My training center decided to have a talent show for all the beginner classes (mostly 4-8 years old, mine are 5 or 6) and host it in the mall with our “new” (open for 6 months or so) center. Each class would have to come up with something for their students to do as a group.
They gave us 2 weeks’ notice. 2 weeks to pick some group activity. 2 weeks for the students to learn what they have to do. 3 or 4 classes to practice with the kids. And we’d still have to do another thing at the end of the semester as normal.
Planning
Luckily for me, my Chinese teacher had all sorts of ideas on what our class could do for their performance. Granted, some of the ideas were a little overambitious, like the formation change, but we settled on a few ideas and decided to see what the kids could do.
We wanted them to be in a triangle, to make it a bit more interesting than just a straight line. They would each have a turn to introduce themselves and read a poem they wrote.
Thankfully, we had been working on introductions for a couple weeks already. They could do it mostly by themselves. And most of them were getting fairly good at it.
They wrote the poems (well, really, they are 4 pictures with sentences about fall, but we call them poems anyways) themselves. I just had to write down the sentence they told me so they could copy it (writing words by themselves is the next class).
My Chinese teacher, with a little bit of help from me, turned the poems into some fall-themed fans. There was an apple one, a pumpkin, a leaf, a heart, and a couple other less interesting shapes.
My Chinese teacher also wanted them to read something after their poems. We had some debate over what that should be. Would it be one of the books we read as part of the curriculum? Would it be something fall-related? Or something else?
We didn’t know, but we had enough of an idea to get started and to see how the kids would do. Do they understand? Can they follow the directions? Is the formation too hard for them? Do they have any ideas of their own?
Rehearsal
Our first rehearsal went way better than I thought it would have. The kids understood. They didn’t do everything perfectly, but they were learning.
After a few times through their introductions and poems, they knew what to do. Even after going around in a triangle, they picked it up quickly and started jumping in each other in their rush to move to their new spot. They were even correcting the slower ones to move!
The second rehearsal went a lot like the first. They still didn’t like doing their background fan waving but they did everything else just fine, if they were paying attention.
This time we also showed them the sight word (words the kids learn to recognize and not have to read or sound out as they are very common) poem about fall. I had them try to read by themselves the first time through, as they should have been able to. And they did very well.
Once they could read the poem, it was time to start adding in gestures because all kid performances need to have some kind of arm gestures to go along with them, or so I was told.
This one was a little challenging for them. They aren’t great readers just yet and they haven’t memorized the words yet, so the hand gestures were fairly difficult for them to add in. We took a video and sent it home to their parents so they could practice, along with some recording of everything else that they’re going to be doing and saying.
And did those kids ever practice at home! By our 3rd and 4th practices, those kids were getting bored of it! But, if they were paying attention and not chatting, they were very good.
My Chinese teacher and I were going to have one of the best performances of the show! Well, except for the kid that was going to sing Bingo by himself. He didn’t really know what was going on and doesn’t actually listen (he tries to repeat at the same time I’m talking and that’s not really how repeating works).
Performance
I didn’t get to go. I had to teach classes. I had my regular classes in the morning with my Chinese teacher, but our kids were doing their performance in the afternoon and she had to go help them. I, on the other hand, got sent to another branch to cover a teacher’s classes while she was on vacation on Zhangjiajie.
From what I’ve heard most of the performances went well. It was just a very long day. They had a morning session and an afternoon session. The morning one was over three hours and it was supposed to be the shorter one!
I’ve talked with a few of the other people who were there and they were always impressed with what my kids did. One of the best performances of the show!
And I got lots of pictures!
After Party
The morning of the show, my Chinese teacher told me that they were going out to dinner at some sort of restaurant. I had no idea what it was called or what type of food there was, but I was told there would be mutton, which I assumed was just a mistranslation of lamb. I like lamb.
Dinner was at 7 or 7:30 depending on who you asked. I got off work just after 5 and was only a couple metro stops away. I got there early. Very early. Luckily the Chinese teacher from the other branch was going with me. She could talk to people!
Everyone else either got off work just before 7 or they were coming from the talent show. They didn’t start showing up until about 7:30. I was starving by the time they got there.
I also found out I didn’t really like what was for dinner. But there was bread and some potato thing that was yummy. If I could get it.
Eating with a large group and having a table that spins turns eating into a competition or challenge. You have to get the food you want to you, then you have to get it onto your plate and, finally, get the chopsticks back before the table spins off with the food.
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 