first class

A bit more about China--

The people here are often on the shyer side but are also often very forceful. They have no problem pushing you around in a crowd or being up in your space. If a kid is doing something wrong the teacher will grab the kid and pull them out and give them a strict talking to. I had a really hard time today trying to figure out how to control one of my classes because while the teacher was there they were super well behaved but when she was gone they went crazy. I want to be a fun teacher but I also need them to be quiet long enough to hear the lesson. 

Today was my first day of teaching my 4th and 5th grade classes. Here are some memorable moments:

-Most of my kids have normal English names like Lily, Mike, June, Jake, William... and then I have kids named Swimming, Link, Miffy, Mars, and Happy. I am NOT joking. Another teacher had a kid named Dangling. Poor children. 

-In class we drew maps of our bedrooms and at the end I had some of the kids come to the front and tell the class about their room. I called Matt up first, then another boy, then Mars after which I said, "Ok we've had all boys so let's have a girl share now" which brought on a wave of giggles from the class and the know-it-all girl, Miffy, told me that Mars is a girl. I'll attach a picture of the "boy" in my class that is apparently a girl. I was a little worried earlier when we were talking about roommates and Mars said that Lilly was her roommate and I didn't think they had co-ed rooms but now that Mars is a girl that makes a lot more sense.

-When we were drawing maps of our rooms I was asking the kids what things you have in a bedroom (ex: bed, desk, chair, lamp...) and one of the kids raised his hand and tentatively said, "bugs?" because he wasn't sure that was the correct term. So we all drew bugs on the floor of our rooms. I thought it was funny and rather appropriate. Plus now I know at least one person in that class actually knew what I was talking about.

-I brought in a few pictures from my life to show the kids and talk about. One was a picture of Matt and I at an ASU football game and before I showed them I told them it was a picture of my best friend and asked if they thought it was a boy or girl. Almost unanimously they said it was a boy which surprised me because I predicted they'd say girl so I asked why. "Because Miss Amanda you are very cool." Cool=boy friends. Sounds good to me.

That's all I can think of for now. Today went well in a lot of ways but was also super rough and took its toll on me tonight but I have my ambition to succeed back so I'm pumped for tomorrow to give this a second shot. I know everyone back home is waking up about now and I'm heading to bed. 15 hour difference is KINDA weird.

goodnight all

Amanda

P.S.- My roommate is from Oklahoma so when she Skyped her family today they were in the Central Time Zone. I've never known anyone that lived in the Central Time Zone. Amazing what kind of accomplishments you stumble across every day.