Week one is under my belt! I have had to help my class pronounce my name. They seem to forget the 's.' All of my students are very energetic to start the term and I am ready to start teaching them. Miss Burnett (my cooperating teacher) and I spent the week playing 'get to know you' activities. There are fun games I learned like 'Splat,' 'Granny's Pants,' and 'Professor.' I saw a dramatic difference in the classroom dynamics as the week progressed. Originally the boys dominated classroom conversation but by Friday the girls were participating in the conversation. I'm glad that they have opened up because the girls outnumber the boys in the class. Also the boys tend to talk quite a bit so the girls will bring balance to the conversations.
In between the activities the students had assessments to complete. At BSB they use the tracking system. So at the beginning of each year students complete a base line assessment for each subject area. Then throughout the terms they are reassessed and their results are charted on a table. On the cart their baseline results are compared to their age, down to the exact month. Their results are compared to a set standard and from there it is determined if they are behind, on par, or ahead of progress. I find it a lot of work for the teacher to plot each students progress for each subject. So if you have 20 students and 4 subjects to assess the teacher has to complete 80 tables EACH term. It comes out to be a lot of work outside the classroom. Fortunately there are Teach Assistance's (TA's) to help alleviate the stress. Overall I have not determined if I find the tracking system affective. I will have to observe my class more. I do know it will help me differentiate my classroom instruction when planning lessons.
Teaching in a private school in the Embassy district of the largest populated country in the world, there are many cultures. In my class there are 9 different nationalities, to my knowledge. (Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Australian, English, Spanish, Tanzanian, Central African, American) This is truly a diverse classroom where students know 3 and 4 languages each. I am excited to hear from all my students and their unique backgrounds. There are setbacks, some students are beginning to learn English and have difficulties understanding instruction at times. If you thought you had patience before, well it takes even more with an EAL (English as an Additional Language) student. (ESL doesn't apply because many students know multiple languages) I take to these students though. I know how they feel being the foreigner in China and not being fluent in Mandarin.
After a good week of school, I took a trip to the Great Wall. The portion I went to is called Jinshanling and is pretty touristy. I was not feeling well that morning and attribute it to the rigorous first two weeks of being in Beijing coupled with the poor air quality and new food. Apart from waking up at 2 am drenched in sweat I made it to the 8:30 am bus bound for the wall. I slept a bit on the way there. Once there I bought a chair lift ticket half way up the wall. From there I gutted out 4 hours of walking up the wall and looking at the amazing views from the turrets. With some encouragement from my British friends I made it through the day. To get back down the mountain I took the toboggan down. The wind felt amazing in the hot sun with a fever. On the way down I was yelled at many times to slow down because I was going too fast. I guess I didn't know how to use the break : ).
*Side note: I met a lady who graduated form the University of North Dakota on the Great Wall of China!!!! Small world!
Today I have been laid up and watching episodes of the Big Bang Theory and downloading music. In China, Google has free music download, so I am expanding my iTunes library like mad while I'm over here.
This week I will dive into planning and hopefully teach a bit more than I did last week. I'm ready for another exciting week here in Beijing, at BSB!
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