In the teaching groove...

Jenny here again...I've really been in a mood to write lately so here is another glimpse into life here in hot, sunny China. The past few weeks at school have passed quickly. I had a week where I sang songs with my classes... yes, all eighteen classes in one week. I put together a PowerPoint presentation with the words to songs by artists that our students love such as Avril Lavigne, Linkin' Park, Westlife, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, and of course the Backstreet Boys. So for an entire week, I sang along to the words to many of these American songs as my students belted out the words along with me. It still shocks me to watch and hear these teenage guys singing My Heart Will Go On (Titantic theme song) at the top of their lungs. They had a blast and so did I...I'm a kareoke diva at heart....

Another week I had the kids play a game which they love here. Anything with competition is appealing to these kids - they are born to compete at everything. Last week I copied Sean’s lesson and taught about Amnesty. I made them all President of DanYang and gave them a list of nine prisoners. I divided them into groups and had them discuss which five of these prisoners they would grant amnesty. Then we discussed it as a class.

I had a mother that was doing drugs, a man who was drinking and driving, a banker who stole money, a protester and possible terrorist, a student who was a computer hacker... There were nine different people and descriptions. It was very interesting as I went from one class to the next, which criminals they would absolve of their crimes.

The only similarity that I found amongst my students and I believe with Sean’s as well, was the fact that they never granted either person that stole money amnesty. In China, to steal money is dishonorable, unacceptable, and definitely unforgivable! However, most of them let the mother who did drugs go because a “mother’s love” is most important.

They usually let the engineer who was drank, drove and injured a child go home as well. Their thoughts on that were that he just made a mistake and he should be forgiven. When asked if it would make a difference if it was their child that he hurt, they said they still would forgive him. It was a very insightful week of teaching for me.

This week I am teaching idioms. So far, so good - I'm not blue in the face, yet. I am becoming very relaxed while I am teaching and am actually enjoying it more. Unfortunately, this week the school hoodwinked me again by rearranging the students in all of my classes. The students are placed in classes 1-18 according to their grade point average. Class “1” being the best and brightest in all subjects (except oral English of course, there are no grades or measurements for oral English skills). Now all of my students are strangers to each other and will have to make friends again before they feel comfortable enough to speak English.

Just as I was on the precipice of a breakthrough they take the wind from my sails! Oh well, I will conquer. At least they are still all of my students... just jumbled up into different classes.

On Sunday, I met with one of my students to go into town and have our picture taken together. They have those machines that will take a picture of you and put you in many different settings. Huge business here! These kids have their pictures taken over and over again to give to their friends, thousands of little picture stickers are flying around the school.

They do not have a “yearbook” per say, but they do have these pages that the students give to each other that will ask you about your favorite color, book, food, etc. They even have me writing out these short autobiographies. They are so excited when I hand them back my completed profile. To many, I will be the only foreigner they will ever meet. I try not to forget that. I am an ambassador, not just by being a teacher, and a foreigner, but also as an American.

I will blog again soon. I have many ideas for upcoming blogs but of course, if you want to know about anything... ask me!

Oh that reminds me... Sean’s Dad had asked me how the Chinese use a computer keyboard since they use characters. This was an awesome question and I did ask my host because I had wondered that myself.

The answer...They have to memorize a system of keystrokes that make up a word. They actually have two types of keyboards. The regular ones they have to memorize but they also have special one’s that when they learn to use it, can actually type things much faster than if you or I was trying to type it in English. By using just a few keys, they can write complete sentences.

Then of course, there is the cell phone. To text a message to someone is even more laborious but these kids do it so often that they are able to fly through the different screens and type messages very quickly. It seems very difficult to me but then again, I do not understand Mandarin!

Talk later!!