I'm in China, how can you people even cope without me :)?

…And So It Begins

                Yesterday with regards to time in China September 1^st was my first day of teaching and what an adventure that was. Let me start at the beginning.  I started off the day waking up and going running on the track with Lorilei. I took it nice and easy as I was still very sore because on Tuesday some stroke of insanity hit me and I ran a pyramid starting with a 400 going down to a 100 and then back to a 400 sprinting with walking in between. I ran a nice and easy mile then took off my socks and shoes and headed to the field and ran some striders which felt really good. Afterwards I went to breakfast then we headed to the supply room to get some supplies. Before I was finished getting the supplies the head teacher let us know we needed to head over to a flag ceremony, so I left what I had there and we headed to a flag ceremony. At the flag ceremony we were introduced to the school and each of us new English teachers was welcomed and given a welcome gift of what are quite possibly the cutest stuffed bunnies I have ever seen in my life. I’ll be sure to have someone post the picture I took of mine and Lorilei’s bunnies. After the ceremony I headed back to the supply room and finished getting my supplies. I tried to get some of my things in  order for the day and then headed down to lunch. After lunch I grabbed my stuff and headed down to my classroom. My first class was basic reading and I was freaking out because the head teachers were informed that we had been given the wrong information with regards to basic reading and I had no idea what to do. Basic reading was chaos and since I had nothing to keep the kids entertained I could tell the weren’t interested and it was just plain bad.

                After I was done with basic reading I just tried to get my bearings. I tried to finish my model for my Primary class but it didn’t work out the way I wanted so I ended up modifying my lesson. As with basic reading we met by a statue in front of one of the other buildings and brought our students back to our building. There were too many classes so the Chinese teachers had to reorganize the classes while we had a slow and disorganized opening. After the opening I took my class and tried to keep the engaged in a fun activity while teaching them English. We discussed the characteristics of and made a roller racer which was a simple contraption which consisted of a pencil with poker chips taped to either end so it would roll. I had placed a rubber band in the middle of one to affect its speed. We talked about which one would go faster and raced them, eventually making one of our own to see if it would be faster than the ones which were already made. The first class was a little harder and I had to add a few things like a paperclip to see if it would affect the racer. However, with the second class or rotation as we call them I really hit my stride and since we were off our rotation schedule the head teacher let us know when we were rotating. Before I knew it one of our head teachers was informing me we had four minutes left so I quickly finished up. Then we rotated and settled in to what I thought was our last rotation. Then Micaela one of our head teachers came in and informed me we’d be rotating again. So as rotation leader I got everything set and we rotated back into our original rotations or  our homeroom. I got their names then line them up and took them back to where we’d picked them up and went back to class.

                The reward for my dad was awaiting as I headed to dinner which was right after class. After dinner we had a meeting with all of us teachers. Later we had meetings discussing the difficulties that each of our groups had. Then I settled in for the night. I made it through my first day. I wonder what awaits me next.