Trial and Error

The other day my co-teacher didn’t show up to my rowdiest 1^st grade class, leaving me alone with 45 1^st graders who can’t understand a word I’m saying, or I them. It was complete mayhem. Kids were running around, fighting, screaming, cutting their hair, spitting water everywhere….I wanted to cry. I did my best to control them, but it was not working. Finally I had to ask their homeroom teacher to come in, and then of course they sat there like little angels. Normally, the co-teachers are in charge of discipline in the classrooms. At first, I felt like my co-teachers were very overly strict….making the kids sit up perfectly strait, hands folded on the desk and looking strait ahead. But now, I see a direct correlation between the strictness of the teacher and how much those classes are learning. It’s that rowdy 1^st grade class with the non-strict co-teacher that I don’t feel is learning anything. I’ve really had to step up and be the disciplinarian, which is very unnatural for me, but I’m getting better at it. It’s pretty well known by all the foreign teachers that this is a job you learn by trial and error. You don’t get told much of how or what to do, unless you ask. I was told on Thursday of last week that I was supposed to have a test written for Friday. One day I was given a stack of 90 work books to correct, the next day I was told I did it all wrong. I’m usually told that my lessons are too difficult, too easy, too fast, too slow, etc. I just try to take everything with a grain of salt, and I really feel like I’m beginning to catch on and do things the way they want them done. I’ve learned to ask A LOT of questions. And I’ve noticed that my co-teachers appreciate this, because they can see that I’m trying very hard to do a good job. All in all, the school treats us very well though. They cook us dinner every evening, give us traveling allowance, give us fruit, milk, and other items on occasion, and give us a ton of paid holidays!

As far as my Chinese goes, I’m learning slowly. The pronunciation is by far the hardest of any language I’ve ever learned. I’m supposed to begin Chinese lessons at a local learning center here shortly, but until then I’ve just been studying solo and my co-teachers are great when I have questions. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how intense the Chinese language is though, especially the written language. Even my 4^th graders don’t know all the characters. The whole thing just amazes me, and I’m excited to learn more of the conversational language.

Fun fact: Many babies in China don’t wear diapers; they wear bear-bottomed pants. It’s a form of potty training where the babies learn to go to the bathroom on cue from a whistle from their mothers. It sounds bazaar, but apparently it works!