Shaina Teaches English in China: Day 11

Day 11

6th day teaching
Baoding, Hebei, China

Sunday, July 13

We started our day with the morning talks outside the door - on their way in. I'm still loving this time to speak to each student individually. I try to ask them new questions each day so that I can learn something different about them. Today I asked them how they get to school each day. There were a fair number whose parents bring them, or they live close enough to walk. However, there were a few that shocked me. One student rides a bicycle about 30-40 to get to school. One student rides the city bus about 30 minutes. Many live quite far away. This school is considered one of the best in the city, and so many parents opt to send their kids here instead of whatever school they are zoned for. They pay a fee to do this - but I've heard the fee is pretty steep. I am constantly impressed with the value that the Chinese culture puts on education. I don't see any American students riding their bicycle 30+ minutes to get to school because they know it's such a good school and worthy of the effort. The commitment is impressive.

Next I read the students a book. Since we learned about Halloween, and made masks to use for trick-or-treating - I thought it would be fun to read a Halloween book. They enjoyed it :)

After the book, I knew I wanted to a play a game using my "Eggspert".

So during the break between periods I went through all of the songs that we've studied. I wrote down all the words, phrases, idioms etc that we had discussed the whole week. I used this list to create the game. I wrote a word on the board and the students had to buzz in if they knew it. They worked in teams and were allowed to use their notes. It was a lot of fun. Well it was until one of the students cheated.

There was one team that was dominating the game. They were so good. They were smart and focused and wanted to win. A student on another team, Vadar, (interesting name, right?) decided to turn off the awesome team's buzzer. It was a few rounds before anyone noticed it. When I realized it I got really upset and kicked him out of the game. I sent him to sit in the back of the room, alone. It was a moment for me though. Turns out, kids are kids, no matter where they live.

After class we had a break and I went to sit down in the teacher break room. Vista (a student) came in and seemed very upset. He asked me, "Are you mad?" I had to explain to him that I wasn't mad at anyone except Vadar and that he shouldn't worry. He seemed relieved and left. A few minutes later he came back with Vadar and Vadar apologized for messing up the game. I'm not sure he was really sorry, but I appreciated the effort. I was mostly impressed with Vista. He couldn't stand that I might be mad and made his friend apologize to make it all okay. Sweet kids :)

Next, the students worked on writing a letter to my American students. I encouraged them to write about daily life, school, family etc. I gave them the option of providing an address or email so that my American students could respond. This task took longer than I expected because the students were such perfectionists. They wanted me to revise and edit and check over their letters and then write a final draft. We really didn't get to finish, so we'll continue tomorrow. I'll include some pics when they are done.

After our lunch break, we had the best part of the day and one of the most fun parts of the whole school session: Trick-or-Treating! The night before, the other teachers and I bought lots of candy for the kids at the grocery store. I had my students bring a bag to collect their candy - just as we do here. I taught them to say "Trick or Treat!" to get their candy. Then we had all the students (150+) go from room to room to Trick-or-Treat. My rule was that they couldn't get candy from me unless they asked properly and wore their masks. I wanted them to get the real experience.