork, celery, onions....the stuff you make stuffing with, minus the bread. I think they are called bao (which I think just translates to buns). Whatever they are, they are soooooo good. Run to your nearest Chinese store and ask for some! After dinner, we went to the gym and there were some games set up for all the first grade classes to play. The other classes seem a little bit crazy but I guess that's because there's a minimum of 40 in each regular Chinese class. We are spoiled and have 23! So there's 8 first grade classes with 40+ kids and then 23 in our class (the 9th). Just giving you a little visual of how crazy a gym could get with all those little kids! When all the chaos simmered down, we took the kids back to the room and then I went back to my office. While wasting time and looking up things on my new favorite website (upworthy.com) I somehow came across a bunch of videos that teach kids English using a little character named Gogo and his friends. They are super simple for the kids to follow and cover a lot of the material that I want to cover with them. SCORE! I've been looking for something a little more fun for the kids to see and that's exactly what I found! I was very excited and downloaded around 10 videos off of YouTube onto my computer. They are only 5 minutes long so not too long for the kids to get bored but long enough for them to cover all the content. I'm going to test drive one tomorrow and see how it goes!
Well...that's pretty much my day. The kids all wanted to be hanging off of me again. I've probably said (typed) it before, but I'll say it again...I'm sooo glad the kids are finally opening up to me! Yesterday, one little boy cut his finger while we were outside and he actually came to me first and said "Becky, Becky" and showed me his finger. I think I'm a little nicer than the other teachers so they want my attention more, which totally makes sense. You hear a lot of teachers yelling at their classes a lot of the time. While I did yell yesterday and I do have my stern moments, I don't want to become a screamer and have the kids flinch at me, like I see them do with other teachers. Things are different here! Time for bed though. I was determined to be in bed by 9:00 and it's 8:59. Goodbye for now!
Thursday, September 12
Another Thursday gone by...and a good one at that. The kids were pretty good for me and I think my lessons went really well. I definitely am more tolerant of the kids laughing and goofing off but the other teachers definitely are not. They expect the kids to sit there like little statues all day at their desks and not wiggle around and talk to one another. They got yelled at for a good 15+ minutes several times today, thankfully none by me. During the Chinese teachers lesson (which was being observed) I guess the kids were really bad and goofing off the whole time. Then, during their morning exercises (which I will watch on video one day) they were also messing around the whole time. It's normally just Hannah that has them for that time but she says they're really bad so I may join them for that time. I'm sure it's embarrassing for her to have the kids all messing around when there's only 23 of them and the other first grades with 40 kids are standing there still and listening to directions. So yeah, the kids got quite the earful today.
During one of my lessons, I finally took some pictures of the kids and a video of a song that i taught them. They're learned 4 songs...some better than others. Tomorrow I'll try to catch all of the songs that we do and post them. It's so cute cause there's this one little girl named Emily (picture of her follows) and she understands just about every direction that I give and then translates it to the other kids who don't understand so that they do what I want. There's another girl, Katty, who does the same thing. It's really cute actually and I'm glad they're like my little translators. I'll get some more pictures and videos of them tomorrow so you can finally see how cute they are. It's so funny because when they pose for pictures, they all put their peace sign fingers up and are soooo typically Chinese haha. It's cute. They love the songs that I have shown them, especially this weather one that I showed them today. They laughed so hard but actually sang along. It's so exciting to see them actually learning! And they always are fighting about who I sit next to during meals. So cute. The other kids in the school are always trying to hang around me too and saying "hello teacher, hello teacher". I probably say hello 50+ a day. They all love practicing their English.
After my last class for the day, I rushed back to my room, got my purse, and Joy took me to the store again. I totally forgot folders for the kids though....one of the main reasons why I wanted to go. DARN IT!! Oh well. I guess I'll just have to live with it haha. I bought some things for the classroom, but not a lot since I'll be going to Beijing in about a week and there's a bigger store with a lot bigger selection that I can get some things for the classroom. Aunt Donna, I looked for plastic plates but didn't see any! I would guess that Chinese people would think them to be wasteful and not use them. I will look for them in Beijing though at Carrefour. Kuo said they already booked my hotel for my training week and it's pretty close to the store, which is nice. But today at the store, I got some things for the classroom and then some more groceries (just little munchie things). I saw a black guy there and him and the Chinese girl he was with kept staring at me. I think they expected me to talk to him but I was busy talking to Joy. Maybe they were just surprised that Joy spoke English and could understand what I was saying.
Either way, I got some good things. I bought some window cleaner (Chinese windex) to clean my bathroom since it's getting gross. I totally feel like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I'm going to start using it for everything. It smells like bug spray though so it's a good thing that I got an air freshener too. Chinese grocery stores are always so exciting because there are always promoters trying to get you to buy their things. Plus, it's exciting that I have no idea what anything says, so it's always a gamble on what I'm buying. Joy laughed at me because I drank all the coffee from last time we shopping and ended up buying a huge box today. I told her I was addicted! The tea that I had to drink today was just not cutting it. Hmmm...what else. I always wander off by myself in the store and Joy would get sooo worried and come to look for me. We went with two other teachers from the school. Chris (the one who I gave him his English name and is always too scared to talk to me) and then his girlfriend, who I don't know if she speaks any English. Chris wanted to ask me a question and Joy kept telling him to just ask but I think he's not confident in his English skills so he wouldn't ask haha. He is very nice though. Joy went to pick up this milk drink and I read it and it said "lactic acid bacteria drink". I told her it didn't sound good in English and I guess that freaked her out cause she put it down and said no way haha. They have sooo many different kinds of milk here, it's crazy. Even imported milk for South Korea. LIterally, 2 aisles full of milk selections.
Oh and grandma, yes, they do have uniforms. The young kids have like sweat outfit uniforms though, as you can tell from the pictures. It's been really hot this week and they all have long sleeves and sweaters so I feel bad but I'm sure they'll be needing them in another month. The older kids wear with sweat suit type outfits or I've seen some wearing the white shirts with blue or black bottoms. I don't really know what the differences are but it is what it is.
Well...that was pretty much my day. I like filling you in on the quirks and weird things that I encounter here. Makes me feel that I'm not laughing alone! My Thursday was good so I hope yours is too. On to Friday for me!