Americans! Americans!

Today is a big day indeed! Yesterday, Daisy came to inform us that there would be 10 Americans coming to "check out this school." TEN AMERICANS! Here!!!! AAAHHHHH!!!

I haven't physically encountered anyone who speaks fluent English really in two and a half months apart from the other three Americans here and Daisy. This is a big deal.

I first saw the Americans as I taught my first class this morning. A few poked there heads in. There were women with blonde hair, the most coveted of foreign women it seems here in China. Immediately, my kids were out of their seats, jumping up and down yelling, "TEACHER!! TEACHER!!! LOOOOK!!!" It took me a bit to get them back down and focused on the lesson. But I couldn't help but smile. Inside, I was jumping up and down and being just as excited! AMERICANS! I now understand their enthusiasm!

As we went onto the field to do the dance with the kids (dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe is a daily thing now), we split up and one of the American guys went to talk to Adam and Kammi. I jealously watched from across the field.

Lunch was the best part. We walked into the cafeteria, and there were the Americans. They took two tables and had about 7 2-liter bottles of Pepsi with them. So that's where the stereotype comes from! Haha. I haven't had any soda since being here. Although we have found it a couple times in a few places. I just really don't like carbonation.

Anyway, for lunch they served the sesame fried chicken that I really like (it's a little bit spicy, but way better than a lot of what they serve), they also had the spring rolls and sushi--both of which are normally only a breakfast item, and even then is rarely served. They also served chicken on a stick, green beans (cooked with something sour, ginger, and peppers, but hey! Vegetables!), and sandwiches! Sandwiches!!!

I was practically jumping up and down! I haven't seen so much good food in one place in.. well... a very long time. Unless you count Pizza Hut. :) The sandwiches were on a sweet white roll. There was a fried egg, bolognese, cucumber, and tons of mayonaisse. I mean, it was almost too much mayo for me, and that's saying something! We think it was homemade mayo because it tasted a little strange and we haven't found anywhere that sells it here. But still. It was delicious!

When we were finished eating, a few of the Americans came over and talked to us. They asked things like "Are the students happy here?" (Yes, yes, yes and definitely yes!) and "Do you ever feel left out and separated from the other teachers? We notice they don't associate with you much.'" (absolutely not, it's just the language barrier that makes it difficult, but we can communicate through smiles and head nods, and really that's all we need. The teachers here are great) "How are the student's English skills?" (obviously, the older kids are better than younger, but I'd say they're pretty darn good.)

I think I never actually sent the blog post where I wrote about the one time we met the kids from other schools who were learning English. But I did. And let's just say that I have fourth graders at this school who could outperform the seventh graders at the other school. And the "others" we met were the best in their classes at their school. So yes, I'd say the kid's education here is far superior than many others. However, they are in school from 8:20am to 9pm. So there's that...

Anyway, back to the Americans. We only got to spend a few minutes talknig with them at lunch and then they had to run. But we told them how great it was we got to talk to them and they promised to try and come back and talk later. Boy, I sure hope so. But if not, they still came, and I'm happy. The end!

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Annie the Diva kid

I love my students. I absolutely plain old flat out LOVE them. They're adorable and hilarious and smart and fun. Sometimes, though, they can get a bit of attitude. Like Annie.

Today we did the "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" chant. I pick five kids to come up and be the "monkeys jumping" as the class chants. They LOVE this! Well, Annie wanted to be picked but I didn't choose her because she was yelling (it's been two months I've been working with these kids trying to get them to stop screaming when they raise their hands; the progress is moving at turtle speed, but at least we're moving forward!).

 

 

Well, not picking Annie sure was a mistake. Angry, Annie decided she was going to be a monkey whether I liked it or not. "I monkey!" she told me and got out of her chair and joined the other monkeys up front. "Six little monkeys," she told me defiantly. As much as I wanted to just let her do that, and allow six monkeys, I knew better. And the reason why set in quickly. As I tried to get her back in her seat, the class began yelling, "I monkey!" Soon 30 out of my 40 students were standing up front yelling "MONKEEEEEYYYYYSSS!!!!!"

