when playing soccer on gravel, you should: 1. Definitely wear a shirt. 2. Don't look to draw fouls simply because it would be a PK and a red card in a real game....3. Don't fall down, ever.
Road rash--all over my back, legs, and arm.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Soccer with the Chinese Fellows
I've been playing a decent amount of soccer with the Chinese fellows (once or twice a week) and it's been great. They're really friendly, and I love how casual it is. My favorite part is that, because they've never had refs, the whole concept of part of soccer being to fool the ref is completely non-existent. People call their own fouls, even on themselves, and it just makes playing so much more friendly.
Walking over to the cafeteria yesterday I ran into some of the fellows playing, so I joined in. I was wearing jeans, a dress shirt, and dress shoes, so I ended up going barefoot, shirtless, and in jeans that we're rolled up over my calves. The field is just dirt/mud, so my feet ended up getting a little torn up, but it was fantastic, and I'm told I looked hilarious: a giant white man running around in a goofy outfit is apparently something that strikes people as quite funny.
We're going to play against some of the high-schoolers in an hour or so, which should be a lot of fun.
Walking over to the cafeteria yesterday I ran into some of the fellows playing, so I joined in. I was wearing jeans, a dress shirt, and dress shoes, so I ended up going barefoot, shirtless, and in jeans that we're rolled up over my calves. The field is just dirt/mud, so my feet ended up getting a little torn up, but it was fantastic, and I'm told I looked hilarious: a giant white man running around in a goofy outfit is apparently something that strikes people as quite funny.
We're going to play against some of the high-schoolers in an hour or so, which should be a lot of fun.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A normal day
I've been extremely busy so far at institute, which has been awesome, but it's also meant I've done a really poor job of keeping in touch with everyone from back home.
Anyways, I figured people might be interested in what I do in an average day.
7:20 Get up, do morning necessities, swing by dining hall to grab food before getting to the classroom at 7:45
7:45 Students start showing up around this time, which means I have to be in the classroom. I normally spend this time eating my breakfast, addressing any questions that students have, and reviewing my lesson plan for the day.
8:30--9:10 Class. I'm teaching an 8th grade class (English) to about 16 students. Right now we just finished up discussing the differences between inexact and exact adverbs of frequency (i.e. I usually do something, or I do something twice a week).
9:10 Run down to the elementary school. When I got there today there were around 70 kids in the classroom. The teacher who teaches the class before had combined their class with another one so that both could practice their greetings, and it was disastrous. The Chinese of these two other fellows isn't very strong, so I got to restore order and calm. I felt pretty dictatorial and powerful afterwards.
10--Yell at kids who are running in the hallways.
10:10-10:50 Class. I also teach a 5th grade phonics class, so today we learned how to say the short vowels o, and e (think odd and egg) and d. They got it pretty well, which is good because tomorrow we're going to read our first book. It's pretty exciting! The kids are starting to have English accents because of how I stress the vowels to them, it's pretty cute.
11--Yell at kids who are going too close to the river or who are running in the hallways.
11:10 Grab lunch with people on the way back to campus.
12: See a cow running down the street. Shortly thereafter see two men on a motorcycle chasing said cow.
12:10 Try to sneak a 30 minute power-nap in. See a cockroach on the inside of the top of my mosquito netting. Dive desperately out of bed taking my pink mosquito netting with me. Decide napping isn't going to happen. Take a bucket shower, and then start doing laundry (in the same bucket).
1:00 Group meeting with our team leader. Talked about time management. I really wanted to be working on my lesson plans the entire time because that would have really been the best use of my time.
2:00 Go to print shop to print out giant copy of "Get the Pets"--the book we're going to be reading in phonics class. Chill with an old Chinese guy and his dog while my stuff is printing. He had a really strong accent, but we managed to have a conversation which was pretty cool.
2:20 Spend time writing lesson plans. I needed to be done with the lesson plans for Monday through Wednesday by tonight for both my classes .
3:30--5:00 Lesson on how to teach phonics. Pretty interesting, but I'm still of the opinion that we probably should have had the lesson before we started actually teaching phonics.
5:00 Lesson plan some more.
6:15 Grab dinner with some friends at this local restaurant that we like. Like pretty much every conversation here, we ended up talking about teaching, our students, our placements, and food we miss. For once, strangely, we didn't end up talking about bathroom issues.
7:00 Write lesson plans.
9:00 Now, taking a break to write a blog.
9:30--2:00 Finish writing lesson plans. Write guided notes and assessments for tomorrow. Print stuff out. If time, work on posters and trackers for class.
Sleep
Anyways, I figured people might be interested in what I do in an average day.
7:20 Get up, do morning necessities, swing by dining hall to grab food before getting to the classroom at 7:45
7:45 Students start showing up around this time, which means I have to be in the classroom. I normally spend this time eating my breakfast, addressing any questions that students have, and reviewing my lesson plan for the day.
8:30--9:10 Class. I'm teaching an 8th grade class (English) to about 16 students. Right now we just finished up discussing the differences between inexact and exact adverbs of frequency (i.e. I usually do something, or I do something twice a week).
