Hello People!

Hi!!

So, for the past two days power has been pretty intermittent, which is not really a big deal, but it definitely cut into my plans to write up a nice blog.

Class continues to go well, although several of the worst students in the class seem to have given up on school completely. Another kid in my class (one of my favorites) isn't coming to school anymore because he'd been stealing a whole ton of stuff from other students. Still, having all the students in class return from New Years break is definitely a positive thing, and I just need to spend more time creating a radically different curriculum for those students who are at the bottom of my class and aren't experiencing that much success.

Although many of the students at the very bottom of my class have given up, there's one kid who hasn't, and is working really hard and it's freaking awesome. he seems to have some sort of speech impediment (in Chinese as well as in English) but he's been coming to extra review sessions, and is spending a lot more time on his homework than he did last semester. He's a great kid, and seeing him work hard makes me want to do a better job for those kids that need a slower and less involved curriculum to find success.

And, St Paddy's day is coming! In what is apparently a regional TFC tradition, we're going to use all the extra papers that all of us have all over our rooms (and trust me, there's a ton) to build an epic bonfire. We will then sit around and be merry.

Also! This Friday (tomorrow) there are a group of high-schoolers who (through a connection with TFC) are coming to visit our school. We get to do activities with them and some of our students, and then they're going to come and observe my class, which should be interesting. I'm going to try and use them to have an "interview the foreign person!" activity, which hopefully won't go too horribly wrong.