Teacher, Teacher, Can You Teach Me??

I taught 2 days this weekend, and it's only going to get busier from here.  In fact, we need to get a move-on and hire a second teacher. Considering it took 2 months to get me here - 2 months exactly from the day of my interview, December 17, until the day I arrived in Beijing, on February 17 - by the time our next teacher arrives, I'll be pretty busy.

On Saturday, I began the day with my preschool-ers. It's a big class, at 9 students, and the entire lesson lasts 90 minutes.  It was a success.  It's difficult to get them all on task at the same time, and the activities need to be changed quickly as they get bored very easily, but I managed to get them all seated and doing book work at the same time, for about 20 minutes consecutively (which is the time allotted for book work).  I think that deserves a pat on the back!!

The rest of the day I spent teaching demo lessons.  Demo lessons are shorter - 30 minute - lessons, intended to demonstrate our teaching style/methodology to parents of potential students.  Parents observe the class and watch us introduce the target language to the students, and if all goes well, have the children produce the target language. I was fairly nervous, as the first class had a few students under the age of 3, and many have not learned any English prior to this (I have very little experience here).  The second class was pretty much the same, except there were a couple of 4 year-olds. The third demo had a few 5-6 year olds, many who have already taken English lessons in school.  Overall, I'd say it was a resounding success. In fact, my workload has doubled.  My schedule has jumped from 3 lessons per week, to 6 lessons per week. It doesn't sound like much, but 4 teaching hours, with kids under 6, is exhausting.  It's fun, but man is it exhausting.

Today I taught 2 lessons.  My group of 5-6 year-olds, and the 7-9 year-olds.  The big kids are tiring too, because they're loud, disruptive, and hyper. They are almost as tiring as the toddlers, but not as cute :)  I am not sure if I have a favorite yet, since after every class I find myself thinking, "That was my favorite."  I'm sure after a few months  I'll have a more definite answer.

I'll be going into the office for an hour or 2 tomorrow, but I pretty much have the day off.  I'd like to get to the gym in the late morning/early afternoon of at all possible.  It's 10PM, and my eyelids are getting heavy, so I think it may be an early night.  Until next time, peace and love to all! XO