So for the past week we have been teaching. Each day we have a theme and teach to that theme. On Wednesday the theme was “getting to know you”, Thursday it was “America from sea to shining sea”, Friday it was “Olympics”, Saturday was “superheroes”, and today, Sunday, it is “geography and protecting the earth”. We still have five more days of teaching and camp.
Tuesday we had a ton of laundry, and spent all day at Megan and Daniel’s house since they have a washer, and a tinny one at that. Fun fact…in China when you wash clothes, you either have to wash your clothes by hand or (if you have enough money) you can get a washing machine, and no matter what, you must hang dry your clothes. So we planned for winter camp and watched some movies as we waited for our clothes to dry. By the time we got home it was 10pm, so we all went to bed because we had to wake up earlier the next day.
Wednesday was a bright and early morning; it was also the first day of winter camp. We had a total of 11 students that day, half of them are in the older class and the other half are in the younger class. For me, I teach the younger class, and they are so awesome. Nita Morgan is my teaching partner, and together we teach BeBe, Mary, Winnine, Jack, and Selina…interesting fact is that Mary and Jack are twins, so crazy right???!!!?!?!?! For the first part of the day we taught them how to play the human knot, footsies, and ninja. They had fun with all three games, and it was a great experience for everyone to get to know each other and to become more comfortable. We then split into our separate classes, for the first hour Nita and I talked about ourselves and showed pictures and videos, had them learn some new words like adopted, Arizona, cactus, and costume. We then worked together on a get to know you worksheet, once we finished that we only had like eight minutes left of class till lunch time, so we sang the alphabet song, and “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. For lunch we have a two hour break where we plan for the afternoon and eat, and then do whatever we want to do. So after eating we headed back to our apartment and chilled for a little and then changed for dance class. Caitlyn, another American teacher, taught dance, she showed some videos of different kinds of dances and then we taught the students the “Cha-Cha Slide” and “The Macarena”. Then for our last activity for the day we had the students interview each other and then introduce one another. BeBe and Winnine both interviewed me, and I interviewed Winnine. It took some coaxing to get Winnine to introduce me, but after a little encouragement I finally got him to come up:D Once Winnine was done, class was over. For us teachers we always do an activity for after school, so we watched Moana, once we finished the movie it was time for bed, so we all came home and hit the sack.
Oh, and just to give you all a little better understanding, our day starts and 9am but we have to arrive at 8:30 for breakfast. We then have assembly, to wake up the kids, from 9am to 10 am, we then have individual classes from 10:10am to 12pm. Lunch is a two hour break so we have to back at the school at 1:50. We then have auxiliaries from 2pm to 3:30, and then we do a workshop and presentation from 3:35 to 5. Then class is over, we then have to meet back at the school at 6:30pm for dinner. All meals are provided.
Thursday, for our assembly we created a class name and a class song. For my class we created the name “Smiley Flowers” and our song is “We are the Smiley Flowers, smiling all around, smiling all day and smiling all night. Smile!” They’re literally the cutest. After that the American teachers came up and sang “My Country Tis Of Thee”, we also shared a video of our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”. We showed another video of cities in the United States, we then shared a map of the U.S. and talked a little bit about some of the states. For class we talked about poetry, tongue twisters and slang. We had them memorize “Lazy Jane” by Shel Silverstine, and they actually had a ton of fun with it. They all recited it and it was just awesome. We then had them create their own poems, using their name and that was fun. We then had them memories the tongue twister “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a Bear”, they had a little trouble at first saying it but when they got it we couldn’t get them to be quiet. When we finally did we taught them some easy slang, and of course I just had to throw in “Gucci” and “it’s all good”, and now they say those words all the time. For auxiliaries we did music and yoga. Music went OK, we tried doing rounds and it was just bad, like really bad. Then yoga was fun but my ears hurt so much afterwards because they kept screaming, the whole time. For our final activity we did planned a trip, we split up into classes and for my class they wanted to plan a trip to Hai Nan, then the two classes came back together and we presented our trip. Out of all the camps that I have been a part of this camp is for sure the most outgoing camp, except we have a huge problem of them speaking Chinese and not stopping even when we are right in front of them, not to call out anyone but one of the older students, Bryan, he has that problem. When school was finally over, we just went back to the apartment and watched movies.
