杭州 Day 8

Tuesday, September 16, 2008: 杭州 Day 8 - First Day of Teaching!
中国 Day 8
Asia Day 8

• Woke up hecka early, but went back to sleep several times. It was strange because I first woke up around 7:45am, but I was in a half-awake mental state until around 10am, when I finally got out of bed. At this time, I had a slight headache and stomachache and did not know the cause. I chatted and laid down a bit before I felt better. Also polished up the lesson plans.

• At 1:20pm, I left for work. Little did I remember, the walk from my apartment to the classroom is about 3 minutes away (from when I step outside my door to when I reach the classroom). I also had to get the key to the room, as well as the microphone. The lady in charge of those items just had me write the room number and sign my name on a sheet of paper. I went upstairs and I was already starting to sweat. No, this is not a result of being out of shape. It's the weather!

• I unlocked the door of the classroom and then went inside to set up the computer, audiovisual equipment, and projector. This is sad, but there was no internet on the computer, so next time, I will have to bring a USB drive. I also turned on all the fans...to the highest dials. ARGH. By this time, I was already drowning in a pool of sweat inside my own clothes! GROSS HUH. TMI INFO HUH! Well, too bad ;)

• By the time I was almost set up, some students walked in 10 minutes early. A few were like, "Eh? So early..." (哦？ 这么早。。？) I started by introducing myself briefly and then we launched ourselves into the lesson. (Class times were 1:45-2:30, 2:35-3:20, 3:25-4:10, 4:15-5:00. There were two main classes, with two periods each. My classes averaged 37 students.)
• Last night, I created a new email JUST FOR this purpose (of teaching Jinglish). However, I decided I wanted them to call me Professor F, so I made a gmail account with TeachJinglish (except that I used my last name in place). I was trying to explain the joke to my students, who didn't really laugh (either they didn't get it, or they did get it and didn't think it was funny). How dare they not laugh in my presence!

• I had everyone go around to introduce themselves and talk about their own personality. I also passed around this globe stress ball, which would indicate that someone was to speak. There were some inaudible responses from the gals, so I started just walking and stopping next to the student that was speaking. It seemed to me that the second class I had was more knowledgeable in English (but the period I had before that actually had lunch, so that could explain why some people weren't as alert). Next, I had everyone go around to read the vocabulary words. I made sure to repeat words that caused people trouble. After that, I usually had 3 minutes to spare, so I just made up a mini-game out of thin air. I said I would toss the ball to someone and they would have to pronounce a word. However, when I had barely even gone through 2 words, the bell would ring. I would tell the students it's break time and some would stay in the classroom. After break, I would continue the lesson with listening exercises from the book. Okay, boring, yes; it wasn't that effective, though, because as I've seen in both classes, the "fill-in-the-blank" exercises were primarily blank, except that the best of the best students did take a stab at it...and made it BLOODY. So the true/false and multiple choice exercises were easiest for students to understand. After this, I had students discuss a question with a partner; it was about what personalities were considered to be "Chinese" and because of this, whether that student thought of himself or herself as Chinese. Then, after we went through everything, the bell would ring. Wow, I feel like everything was well-timed; implementation was good, but I need to have more students feel a bit more confident.

