.............Warning...........this is a long one.........you may need some coffee.........
I have avoided posting for the last few months-mostly because I didn't really know what to write, or how to explain my last few months of life. I will try to recap the last semester of school; however, that will probably take more than one post. Perhaps I will begin a retrospective series at some point when I remember/feel like writing about good things that happened. Right now I think I'm just distracted by all of the challenges.
I would have to say that the 3rd quarter was probably the most difficult. I have the delightful personality trait of being extremely critical of myself and whatever I'm doing. I also tend to only look at all of the ways I'm failing rather than the things I do well. The third quarter was spent comparing myself to other teachers and wondering why they won at life while I managed to fail at everything. This, of course, was not true (either of them or me), but that was where my thinking was stuck.
In addition to teaching being a bit of a mess, my personal life wasn't faring much better. First, there's figuring out living in China which is.......you know......foreign (pun fully intended there:). My spiritual life/quiet times were not effective. Eventually I was quite depressed and basically at an all time low. I couldn't reconcile all of the Truths I knew about Him with what I was experiencing in life. I sincerely felt like He had removed from everything/everyone I had ever known and placed me so far away from my comfort zone I couldn't even see it. That all would have been fine if He was there, but at that point I felt like He put me in this place and then left me alone to figure it out. Again, I knew the truth that He had not left me alone, but that's how it felt. And it made me angry.
Things continued like that for awhile. I can't pinpoint the exact reason or time that things changed, but there was one moment that sticks out to me. I was preparing for my ESL class (which currently has only 2 girls that are not excessively talkative), and the principal was going to come observe my class. I was, of course, nervous the night before. I remember talking with Him and asking, "ok, I want to look like a competent teacher so please help the girls talk and participate so that the lesson looks effective." After this, I stopped and realized how completely self focused I had become. I tried to think about the last time I had asked Him to help me figure out lessons and things that would help the students learn effectively and be comfortable trying out their English skills in my class. The fact that I couldn't remember the last time I had been more student centered in my requests disturbed me.
I believe that moment was a bit of a turning point. I won't say that my challenges disappeared and I suddenly became super teacher, but it removed the pressure when I put the focus back on the students, where it should have been all along. And so the year ended on a much better note than that semester began. I am still working through the same things, and probably will continue to work through them, but I realized that it's something I need to face and figure out rather than getting angry and ignoring it.
This might be slightly cliche, but I enjoy music and there is a song by Tenth Avenue North that I think kind of captures some of the stuff I was thinking about over these past few months. Plus, I'm kind of impressed that I actually figured out how to put a video link on here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAVHeVDML5k
Now I just need to figure out how to post pictures!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
........on my way home........
I thoroughly enjoy my daily strolls to and from school. Even though it's currently winter outside, there's just something about having those few minutes at the beginning and end of the work day (.....um..... I feel slightly old referring to "work days." I still find it slightly amusing that I'm actually considered an adult by mainstream society) to meander on my way whilst listening to music.
I had a new friend join me on my working walks a couple of days ago. There is a dog that I usually see sniffing around Walking Street (the main street that runs through my apartment complex) that I have termed "the old-new dog." Unlike most animals here, this one is actually quite cute. I have named him the old-new dog because his face and body looks very much like a puppy, but he's a full-grown dog. He is a bit oddly shaped-he actually kind of looks like a labrador/dachshund mix, and he's about the size of a beagle. However, he does look a bit mangy, and he has small patches of hair missing so I would never actually pet him. My face must look pretty friendly though, because he doesn't have any problem accosting me whenever he sees me. Such was the case a few days ago as I was walking through the gate, and he decided it would be fun to jump all over me. He then proceeded to follow me all the way to school where I had to close the gate to the stairs so he couldn't actually come into the school. I have seen him a few other mornings as well, but he gets distracted by chasing the trash cats (names I have given them because of their affinity for rooting around in the garbage cans and startling unsuspecting passersby when they spring out of the cans without any warning) and forgets to follow me.