I had to turn around from laughing. (I'm actually still laughing, this was so cute and funny) I then told everyone "NO! Sit down NOW!" It took a few minutes but finally the kids went back to their seats. I had to threaten "No monkeys at all! No monkeys! Sit down!" The kids sat back down. Except for Annie. Who stood at the front, arms crossed, pouty and completely adorable. I finally dragged her back to her chair where she glared at me and then promptly put her head down to cry. I felt pretty bad as I continued with the lesson. Just a minute later I saw her bring her head up. There were no tears coming out of those eyes. None. She saw me see her looking happy and quickly stuck out her lower lip and put her head down again. The little stinker was faking it! We switched to reviewing Halloween words and she was back, good as new and ready to go. I think I need to teach her the word "manipulative."

She might just be one of my favorite students. If I was allowed to have favorites, that is.

Then again, I have a lot of favorite students.

The Game of Hangman!

I feel like I should write more about life here, but the truth is, life has just been "same ol' same ol'" lately. And I'm not sure how much I've already written. I'm LOVING teaching the third and fourth grade kids. And I enjoy the second graders when they are behaving. My kids are just so, so good.

I realized recently that my first graders have learned enough letters now to play Hangman, and boy do they love it. I think it's good for them too, because even once they've guessed what the word is, I still make them say the letters to spell it. The other day they figured out m-o-n-k-?-y. They knew the word was "monkey" and kept chanting it, but I made them guess the last letter. It was so cute as they shot their little hands in the air, so excited and confident that they just knew what that last letter was as I prompted them saying "monkEEEEEE." And then I felt terrible as I shot them down after they screamed letters like "Q" and "L" confidently! They didn't understand the part where I was drawing a stick figure, but that's okay. We had fun anyway.

My second graders on the other hand get very worried as I continue to draw the stick figure. But I don't like to let them lose because I want them to get the words. So after completing the stick figure including hands, feet, and ears, I go on to draw shorts and a t-shirt which always makes the class laugh because they thought it was over.

I also discovered how to make memory on PPT. This comes in handy as you can't buy note cards ANYWHERE in this country. (okay I exaggerate. on this province... maybe that's an exaggeration too, but seriously, people here don't even know what note cards are. Even at Carrefour!) Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to get just the last two cards picked to reappear. So if they get one card wrong they have to start over. I felt bad about it in the beginning and thought the kids would get frustrated with it being too difficult. Boy was I wrong. They LOVE it. And I write the words "up, down, left, right" on the board and make them use their words now instead of hand gestures to tell me which boxes to click on. I'm really impressed with how well it's worked. And I can switch up the words every week to their new vocab words. So great! I can't believe I didn't discover this before!

As for work outside of teaching, it's been pretty fun. I spend pretty much every day at the school from 8am-6pm, so there's not a whole lot of leisure time spent. I ate sushi for breakfast last week which was a pretty cool event. Apart from that I spend my days browsing our street, sweeping the dust out of our apartment (the dust here is seriously insane, AND we're on the 9th floor!), and watching TV shows/movies on my laptop. And, that's pretty much it. Hope this does well for an update!

Halloween -- Chinese Style?

As part of the immersion program, the school has decided to throw a Halloween Party, even though China does not recognize Halloween.  We had to come up with a list of ideas/activities and what we'd need for the party next week. As we brainstormed last night we discussed making them eat yucky food like brains and worms. Then it occured to us: The people already eat pig brains and chicken feet. They eat duck head and the eyeballs of fish. Their spaghetti already looks (and tastes) likes slimy worms and every meat is identifiable as an animal. How are we supposed to scare them with food?

Needless to say, there will be no "gross" food at this party. Or should I say, the only food there will be scaring us more than them.

