Full time

I finally started teaching full time on Saturday. Let me just say it was a crazy day. I had to teach, watch and judge more Thanksgiving drama contests, and meet the parents of the kids in the classes I will be taking over from one of the foreign teachers who is leaving tomorrow. Sunday was just as crazy, so I have decided that Sunday will no longer be my day to update. It will probably become Monday from now on.

I am glad to be teaching full time now. Some of my otherwise idle hours will no be spent planning lessons. I know, it doesn't sound that exciting and it really isn't. In fact, it can be really hard. Today I had to plan a 40 minute class around the phrases "You're early" and "I'm late." Let me tell you, I really had to stretch some creative muscles to get that one done. Thankfully, the Chinese teachers at Kid Castle are really great and they are willing to help take up some slack and help with classroom management. It's really hard to control kids who are yelling at you in another language. When its me against fourteen screaming 6 year old kids, guess who's going to win? It wasn't me, that's for sure.

I dreaded one of my classes today. I was told it was a class of 18 naughty 9-10 year olds. I think it went pretty well. I actually had to cut some of my activities short because I ran out of time. It's always better to plan more than to run out, but I'm sure until I really get the hang of this lesson planning thing, I'll be running out of material quite a bit. That's especially true when I have a double class (that's one forty minute class, a ten minute break and then another 40 minute class) and the material is the same as I'd have to cover for a regular class period. It takes a lot of creative thinking and a lot of different ways to review material with games.

The kids, the older one and the younger ones, all require massive amounts of energy to deal with. They can be loud and a constant blur of motion. This is even more true as the night go on and it gets closer and closer to the time to go home. I don't really blame them. Some of the kids I teach are very young. They start as young as 3. In China, kids start kindergarten around 2 1/2, according to one of the Chinese teachers. When I told her kindergarten doesn't start until age 5 in the US, she looked startled. It's the norm for kids to start school from a very young age. I don't think I agree. There is one little girl I teach who can't be any more than 3. She is so much tinier than all her class-mates. She can hardly grasp the concepts we are trying to teach her and she is one of the kids that has a behavior issue, but to me it's understandable. I would get bored if I couldn't understand my teacher too.

What do you think about it?

Until next time!