Ominous first sights

(re-post from jenderle.modevia.com)
It's a good thing I don't believe in omens or signs of any kind. About 5 minutes before I left to go to see my school a funeral march came right by our school, with all its fireworks and its full marching band. Then on my 30 minute trip to my school a large thunderstorm rolled in. We walked into the school for the first time, with huge crashes of lightning all around us. I guess at least it didn't start the hour long down pour until we were under the roof of the school. I found out that I will be teaching 4 grades, all with a very wide range of English knowledge. The good and the bad news is that I don't really have a text book to follow. I don't have anything set that I have to teach. It was interesting to hear what things one of the teachers told me to use to keep their attention. This will surely be a learning experience.

I had a lesson some what worked out, and then I talked to the teacher from last year. She said the best idea was to just talk about yourself the first day and show pictures of you and your family and your home, cause that’s what they really want to know about at first.

I'm writing this Thursday night. Our internet in the dorm is not working right now, so I might be hard to reach if anyone's trying to get a hold of me through email or on messenger, since I have to go to school to use the internet. Wednesday was another day of waiting around, but I've gotten my room pretty well arranged, and have gotten some laundry done. Yesterday evening I watched the United States vs. Germany basketball game with one of the Chinese English teachers here. It was a lot of fun. We both enjoy basketball a lot. The Chinese sure love their NBA here. He could say the names of all the American basketball players and their heights. We both learned a lot of new words from each other. I learned a whole page's worth of Chinese words relating to basketball. I also learned some more about Chinese culture from him. It was an all around great night.

Tomorrow I get in front of a bunch of kids who may not know a word I'm saying. I'm teaching Junior 1 (don't know much English at all) and Senior 1 (know a good amount of English). Should be a good time!

Well the internet is back on in the dorms. I'm connected to the world again.

Posted by James Enderle at 10:06 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)