Made it through the first week

Well,
I made it through the first week of teaching. Our classes are based on a two week cycle. This was the second week and we finished on Thursday. We have 3 days off then teach 6 days next week and then 1 day off. I had homework duty on Tuesday night so had to stay at school from 6:30 to 8:00. Seems like students are the same wherever they are. Some work diligently on homework while others will do anything to keep from doing it. :-) It sure made for a long day, but I only have the duty on Tuesday night of the 2nd week.

This is Lily (the computer teacher) and Doug and Rachel (Doug is standing at my desk). His desk is directly to the left.








I am learning all the Chinese teachers' names and the ones from New Zealand as well.
This is Mina, Chu Lin, and Yin Yin. On the left is Meegan's desk, on the right is Doug's.


The students are for the most part attentive and respectful. The older boys tend to want to sleep during the morning class. All students must report to class by 7:40. Our classes start at 8:10. I can only imagine how difficult it is to not only learn the subject, but to learn it in English.
We went to "Town" yesterday on the bus to check out the McDonalds and try to find the church. We found McDonalds and had an ice cream which was quite good, but couldn't find the church. Jim thinks he will try the China version of McDonalds Apple pie the next time we go. It is a Green Bean Pie. We will go again in the morning and see if we can find the church.
We spent the morning cleaning the apartment and washing clothes.
(This is my kitchen).


Well, I better get some clothes hung up, the sun has come out and it has stopped raining.

More later,

Getting started on a new year

Well, today was my first day of teaching in the International Section at the school. It is going to be quite an adventure. There are twelve of us that share a teachers' office. We agreed today that we practically need traffic lights to move around the room. We finally got our schedules yesterday evening and the first thing this morning the schedule was changed. I am teaching 3 levels of Science. Each level is based on the students' English abilities. I met one of the classes today, level 4, (all boys about age 17). I will meet another class tomorrow, level 5, along with level 4 again. I won't meet the students in level 3 until Wednesday. It will take some getting used to, meeting the same class twice in one day on some days and not meeting some classes at all on some days. I don't have an official textbook, but some various resources to put together some curriculum. Larry, it sure makes me appreciate the resources and materials we had at good ole Pawnee. In two of my classrooms there are only a few desks and chairs and a small white board (that has been used many times and so far I haven't been able to get it clean). The students are wonderful so far. They are polite and respectful. The teachers are great to work with and we all try to help each other out.
Yesterday I hooked up two computers that were sitting in the corner. Everyone was grateful that they were working again. We only have one printer in the office and it is connected to a computer that only has Chinese language on it. I have to really think about where things are when I use it because I can't read the labels.
Thankfully I have my laptop at the apartment with my printer so I try to print some things at home.

By the way, we had a foot massage at a little place around the corner this evening and it was wonderful after a full day of standing and walking.
Well, enough for now - I have homework to do and I need to catch the 7:10 school bus in the morning. (When it gets cooler I will probably walk some - it is about 3 miles)

Zia Jian