Work Day

I just finished my first full week and I thought it'd be a good idea to let everyone know what exactly I'm doing here.

I'll start off by describing my class. I have 24 students right now ranging from 2 to 4 years old. They're great. I no longer have any who cry all day or stand outside. They have finally been broken...yes, broken.

Every morning I have to be at school at 7:50. This means I wake up at 6:30 and leave the apartment at 7:00. Usually, there's a bus (#25) at 7:05 and that takes less than 15 minutes to get to a nearby bus stop. From there, it's less than a 10 minute walk to the school. That means I usually get there early so I stop and pick up the English newspaper on the way in to read while I wait for the kids to start showing up.

At 7:50 all the English teachers get together by the entrance to greet the kids and parents. We say, "Good morning!" to everyone who walks through the door and give the kids a low five and maybe tickle a couple of them.

At 8:10 some music starts over the intercom which signals the kids to come to the common area to get ready for morning exercises. On Mondays the kids perform a flag raising ceremony instead of exercises. Tuesday through Friday begins with the foreign teachers in the front singing some songs, asking some questions then leading the school in a dance; right now, it's the chicken dance. We've already come up with a new dance for next week.

After our dancing, the Chinese teachers come to the front and lead the kids in a dance they've come up with (ours will be waaaaaay better).

At 8:30 my class heads back to the classroom to eat breakfast. All the classes break up in to three groups to do more exercises in smaller numbers during the rest of the morning. We eat breakfast until 9:00 which is when I begin my first English lesson, it's just 25 minutes. The kids take a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom and get some water.

At 9:30 the Chinese teachers do some songs and dances with the kids. Usually, I join in and play with the kids.

From 10:10 to 10:40 I teach my second English lesson. At 10:40 I have to go to a different class to teach one English lesson until 11:05. This class doesn't have an English teacher so we all rotate and teach one lesson per day. After this class I return to my classroom where the kids are getting ready for lunch. I hang around and help out until 11:25, which is when I leave the school and head back to the apartment for lunch and a wu shui (afternoon nap).

I get back to the school between 2:30 and 3:00 which is when the kids are waking up and eating their afternoon snack which also includes some fruit, which is nice. From 3:00 to 3:25 I teach my third English lesson of the day. The kids get another 5 minute bathroom break then it's back to me for a 25 minute review of what we learned during the day. This review usually gets cut though in order to reward the kids who behaved during the day and punish the ones who didn't.

We load some of the kids on the buses and we just play with the kids as their parents pick them up. I have to stay at the school until 5:00 but I usually just stay until all of my kids have been picked up or their parents have shown up.

I play A LOT with the kids. They love being picked up and flipped upside down. I also really enjoy tickling them and I've taught them to say stop when they've had enough. This is very important because we all know that tickling can turn in to a bad experience if it goes too far.

Ok, this was a long enough post for now. I'll describe the lessons later when I actually have all of them to report on. We're not in full swing yet but should be next week.