First Day

My first day of teaching is over and while it was tiring, it was exciting!

We arrived at the school for breakfast and were pleased to find fried eggs, loaf bread and a bread similar to naan. There were also packets of warmed soy milk, and a large (very large) bowl of water with some sort of grain— reminded me of barley or oats. After eating, we went to the staff room and met the Chinese/English assistants that would be helping us in the classroom. I was paired with a young woman just out of teacher’s college whose English name is Lolo.

I was nervous for my first class but as soon as I walked in and saw their cute faces, I relaxed. Their homeroom teacher, Katherine, introduced me to the class as well as Lolo. They were all able to repeat my name with no troubles (I think Jenny is a common English name for them to take). My plan for the day was to teach them how to say “My name is ____” but things quickly changed when I learned that only 2 out of 28 of my kids had English names. I considered just going with their Chinese names, but after hearing two of them, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it. So instead, I put a list of English “boy names” and “girl names” on the board. Anne had given each of us a Canada sponge football the day before, so I pulled it out of my bag and told the students that when I threw the ball to them, they could choose their English name. They really enjoyed this!

After they had their English names, I wanted to learn something about them, so I asked them what they like. “My name is Jenny. I like pineapple. What do YOU like?” I was appreciative for my assistant Lolo, because she could help translate for some students who didn’t understand. It’s also hard to get used to how different the teaching methods are here— one of the biggest differences is the volume of your voice. Being a calm person, I am not one to yell when I get upset or need students’ attention. I’m the silent type. Here, teachers will yell, but it’s not just this that is surprising. Whenever they ask their students to repeat after them, they want their kids to SCREAM the words/phrases back at them. As you can imagine, this makes for a loud school!

After all the kids had finished their pictures, I took a picture of them showing off their artwork. Below is a picture of my first class. Lolo is on the left in the white.

And of course Lolo wanted to get a picture of me in there…

A school worker brought us back to the hotel after lunch at the school and we had a nice long break before heading back for our second class. My second class is smaller (21) and the kids seemed to be more advanced with their English. They are also much more enamoured with me than the first group, and called me Miss Jenny all the time. When I left for their 15 minute break (like a recess), they all said “Bye Jenny, see you!” (I’ve heard “see you” a lot, as well as “let’s go”). I didn’t get a chance to get a picture of this group, but I will tomorrow for sure. They are my little gems.

Looking forward to day two. I’ve been told there will be an “opening ceremony” for the camp in the morning. We were asked to do a “performance—- a song or dance” but Anne stepped up for us and said we would just be doing a short introduction. Hopefully this is the case, I didn’t particularly prepare a performance in all my planning for the teaching experience!