model school

Starting today and for the next 2 weeks, we will practice teaching English as a foreign language every afternoon in "model school," a kind of student teaching.  We continue with our language classes every morning, so it's a crazy busy time.  Thankfully, we work with a partner, alternating teaching days. If it's not our teaching day, then we need to observe other Volunteers and give feedback.

My partner teacher is a 22 year old girl right out of college.  We drew the short straw, so we have the  youngest group, junior high level novices.  Our class list has 17 student names, but half as many showed up for the first class.  We were told they are the children of university staff.  The other 8 classes have high school, college, or adult students.

Our theme for the 2 week session is the Olympics, and we started with some basic language about events, the opening ceremony, and some history.  They are so shy, it's hard to assess how much they really know or understand.  They seem excited about the topic and my partner's read hair.

The classrooms are in the foreign language building, not far from our language classes.  The classrooms are simply a space to meet, but that is all, and we are working without supplies, a standard practice in China.  The whiteboard isn't usable now, but tomorrow we'll try to clean it.  Who knew I was taking cleaning supplies and paper towels for granted? They aren't used here.

Without any classroom supplies, it's basically just us and the students, and I really didn't know I could be so animated.  I'm regretting not taking theatre classes!  I can boldly say that day one.

I teach next on Wednesday.  Topic: Running!

Friday's topic: Olympic weightlifting, about which I know absolutely nothing, beyond heavy, heavier, heaviest, and that China does well in the sport.