Teaching in China in Luoyang has so far been very fun and rewarding.
We were originally assigned the Luoyang no.2 Foreign Language School teaching Middle School at their new campus. However, they were in need of more Foreign Language teachers at the Primary School on their old campus. So here we are!! We actually love our location because its very close to town so we walk wherever we need to go, or catch a bus. Our apartment is also on campus so we just walk across the track to get to class.
Michael teaches all 1st grade and half of 2nd grade.
I teach the other half of 2nd grade and all of 3rd.
We each have 13 classes a week that last for 35 mins, with about 40 students in each class. So learning all the names is close to impossible. Especially because they have both chinese names and western names. But we're still trying :]
Our job is to teach the children conversational/spoken English while their Chinese English teachers teach them grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation, and spelling. The children attend school from around 7:00am to about 5:30pm. For those who live on campus during the week, class ends later into the evening around 9:30pm. The workload is so huge for these little kids, so we try to make our classes less heavy, i.e. no homework, more singing, word games, etc. All the while helping them improve their spoken English. :]
The children pretty much love us- really.
Whenever one sees us they'll scream "Wài jiào, Wài jiào!!", which means foreign teacher, and then everyone around will join in with "HELLO!" and "GOOD AFTERNOON!". They are so loving and will give you hugs and kisses if you let them. They absolutely LOVE getting their picture taken and will knock each other over to get into the shot. Michael was saying how its funny that they try so hard to get into a picture that they'll probably never see. Here are some of those pictures :]
We were originally assigned the Luoyang no.2 Foreign Language School teaching Middle School at their new campus. However, they were in need of more Foreign Language teachers at the Primary School on their old campus. So here we are!! We actually love our location because its very close to town so we walk wherever we need to go, or catch a bus. Our apartment is also on campus so we just walk across the track to get to class.
Michael teaches all 1st grade and half of 2nd grade.
I teach the other half of 2nd grade and all of 3rd.
We each have 13 classes a week that last for 35 mins, with about 40 students in each class. So learning all the names is close to impossible. Especially because they have both chinese names and western names. But we're still trying :]
Our job is to teach the children conversational/spoken English while their Chinese English teachers teach them grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation, and spelling. The children attend school from around 7:00am to about 5:30pm. For those who live on campus during the week, class ends later into the evening around 9:30pm. The workload is so huge for these little kids, so we try to make our classes less heavy, i.e. no homework, more singing, word games, etc. All the while helping them improve their spoken English. :]
The children pretty much love us- really.
Whenever one sees us they'll scream "Wài jiào, Wài jiào!!", which means foreign teacher, and then everyone around will join in with "HELLO!" and "GOOD AFTERNOON!". They are so loving and will give you hugs and kisses if you let them. They absolutely LOVE getting their picture taken and will knock each other over to get into the shot. Michael was saying how its funny that they try so hard to get into a picture that they'll probably never see. Here are some of those pictures :]
Our apartment is just behind the Basketball Hoops.
This one gives me hugs and kisses all the time. Love him :]
These kids are mostly in 3rd Grade
After our first week of teaching, they told us that the school was celebrating Teacher's Day. This is a pretty nice holiday in China. The children give their teachers flowers and gifts. Michael and I got a bunch of flowers and a few sweet notes from ours. Each teacher gets 600 RMB bonus ($100 USD), a box of pomegranates and a bag of flour. They also had a multi course banquet at a fancy restaurant. Since we are teachers too, we were able to attend the banquet (and now have two boxes of pomegranates and two bags of flour) which was very fun! All of the different teachers went up by grade and subject and performed a skit of sorts at the dinner.
We were asked to perform something the day before the dinner, since we didn't have time to come up with an awesome duet (which would totally have rocked) we sang "If you're happy and you know it." They actually loved it and participated in the song. :] Here are some pictures from that night.
A Chinese Sturgeon...mmmmh tasty
Our table. In front is our Liaison, Jessie. We love her!!
Our beautiful flowers
so pretty :]
We were also invited to the a dinner for all of the Foreign Language Teachers the following Sunday by the Principal of both schools, Mr. Bai. It was a pretty classy place. It had been remodeled to look like an old timey village. It was pretty surprising to walk into our room to find a huge table with a motorized lazy susan...that's like a big thing...trust me. There were a lot of toasts made and so many fun and different dishes. I think we had around 21 different dishes by the time we were done.
All of the Foreign Teachers
Gail, Dave, Fran, Jordan, Me, & Miguel
Various tools and a grinding machine
SO happy!
To be pulled by Donkeys
Loom
Good ol' Mao
Some Sesame Crisps being made for dinner.
Cool wall decoration
Sweet chandelier
Be a Man!!
Our HUGE table. That's Mr. Bai on the left.
Next Holiday coming up is the Mid Autumn Festival next weekend Thursday-Saturday. Michael and I have plans to go to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors!
We'll let you know how it goes :]
(lo)ve+michael
2 comments:
at: September 25, 2013 at 7:40 PM said...
testing one two three
at: September 25, 2013 at 7:41 PM said...
testing as anonymous.
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