First week of classes

The first week of classes ended this past Saturday and now that I have three days off to relax and process everything I can finally fill you in on what teaching's been like so far.

The school day here begins at 8:00am sharp and ends at 4:20pm. Each class is 40 minutes long with a ten minute break in between. Because the students here don't have lockers and wouldn't be able to haul their fifteen pounds of textbooks with them, they stay in one classroom the entire day and the teachers are the ones who rotate. Lunch is from 12:00 to 2:00 and during that time both the teachers and students head back to the dorms for naps. (Who knew siestas were a thing in China?)

My schedule is different each day so I teach anywhere from three to five classes depending. Fridays are our "flex day" so we administer mock IELTS exams to the Senior 3s in the morning and have the rest of the day off. In my opinion, a 4 1/2 day work week is the best kind of work week. ;)

As for the students, the first thing I'd like to say is that some of the English names these kids pick are just straight up bizarre. I have one girl named Kaiser and another girl named Roy. One student goes by the name Funny, another is called Joden, and one of Loren's students is named Animal! I mean, what? How on earth am I supposed to keep a straight face when I ask Funny to stand up and answer a homework question? These kids....

I can honestly say, however, that I'm quite fond of the majority of them. They are attentive (mostly because they're curious about the unhinged foreigner wildly gesticulating at the front of the room) and polite and seem to have at least some interest in learning English. I obviously have a few classes that I prefer more than others, but there is only one class that literally makes me want to leap headfirst through the nearest window.

One of my Senior 3 classes consists of eight boys. They are the less advanced Senior 3s and, for all intents and purposes, are the "remedial" class for their grade level. As such, most of them firmly believe that the only reason to come to class is to simply change sleeping positions from their bed to their desk. I have the misfortune of having two back-to-back 40 minute blocks with them on Tuesday mornings and I spend 78 of those 80 minutes slapping their desks to keep them conscious. Sleeping in class is actually a problem in quite a few of the classes here and it is common for the head teachers to walk around the halls during class to rap on windows and wake up students. This is a rather ineffective method, however, since as soon as the teachers move on the heads fall right back on the desks.

I've since come to the realization that there is simply no point in letting "my boys" shoot my blood pressure into the stratosphere. Yes, they sleep in my class and don't want to participate, but it happens with everyone who teaches them and no one else seems to be concerned. So I keep on lecturing and address the two or three students who are attentive and want to learn something and leave the rest of them be. I just find it funny that all of the boys in this class have told me that they are planning to go to university in the US or Australia and yet they see no point in improving their English. Oh, what a rude awakening awaits them...

Thankfully, I have great fellow teachers who I can vent to about any and all frustrations. Both the other foreign teachers and the Chinese teachers are super friendly and helpful and are definitely one of the best perks of this job. To the best of my knowledge, the newest foreign teacher has been hired and should be joining us the week of the 15th. He's from the Philippines, like Maffi, but is a fluent speaker and comes with eight years of teaching experience. I expect that he'll fit right in to our merry little group.