Along with various furry friends, there are a number of different shops and restaurants along Walking Street, and one of my favorites is a piano studio. I don't actually know the real name, but it's a building that consists of a bunch of small rooms for giving piano lessons. The outside of the building is one large window, and it's fun to walk past in the afternoon and see small children having piano lessons.
Of course, the other great part about Walking Street (and China in general) are all of the food options. There are always small stands that set up outside of the restaurants to sell breakfast in the mornings. My roommate actually just introduced me to a really tasty tofu dish this morning, and it will probably become a pretty consistent breakfast food for me. I never thought I would actually enjoy eating tofu, but that has become one of my favorite dishes-they do amazing things with tofu over here. Then again, I never thought I ever would have ended up in China either. Life certainly is intriguing.
I had a new friend join me on my working walks a couple of days ago. There is a dog that I usually see sniffing around Walking Street (the main street that runs through my apartment complex) that I have termed "the old-new dog." Unlike most animals here, this one is actually quite cute. I have named him the old-new dog because his face and body looks very much like a puppy, but he's a full-grown dog. He is a bit oddly shaped-he actually kind of looks like a labrador/dachshund mix, and he's about the size of a beagle. However, he does look a bit mangy, and he has small patches of hair missing so I would never actually pet him. My face must look pretty friendly though, because he doesn't have any problem accosting me whenever he sees me. Such was the case a few days ago as I was walking through the gate, and he decided it would be fun to jump all over me. He then proceeded to follow me all the way to school where I had to close the gate to the stairs so he couldn't actually come into the school. I have seen him a few other mornings as well, but he gets distracted by chasing the trash cats (names I have given them because of their affinity for rooting around in the garbage cans and startling unsuspecting passersby when they spring out of the cans without any warning) and forgets to follow me.
Along with various furry friends, there are a number of different shops and restaurants along Walking Street, and one of my favorites is a piano studio. I don't actually know the real name, but it's a building that consists of a bunch of small rooms for giving piano lessons. The outside of the building is one large window, and it's fun to walk past in the afternoon and see small children having piano lessons.
Of course, the other great part about Walking Street (and China in general) are all of the food options. There are always small stands that set up outside of the restaurants to sell breakfast in the mornings. My roommate actually just introduced me to a really tasty tofu dish this morning, and it will probably become a pretty consistent breakfast food for me. I never thought I would actually enjoy eating tofu, but that has become one of my favorite dishes-they do amazing things with tofu over here. Then again, I never thought I ever would have ended up in China either. Life certainly is intriguing.
Friday, January 27, 2012
......my first attempt at getting myself home from the airport.............fail..........
It's rather strange to already be back in China after my nice, long Christmas break at home. It actually kind of feels like I never left- breaks always go way too fast. I have discovered that the more I take international flights, the less I enjoy them. My first few times were exciting-and slightly terrifying since I'd never been out of the country before. Between the excitement and the adrenaline, the flights seemed to go pretty fast. Now, I kind of know what to expect..........lots of sitting...........and lots of layovers.
This particular trip back seemed to be especially bad in that department. My trip home took me from Kansas City to Denver, and then to L.A. where I got to sit and wait for 11 hours. This would not have been so bad, except I had to collect my bags, check in, and get my boarding pass for my international flights in L.A. So after collecting my 100 lbs. of luggage and carting them through a number of terminals, I reached the Air China desk only to find that they were not open. This shouldn't have been too surprising since the only flight they had that day didn't leave until 12:40 a.m., but I still didn't expect that no one would be there. So, I sat on the cold tile floor for the next 7 hours waiting for the counter to open. Then came the always exciting security ordeal. And then more sitting. At least there were chairs this time.
After my 12 hour flight to Beijing, I got to sit in that airport for another 6 hours before finally getting to Wuhan. At this point I was getting rather nervous because I knew that once I got to Wuhan I had to get a taxi and tell him where to take me to get home. I was all ready to prove to myself that I could do this. I again collected my 100 lbs. of baggage and drug it all out to the taxi line. My bags decided they wanted to fall all over each other and the curb so right away I looked like a completely incompetent foreigner.
