Yesterday I did some boring stuff like a physical and going to the police station for my visa and residence paperwork, and I signed my contract. I walked around a bit but I didn't do too much- I've only really walked around the streets in my area which have lots of stores and things.
Today I had my first class. Before that, I did some "training" with Matt, who is my supervisory teacher, and he helped with lesson planning and figuring out what the heck to do with 4-5 year olds for a first lesson. I started setting up and some of the kids were there early. Some knew quite a few words already. It was a bit hard trying to keep their attention as they all wanted to wander, and I hadn't really done any of the games I was trying before. They were pretty quick to catch on though- they could say "Hello" and "goodbye" and a lot could both say and do "sit down" and "stand up." Discipline is definitely hard at this age especially when they pretty much have no idea what you are saying. The second half of class I got to name the ones who didn't have names. I named one boy "Max" which I think is a really cute name and I named some of the girls "Emma" and "Rose" and "Kate." I made them crowns with their names, Matt's idea, and tried to teach them their names and to say "Hello Max" and that sort of thing. Luckily the class is only an hour with a 10 minute break (usually classes are an hour and a half) so we said goodbye and hopefully they had fun and learned something (I think they did).
After I went with Matt to a restaurant he knew that had a picture menu. We had some spicy food of course- if I haven't mentioned it Guizhou is known for spicy food- and now I don't have class until Friday. Tomorrow night I'm going to observe Matt's class, which is the second semester of the class I'm teaching so that should be helpful. This weekend I'll observe some other classes which should get me all set with some more ideas and such. It's really something you have to learn as you go though- sort of learn firsthand and improve upon your model.
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Megan. Discipline is hard at any age. I even have trouble not talking during classes. And technically I should have some empathy for the tutorers and lecturers, because well... I'm going to be teaching soon!! But once you gain more experience... it is a sensation!
ReplyDeleteAw, four and five year olds...so cute! And you made them crowns with their names! You should have them make newspaper hats one day, in an homage to Marianna and Rock 3rd.
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