My First Class

It is now Tuesday morning at 8:00am. That’s 5pm for anyone in Oregon, and 6pm for anyone in Utah. I am at the inconvenient time difference of 15 hours ahead of Oregon. This proves communication to be a difficult task. To talk to anyone in the United States during their evening, I’d have to get up very early. And, to talk to anyone during my evening, it would be in the middle of the night in the US. One would think that I could just stay up late until it was morning in the US, but lately I have been so sleepy that my head hits the pillow by 9pm. Thus, the only communication I plan on having with anyone will be via email, or will have to take place during the weekend.

I taught my first class on Sunday. It was at #7. The kids were fantastic. I introduced myself, helped them say HOW-lett properly, and then told them to come to the front of the room one-by-one. I had them say their English name, their favorite subject in school, and a hobby. Being all 11^th graders, their English was pretty good. The hardest part was just getting them to come up front. Sometimes I asked them follow-up questions when they told me about their hobbies. Often times, if they didn’t understand me, they looked to their peers for help. I quickly stopped this and said, “I don’t want to know their English, I want to know your English!” After all, the point of these introductions was a quick way for me to assess their skills, and I couldn’t do this properly when they worked together as a class.

One of the students, Matt, is hilarious. His English is very good, and he is very witty. However, he has a bit of a swearing problem. So, often times in the middle of laughing at his jokes, I had to scold him and let him know that certain words were not allowed in my class. I later found out that Mrs. Wong had told him that if she ever heard him swear, his punishment was to scrub the toilets in the building. Next time I see Matt I am going to have to let him know that I know about this little arrangement with Mrs. Wong…

I then spoke about my expectations in class. I said that it is okay if they make mistakes, as more learning will take place when mistakes are made. They must raise their hands if I say something they do not understand. I also tried to emphasize that they must practice what they know, even if they only know a little.

When I sat in on Tristan’s class two days earlier, he wrote the word “soar” on the board. When he had students read the word out loud, they all said “saw.” He then explained how if we were in England, that pronunciation would be correct. However, in the US we pronounce it differently.

I liked this explanation, so I copied him, and used the same words and explanation in my first class.

I also explained to them why I was there. There are three reasons why it is better to have foreign teachers teach English to Chinese students.

                1. I will teach them English. Not just grammar, but conversational English. Because, after all, just knowing the rules of English grammar will do nothing for you in the long run. (I am a perfect example of that as I used to know all of the rules for Spanish, but I was never able to converse with anyone)

                2. My students need to hear a native speaker speak so that they can model their speech and pronunciations after mine.

                3. Since most of my students want to go to western universities, they need to get used to the way western lessons are taught.

One of my 11^th graders chose her English name to be August Rush. She is a very interesting student. She is a talented musician and a fantastic artist. She has drawings all over her school jacket and is constantly doodling in her notes. As the school jacket is white, it makes for a perfect canvas. As soon as she met me, her first question was what kind of tattoos I had. She seemed really confused when I said that I didn’t have any. The photo below is a drawing August Rush did a few months ago to advertise a pizza party the International Studies department was having. It was so good that they left it up. Each person in the drawing is an actual student in my class.

The other students are awesome as well. I will be teaching this particular group of students three times a week (I think). Most can speak rather well, and a few of them have far surpassed their peers. I think they will be a joy to teach. Also, there are only 17 students in this class. This is a massive improvement from my 43-student classes while I was student teaching.