Street Encounter with Student: Success!

I was walking home from school today and saw a couple of my students walking with what I assumed to be their parents. The parents can sign the kids out of school sometimes in the afternoon to spoil them. They said, "Hello" so I responded, "Hello! How are you?" And the kids chanted back as they've done many times before, "Fine, thank you!" The parents just LOVED it and laughed and laughed thinking that was just the greatest thing ever. They should just see them in class!

I definitely am loving my third and fourth graders more and more by the week. They are just so well behaved and I can actually see them learning. It's so exciting when they get it right, and I purposely exaggerate it like crazy which makes the kids exaggerate excitedly. The whole class is just so smart and so much fun!

I recently realized that at the end of this week I'll be halfway done with my time here. It's really sad, actually. It feels like I just got here three weeks ago. Maybe four. But in fact it's been two whole months. Two, entire, difficult, life-changing, months filled with nasty food, incredible people, all types of weather, and piles of adventure.

And some days, I just can't believe this is really my life!

Parents' Day

At the end of the week the parents like to come and watch the final class through the window. Since this is a boarding school the parents all have to come pick up their kids Friday afternoon.

They usually only show up a few minutes before the end of class. The first few weeks were very awkward because my final class is a second grade class, and they are the most difficult. They misbehave a lot, and it got a little awkward that I would finish scolding a student and turn around and there's a parent peering in through the windows. I've worked a little harder so the parents could see their kids being smart and successful instead of me constantly ragging on them. Some days I seriously feel like all I ever do is say "No! No! Stop!" and "Not good!" I've learned which activities get them to misbehave more and which are better. The problem is, the "fun" activities get them really wild so they are bad. But the activities that keep them in good manners are the ones that get boring quickly and that means the kids won't behave well for very long.

Well, today we did the body activity where they drew a body part out of a cup (mouth, leg, ear, etc.) and then rolled the dice (they LOVE throwing things). Then whatever number came up on the die they had to draw that many. So the monster would have like four eyes or six legs or something. They LOVED this game, but they got out of control very quickly because they have difficulties taking turns and waiting for each other. It's kind of to be expected in a class of forty kids, I guess. So then I got them all back in their seats and quiet. Then played the quieter game. I write a word on the board like "banana" and then the next word has to begin with the last letter of the first word. So it would go, "banana->apple->elephant->taste->ears->sit" The kids actually LOVE this game but they end up yelling over each other. It's a lot better than running around the room, though. I thought it would be a good one for the parents to come in on, and my idea surprisingly worked. All the kids were actually participating. They were all yelling English words and we had a looooong list on the board.

So, the moral of my story is that even though I'm not really a great teacher, and I seriously struggle to keep these kids in check, I can at least fake it enough to keep the parents and other teachers happy. :) Gosh this experience is amazing!

Schoolchildren in China

The lady at the supermarket on our street likes to speak English to us. Actually, most people we meet here love to speak English to us, just not many know much more than "Hello." Well, the lady at the supermarket likes to tell us as we leave, "See you tomorrow!" At first, I thought she was joking because we went there so often. But now I'm beginning to think she actually thinks it means goodbye. It's so cute, and I love it!

When I try to pronounce the student's Chinese names they all end up giggling out of control because I'm so bad at it! I actually really enjoy the attempts and having them repeat it until I say it perfectly. It gives me a taste of my own medicine, I guess. They think it's completely hilarious when I try to say their Chinese names. Although I am now able to say my Chinese name somewhat normally now.

Lately, I've been trying to get the students to say, "Have a good day!" Instead of (or in conjunction with) "goodbye." Some of them have begun to catch on, but it's the cutest thing when they chant back at me, "Haff a goob day!"

