Last week, I had my first ceremony class. As I said in earlier blogs, I teach multiple levels and there are sub levels within the four main levels. Therefore, after each level is completed, we have a mini ceremony class. This just means we show the parents what we've learned in that book, then we award certificates and they move on up.
Luckily, I remain the teacher for the next level each time I have a class that graduates (typically).
The unlucky side to that is the attachments I already have are going to break me when it comes time to leave in a year.
This was a High Flyers ceremony. This group of kids are between seven and ten. I teach these kiddos every other Saturday, and although they're a handful, they seem to enjoy my teaching.
Here are some pictures from after the ceremony.
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| Will - my wild |
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| My sweet, Ana <3 |
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| Jack - the goof! |
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| Edward - Mr. smarty pants |
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| Harry - my quiet guy |
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| Henry, aka "Hungry." :) |
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| Lucia, my shy girl <3 |
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| Sweet Cynthia :) |
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| Betty Lou <3 |
In one of my Small Star classes (ages 5-7) we have been learning articles of clothing in the current unit. In this week's lesson we learned "put on" and "take off." So, I brought some random clothes to class and we had a great laugh watching the kids put on my giant clothes. A fitted tank top on me, is a baggy dress on the kiddos. Great fun! They died laughing when I took of my shoes. I taught 90% of this class barefooted, but I got the kids engaged and by the end we were all taking off and putting on our shoes. :)
The weekends for me are the worst two days of the week, as far as being busy. I love all of my classes, it's just exhausting. Plus, I'm new so I haven't entirely adjusted to the routine.
With back-to-back classes, if you have a bad class, there is little time to regroup and get into the next class with as much pep as you can muster.
Every other Sunday I teach a brand new High Flyers class that is all mine. By all mine, I mean I haven't come in in the middle of a unit to replace another teacher. My co-teacher and I are the first teachers these kids have had so it's a nice, fresh start.
We were discussing occupations and what each professional does in his career. At the beginning of class I went one-by-one asking each student what they wanted to be when they grew up. I got the usual responses: doctor, teacher, singer and policeman.
When I was going through the flashcards, I would point at the student who said that career earlier. When the "model" flashcard came up, Jenny said, "that's teacher." So, you may have some students call you "pig," but thank goodness for the Jenny's who can reassure you.
***Side note: many of the teachers have been called pig by at least one student. By Chinese standards, I'm quite big. The majority of the Chinese population are extremely small and thin, so of course, many foreigners look giant to them. We are trying to discipline the students not to call people pig or fat because it's rude. However, I'm not going to go home and off myself because a five-year-old called me fat because at 24 years old I suspect I should be larger in the eyes of a child.
End side note! :) ***
At the end of class we created posters with facts of the occupation the kids want in the future.
Oh, and last week in my Trailblazer class (12-16 in age) the class was a reading and writing assignment so we played music in the background while they wrote. I took requests and Adam said, "Hotel California by The Eagles." I texted my dad immediately following class, and of course, Adam became my new favorite student, ha.
In the writing classes, typically the students choose the topics. The idea is just to get them writing and practice their grammar, sentence structure, etc. A fews weeks back, one of the students, Bill, sat on a small stars tabs (small plastic table) and it broke. So now we nag Bill about sitting on tables. One of the girls wrote her story about the day Bill sat on the table and broke it. Absolutely hilarious! It's this kind of stuff that makes it worth it. The teenage students have a sense of humor so it can be really fun in class.
Also, I've learned the Chinese aren't big fans of nicknames. I have a student named Mei Lei, which it took me five weeks to learn because she doesn't have an English name. I told her I would just call her Brittany. Then I got Mei (May) down and told her that's what I would call her. She wasn't okay with that either, so now I have finally mastered her full name.
I have asked my older students to call me Amie and not teacher. When they just call me teacher it makes me feel quite old. So every time they say, "teacher," I ask, "what's my name?" However, Mei Lei, being the clever girl she is, refused to call me Amie. Payback for me calling her Brittany I suppose. <3
I have many students with long names that would normally shorten in Western culture such as Victoria, William and Edward, but they don't like Vic, Will or Ed. When you call them the shortened version, they think you don't know their names. I learned that the had way.
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| "One day in the break time, we watched a movie. Bill sat on the table. One minute later, the table leg is broken. Teacher is angry. He said, "Who broke my table? Bill repair my table." Bill is sad, he said, " I know I am wrong. I'm so sorry." Now teacher is happy. Everyone is happy." :) |
There is something eventful in every class, it's just hard to catch you up at this point. If my Small Stars aren't feeding me candy and fruit, then my Trailblazers are teaching me Chinese during the breaks. It's all a beautiful thing honestly! 👌
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