Those who can't, teach

If you have read my previous five posts on this blog, then you could be forgiven for thinking I have been enjoying a little holiday over here in Beijing. But in actual fact, I originally came here to teach English in a Chinese school, but with all the drinking of beer (and tea) in recent weeks I had forgotten that point myself!

Let's start at the beginning, I was a little nervous as I approached the school on day one. I made the decision to go in an hour and a half before my first lesson, firstly because I wanted to sample the breakfast. Secondly I wanted to sit in the office prior to my first class just to ensure my lesson plan looked capable of filling 40 minutes, after all I would be delivering it on no less than five occasions during that very day.

I have six Grade Three (8 year olds) classes, each of which I will teach on three occasions a week likewise my one Grade One (6 year olds) class. The Grade Three's would be learning about the 'five senses' whilst my Grade One's would be taught all about animals this week.

Me and one of my Grade Three classes

One of the lessons on the five senses provided a problem, within minutes I had the class in fits of laughter. It turned out that one of my students is called Mouth, and the sentence 'I taste with my mouth' caused the class to burst out laughing and point at the poor guy whilst shouting things at him in Chinese. 

On names, most Chinese people have adopted an English name. For example Bruce Lee was actually called Lee Jun-fan, and as such all of my students have English names too. Usually they choose the name closest to how their actual name is pronounced or in some cases such as Mouth's, they just pick a word they like. The most common names in my classes seem to be Cindy, Maria and Linda for girls and Jacky, George and Charlie for boys. That said I do have a boy called Water in one of my classes and he usually sits next to his friend, who is known as Weekend. My favourite name at the school though is that of an older boy in one of my friend's classes, he is called Garfield.

So anyway, my lessons went pretty well all things considered. The kids do get bored quickly so drilling sentences can get tiresome for them after a few minutes, to keep their attention songs and of course games are a must. The Grade One kids love the game 'duck, duck, goose', whilst the older children love 'Typhoon' a game that I was not au fait with to be honest but they go mental for it! These are the rules for 'Typhoon', if you care to read them.

Me and my Grade One class

I enjoyed my first week in the classroom, its amazing how quickly you can get into it. The kids love shouting out "teacher!" when they have completed a written task and if you ask for a volunteer almost all of them will put their hand up though quite often you will find that when you pick one of the volunteers they then decide they don't want to come up to the front, yet funnily enough their hand goes up again and again throughout the lesson... Also, what did come as a surprise even though I had been warned it might happen is that the Grade One's like to slap your bum when you are talking to someone sitting next to them, which they find hilarious too.

I am not sure if I am a good teacher or not but what is satisfying is when you get to the end of the week and the students are able to form the sentence you have been teaching them without having to hear you say it before them, you can't beat that.