9:10 Run down to the elementary school. When I got there today there were around 70 kids in the classroom. The teacher who teaches the class before had combined their class with another one so that both could practice their greetings, and it was disastrous. The Chinese of these two other fellows isn't very strong, so I got to restore order and calm. I felt pretty dictatorial and powerful afterwards.
10--Yell at kids who are running in the hallways.
10:10-10:50 Class. I also teach a 5th grade phonics class, so today we learned how to say the short vowels o, and e (think odd and egg) and d. They got it pretty well, which is good because tomorrow we're going to read our first book. It's pretty exciting! The kids are starting to have English accents because of how I stress the vowels to them, it's pretty cute.
11--Yell at kids who are going too close to the river or who are running in the hallways.
11:10 Grab lunch with people on the way back to campus.
12: See a cow running down the street. Shortly thereafter see two men on a motorcycle chasing said cow.
12:10 Try to sneak a 30 minute power-nap in. See a cockroach on the inside of the top of my mosquito netting. Dive desperately out of bed taking my pink mosquito netting with me. Decide napping isn't going to happen. Take a bucket shower, and then start doing laundry (in the same bucket).
1:00 Group meeting with our team leader. Talked about time management. I really wanted to be working on my lesson plans the entire time because that would have really been the best use of my time.
2:00 Go to print shop to print out giant copy of "Get the Pets"--the book we're going to be reading in phonics class. Chill with an old Chinese guy and his dog while my stuff is printing. He had a really strong accent, but we managed to have a conversation which was pretty cool.
2:20 Spend time writing lesson plans. I needed to be done with the lesson plans for Monday through Wednesday by tonight for both my classes .
3:30--5:00 Lesson on how to teach phonics. Pretty interesting, but I'm still of the opinion that we probably should have had the lesson before we started actually teaching phonics.
5:00 Lesson plan some more.
6:15 Grab dinner with some friends at this local restaurant that we like. Like pretty much every conversation here, we ended up talking about teaching, our students, our placements, and food we miss. For once, strangely, we didn't end up talking about bathroom issues.
7:00 Write lesson plans.
9:00 Now, taking a break to write a blog.
9:30--2:00 Finish writing lesson plans. Write guided notes and assessments for tomorrow. Print stuff out. If time, work on posters and trackers for class.
Sleep
Monday, July 25, 2011
I am Mr. K, hear me roar
I had my first day of teaching today! And I'm still alive and didn't feel the urge to run away, cry, hide, or puke afterwards which is definitely reassuring.
Now I just need to write 3 more lesson plans, two guided notes, and revise my phonics lesson plan before bed.
And fun food of the day--miniature dried spicy fish/minnows that I found at the corner store. Not half bad.
Now I just need to write 3 more lesson plans, two guided notes, and revise my phonics lesson plan before bed.
And fun food of the day--miniature dried spicy fish/minnows that I found at the corner store. Not half bad.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
About that Backpack
So, that backpack I bought turned out not to be the wisest of purchases. Within a day, its main zipper and one of the straps had broken. On the second day that I shared with that backpack one of the plastic bits on the strap snapped, sending my backpack and everything in it plunging to the floor. My poor little netbook was in my backpack, and it didn't really like getting dropped. My screen cracked, which means only 2/3 of my originally small screen is working, but it's enough to get stuff done. That backpack was definitely not the best purchase I've ever made.
Also, completely unrelated, but I had some crickets yesterday. They were slightly spicy and pretty good.
Also, completely unrelated, but I had some crickets yesterday. They were slightly spicy and pretty good.
Monday, July 18, 2011
So I bought a backpack yesterday
And I was pretty proud of it. I paid 25 kuai for it, about $3, so I thought I had done a good job shopping. Today, one of the straps has already broken. I'm hoping the other one will hang on longer, because as long as I have one strap and a zipper working I'm going to be pretty happy. I'm just amazed at how cheap some of the stuff you can buy is.
And I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but we found out where they sell pirated movies in this town....it's in the movie theater. Let me repeat that: they sell pirated DVDs in the movie theater. It's the last place that I would have looked, but they've got a pretty big collection of DVDs that were clearly not legitimately purchased.
When I was shopping yesterday I also managed to get a new local sim card, which I'd been needing to do for a while. So, I have a phone number again which is really pretty exciting (at least for me).
And I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but we found out where they sell pirated movies in this town....it's in the movie theater. Let me repeat that: they sell pirated DVDs in the movie theater. It's the last place that I would have looked, but they've got a pretty big collection of DVDs that were clearly not legitimately purchased.
When I was shopping yesterday I also managed to get a new local sim card, which I'd been needing to do for a while. So, I have a phone number again which is really pretty exciting (at least for me).
Sunday, July 17, 2011
If some Chinese kid gives you a hot pepper...
...and dares you to eat it--don't.
And just because it's not hot immediately, it doesn't mean that you should just keep chewing.
That's all.
And just because it's not hot immediately, it doesn't mean that you should just keep chewing.
That's all.
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