My Students

After my first week of classes I had been observed 3 times by the head teachers and the feedback was, “I like the way you yell at them.” I teach one class of senior 1 (10th graders) with 30 students, two of which are foreign exchange students from Europe(very intimidating to me). Then another class of senior 2 (11th grade) which has 11 students, 10 of which are boys! My students are geniuses, no joke. The first day I walked in and started talking in my simplified, slower English I used in my middle school last year. They pretty much laughed in my face and responded in full paragraphs to my “How – are - YOU - today?” Lesson learned. Whenever I teach I do 2 classes in a row, so I basically have the students for an hour and a half with a 10 minute break in between. That’s just too long for them to listen to English and the last 20 minutes are always a struggle. The first week I individually got in each of their faces and gave my “I’m a good teacher, you need to be good students” speech. Later I kicked one boy out of the classroom and told him I wanted a written apology to return to class next week. The head of the English department told me over lunch one day that the students say my class is very fun but I am also very strict. And another teacher told me the students are better behaved in my class then most of the Chinese classes. So maybe I need to adjust my expectations. If I am waiting for complete silence, I will never get to the lesson. The constant chatter still drives me crazy though! If I keep kicking the students out, I may not have anyone left to teach… and then I don’t get paid! Luckily my class schedule has me free on Tuesdays and Wednesday so I should NEVER complain about my job. After a Monday full of angry speeches and mild child abuse, I decided to spend my day off at the beach. It was exactly what I needed. One of my church friends, Helen is between jobs and had the day free to go with me. Everything is better with company. I find that I have become extremely extraverted in China. On days I don’t see my friends I am so lazy and bitter. I am like a child that craves constant entertainment, which I often notice with my many introvert friends who talk about needing time to relax and unwind. It’s a total foreign concept to me, I always respond, “are you sure you don’t want to be alone together?” The last 2 weeks I had a Monday holiday (mid Autumn Festival) which meant a 5 day weekend for me! And then this week is military training for my senior 1 class which means I have half the classes. I can feel myself getting lazier by the day! I may have put my foot in my mouth because at the very beginning I asked my contact teacher, Melissa, who is wonderful by the way, if I would have a desk at the school. And I went on to say if I have a desk I will be able to meet more teachers and be available if they have questions or if the students want help with something blah blah blah. So she is currently working on getting me an office. BUT I live on campus now and I have grown accustomed to crawling into bed after each class or running off to meet up with friends. If I have a desk I will be expected to have office hours and do real work. So we shall see…