I'm always excited when the kids do something extra smart that surprises me. Well, the other day I was tossing the ball around asking questions. One of my smarter kids, though, didn't throw the ball back immediately. Instead he gestured and pointed. I kept following his finger, trying to see what he was pointing at. He'd shake his head and gesture again. Finally, frustrated that his motions weren't getting the point across he struggled out some English words, "You... go... there... I throw ball to you. Can you go there?" Okay, so it doesn't sound like much on here, but this was actually very impressive in my opinion. He created that sentence all by himself.

I've been working on getting my fourth graders to make their own sentences without me spoon feeding it to them. I put a tic-tac-toe board up and split the class in half. Then, I put a word in each of the boxes like "library" or "classroom" (these have been their most recent vocab words). Then I pick a student from each team. The student must tell me where they want their X or O but they may not say the word, but must describe the word. So instead of "library" I wanted them to say "A place where I read books." Or instead of "bank" they'd say "A place where I get money." Unfortunately, I wasn't fully able to get the point across and I had to settle for "read books" and "money" instead. But I figure I'll take baby steps and make it harder as we go along. I also sometimes put letters and they must pick a word that begins with that letter instead of saying the letter outright. This gets fun, and it sometimes surprises me the vocab words they already know. The best part is that the kids absolutely LOVE it! They beg to play it so it's my bargaining chip to get them to behave during the normal lesson. (I draw a "good meter" on the board and as they're good the line goes up, but as they're bad it goes down. If it hits bottom the must be completely silent while it fills back up slowly to a normal level, but if it gets to the top, they get to play a game for the rest of class)

Another fun game I've gotten them to play recently is a whispering game. I'm still in the "teaching" phases of this game. These students are very competitive, and not at all shy about cheating (which could, partly be due to the language barrier, I should acknowledge). If there's a way to cheat, they'll do it which makes most games less fun, and my job very difficult. But I basically put them in two lines. Then I whisper a word to the kids at my end of the line. They basically play "telephone" whispering the word to each other all the way to the front and the person at the front has to spell the word, correctly, on the board (or paper... I had to switch to paper because they kept ruining my whiteboard markers). This game works better for my third graders because I was able to get the point clearly across in the beginning that saying the word aloud is absolutely not allowed and if I hear someone on your team say the word, then I dock a point from that team. The kids were pretty mad at me at first for taking the point, but they understood and got better. Unfortunately, with my fourth graders, they were so excited and talking so loudly that all I could do was continually dock points from their teams and make them redo and redo and redo to the point that I think both the kids, and I, were getting frustrated. I think I'll try it again with them on another day and figure out a better way to show them that they must not say the word loudly because then it's just a matter of who can write faster. Ah well.

Anyway, there are some random games I've played in my classes. Now I need to figure out some fun games for my first graders. They don't understand "get into a circle" (the few times I've tried it just creates utter chaos of the rest of class, basically) so that cuts out "ring around the rosie" and the "hokey pokey" and "pass the ball around." They are incapable of passing the ball from their desks. I've tried this a few times and no matter what, I can't get them to stop throwing it. And they don't yet know their letters so we can't play hangman. I really don't think they'll get tic-tac-toe either. I read somewhere to try Bingo, so I'm going to try that later this week. But I don't know if that will work either. When I give them papers, half of them become paper airplanes or some form of origami, some become scribbling sheets, and only about ten end up with what I want them to be used for. Mostly I've just been playing Slap with them and doing lots of songs and hidden pictures on the Powerpoint. And I've made a few stories to tell them via Powerpoint. It just feels weird to use powerpoint with first graders. This week we did body parts so I drew a face and said, "What does it need?" and the kids had to answer "He needs a mouth!" and when they did they could come up and draw the mouth. The problem is I can't even do much one-on-one interaction in my first grade class because the kids get jealous or beg to be picked on and if I can't pick all of them fast enough they burst into tears. And if I give the same student my attention for longer than about five seconds, I completely lose the rest of the class.

So there's a little taste of my every day life here. I didn't know if I've really documented it, so I figured might as well since I'm sitting at my desk playing my tenth game of Freecell today!