I feel like I’ve been complaining a lot recently. And while a lot of things have sucked, been annoying, or gone wrong, there have also been a lot of good things that have happened, including having some amazing and hellful coworkers.
And while I doubt I will stay in China for longer than my current contract (nothing against my current job, there’s just more to see). I am enjoying teaching English and I expect I’ll be doing a lot of traveling before I leave, which is my whole goal of moving here.
So as to not discourage you from moving to a foreign country to become a teacher, if you want, here are a few of the good things that have happened that have made me happy I decided to teach English in China.
A good make up
I had a make up with two intermediate students. I had to go over vocabulary words, get the students to use the words in sentences and write them as a quiz, then read a story and answer questions.
Going through the vocabulary was fine. They already had written sentences, so that went quickly. However, one of the students didn’t want to write. He completely refused to do the activity.
I had no way of forcing him to do it. What to do? Make it a game, of course!
I handed out small white boards, markers, and erasers. The first kid to write the word correctly, wins. He loves it and didn’t want to stop to read the story!
I was able to get a reluctant kid to do a required activity with a quickly improvised game. No tears, no Chinese teacher.
A fun demo
I discussed this a little in a different post. Here’s the longer story.
I was teaching a demo class. They’re supposed to be more about having fun than actually learning anything, but they should still follow the same general plan for the class. So, the demo can’t just be games, unless that’s how the class usually goes.
As this was a phonics class, a typical class will have a lot of saying letter sounds, reading words with those sounds, making sentences, and writing the words. There will also be a little part where you read a story.
For the demo, we went over the letter sounds and reviewed them several times as the kids had some issues with some of them. After some quick sentences, we went on to writing.
And we wrote for half of the demo! My Chinese teacher kept telling me to move in and do other things, but the kids kept asking for the next word. They were having so much fun!
At some point, I had the students be “little teacher” and say the word for everyone else, including me, to spell. I always tried to spell the word like the student said it. So, if it was mispronounced, I spelled it wrong and they had to correct my writing as well as the other students’. Sometimes it took a couple promptings to get them to properly check the spelling and correct it.
Most other kids in phonics hate writing and want to read or play games. According to the other foreign teachers, it is usually a horrible, boring experience for both the teachers and students.
Eventually, class ended. Most of the class didn’t want to leave. Instead, they wrote me the love notes and then chased me down the street with toy swords.
A favorite student
I had a phonics class for a little while that only had 2 students. I really enjoyed teaching the class. The students really enjoyed it and I got to have fun and teach the material how I wanted.
Unfortunately, a class with only two students is not profitable enough for the training center and they were eventually split up to join some other phonics classes that are also being taught now.
I was really sad to see them go and I still miss teaching that class. It was the only class where I don’t have to yell at the students. And the students genuinely enjoyed coming to class and doing the work.
One of the kids, who I would call a very cute troublemaker, didn’t want to leave my classroom either.
For his first week in a new class, he came to the center early and hung out in my room playing with my die and a day of the week thing I have.
The next week, he came by again, but I had to teach a make-up so he couldn’t play. He just had time to give me a hug. Well, I thought it was just going to be a hug. But then he wrapped his legs around my waist and I found myself very unexpectedly hold a child.
I miss him all the more now.
A perfect class
Not every class is going to go well all the time. You’re going to stress out. The students are going to misbehave.
But, if you have that one class where everything goes right. The kids are learning. They understand what you want and are enjoying themselves. You all are having fun playing the games.
It can make it like all the bad that has gone before has just disappeared, never happened.
A class where it all goes smoothly is the best thing in the world. You never want it to end. But they do. They always do.
And then it’s back to the usual. Yelling. Misbehaving. Confusion. Stress. But, you’ll still have that one perfect class to look back on and know that you can do it. It’s happened once, it’ll happen again. It just takes practice and work.
Keep going.
Teaching is hard. No one has fun all the time. I’ve only been teaching for a short while and it’s a lot of work. But moments like these are the reasons why I keep going.
To all the teachers out there, what are some moments that make you want to keep teaching?
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 