Happy birthday Mom!!
I think October can be chalked up under the tag "months that went missing." It's just another relatively long period of time that swiftly passed undetected, again striking up the realistic question of just exactly how much time can sneak by before I notice that I've been here for too long. Only time will tell.
My lack of blogging is exactly as it appears to be: I have nothing to say. Starter X has finally settled into a nice groove, where I can demand and expect control and productivity. The Squirrels are still angelic geniuses who literally have left me speechless with the things that come out of their mouth. For example, during a brainstorm activity related to a book we were reading, I decided to bring up evolution. When asked "Why do you think a cheetah has spots?", a question which I was only half prepared to answer, one girl raised her hand and answered quite matter-of-factly, "I think a cheetah has spots so we can use its skin to make a bag." I know what you're thinking, and you're right; In addition to hiding enormous brains behind adorable faces, they've got style. Next question: "Why do you think a rabbit has long ears?" Good question, Teacher John, why don't you at least try to challenge us. "A rabbit has to have long ears, otherwise it will not hear the other animals that want to eat it." I've spent the past week since this incident trying to figure out how, if I was required to, I would even explain the word "otherwise." I'm open to suggestions.
During nap time, it's a kindergarten joke that after all the other teachers are finished complaining about how idiotic their kids are, they turn to me and ask me what the Squirrels thought of War and Peace. (They hated it. I made sure they are Shakespeare scholars.)
If you haven't seen through it already, this blog is less of me trying to convince you how smart my kids are, and more of me trying to use them to show you how much fun I'm having.
I tell stupid stories for a living. I talk about animals all day, and as long as I explain the grammar I'm using, it's considered teaching. For International Day, I got to choose a country to have my class present (Spain) and I got to pick out what I thought were the coolest things to have my kids say. They listen when I talk, because as long as I'm acting as if it's the most awesome thing I've ever said, they believe me. And when I'm finished, they say "Cool! I want to learn more!" (true story).
It's a total cliche, but like Confucius said, "Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life." Or, as Kanye West said many years later, "Welcome to the good life..."
Showing posts with label Starter X. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starter X. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Starter X
(warning: not for the faint of heart)
My days of 8:30-3:30 are over. The Squirrels are no longer my only students. I now know why teachers stress out.
Without getting way too overly hyperbolic and making a gigantic, unnecessary, blown-out-of-proportion exaggeration, I'll try to explain my new class: Starter X.
Let's start with the name. Each buxiban (in which the variable x=sh) class is given a letter name, based only on the order in which they are created. When I was told that I was volunteering to take a new class, I was ecstatic about the name. How badass. I actually find it hard to say "Starter X" aloud without crossing my arms and getting into a crouched position like I'm bracing for an attack.
Anyway.
On the subject of names, I finally got to name some students! They were all quasi-normal, based on my opinion of normal after having encountered a fair amount of people with English names in the past 22 years. That being said, I take no blame (or credit?) for Bernini, York, Gigi, Pola, Soros, or Vivi, who all signed up for my class with English-ish names.
The class, which I already claimed is not for the faint of heart, can only be described in comparison to my Squirrels. I'm very quick to say that the Squirrel class is the envy of the school, yet I'm just as quick to admit that this was true of them before I took over. They speak incredible English, they have impeccable manners, and a sense of awareness and etiquette that is absent in a great deal of the adult population. Hopefully you're getting the idea of the contrast about to come.
Starter X is on average about 2 years older than the Squirrels. However, the Squirrels have 2 more years of classroom experience (2-0=2). Starter X is hardly a few weeks beyond their first footsteps into a real classroom in Chinese elementary school, so they are lacking the basic knowledge of "sit in a chair and watch the adult in front of you for more than 10 seconds at a time." For me, the gap dividing teacher and student, Chinese and English, is bridged by a puppet. Or an over-sized blow-up dice. This gets them to at least try to repeat what I'm saying. And I try not to say much, because "Okay... say 'pencil'" turns into "okaysaypencil."
I come prepared to class with about 1,000 activities so I can keep their attention at all times by either singing, dancing, hitting myself with a puppet, giving them a hammer to hit flash cards with, juggling, clapping... does the word "clown" come to mind?
Starter X is only 2 extra hours a week, but so far, after 3 weeks, I have yet to come out of that class without sweat on my brow, a hoarse voice and a finger on the trigger. It's a really awesome experience, since this is exactly what I thought I'd be doing over here. Not that I have a problem with how 30 minutes before I step into X-Class I'm listening to my 6-year-old girls explain to me that "A sea turtle's habitat is the ocean and not a pond because they need salt-water to live and will die in fresh water."
My days of 8:30-3:30 are over. The Squirrels are no longer my only students. I now know why teachers stress out.
Without getting way too overly hyperbolic and making a gigantic, unnecessary, blown-out-of-proportion exaggeration, I'll try to explain my new class: Starter X.
Let's start with the name. Each buxiban (in which the variable x=sh) class is given a letter name, based only on the order in which they are created. When I was told that I was volunteering to take a new class, I was ecstatic about the name. How badass. I actually find it hard to say "Starter X" aloud without crossing my arms and getting into a crouched position like I'm bracing for an attack.
Anyway.
On the subject of names, I finally got to name some students! They were all quasi-normal, based on my opinion of normal after having encountered a fair amount of people with English names in the past 22 years. That being said, I take no blame (or credit?) for Bernini, York, Gigi, Pola, Soros, or Vivi, who all signed up for my class with English-ish names.
The class, which I already claimed is not for the faint of heart, can only be described in comparison to my Squirrels. I'm very quick to say that the Squirrel class is the envy of the school, yet I'm just as quick to admit that this was true of them before I took over. They speak incredible English, they have impeccable manners, and a sense of awareness and etiquette that is absent in a great deal of the adult population. Hopefully you're getting the idea of the contrast about to come.
Starter X is on average about 2 years older than the Squirrels. However, the Squirrels have 2 more years of classroom experience (2-0=2). Starter X is hardly a few weeks beyond their first footsteps into a real classroom in Chinese elementary school, so they are lacking the basic knowledge of "sit in a chair and watch the adult in front of you for more than 10 seconds at a time." For me, the gap dividing teacher and student, Chinese and English, is bridged by a puppet. Or an over-sized blow-up dice. This gets them to at least try to repeat what I'm saying. And I try not to say much, because "Okay... say 'pencil'" turns into "okaysaypencil."
I come prepared to class with about 1,000 activities so I can keep their attention at all times by either singing, dancing, hitting myself with a puppet, giving them a hammer to hit flash cards with, juggling, clapping... does the word "clown" come to mind?
Starter X is only 2 extra hours a week, but so far, after 3 weeks, I have yet to come out of that class without sweat on my brow, a hoarse voice and a finger on the trigger. It's a really awesome experience, since this is exactly what I thought I'd be doing over here. Not that I have a problem with how 30 minutes before I step into X-Class I'm listening to my 6-year-old girls explain to me that "A sea turtle's habitat is the ocean and not a pond because they need salt-water to live and will die in fresh water."
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