My Class

My mom's been bugging me for ages to take photos of my class, and today I finally remembered to do so.  I love my students; they're sweet and fun kids.  Last week was really hard, because I had no idea what I was doing and they didn't respect me as a teacher.  We're told to be strict and firm with our students for about a week or two at first until they recognize you as the authority, and then you can really start to have fun.  On the whole, they don't need much discipline, which makes my job really easy.  Our first class rule is that no one is allowed to speak any Chinese, and if that happens, the perpetrator is required to sit in the Chinese chair for a minute or two.  It's basically a time-out for speaking Chinese.  They're pretty good about it, and if anyone ever slips into their native tongue, Annie is the first one to tattle.  "Teacher, Chinese!" and she points to the guilty party.  It's funny.

The children were all given English names when they started English classes a few years ago.  They're about eight or nine years old and can speak fairly well, so my job is to get them reading.

These two were goofing around during the break.   On the left is Julie, and on the right is Bobby, my most rambunctious student.  They are both big sweethearts.  Bobby always likes to hold my hand when we go out for a break.  

Bobby is really into martial arts.  He loves to run around the classroom and do handstands.  I'm really jealous of his splits.

Melissa is very intelligent.  The first couple of days I had a hard time with her because she wasn't willing to listen to me, but now she's my top student.  She's eager to learn and is usually the first one done with an assignment.

Andrew is also in the top of the class.  He likes to goof around and be silly.  Sometimes during an activity he'll give an incorrect answer just to make everyone laugh.

Mary and Annie are fun girls.  They are having a tough time catching on to the reading, but they improve every day.  Mary is very affectionate and always sits next to me when we read a book.

Melissa was helping me put away the flash cards we used today.

Here are the tables.  Melissa is showing off a game we play to teach consonant sounds.  On the paper are five target consonants and one or two random consonants.  I read a word that begins with one of those five target consonants, and they point to the right one and shout out the right letter.

Here they are practicing their printing.

Teaching is very rewarding.  I dread making lesson plans every day, but once I get into the classroom and start teaching the students the time flies by.  They're really good kids.

I was in a mall in the nearby of Shenzhen this weekend, and I saw this dental office.  I thought it looked pretty funny right there next to the knockoff Gucci bag stands and pirated dvd stores.

This guy was getting a set of dentures.  The Chinese aren't really into dental hygiene, so most of them have lots of fillings and crowns.