1.20.2015

IT’S OFFICIAL!!  I’M AN ENGLISH TEACHER!!! 

Yesterday was the first official day of teaching our students!  It was……….INSANE!!!  The students’ Chinese teacher, named Cindy, gave me a note after the class that literally said, “Be careful, the kids can be angels but they can also be devils. Don’t let them fool you!  Don’t think they’re cute!”  She also told me, “You need to stop smiling so much at the students.  You can’t be so happy!” 

Okay, let me back up, the “INSANE” experiences were the 2^nd grade classes I taught.  I taught 3^rd Grade Writing from 1pm-3pm before I taught 2^nd and it was incredible!  My students were all absolutely adorable and they love learning!  In my first 3^rd grade class, there was a boy named David.  When he told me his name, I told him that my dad’s name was also David and he said, “Oh, what a pleasure!”  He was absolutely ecstatic and felt so honored.  It was adorable!  I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of him and send it to my dad and he said, “YES PLEASE!”  He also asked if I could show him a picture of my American dad, David.  He was so sweet!  I had two girls in one of my classes named Honey and Kitty.  Today, we had a 3^rd Grader named Sweetie.  It was funny because teacher Melissa said, “Sweetie, will you come sit down at this desk?”  When she sat down, Melissa asked, “What’s your name honey?”  When she answered, “Sweetie”, we had to keep ourselves from laughing because Melissa had already nailed her name and had no idea! 

English Class

Back to the sweet, sweet, insane, sweet, sweet 2^nd graders! Cindy brought all of the students into the main room for opening and they were all goofing off and crazy!  We got their attention, sang songs with them, and then split for classes. The students were SOOO bad and misbehaved the WHOLE time!  They were jumping off of their chairs; the kids were grabbing me all over the place; another boy ran up to me and grabbed my hands, then jumped in the air, split his legs, and fell onto the ground into the splits!  It was a wild adventure!  The wildest thing is…I absolutely fell in love with each and every one of them! 

Before you think I’m an awful teacher with no classroom management skills – which I might be, but I’m working on it :), today went much smoother!  We had to be strict with all of the students, but things went WAY better!  We didn’t let them come inside the school until they were all lined up with their arms folded and if they touched each other in line, they had to go back outside, line up again, and restart.  We literally restarted five times, BUT after that, it was all a success!  The students were great, they allowed me to teach them new words and caught on quickly, and they were all so well behaved!  It was AWESOME!  The best part of my day was the very end when we walked the kids outside, back to Cindy, and Ethan (the splits boy from yesterday) gave me a GIGANTIC hug! 

I love all of my students and I love teaching!  I feel soo blessed to be here in China!  Here’s to many more adventures, teaching, and mispronounced English statements which will be corrected endlessly!