March 4, 2017
11:15 pm
Beijing, China
Wow, it’s really hard to get back into writing these. I came home tonight and just wanted to watch TV curled up in my bed. It’s going to take a little bit of time to build the habit back up, and it’ll be even harder now that the excitement of a new adventure has worn off. That said, hopefully I can still find some more entertaining stories to share with you.
This weekend is my “off” weekend. I only had two classes today, but it still felt like a long, long day. It started at 8:45 with my one-hour Small Star A class. We had a great class this morning. These kids are pretty wonderful and I always enjoy the hour I spend with them. It’s a great way to start exhausting weekends. We have a routine established for the class, especially the beginning and end of class. One of our routines is to go over the rules of class. Every class, I pull up the Powerpoint and go through the slides, asking students “Yes or No” for each. This class is really good at the rules. They all know the answers before I even say a word. One particular student actually asks the question before he answers. Today, I decided to let Ryan play teacher and lead the other students through the rules Powerpoint. It was quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever done and will definitely be repeated in the future. There were a couple other moments during the review portion of our class where I was able to let a couple other students play teacher. They LOVED it! I’m super excited to do it for the parents when we have another open door for them.
My other class of the day was my 2-hour High Flyer F at 4:15. This class was exhausting. The kids have been getting really rowdy lately and I’m not sure what to do to make them behave. The ones that are causing problems just don’t seem to care about the rewards system or anything else. Plus, the stuff we covered in the lesson plan today was just boring. Unfortunately, the second lesson of each unit is compromised of all the parts the kids really don’t enjoy doing. While I tried to have fun, the bad behavior made it tough. Though I have struggles in that class, I also have some really great students. One of the things we do in class is assign Let’s Talk. It’s kind of like Show-and-Tell. Three times a unit, we assign a few students to prepare something to share with the class next lesson. We can have them talk about anything we want, although most teachers try to keep it related to what we’re discussing. This is a new addition to the course, so the kids are still getting used to it. Here are two of my students sharing the Let’s Talk Susan assigned last week. They’re discussing their idols. Take note of who Sarah’s (the second student) idol is.
Let\'s Talk Idols
Also, one of my students in my High Flyer class is pretty high level. She (we’ll call her M) can have full conversations with me in English and actually helps other students when they don’t understand by translating for them. One of the girls (we’ll call her S) who was sitting near M today is not so high level and sometimes needs me to explain things again. Today, S needed to ask me about one of the activities, but couldn’t do so in English. Instead, she went on for a bit in Chinese. Luckily, she used hand gestures and I was able to figure out what she meant fairly easily, to the point that it looked like I actually understood what she was saying in Chinese. M was very impressed when I could answer S’s question so quickly and asked if I could listen to Chinese. My answer immediately was, “a little,” because I don’t want them to think that I can understand everything, but it’s also nice to sort of “scare” them into not saying bad stuff if they think you understand them. But, upon answering, I realized that I actually am starting to understand many of the questions my students ask. I may not know the individual words, but I can get the gist of what they’re asking. It’s a cool thing to experience.
Words to Remember: Exodus 33:21-34:7
Challenge: Day 6: After you read this passage, close your eyes. How are you envisioning Abba right now? What does He look like? What expression does He wear? Now read the passage once more. Where did that image come from? As you go through the day, take a moment to reflect on this picture of Him. Carry Him with you throughout the day and see how the day changes because you are aware of His presence.
Goodnight, all,
Kristen
P.S. The featured photo is from another High Flyer class I had last week. After our test over sea creatures, I asked the students to create a new animal using the body parts of three animals we’d learned about. This is the example I made for them. It’s called a Fisarkpus.