I finally got all of my stuff in the taxi and then proceeded to tell the driver where to go. He began asking me questions to which my almost zero Chinese had no answer. Using my awesome context clues skills, I gathered that he was trying to tell me that there were two universities so he needed to know which one I wanted to go to. He said a few areas that I recognized, so I told him it was that one. He continued to try to make polite conversation as we drove along, but I generally had no idea what he was saying. It was really frustrating because he was nice, and I wanted to have a conversation with him, but I had no communication skills.
At one point along the way, I began to feel like we were definitely going in the wrong direction. This was confirmed when he stopped in front of the wrong university. Again, he started explaining something and I think he was trying to teach me the difference between the two so that I would know for next time. I still couldn't understand anything he was saying, and I really just wanted him to keep driving to the next one. We finally got to the right place, and after I paid him lots of money it took me a while to understand that I had to pay for the toll gate that we went through as well. By the time this was all over I was feeling really stupid and sad that I had failed so miserably at getting myself home. But at least he was nice, though I'm sure he was also frustrated and probably would have be happy to never see another foreigner again.
After this joyous end to my vacation, I got to drag my 100 1bs. of bags up four flights of stairs to my apartment. This was a delightful exercise for my heart after sitting on airplanes for 2 days straight. I had to stop at least twice on the way up because I was pretty sure that my heart was going to explode.
Well, my life is nothing if not exciting-here's to hoping my next taxi attempt is more successful:)
This particular trip back seemed to be especially bad in that department. My trip home took me from Kansas City to Denver, and then to L.A. where I got to sit and wait for 11 hours. This would not have been so bad, except I had to collect my bags, check in, and get my boarding pass for my international flights in L.A. So after collecting my 100 lbs. of luggage and carting them through a number of terminals, I reached the Air China desk only to find that they were not open. This shouldn't have been too surprising since the only flight they had that day didn't leave until 12:40 a.m., but I still didn't expect that no one would be there. So, I sat on the cold tile floor for the next 7 hours waiting for the counter to open. Then came the always exciting security ordeal. And then more sitting. At least there were chairs this time.
After my 12 hour flight to Beijing, I got to sit in that airport for another 6 hours before finally getting to Wuhan. At this point I was getting rather nervous because I knew that once I got to Wuhan I had to get a taxi and tell him where to take me to get home. I was all ready to prove to myself that I could do this. I again collected my 100 lbs. of baggage and drug it all out to the taxi line. My bags decided they wanted to fall all over each other and the curb so right away I looked like a completely incompetent foreigner.
I finally got all of my stuff in the taxi and then proceeded to tell the driver where to go. He began asking me questions to which my almost zero Chinese had no answer. Using my awesome context clues skills, I gathered that he was trying to tell me that there were two universities so he needed to know which one I wanted to go to. He said a few areas that I recognized, so I told him it was that one. He continued to try to make polite conversation as we drove along, but I generally had no idea what he was saying. It was really frustrating because he was nice, and I wanted to have a conversation with him, but I had no communication skills.
At one point along the way, I began to feel like we were definitely going in the wrong direction. This was confirmed when he stopped in front of the wrong university. Again, he started explaining something and I think he was trying to teach me the difference between the two so that I would know for next time. I still couldn't understand anything he was saying, and I really just wanted him to keep driving to the next one. We finally got to the right place, and after I paid him lots of money it took me a while to understand that I had to pay for the toll gate that we went through as well. By the time this was all over I was feeling really stupid and sad that I had failed so miserably at getting myself home. But at least he was nice, though I'm sure he was also frustrated and probably would have be happy to never see another foreigner again.
After this joyous end to my vacation, I got to drag my 100 1bs. of bags up four flights of stairs to my apartment. This was a delightful exercise for my heart after sitting on airplanes for 2 days straight. I had to stop at least twice on the way up because I was pretty sure that my heart was going to explode.
