10 Hour Teaching Day

Today, Sunday, is my full day of teaching- I had 5 classes today which adds up to about 10 hours of teaching with a half hour lunch break- woo! I am starting to get into the swing of teaching a bit more. All my classes so far are only up to about age 12-13, so I'm a bit sad I don't have an older class since those are pretty easy- by high school a lot of the kids are fairly fluent. I am figuring some things out: like how to get the kids to stop speaking in Chinese. When I divide them into teams and award points, I take away a point for each person who speaks Chinese. Immediately the teams begin disciplining themselves- the others get mad if someone messes up and speaks in Chinese. Also, I'm quickly figuring out that 2 hours is really long. Most of the classes at our school are two hours with a ten minute break. I could barely make it through 2 hours in college! I am trying to plan my lessons better. I basically try to model them after Matt, who I think is the best teacher here. He does not allow Chinese, and he uses lots of games and activities varied with the book work. Teaching can be pretty fun. There are some brats but mostly the kids are pretty great and really funny.

 

Caitlin and I wanted to go to the Huanguashuo Waterfalls this weekend, which is probably the most famous site in Guizhou. It is the biggest waterfall in China and the 3rd largest in the world. However, we found out the bus there is all booked and plus our time off is quickly filling up. I have to go the police station on Tuesday to get my work visa. Caitlin and I are having Chinese lessons together and we are having 6 hours a week of them! Hopefully this means I will get good fast. Maosi, our boss, trains teachers so he is also using us as guinea pigs for his teaching college students. Apparently our first lesson will be with Maosi and he will have his students observing us- great. I'm pretty positive that Caitlin is better than Chinese at me already.

 

I have my first paycheck coming up this week which is very exciting. Especially as I have a vacation coming up- though I'm still unsure of what I am doing. Caitlin and I will probably travel together.

 

Hopefully this "weekend" (Monday and Tuesday for us) I can explore some more of the city. I am starting to get used to living here, and once the Chinese lessons kick in I think I'll really be able to get around.