My Teaching Gig

 Even a few weeks into it, I'm still stunned I have a teaching gig here in China.  Some have asked more details about how it happened.  

I don't really know for sure, but I think, that since volunteering is not a thing here, when I volunteered to help, they didn't have any concept of that.  Not knowing what to do with a person who volunteers, they thought I could teach a class--that required a teaching certificate.  Thankfully I have teaching experience and a teaching certificate, so I got a job.  Easy peasy! (China style)

It is a dream job, really.  It's like teaching extraordinarily bright, on task, eager 2nd graders.  And without certain standards that I have to teach to, I can just do what I want. (even more dream-job-ish)  I can teach difficult English grammar lessons, teach correct pronunciation or I can just be creative and have fun!  I will do a little of the first two and a lot of the latter.  

The first week I read the book "Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing". 

We discussed it and laughed at it.  The second week I had them write a new page for the book.  I really had no idea what to expect since I had no idea of their language abilities.  They blew me out of the water with their work.  While they don't have all of the English correct (and this demonstrates how difficult English really is to learn), their skills are pretty sharp! So many of them got very close!   Notice their amazing handwriting and prolific use of white-out.  

Contrary to their culture, I'm writing nice notes about each of their work on post-it notes for them.  It is taking me a long time with 40 students, but it will help their English, and make them feel loved (my main goal-- because they don't get too many warm fuzzies at school). 

If I forget even for a small moment that I'm in a completely different culture, at school I'm reminded very quickly how displaced I am..... The students are so on task. They stand to respond to questions.  When asked a general question to the whole class they answer aloud in unison.  They are so on task.  They seem so eager to please. They are genuinely engaged in learning, and did I mention that they are so on task??? In some ways, it's so nice, but in other ways it's sad.  It's a result of a very strict school environment.

At the end of my last lesson, I had a few minutes extra, so I decided to sing "If you're happy and you know it" with them.  I was up in the front having fun with them, clapping and stomping.  They looked so surprised and beside themselves with happy amazement.  And the more they beamed, the more animated I became.  They did not know quite how to respond; I'm pretty sure they have never had a school class quite like this one!  Their faces were like Christmas morning.  It was so so fun.  And endearing.  And I want to take everyone of them home with me to America to give them a better chance.  

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A few related/unrelated notes:

回One day our friends the Wu family were over.  Tessa was crocheting.  They were amazed that she had a different hobby other than video gaming/movie watching.  They were also amazed that she had time to do something like that since she was in school.

回On that same visit from the Wu family, one of the girls had my phone and dropped it.  I calmly walked over and picked it up. I didn't chastise her or get after her, I just said, "Hey, hey."  They were very surprised at my response.  They said their culture would have had a very harsh response to that.  (I might have too in my younger years of parenting or if my phone was new...) 

回This week, unrelated to this school experience, we learned that students don't actually get days off for holidays.  There was a day off in September for the Mid-Autumn Festival and they have to make that day up on a Sunday. What???