Well, my life is nothing if not exciting-here's to hoping my next taxi attempt is more successful:)
Saturday, November 26, 2011
..........apparently it was Thanksgiving........
So this was my first Thanksgiving that I didn't spend with my family, and it was one thing I was honestly worried about when I came over here. When I came over this time, I wasn't sure what to expect. During student teaching, homesickness was a huge struggle for me, and I was kind of expecting that to happen again. However, it has not been an issue this time around. I still miss family and friends, of course, but it is not in the same way it was during student teaching. I wasn't sure how I would handle the holidays, but it was surprising to find that it was not the struggle I thought it would be. Though, that might have something to do with the fact that I get to go home for Christmas this year-which is actually in only a few short weeks.
The holiday was actually quite fun. After school on Thursday, a group of teachers went to Aloha (an American style diner) who was serving all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. It was fun to spend the evening eating way too much with everyone-that tradition still lives on:) Another tradition that my roommate has is to go shopping for Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. So, on Friday a few of us went to the "crazy" market. This market is aptly named because it is HUGE-and there are lots of people............everywhere...........because it's China. We got some new decorations and a few other things for the apartment.
We spent the evening putting up the tree and decorating. If I could ever figure out how to post pictures on here, I might have to put some up. Our apartment is a bit of an eclectic assortment of colors that may or may not match. The walls in our apartment are stark white and I think that we decided we just wanted color.......everywhere. All in all, our apartment feels quite homey:)
The holiday was actually quite fun. After school on Thursday, a group of teachers went to Aloha (an American style diner) who was serving all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. It was fun to spend the evening eating way too much with everyone-that tradition still lives on:) Another tradition that my roommate has is to go shopping for Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. So, on Friday a few of us went to the "crazy" market. This market is aptly named because it is HUGE-and there are lots of people............everywhere...........because it's China. We got some new decorations and a few other things for the apartment.
We spent the evening putting up the tree and decorating. If I could ever figure out how to post pictures on here, I might have to put some up. Our apartment is a bit of an eclectic assortment of colors that may or may not match. The walls in our apartment are stark white and I think that we decided we just wanted color.......everywhere. All in all, our apartment feels quite homey:)
Monday, November 14, 2011
...........it's been awhile.............
So I have realized that I'm not very good at keeping up with regular communication-type things-as evidenced by the fact that I haven't updated this blog in about 3 weeks. I was trying to think of how to distill my life over the past month into a succinct blog post-which really wouldn't be that difficult because everything has become quite routine of late. I think my biggest adventure was the volleyball tournament couple of weeks ago, and I will now relate that epic journey.
The sports seasons here really only last about a quarter during the school year, and after a couple of months of practices (and a few games if you can find some Chinese teams willing to play), all of the schools meet in one of the cities for a two day tournament. Usually, we fly to the cities, but this year the tickets were so expensive that we had to find alternate means of transportation. So, with 45 middle school/ high school students in tow, we boarded an overnight train to Beijing on a Wednesday evening. We arrived in Beijing at 6:30 in the morning, where we boarded a bus to take us to another train station where we boarded a "fast" train to our final destination. The "fast" train took about 5 hours and we finally arrived..........22 hours after we left our original location.
The tournament itself was really fun. The high school girls team actually won the entire tournament. I'm certain it was due to my excellent assistant coaching skills:) Actually, I just took the stats-the head coach did all of the hard work. So, the tournament ended on Saturday, and we started our exodus back home on early Sunday morning. We took the "fast" train back to Beijing and then we split the group into two busses. The middle schoolers went on to the airport while the high schoolers went to a shopping/eating area in Beijing because we had 5 hours to kill before our plane left. However, we received a call from the middle school group, and they informed us that flights out of Beijing had been cancelled all day due to weather. The high school group got to the airport, and we assumed that our plane would also be delayed. However, the board didn't indicate a delay so we checked in and went to security. Sadly, it took us so long to get through security that we had to sprint to get to the plane because they were sitting and waiting for us.
