Just another crazy day…
Today is Saturday. This semester I teach on Saturdays instead of Wednesdays. At first it might sound better to have a whole weekend off but if you knew what kind of classes I had to teach on Wednesdays compared to the ones I teach on Saturdays, you’d understand. Interestingly enough, I don’t think I’ve had two Saturdays this whole semester that I’ve taught the same classes. Today was no exception.
I was suppose to start teaching three new classes: one brand new class, one a continuation of another class I had finish plus new students and the other a class that a different teacher had been teacher until she woke up one morning and quit. My first class started at 8:30. I had never been to the school before so I left a bit early. It was easy to find. The name of the school is 101 Middle School. The sign outside of the school made me laugh: it says Beijing Yilingyi Middle School. All of it in English except the 101 part, probably the easiest part to write in English… Eleven of the 15 students came today, some of them from my old class, others were new. Surprisingly out of the eleven, three girls had the name Angel! It make for good jokes. “Ok, Angel, Angel and Angel, stand up and read this dialogue.” The class was fun but three hours is a long time to teach one class. I was glad to be done.
After class, I went over to the dorms to meet Jon and Tony to plan our Sunday evening study. On the way I got a message to call Faye at the school office. I tried calling but no answer. The guys and I were about to head out to lunch when Faye called me back. Surprise! My afternoon class was cancelled because they needed me to do a demo class. Could I be at the office at 12:45? Ha ha, it was noon exactly when I talked to her. Lunch plans were cancelled and I went out to the alley and bought some quick street food. Study was planned between bites. I made it to the office 5 minutes late.
The demo class was at a school about 30 minutes away by taxi. I got the book about two minutes before I was suppose to start teaching. I asked Will (the Chinese assistant from the office) how long the class should be. I suggested 10 minutes. He recommended an hour. An hour it was… The kids were actually a lot of fun but I feel bad for the teacher who ends up teaching that class. Three of them had lived in America and spoke perfect English. One of the girls told me after class that their English was better than their Chinese. (Trust me, they weren’t going to learn anything in that class.) The other kids barely spoke English as all. Of the eight students who where there, I’d say one was at the level of the book I was teaching. The others were either way above or way below. Like I said, I feel bad for the teacher who has to teach that class!
After that I had time to grab a Chinese omelet (one of my favorite street foods) and a cup of coffee from Starbucks. Then I had my first Hai Gui class. Hai Gui is Chinese for sea turtle. It’s a class for students who have lived abroad in an English speaking country and have come back to China. We use actual American reading textbooks. It was so much!!! I had a group of 8 eight and nine year olds. Our theme is Silly Stories. They loved it! The first story we read was about a boy whose dad made him a jelly and peanut butter sandwich instead of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To introduce the story, I made a couple PB&J’s in class and shared them with the students. (It’s not exactly a commonly eaten food here.) I had so much fun teaching that class! I loved the little kids who had lived in England: they had British accents. So funny.
After class, we had study at my apartment. As always it went very well. Then I had a ton of e-mails and text messages to answers. Finally a bit after midnight I was able to crash in bed and fall asleep exhausted.
