Week 1 Ventilation

Have you ever pictured me throwing a little chinese boy out of a window? I have!... MULTIPLE times a day. No, it's really not that bad; it's just a WAY different animal than teaching in the states. There are clearly just some growing pains. I teach Junior 1A and Junior 1B English, which includes 5 blocks a week of English and 2 blocks of Conversation. I also have Junior 2A and Junior 2B for 2 blocks of Conversation each week. I'm also volunteering to help out another teacher with the English elective, Film and Music Appreciaiton, but that doesn't start until next week. I'm aslo going to eb paritally in charge of the English Club (club activities take place on Saturday mornings 9-noon. {English Club? More like Hangover Club...}). Junior 1 is the equivalent to 7th grade, Junior 2 to 8th grade. Junior 1-3 students have class in the morning, and Senior 1-3 students have class in the afternoon; so on a typical day, I'm done teaching class by 12:50. Since I'm required to stay at the school until 4:45, I have plenty of time to get all of my lesson plans done at school. My desk is in the "English Office," which is basically the room in the corner of the building where they've put the 3 Americans (which is next door to the big office where all the Chinese English teachers are). Both of the Americans have worked at the school before, so they offer a great deal of help and invaluable suggestions (Collaborative Relationship Standard anyone???).

The classroom is where things get a tad hectic and frustrating as a teacher. If anything, this week has filled me to the brin with empathy for all of my foreign language teachers (Spanish in high school/Italian in college). Supposedly, the students have been taking various English classes thre last couple years, because it is a requirement to pass an English exam as well as an English interview if they want to attend the university when they graduate Senior 3. You remember in foreign language classes though when you came back on the first day of school and forgot almost everything you learned the last year, becasue you haven't been speaking and practicing it regualrly all summer? (that's why I dropped Spanish 3 on the first day of junior year). Anyway, every lesson I've planned so far has BOMBED the first time. The students will not SHUT UP! You can get the quiet for about 30 seconds MAX, but as soon as you restart the lesson, they start chatting again with their friends in CHinese, because they have no clue what I'm saying for the most part. I've resorted to grabbing a chair and sitting in the middle of the talkative students, which works for a bit longer. Soon after though, they start talking around my back. God knows what they're saying, because I certainly don't, adn the students know it. It horrifies me to think of the kind of crap that I pulled in foreign language class with the teacher understanding English. What would my friends and I have done if the teacher didn't understand any English. Hell cracked a bit loose just thinking about it. They also have no concept of what a whisper is, that is until you ask them to speak in English. Then I can barely hear them. There is a silver lining to this... For each bombed lesson I've had, I've tweaked it before I teach it to the next class, where it has gone exponentially better (Assessment Standard!!!) Hopefully now my lesson plans will go a little smoother. As for the chatty kathys across the room, well, there's a reason that homework was created: 1. To reiterate the precious lesson to help cement it into memory; 2. To scare students into behaving upon the consequence of getting more homework form misbehavior. Say what you like about homework as punishment or negative reinforcement; it's a proven method, one that's about to strike my classes like Hurricane Earl (or that almost typhoon that happened here yesterday). Aside from the growing pains, I'm still very excited about my next year here in Macau (yeah, it still probably won't be more than a year). I hope that this is the last one of these that is drenched in frustration. We'll be right back after the commercial break...Thanks for listening.