As I was running through the airport (the first time I've ever had to do that by the way), I really wanted to stop and see the reaction of the Chinese people who were probably really amused by the huge group foreigners that were sprinting through the airport. Well if nothing else, we're certainly good for a show:)
And so, our plane took off on time while the poor middle school students were still waiting at the airport for their plane. Thankfully, they were able to leave about 20 minutes after we took off so we arrived at the airport around the same time-which was around 11:30....a mere 16 hours from the time we left that morning.
The sports seasons here really only last about a quarter during the school year, and after a couple of months of practices (and a few games if you can find some Chinese teams willing to play), all of the schools meet in one of the cities for a two day tournament. Usually, we fly to the cities, but this year the tickets were so expensive that we had to find alternate means of transportation. So, with 45 middle school/ high school students in tow, we boarded an overnight train to Beijing on a Wednesday evening. We arrived in Beijing at 6:30 in the morning, where we boarded a bus to take us to another train station where we boarded a "fast" train to our final destination. The "fast" train took about 5 hours and we finally arrived..........22 hours after we left our original location.
The tournament itself was really fun. The high school girls team actually won the entire tournament. I'm certain it was due to my excellent assistant coaching skills:) Actually, I just took the stats-the head coach did all of the hard work. So, the tournament ended on Saturday, and we started our exodus back home on early Sunday morning. We took the "fast" train back to Beijing and then we split the group into two busses. The middle schoolers went on to the airport while the high schoolers went to a shopping/eating area in Beijing because we had 5 hours to kill before our plane left. However, we received a call from the middle school group, and they informed us that flights out of Beijing had been cancelled all day due to weather. The high school group got to the airport, and we assumed that our plane would also be delayed. However, the board didn't indicate a delay so we checked in and went to security. Sadly, it took us so long to get through security that we had to sprint to get to the plane because they were sitting and waiting for us.
As I was running through the airport (the first time I've ever had to do that by the way), I really wanted to stop and see the reaction of the Chinese people who were probably really amused by the huge group foreigners that were sprinting through the airport. Well if nothing else, we're certainly good for a show:)
And so, our plane took off on time while the poor middle school students were still waiting at the airport for their plane. Thankfully, they were able to leave about 20 minutes after we took off so we arrived at the airport around the same time-which was around 11:30....a mere 16 hours from the time we left that morning.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
......holidays are neat.......
This last week was October holiday at school, which means a delightful week-long vacation from school. The first half was spent at a teacher's conference in Beijing. All of the teachers from the five different international schools in China met in Beijing for a few days of workshops. After the conference, I stayed in Beijing for an extra day with some other teachers to do some shopping. While there, I had my first legitimate hostel experience (the first "hostel" I ever stayed in was actually a bunch of apartments this guy owned that he rented out to various people). My first hostel stay gave me quite the story.
The hostel itself was actually really nice. It had a nice lounge area and a large courtyard outside with lounge chairs and a small restaurant. While we were checking in, they informed us that there were some issues with the dorm room we had booked for all four of us. They were then going to upgrade us to two rooms with two single beds each-so it was more hotel style than dorm bunk-bed style we had originally booked. The guy in charge started to lead us to the rooms, but my roommate and I were told to wait. After our other two friends left, we were told to wait because our room was in a different area. The lady then proceeded to explain that there was a bed broken in one of the rooms so we would be sharing the dorm room we originally booked with two other strangers. My roommate discussed this with her for awhile, trying to find out if there were any other rooms available. Eventually the guy returned and said that bed was not, in fact, broken, but the two people there had decided to extend their stay so they had to split us up. He ended his explanation with "your friends have better rooms."
To which my roommate replied, "I know."
So we went to the dorm room we were supposed to have and then called the other two to tell them what was going on. She then went back to the desk to explain that we didn't want to be with other people (because we're typical Americans), and we wanted the room we originally booked. So they decided to move the two people out of the dorm room and into the hotel style room. We would have felt guilty except for the fact that the other room was extremely nice so they definitely benefited from our stranger avoidance.
