I got placed!! I'll be in heqing county at heqingerzhong, a middle school. Here's a link to all the information that wikipedia has on heqing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heqing_County It's pretty informative. It's an awesome placement, I really like the people that I'll be with (Jarlene, Tim, and Laura are the American fellows, and I really like the Chinese fellows as well) and Teach for China has been established at the school I'll be at for 3 years so we've got a good relationship with the principal and the locals.
The location is fantastic also. It's pretty near Dali. People say that Yunnan is the New Mexico of China, and if it's the New Mexico of China, Dali is like Santa Fe. It's this hippie mecca that has great restaurants and is near some really great climbing, and has a cool expat community.
We also got moved to different dorms yesterday, and they're awesome. We actually have bathrooms in the dorms, which is incredible. We also have power outlets and tables so it feels like we're living a life of luxury. We moved in yesterday, and pretty much everybody was on the 5th and 6th floors so I got horribly sweaty carrying peoples' luggage up for about an hour. The two flaws in these dorms is the absurd number of cockroaches that are sharing the dorm with us, and the construction that is perpetually happening in and around our rooms at 6 in the morning. I'll be leaving pretty soon for my placement though, so I'm hoping the place I go to next will be even nicer.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Test Day!!
We had the end of the summer test for the students at our summer institute, and my kids did really well so I'm pretty excited. Even Lock, one of my weakest students, who got a 27% on the test we gave at the start of the program, managed to improve to a 44%, and several of my students improved even more! Hanna (another one of my favorite students) went from a 22/40 on the initial test to a 52/56 on the final, and I had other kids improve similar amounts! Tomorrow we get to have a party, so it should be lots of fun!!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Teachers and Homeless People
After two weeks of teaching, I've noticed three things about myself:
My hands are constantly covered in various colors of markers from making posters.
My clothes are covered in chalk.
And I mumble and make weird sounds. (We're practicing the short vowels in my phonics class (pat, top, met, cut, fit) so I practice making those specific sounds for class because making those sounds by themselves is not natural.
Basically, I walk around covered in various substances, mumbling sounds and grammar patterns under my breathe--teachers are basically homeless people except the content of the mumbling and the quality of the grime.
My hands are constantly covered in various colors of markers from making posters.
My clothes are covered in chalk.
And I mumble and make weird sounds. (We're practicing the short vowels in my phonics class (pat, top, met, cut, fit) so I practice making those specific sounds for class because making those sounds by themselves is not natural.
Basically, I walk around covered in various substances, mumbling sounds and grammar patterns under my breathe--teachers are basically homeless people except the content of the mumbling and the quality of the grime.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
A Normal Weekend
Because this coming week is the last week of school, we only have to plan two real days of lessons, and the rest is reviewing, testing, and a party, so we ended up actually having time on the weekend to go out a little bit.
It was pretty fun. The normal weekend activity is to first get shaokao (chuanr) which is basically just meat/veggies/fish/bread barbecued on a stick with some spicy sauce. It's pretty taste, but it's better and cheaper in Beijing. Anyways, you end up just sitting outside under a small tent on this little stools that make all of the taller fellows (myself included) look ridiculous. It's pretty ghetto, and probably a very good way to get food poisoning, but it's a lot of fun.
After that we normally go to the one club in Lincang. I'm not a huge fan of clubs, but it's a lot of fun because pretty much all of the fellows go, and it's just a funny experience. Most of the foreign fellows (the Americans) end up dancing, and the entire club of Lincang people just end up staring. The YMCA song came on and people were literally video-recording the Americans who were doing this strange dance and singing along to this weird foreign song. Also, as a white guy in this club, if you try to walk anywhere by yourself in the club, you will literally be grabbed by Chinese men who will force you to take beer shots with them. There's no real way to refuse, because they will literally be hanging on to you, and forcing a cup of beer into your hand that you're supposed to cheers them with and then chug. (note: in Lincang, when cheersing, your goal is to get your glass lower than that of the person you are drinking with, so you end up essentially divebombing with your cup to be polite. It's....interesting.
Apart from that, I spend a lot of the time doing "interventionist dancing" to protect the female fellows by aggressively positioning myself to rescue them from unwanted attention. I've gotten quite skilled at extricating people from awkward situations. This whole adventure takes place in the smokiest atmosphere possible because people can smoke inside, so every single guy in the club will have a cig dangling from their lips the entire time (which they will also try to force on you, but are more willing to accept a refusal than with their cups of beer). All in all, it's a very interesting experience.
Finally, we end up heading back to our wooden boards to go to sleep. Good times.
It was pretty fun. The normal weekend activity is to first get shaokao (chuanr) which is basically just meat/veggies/fish/bread barbecued on a stick with some spicy sauce. It's pretty taste, but it's better and cheaper in Beijing. Anyways, you end up just sitting outside under a small tent on this little stools that make all of the taller fellows (myself included) look ridiculous. It's pretty ghetto, and probably a very good way to get food poisoning, but it's a lot of fun.
