To start the 2 weeks of the holiday season, as I like to think of it, instead of 3 intermediate makeup classes (they got cancelled), I got to teach another teacher’s classes. He is one of the part-timers. And they forgot to tell him about the schedule change (Here’s all about the scheduling issues)!
I taught the same level 2 (beginner) review lesson to both his classes. So, it was nice to only talk through the lesson plan once with his Chinese teacher. My second time teaching it was much better than my first. I actually knew what I was doing!
Most of the kids are about the same level and there were no real troublemakers (just some issues sitting still when they weren’t doing anything). But one of the girls in the second class (of 7 girls!) was very behind everyone else. She didn’t know any of the vocabulary words (other students fed her the answers) and she could not read the book independently. She also can not say the /k/ sound, even in Chinese. It was /t/.
Overall, I did enjoy teaching the new level and even had some fun in the second class.
Then we had a normal week. And everything was as usual, except the week ended on Friday, instead of Sunday. The training center decided to celebrate the holiday and forget about some of the drama. They took us out to KTV (Here’s my post on the experience).
Tuesday
After another 3 day weekend, where I kept thinking I had to go to work the next day, it was finally Tuesday. It’s normally a day off, but because of the holiday, we had to be in at 9am for a full day of work.
Except, for me, it was an extra long day. Instead of my usual 4 classes, I had to teach 5!
I was covering for a couple of the foreign teachers who had regular Tuesday commitments. I got to teach an older beginner class, a couple phonics classes, an intermediate writing class (their dream houses were very large – one had 1,000 rooms!), and an intermediate grammar and puppet show class (the kids had no idea how to read a play).
They didn’t go horribly, but there were issues big and small. There were a few points where I was corrected by their regular Chinese assistant teacher and bits where I tried to do something different than their normal teacher would.
At the end of the day, there was a severe storm warning. Everyone was running around trying to close up the school quickly so they could get home before the rain started. I made it home about 5 minutes before my first Chinese thunderstorm.
Wednesday
One of the Chinese teachers who created my schedule for the week asked if I would be willing to work an extra class on Wednesday (another early day, but I’d be teaching my own class) and loose a class on my only other long day, Sunday. I agreed.
But she was unable to actually get me a class to teach. Annoyingly, she didn’t tell me until I asked, after I had already ordered lunch. I did enjoy chatting with the other foreigners over their lunch break and left before the students started arriving for the afternoon classes.
Thursday
Then, Thursday, I got to teach my own beginner classes which were fun, except one student was so poorly behaved that he got kicked out of class again and 2 others wound up with no after class reward.
But we did get to play a version of What Time is it, Mr. Wolf? We reviewed the sentences and vocabulary words they’d learned recently and got to run and have fun. They loved it!
Friday
But, Friday, I had another day full of make ups. They’ve gotten better at filling my schedule with make up classes at the training center. No more boring days.
Most of the make ups went well and were full. I had one with a couple of beginners that are a couple units ahead of mine. However, they were very shy. Getting them to say “Hi” was insanely challenging. They didn’t answer any questions I asked (my classes would have been able to). They barely played the games.
Make up class 
My normal class
Worst class ever! Everyone was so bored! All through class, I was wondering if they were seriously behind in their normal class. I talked with their normal teacher, but they didn’t seem to think anything was out of the ordinary. I hope to never have to teach a make up beginner class again.
Saturday
Saturday, normally a very long day that starts with my baby beginners, was instead a short day where I only taught my baby beginners. The classes went mostly well, but the boys in the first class were especially rowdy and obnoxious.
My classroom has two doors – one goes to the rest of the center and the other one goes outside. We used to have a bookcase infront of the door but it got repurposed elsewhere. Now there’s just a table and a green foam board.
My worst student got kicked out of class again. However, he didn’t go straight home. He started playing with the outside door and sticking his head in the class to talk to the other students. The only thing I could do was move the foam board to better block the door and distract the kids with a game.
Sunday
Eventually, it was my last day of work for the week and it was a long one. I started the day exhausted but the day went quickly.
And I got a visit from one of my former phonics students. He came by to play in my classroom until his new class started.
I’m going to miss him. He’s a troublemaker, just a really cute one.
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 