There was crying. There was kicking. There was screaming. There was complaining. Mostly that was me. (However, it’s not like the kids were angels or anything either.)
But, I have somehow managed to complete my first semester teaching English in China! I can go back home and say that I have successfully taught English as a foreign language to kids and didn’t murder anyone.
I’ve had my ups and downs. Most jobs do, but I have enjoyed this adventure immensely so far and look forward to continuing it for the next two semesters (1 year) to finish out my contract here, before moving on to another country somewhere in Asia (recommendations welcome).
End of Semester Reviews
What educational experience would be complete without having to write feedback to the parents on how their kids did over the semester? Growing up, I don’t remember my parents getting any. All they got was a report card with a letter grade. But, I guess because the training center costs the parents an arm and a leg, they can expect and get more.
So, I painstakingly slaved away at my computer writing about each of the kids and how they did over the semester a couple weeks before classes actually ended. Were they good? Bad? Somewhere in between? What should they work on?
It took me about an hour, maybe a bit more since I didn’t actually come up with anything to say about all the kids, except one, myself. I cheated and used a feedback generator. It was awesome!
How much do you like the student?
All the foreign teachers I talked to used the same one, but it’s not like most of the parents read the feedback anyway. Most of them don’t speak English, either. And the feedback was very nice and detailed while not being specific, lots of generic phrases that sound good but don’t mean all that much.
And the generator could be customized for each child, just add their name and gender, and you, too, can sound like a nice caring teacher that wants the best for their students. And one who knows their strengths and weakness, not one who can barely remember their names or how they did in class yesterday.
I mostly kept to the sandwich of saying a good thing, a bad thing (usually just a “can continue to work on” thing), then another good thing. It says the kid did good and gives the parents something to criticize their kid over. Most Chinese parents want to have something their child can work on to immediately improve.
End of Semester Performance
The younger students need to do some kind of performance or presentation at the end of the semester to prove how much they’ve learned and improved. And so their parents have something to show when they brag about their kid and will want to keep sending their kids to our training center.
My Chinese teacher took the lead in my beginner classes’ performances. She decided that they would sing and dance to one of the songs learned in class, do their self-introductions that we had been working on since the first class, and sing and dance to another of the songs.
I would have liked to help (well, not really, I enjoyed the break), but they did most of the planning in Chinese. I had very little idea what they were planning and no idea about the props until they showed up.
Which all made the second to last class really fun, when my Chinese teacher, who knows what’s going on and can tell me, had to miss the classes, leaving me all on my own!
Ok, mostly on my own. I did have a replacement Chinese teacher, but she didn’t really help as much as my normal teacher does. And then, she left me all on my own with 5 little kids for the half of class that we were rehearsing! You know, the bit that I actually needed someone to speak to the kids in a language they would understand and do what was said.
By some large miracle, I survived. The kids sort of did what was needed. I did record the videos that my normal (and wonderful) Chinese teacher needed. Some of the students would be missing the last class and were very disappointed that they would be missing the actual performance. I had to record the video so that my currently missing Chinese teacher could try to edit them into the final video somehow.
I haven’t seen the final videos yet. So I have no idea if it worked out or not. I should really ask about it at work one of these days.
Extra Classes
The week the semester ends, the training center decided to sell some extra classes. The students would be coming in Monday to Friday for 3 hours a day before the regular classes.
In the couple meeting we had about summer, these classes were always said were optional to teach. No one volunteered. But they sold enough classes to the parents to have at least 3 different classes running, needing 3 teachers.
I was volun-told that I would be teaching one of these classes. I would be getting some intermediate students and would have to teach the last lesson in their book over two days and then plan and teach three days of review classes on the vocabulary, grammar, and reading strategies they had learned in their recently finished level and in the previous level.
I had a lot of studying to do to learn what they have been taught over the last 2 semesters and a lot of materials to create for the class – PowerPoints, worksheets, games, and activities. But, I had about a week before the class started and most of the materials for the first two days were already created, since they were part of the regular curriculum.
The general plan for the class was also created for me by the Chinese teacher. She also found a lot of short, paragraph-long stories to use for the reading strategies lessons. I just had to pick and choose which ones I liked and make a PowerPoint and a worksheet. Easy, right?
Well, there were a couple days when I was making the things I needed for class that day in the hour I came in before class, but everything was ready, if not proofread, and printed out by class time.
Overall, the class went well. The students had fun. They really enjoyed correcting the teacher! I don’t think they really know the parts of speech just yet. Grow is an adjective?! Special is a noun?! But they’ll get there one day.
The Chinese teacher also thought I did a good job teaching and explaining everything to the students. Good thing, too. She will be my full-time Chinese teacher starting next semester and I’ll be teaching a lot of the intermediate students.
Also, it was a lot of fun teaching them! I can’t wait for next semester!
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 