The only problem with this new plan was that the other two people staying in our room weren't currently at the hostel, and we weren't sure when they would return. We left to eat dinner, hoping they would be back by the time we came back.
When we got back, only one of the other girls had returned. We went to the room to find an elderly Chinese lady packing up her stuff to move to the other room. She then informed us that she had been enjoying that room for the past month and wondered how long we were staying. We all stared at our shoes as somebody mumbled "one night." We waited for about another hour, but the other girl still hadn't come back yet. So, we all went to bed. My roommate and I got to share a tiny single bed since the other bed still had the girl's stuff on it. Someone finally came in around 11 and started packing up the stuff while exclaiming how weird and strange the whole thing was. All of us pretended to be asleep. After she left, the housekeeping person came by and asked if he could change the sheets. Someone mumbled yes as we pretended that we were all still "asleep" and he changed the sheets. After that rather long process, he left and we all popped up because, of course, none of us had actually been sleeping.
So we finally got to sleep around 11:30 and the rest of the evening was uneventful. Though, when I woke up in the morning and looked around at the stark, white walls with no windows and the cold tile floor, I wondered if this was what it was like to wake up in prison. That aside, the hostel was really nice and besides the room mix-up, it was a good experience.
The rest of the day was spent shopping at the market and eating large amounts of western food before heading back to home and off my grown-up teachery responsibilities.
The hostel itself was actually really nice. It had a nice lounge area and a large courtyard outside with lounge chairs and a small restaurant. While we were checking in, they informed us that there were some issues with the dorm room we had booked for all four of us. They were then going to upgrade us to two rooms with two single beds each-so it was more hotel style than dorm bunk-bed style we had originally booked. The guy in charge started to lead us to the rooms, but my roommate and I were told to wait. After our other two friends left, we were told to wait because our room was in a different area. The lady then proceeded to explain that there was a bed broken in one of the rooms so we would be sharing the dorm room we originally booked with two other strangers. My roommate discussed this with her for awhile, trying to find out if there were any other rooms available. Eventually the guy returned and said that bed was not, in fact, broken, but the two people there had decided to extend their stay so they had to split us up. He ended his explanation with "your friends have better rooms."
To which my roommate replied, "I know."
So we went to the dorm room we were supposed to have and then called the other two to tell them what was going on. She then went back to the desk to explain that we didn't want to be with other people (because we're typical Americans), and we wanted the room we originally booked. So they decided to move the two people out of the dorm room and into the hotel style room. We would have felt guilty except for the fact that the other room was extremely nice so they definitely benefited from our stranger avoidance.
The only problem with this new plan was that the other two people staying in our room weren't currently at the hostel, and we weren't sure when they would return. We left to eat dinner, hoping they would be back by the time we came back.
When we got back, only one of the other girls had returned. We went to the room to find an elderly Chinese lady packing up her stuff to move to the other room. She then informed us that she had been enjoying that room for the past month and wondered how long we were staying. We all stared at our shoes as somebody mumbled "one night." We waited for about another hour, but the other girl still hadn't come back yet. So, we all went to bed. My roommate and I got to share a tiny single bed since the other bed still had the girl's stuff on it. Someone finally came in around 11 and started packing up the stuff while exclaiming how weird and strange the whole thing was. All of us pretended to be asleep. After she left, the housekeeping person came by and asked if he could change the sheets. Someone mumbled yes as we pretended that we were all still "asleep" and he changed the sheets. After that rather long process, he left and we all popped up because, of course, none of us had actually been sleeping.
So we finally got to sleep around 11:30 and the rest of the evening was uneventful. Though, when I woke up in the morning and looked around at the stark, white walls with no windows and the cold tile floor, I wondered if this was what it was like to wake up in prison. That aside, the hostel was really nice and besides the room mix-up, it was a good experience.
