Nov. 10, 2016
11:30 pm
Beijing, China
So guess what I did today!
No, I didn’t go skydiving. No, I didn’t pet a tiger. Believe me, my life is not nearly that exciting. Today, though, I did get to teach an entire class all by myself. Yep! It’s true! Kristen McKell has now officially become a teacher at EF (I even received my hot pink lanyard to prove it). It was a lot of fun.
So the class I taught was a Small Stars A class. It’s the one I opened with Juanita last week, so it was only their third lesson. We’re working on emotions right now. Most of them know the vocabulary (sad, happy, tired, etc.), but our goal today was to learn the interaction pattern, “How are you?” “I’m ____.” Now this is actually a super tough grammar point to get through to 3 and 4 year olds. To them, the word “I’m” is associated with their name, “I’m Cathy.” In Chinese, the only way to answer the question, “你叫什么名字?” (Ni jiao shen ma ming zi?) is, “我叫 ___” (Wo jiao ___). So to them, using “I’m” to answer any other question besides “What’s your name?” doesn’t make any sense. It’s really funny because they all understand the vocabulary, they just don’t understand that it actually applies to them.
Getting them to play games was also a little difficult. I mean they love to play games, obviously because they’re kids, but explaining the rules to them is difficult. We managed to figure out musical chairs pretty well, but when we played a miming game it didn’t go so well. The kids didn’t understand that they had to mime the action and the student who had to guess didn’t understand what he was supposed to guess. We didn’t play that game for very long.
I also want to add that these kids are really great. There’s on kid named Eric who is definitely going to be a handful, but when I took away a star (our management system) he acted better. I have a boy named Tongtong who knows the vocabulary and context really well. I think he was probably in Small Stars Blue. There’s a boy named Tony who’s one of the babies. Ashlee calls him her smiley parrot. He literally never stops smiling and he’ll only speak if he’s repeating you. It’s adorable! And there’s Sophia who is very cute and does pretty well. There’s a girl named Cathy who is great at the vocabulary and picks up on activities easily. I have two little girls named Kangkang and Helay. Kangkang likes to participate, but I think she gets nervous. Helay doesn’t like to participate in the physical activities, but she likes to do book and board work. And last but not least are Holly and Zanzan, two little boys. Holly is kinda quiet, but likes to participate in the lesson. Zanzan is super shy. He’s another little parrot, but he barely speaks. You have to listen very closely to his whisper. We also have Oscar, but he wasn’t there today and I haven’t had the chance to get to know him much.
I’m so excited to keep teaching these guys. I also have a Small Stars B that I’m opening on Sunday that Brian and I will share. I’m hoping it will be fun and that I’ll have another good group of students.
Words to Remember: Eph. 5:15-20
Challenge: Read this passage and pick out the phrases that stick out to you. Why do you think that is? Remember as you go about today to praise Abba at every opportunity. “Each time you drink a liquid today, pause and picture yourself being filled with the liquid Spirit of [Abba]. Enjoy that.” (“Solo” pg. 296).
Bless,
Kristen
