The students had learned what each genre of literature is and have chosen their first books. We (me, their homeroom teacher, and the Dean aka my boss) had set up a weekly schedule for each of them based on their skill level and their chosen book. Everything had been set up so the program could run smoothly with minimal oversight. It was so that the students can read their book without us breathing down their necks. Well, there was one little detail we failed to take into account…
Teaching
Finally! Finally, we got the Kindles to work for my students. You have no idea how much time, effort, and energy it took for me and my boss to get these Kindles to the school, attach them to a proper Amazon account, and make sure that we could download the books they wanted onto their Kindle. Let me tell me more about everything…
I’ve been back in Nanchang for a while now. However, I got back to work last Wednesday. Well…technically my first day back was on Monday because I had several meetings to attend along with my colleagues. Then, I had one more meeting where I had to sit down with my boss to do some last-minute preparation for my school’s first-ever “Independent Reading Program”. You have no idea how excited I am about that. That among other things…
Well, now that I’m done with the BTP (Behind The Pen) segment of my primary release of my Short Story Project, I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging. I am glad to do this, too, because so many things have changed throughout my life. Not just mine, either; my friends were dealing with the same thing…
My brother and one of my closest friends had a field day at my expense after what happened a week ago. Long story short, I didn’t learn from my lesson from a few months ago and tried to do so many things at once. So, yeah, I almost had a fainting episode in front of my students and I got send home because of it. It was an unsettling feeling but I should provide some backstory to this one.
There was no way I teach these kids without laughing at their antics. There are so adorable when they are being…well…kids. But there was a situation that took all of us by surprise. Spoiler alert! I tried my hardest not to laugh as the event unfolded at the time. Actually, I’m still trying not to laugh as I type this out.
The role of the reacher is of that of a parent but only on a smaller scale. As a teacher, we are tasked to not only teach kids to be intellectually progressive towards their education but, also, to be a respectable member of society. People seem to forget that school isn’t just for learning from books, but also to learn for the real world. Parents, especially, because they don’t seem to think that this is something to be of great importance. I learned that the hard way.
The fact that I’m back to teaching is something that fills my heart with so much joy. I can’t tell you how much I love teaching. All of my colleagues spend Sunday at an expat bar (bar owned by a foreign) to talk about our first full week back. I couldn’t be happier. Especially since I have been granted the nickname of “Tónghuà lǎoshī” (童话老师) which means Fairy Teacher which I will take because I used a Spider-man baton as my “wand”. But there’s something else we wanted to talk about at the bar: What we were going to do for Pride?
I am so happy right now for so many reasons. My school is opening up this week and my lesson plans are ready to go. This is going to be such a welcome relief because I don’t think I can go another week without teaching my kids. And, that’s not the only thing that made me ever so gitty. Wait for it…I’ve made new friends!!!