The rest of the day was spent shopping at the market and eating large amounts of western food before heading back to home and off my grown-up teachery responsibilities.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
.....hhmmm.......
So I have been trying to figure out what I should post for this week. As I get more and more into teaching, I have started to realize what a huge responsibility this is. We always talked about that in education classes, but you don't really realize how true that is until you actually get into a classroom. One of the classes that I'm teaching this year was just added because there is a small group of ESL students that need some specific instruction in reading strategies. And so, along with attempting to figure out ESL in general, I have also been planning/teaching this brand new class. There aren't a lot of resources out there, so a lot of it is very experimental. I have finally come to a place where I see what the students need, I'm just trying to figure out how to teach it.
I didn't realize how many skills you just kind of pick up in school in the States without specifically being taught. For example, I'm attempting to teach them how to research-I can't even remember how I was taught. In fact, I don't think I was specifically taught, I just started researching in high school and that was about it. But, I have found it rather difficult to explain effective internet searching and finding the information you actually need out of the millions of articles that you find. These students have done a lot of research before, but it's an extremely frustrating process for them because they are language learners (and from cultures that don't view research the same way that States does), and I am really trying to show them things that will make the process less agonizing.
Along with that, we are also reading a novel in that class and the themes and life application that can be taken from the book are really good. Again, I have been attempting to connect these themes and issues with their lives. In and of itself, doing this in an English class in the States is hard enough--then you add the language barrier and it gives a delightful twist to life:) .....meh....I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably trying too hard. I don't know, I want so much to show them that books and reading really do matter, but I suppose I can only do so much.
On the other hand, my 8th grade lit. class has been a lot of fun. They are a group of students that just love reading. I continue to be impressed with their insight and their desire to learn and ask questions.
I also have a new appreciation for the teacher who teaches the religion class here. My ESL student (yes, I only have one-my other student was deemed proficient enough to pass out of ESL) brings in her homework from that class, and we work on it together. There have been many times that I have been rather stuck as to how to explain certain passages, or faith in general to someone who has very basic English skills. Again, I kept thinking about the opportunity that I have in that class as I work with her and attempt to explain things about faith.
Even in these couple short months, I have experienced many challenges and opportunities that I wasn't expecting. There have been bright spots, but I think I'm just beginning to understand what this job will require of me. He certainly does like to stretch and challenge us:)
I didn't realize how many skills you just kind of pick up in school in the States without specifically being taught. For example, I'm attempting to teach them how to research-I can't even remember how I was taught. In fact, I don't think I was specifically taught, I just started researching in high school and that was about it. But, I have found it rather difficult to explain effective internet searching and finding the information you actually need out of the millions of articles that you find. These students have done a lot of research before, but it's an extremely frustrating process for them because they are language learners (and from cultures that don't view research the same way that States does), and I am really trying to show them things that will make the process less agonizing.
Along with that, we are also reading a novel in that class and the themes and life application that can be taken from the book are really good. Again, I have been attempting to connect these themes and issues with their lives. In and of itself, doing this in an English class in the States is hard enough--then you add the language barrier and it gives a delightful twist to life:) .....meh....I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably trying too hard. I don't know, I want so much to show them that books and reading really do matter, but I suppose I can only do so much.
On the other hand, my 8th grade lit. class has been a lot of fun. They are a group of students that just love reading. I continue to be impressed with their insight and their desire to learn and ask questions.
I also have a new appreciation for the teacher who teaches the religion class here. My ESL student (yes, I only have one-my other student was deemed proficient enough to pass out of ESL) brings in her homework from that class, and we work on it together. There have been many times that I have been rather stuck as to how to explain certain passages, or faith in general to someone who has very basic English skills. Again, I kept thinking about the opportunity that I have in that class as I work with her and attempt to explain things about faith.
Even in these couple short months, I have experienced many challenges and opportunities that I wasn't expecting. There have been bright spots, but I think I'm just beginning to understand what this job will require of me. He certainly does like to stretch and challenge us:)
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