Today was my first day of teaching for the fall semester! Last night I wasn't nervous at all but when I woke up this morning at 7:30 I was so nervous!! I've been teaching for a year and I have the same students, why would I be nervous? First day of school jitters perhaps? I ended up waking up WAY too early. Being that I was anxious, once I finished getting ready and prepared I just paced around my apartment until it was finally time to head to class.
The second I walked into class all my nerves went away. My students were so quiet. I started talking and they all looked at me with these big round eyes like, "WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?!?" So I told them that I understood how they felt. When I was studying Chinese at Wofford the first day back was always the hardest. I remember sitting in the classroom wondering what in the world my Chinese teacher was talking about.... Relieved that I understood how they felt, they all perked up a bit.
I decided this year that I will start every class with a fun fact. I bought a book in the states called, "Learn Something Everyday". How accurate these facts are, I'm not sure. But today's was "Elephants can't jump" and all my students started dying laughing. So the fun fact a week to start class seems to be successful.
Since my students haven't practiced speaking English all summer we did what I thought was a simple warm-up. Say your name and say something you like or like to do that starts with the first letter of your name. Example, "My name is Rachel and I like to read." Well, it was evident that my students had totally checked out of English over the summer because half the class looked at me like, are you crazy??? This is so hard! In the end it ended up being a great warm-up.
So first class of the semester= Success! Tomorrow I have 2 more classes: Public Speaking 2 and American Culture.
This afternoon I went to the gym, which of course was another experience in itself. One of the trainers came up to me as I was running, with headphones in, music blasting and started speaking to me in Chinese. He kept telling me how strong American's are. We all love to lift. We lift everyday. I looked at him and I said, "Well, if you look at my muscles (and flexed my arms), you can tell we all don't love to lift and lift everyday..." It was a good 10 minute conversation before he finally left me to get back to run.
Tonight the 2 new teachers, Keith and Kelly are coming over for dinner with Henry. I'm attempting to make penne vodka... hopefully it goes well. Apparently women are looked down upon when buying vodka in China because I definitely got judged. Oh well. I'm American.
Tomorrow night Kelly is going to come with me to the spin class at my gym. I've chickened out going alone the past 2 nights. So excited to have a gym buddy!
The second I walked into class all my nerves went away. My students were so quiet. I started talking and they all looked at me with these big round eyes like, "WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?!?" So I told them that I understood how they felt. When I was studying Chinese at Wofford the first day back was always the hardest. I remember sitting in the classroom wondering what in the world my Chinese teacher was talking about.... Relieved that I understood how they felt, they all perked up a bit.
I decided this year that I will start every class with a fun fact. I bought a book in the states called, "Learn Something Everyday". How accurate these facts are, I'm not sure. But today's was "Elephants can't jump" and all my students started dying laughing. So the fun fact a week to start class seems to be successful.Since my students haven't practiced speaking English all summer we did what I thought was a simple warm-up. Say your name and say something you like or like to do that starts with the first letter of your name. Example, "My name is Rachel and I like to read." Well, it was evident that my students had totally checked out of English over the summer because half the class looked at me like, are you crazy??? This is so hard! In the end it ended up being a great warm-up.
So first class of the semester= Success! Tomorrow I have 2 more classes: Public Speaking 2 and American Culture.
This afternoon I went to the gym, which of course was another experience in itself. One of the trainers came up to me as I was running, with headphones in, music blasting and started speaking to me in Chinese. He kept telling me how strong American's are. We all love to lift. We lift everyday. I looked at him and I said, "Well, if you look at my muscles (and flexed my arms), you can tell we all don't love to lift and lift everyday..." It was a good 10 minute conversation before he finally left me to get back to run.
Tonight the 2 new teachers, Keith and Kelly are coming over for dinner with Henry. I'm attempting to make penne vodka... hopefully it goes well. Apparently women are looked down upon when buying vodka in China because I definitely got judged. Oh well. I'm American.
Tomorrow night Kelly is going to come with me to the spin class at my gym. I've chickened out going alone the past 2 nights. So excited to have a gym buddy!
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