The End of Summer

End of summer, that time hated by students and teachers everywhere. For many adults, the end of summer is just when the weather starts changing again and is not really that important to their daily lives. But, those with kids or teachers have it marked on their calendars for good or bad.

I stopped noticing the changing seasons, unless there was a holiday, before I came to China. It never affected me. The end of summer was just a time to pull out the heavier jackets and sweaters. But, as I had been at work all summer, there was no big changes that happened.

And then I became a teacher in China. Summer became a time when my work schedule did crazy things and I got to go in vacation, Covid allowing, of course.

Getting my New Class Schedule

I knew that the new semester was supposed to start at the end of August, but I didn’t know if the date had changed or if I’d have to teach a summer camp, a short class in the summer, first. I did know I was getting a new classroom and Chinese teacher, as the foreign teacher had left to teach elsewhere.

As the date I last heard for my return to work approached, I still hadn’t heard anything from work. I know this is china and they like to do everything last minute, but that last minute was fast approaching. When my coworker heard about his return, I knew the time had come to stop being lazy and ask.

Just a few hours afterwards, I received not one, but two schedules. I knew all my classes for the next 2 weeks or so. And I had a couple days at work to prep for the summer classes. It was definitely more than I was expecting, but exactly what I needed.

My Weeklong Classes

I got 2 summer classes to teach the week before the semester officially started. They were 3 hour classes, so I’d get to work in the morning, teach a class until lunch, get two and a half hour to eat and nap, then teach another class until it was time to go home.

Both classes were with intermediate students, all of whom I had never met. It took me the full week, the entire length of the class, to learn most of the 17 students’ names. There were a few that I just couldn’t remember and I didn’t have long enough with a set of twins to tell them apart.

But, for the most part the classes were fine. I only called the wrong name a few times and we got to play lots of games, which most students enjoyed, but not all.

My Class Failed

Except for one class. Every single thing went wrong!

It started with the students not wanting to do anything, just go back to sleep, not that I could really blame them. It was 9am after all. I tried to encourage them by saying we could play a game, if they finished quickly. But it really didn’t help. They didn’t want to play a game. What kids don’t want to play games? I thought that was a requirement for being a child.

But, then they talked the whole class. Nearly 3 hours of them chatting in Chinese and not listening to the teachers. Just talking and talking. I’d yell. They’d stop for a minute. I’d say something. And then it’d be right back to the talking. I don’t think they paid attention to what I said in the 30 seconds of them not talking.

And, then, it took them 2 hours to write a story, something that usually takes less than an hour. Of course, there were the usual complaints – “Teacher, I don’t want to.”, “Teacher, what to write?” (a combination of ‘I didn’t pay attention, what am I writing about?’ and ‘I don’t have any ideas, give me something to write about.’), and the ever common staring off into space. One child stared at nothing for half an hour, chewing her pen, and didn’t write a single word, no matter how many ideas I gave her.

Eventually, the Chinese teacher lost it and yelled at the class for a couple minutes. After that, they quieted down and actually did some of the work, but they weren’t happy or quick about it.

It was just a bad class all around. But, eventually it ended. And I got to go eat my lunch and take my own nap. Yay, for the Chinese siesta! My work even has a few camp beds we can use. And with two and a half hours for lunch in the summer, I was very tempted.

My second class of the day was much better, or at least energetic, as they usually bounced off the walls. I ended their last class by playing a quick game of hangman, their choice, and by the end the whole class had clustered around me at the board so closely that I couldn’t move to write all the letters they were guessing.

But, at last, the classes were over. I had survived 30 hours of teaching in 5 days. I needed a nap! Another one.

The New Semester

Unfortunately, I didn’t get one. I did get a day off, but I had to get my second dose of the vaccine. While I didn’t get the lazy day, spent doing very little, I had been dreaming about, I did get a very delicious burger.

Then it was time to start the new semester. Since I had already gotten my class schedule, I knew that I was starting off with 2 days of games. I just hoped these kids like games more than the kids in my other class.

And these games did go over better than some of the other ones. I did try to make sure that there were some easy questions in there, like ‘draw a cat’ and ‘spell the teachers’ names’ (they were written on the board at the start of class, so the kids just needed to copy them).

However, one student decided that she didn’t want to get points. She would play but didn’t want the pressure of getting or losing points, which I understood. I decided, after she was the first to answer the first question, I would keep track of how many times she answered first. Of the 18 questions, she answered 11 first.

When I announced the winner, and it wasn’t her, she asked why she didn’t win. I told her that she didn’t get points so she can’t win. She was not very happy with that answer. But it was her own choice to take herself out of contention. She then did quite a bit of complaining, but it was all in Chinese to my Chinese teacher, so I just ignored all the drama.

My first week ended with a bit of déjà vu. I taught the same lesson back to back Saturday and Sunday mornings. And I get to do it all semester. I’m not so sure I like having 4 of the same class anymore. How do I stave off going insane from doing the same thing over and over again?

If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.