• General worries:
- Today, I think I may have embarrassed a few students; nothing big, of course. There was a student that had passed on the ball because he didn't want to go, but I kind of made him go after two others went. I should have just asked whether he wanted me to come back later. I think I saw the beginnings of a scowl. (However, there's this other student who wasn't ready and I came back to him later...and it all worked out.)
- I also worry that I was "all up in the grill" of the students, invading their personal space. This is a bit unavoidable, though, if I want to be able to hear what the students are saying, since they speak so softly.
- I'd like the students to speak with more confidence and to talk louder. For the second class, I decided to pass around the microphone. It worked fine for the introductions, but when I told people to use it for the group discussion questions, at least half did not want to.
- I'm thankful that there are no huge misbehaving behaviors within the students. There are, of course, some smarty-pants, though they make the class more interesting. However, I will of course try to call on the quieter ones and try to encourage them.
- I was talking to another foreign teacher and he suggested I build the competitive spirit with games. Good point. This will foster intrinsic motivation and cause people to speak up, I hope.
- Erm, there was a mishap with the ball. For the first class, I warned them three times that I was going to throw the ball. One of them was supposed to catch it and s/he would have to pronounce the word. The first time, I threw it very far back, but it worked (until the bell rang). The second time, I warned them about two times, and then I said I wasn't even going to look and then toss the ball. I tossed it...and I think...apparently, it hit one of the students (was he not paying attention)? LOLOL...I apologized profusely, as the gal students giggled. Oh god...

• Funny responses:
1) I asked students to describe the personality of Chinese people, and one student said, "Chinese people are very in-going." I was like, "Hrm?" He said, "Opposite of outgoing."
2) There was a group of smarty-pants in my second class. When I asked them to introduce themselves and say their name, one of them said something to the effect of, "Hello, good afternoon, my name is __ and I am from Ningbo, the manufacturing center of China. You can buy lots of clothing when you visit there." It was so touristy-toned that I was amused.
3) Another smarty-pants student was answering my question about Chinese people's personalities, and said, "We all share the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, so all Chinese people are the same." That cracked up the class.
4) When I asked one student to talk about Chinese people's personalities, he said, "Chinese people like to build cute things with..." and then asked his friend, "How do you say dirt?/怎么说泥土？" and then I told him, "dirt," and then he continued. I repeated it, "Hmm...so Chinese people like to build cute things with dirt? Interesting, I didn't know that." LOL. And then I went to the next person.

• Some students had some good responses about Chinese people's personalities. One said something to the effect of, "People of the world are all the same. So, there should not be much difference between Chinese people and others."
• Another student (in the smarty-pants group) said that, "Chinese people are very shy, so in an English class, it is hard for them to talk." I then asked that group how they thought I, as a teacher, could get my Chinese students who are shy to speak up. They just wrinkled their foreheads in deep rumination and I said I would come back later to ask.
• Some answers were just super-detailed, especially in the second class.

• Ahh, so I returned the microphone and keys to the janitor room and happily walked home, having achieved a first in my life. My shirt was GROSS. It was black and I had been sweating madly...so there was a white stain of salt on the outside of where I had sweat. Please don't think I'm overly gross - I'm sure the same would have happened to you - this is, after all, China.

• I chilled on my computer for a moment and then went to grab dindin with Jessica, Romain, and Vanessa. Dinner was select-what-you-want-to-eat-then-throw-the contents-into-a-soup, similar to a hot pot. I ate dumplings, veggies, mushrooms, noodles, and red mystery meat; it was red before he put it in the pot and it was red afterward (I'm pretty sure it was due to some type of treatment, like marinade, or at worst, harassment). I asked the cook what the red meat was; he replied so fast, it was as if he hadn't answered. I told the guy it was okay if he made it a LITTLE spicy...but I guess he didn't know what 'little spicy' meant...and made it terribly spicy. All of us were crying. After dinner, Jessica said, "Quick! What's 33 divided by 4?" I said, "Hmmm....33 divided by 4 is pretty close to 32/4 = 8, so a little over eight." Romain and others laughed at my mode of approximation...

• Then, we walked a bit. Explored a bakery and then a mini-supermarket. Afterward, Romain and I looked at a small fresh produce store. We didn't know how to choose a watermelon, but I later Googled it. You smack it upside its head - if you hear a hollow sound, that means it's ripe. I had one of the shopboys choose a watermelon for me and then I left for home. Patricia came over a bit to deliver me some notes from today's meeting (that I had to miss because of classes). Now, here I am...blogging my life away. Going to journal in a bit.