First Week of School

I arrived at my first class on Tuesday morning with no training, no experience and no lesson plan. Suffice it to say, I was very nervous! The first day was spent introducing myself to my students, telling them about myself, and attempting to learn their names…all 180 or so of them. I’m teaching first and fourth grade! I love them, especially because they are so different and at such different levels with their English. I have the best schedule I could ever ask for. I teach 4 classes a day, each 40 minutes. Most days I’m done by 12:30. I have a co-teacher in each class who is Chinese and speaks English. I feel very blessed by the co-teachers who were assigned to me- not only are they great to teach with but are so helpful if I have a question about the Chinese language and things like that. My first week of teaching was somewhat stressful- I’m such a type A personality that to make up fun and creative lesson plans from a somewhat vaguely structured workbook is overwhelming to me. But by the end of the week I really felt like I was getting the hang of it and the students were catching on. On Thursday some of my first graders came up to me in the hall and said "hello I’m Candy, what’s your name?" I was so proud because I taught them that!

First grade is fun because they are so darn cute and go ballistic when they see me. Definitely a confidence booster J My first day of teaching I had to give English names to the ones who didn’t already have them, about half in each class. I named them after my close friends and family members- so it’s safe to say that some of you have a child named after you in China! The lessons are very slow and repetitive- they have been taught to repeat everything as a way of remembering. The challenge for me with this grade has been to get them to stop repeating everything I say (and I do mean EVERYTHING) and make sure they actually understand what they’re saying. Right now we’re learning the ABC’s, and they’re doing so well! Fourth grade is great because their English is a lot more advanced and I can get a lot more across without having to use my co-teacher to translate. Right now we are practicing past tense, and learning about countries around the world! I love seeing their faces light up when the new words and ideas start to click with them.

Fun fact: Siestas are not just a Latino thing; it’s a Chinese thing too! All the teachers at the school set up cots in their office at lunchtime and take a snooze.