After that we normally go to the one club in Lincang. I'm not a huge fan of clubs, but it's a lot of fun because pretty much all of the fellows go, and it's just a funny experience. Most of the foreign fellows (the Americans) end up dancing, and the entire club of Lincang people just end up staring. The YMCA song came on and people were literally video-recording the Americans who were doing this strange dance and singing along to this weird foreign song. Also, as a white guy in this club, if you try to walk anywhere by yourself in the club, you will literally be grabbed by Chinese men who will force you to take beer shots with them. There's no real way to refuse, because they will literally be hanging on to you, and forcing a cup of beer into your hand that you're supposed to cheers them with and then chug. (note: in Lincang, when cheersing, your goal is to get your glass lower than that of the person you are drinking with, so you end up essentially divebombing with your cup to be polite. It's....interesting.
Apart from that, I spend a lot of the time doing "interventionist dancing" to protect the female fellows by aggressively positioning myself to rescue them from unwanted attention. I've gotten quite skilled at extricating people from awkward situations. This whole adventure takes place in the smokiest atmosphere possible because people can smoke inside, so every single guy in the club will have a cig dangling from their lips the entire time (which they will also try to force on you, but are more willing to accept a refusal than with their cups of beer). All in all, it's a very interesting experience.
Finally, we end up heading back to our wooden boards to go to sleep. Good times.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Harry Potter 7!!!
I went to see Harry Potter with pretty much every foreign fellow, some of our management, and several Chinese fellows, and it was great. We filled up the theater, and the entire movies there were occasional cheers, boos, inappropriate suggestions, and cheers of "Longbottom!!!" ringing out. It was a lot of fun, even though the 3d wasn't working for the first 30 minutes or so, so we couldn't actually really see anything; everything was just really fuzzy--we couldn't even read the title of the movie when it showed up.
Three things I love about this movie theater:
1. You can just walk in with food and drink (because they don't sell anything)
2. There wasn't a single preview or warning played before the movie--it just started on time.
3. They sell pirated DVDs within the theater. (and also apparently have a pool hall attached)
Three things I love about this movie theater:
1. You can just walk in with food and drink (because they don't sell anything)
2. There wasn't a single preview or warning played before the movie--it just started on time.
3. They sell pirated DVDs within the theater. (and also apparently have a pool hall attached)
Thursday, August 4, 2011
I made it through another week!!
I finished my second week of classes/teaching! And I think everything went well. I felt a lot more confident in the classroom, and the kids are mastering the material which is really rewarding.
My birthday was yesterday, one of this absurd string of 5 birthdays in a row that we've had this week, and it was real nice. I just went out to eat with a few friends and a cheap local place that's pretty quick (people had lesson plans to write) and then swung by the pool hall to relax. Tonight is Tim Worm's birthday (Tim is one of the 7 Georgetown people here) and we're going to go out tonight to see Harry Potter 7 because it just got to Lincang. Tim's mom somehow managed to get a cake delivered to Tim at the school. He got a call, and then this guy showed up on a motorcycle with a cake for him. I was pretty impressed.
This weekend should hopefully be more relaxing than last week because next week will be the last week of this summer program, so we don't have to plan lesson plans during the week, and one day is a test and the last day is just a party, so we've got less to do. I'm really looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with people. It's definitely needed after the past couple of weeks--I need some time to unwind.
My birthday was yesterday, one of this absurd string of 5 birthdays in a row that we've had this week, and it was real nice. I just went out to eat with a few friends and a cheap local place that's pretty quick (people had lesson plans to write) and then swung by the pool hall to relax. Tonight is Tim Worm's birthday (Tim is one of the 7 Georgetown people here) and we're going to go out tonight to see Harry Potter 7 because it just got to Lincang. Tim's mom somehow managed to get a cake delivered to Tim at the school. He got a call, and then this guy showed up on a motorcycle with a cake for him. I was pretty impressed.
This weekend should hopefully be more relaxing than last week because next week will be the last week of this summer program, so we don't have to plan lesson plans during the week, and one day is a test and the last day is just a party, so we've got less to do. I'm really looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with people. It's definitely needed after the past couple of weeks--I need some time to unwind.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Star Bucks
I've started giving out "Star Bucks" in my 8th grade class, and it's been working out great. The kids will be able to redeem the "Star Bucks" for candy/stickers/pencils etc, and my "Star Bucks" all have the Starbucks logo on it which makes me chuckle. Anyways, I have this really hardworking girl in my class, Hannah, who is still a little behind, and is coming in early for extra help. On Tuesday I gave her a "Star Buck" for answering a question most of the way right (because I really wanted to encourage her and give her one). After class, she comes up to my lectern, and in this really sad voice says "Mr. K, I didn't answer the question right," and then hands back the Star Buck. I try to refuse it, saying it was close enough, and she just says, "No, no" then puts the Star Buck on my lectern and walks back to her desk.
It was so cute and awesome. I'm sad she didn't keep it, but it was so nice to see that she really wanted to actually win one, and was honest enough to want to do it the right way.
It was so cute and awesome. I'm sad she didn't keep it, but it was so nice to see that she really wanted to actually win one, and was honest enough to want to do it the right way.
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