Friday, bless its heart, was a really good day. For our first activity we did a game called Captains and Sailors, it was fun but the kids kept cheating and I might of kicked a student, lightly, but we won’t go into that. After that we had them do a word scramble, and then Nita taught them about goals. After that we split into our classes, and we got another American teacher!!!! Her name is Megan and she’s from Utah, so we had her introduce herself to the class. When she finished, we talked some more about goals. Nita and I had made a small goal sheet, and when we got to making friends all the children attacked me, giving me a hug, but in that process they knocked BeBe down and she hit her head, I told her that in America we kiss it to make it feel better, so I did and she started laughing then her classmates came and one by one they gave her a hug. We then had them make their own goals and then draw a picture about it. It took way longer than expected so, when they finished it was lunch time. After lunch was P.E. but I had to draw a collage about my goals, since that was what I was suppose to teach in the last activity. For the final activity Caitlyn did a time line, what to do to work up to a goal and then they had to make one. I showed then a collage, and then had them do one. Winnine took my collage and started to copy the entire thing, I didn’t realize till the last minute, and then Brian was complaining the whole time saying that he could draw, I told him to try, and he did but didn’t like what he drew. After school and dinner we went over to Caitlyn’s apartment and played mahjong, and ate a ton of snacks. Then around 10ish we went home and all passed out.
So Saturday was an interesting day, we saw James and he gave everyone a hug and when I gave him a hug I totally got makeup on his black jacket, ugh so embarrassing. Daniel made a “test” for the students to take, to see where they were at and what they remembered, that was just a disaster in and of itself. So that took up most of my morning, and then after 45 minutes we gave up and took it away, and did a skit for them, and then had them do the skit, that for sure brightened everyone’s day. So our theme was “superheroes” so we had them write a story based on a picture of a kid in a superhero costume. Their stories were really cute. We then played a memory dictation game where one person has to memorize a sentence and then go to their partner to write it down. That was a little out of control because each team tried to cheat, after that we played hot seat, where one student sat in a seat and the other kids had to explain it and have them guess the word. That game was just bad; they kept slipping into Chinese and then trying to whisper the word to the person, but soon it was lunch time. When we came back we drama and we did another skit and then had the kids do it, it was called doctor. We had the kids pretend that something hurt and then they had to go to the “doctor” to get it fixed. It was actually pretty fun. We then put them in groups and then they had to create their own skit about a villain saving a citizen from a villain. They all did a really good job. We then had them create their own superhero, and present it. Lastly we had them memorize the “super suit” scene from The Incredibles. Later that night we actually ate real food in a restaurant and then we did KTV for the rest of the night, it was so much fun:D\
Sunday was our “geography and protecting the Earth” day, we did a power point on the basics of geography, and then Arianna did a Bingo game using famous landmarks form around the world. For class we reviewed the test we took the other day, we then played “spot the mistake”, and then this ABC game. After lunch we did a recyclable fashion show. I was put in charge, so I had a presentation about recycling and then fashion and how we can use recyclable materials to create clothes. I then had them all create their own outfit and then I put them into teams with a model and then they had to combine their drawings and create them, then we had our awesome fashion show, and by the time we finished and cleaned up school time was over. And then we went to Food Street!!!!!!! So Food Street is a street that goes for about a mile long and it has all kind of food, and I ate a ton. So the first thing we had was a spiraled potato on a stick, it was mmmmmmm good. We then walked a little and had some Korean ice cream, which is basically just shaved ice, then I got cotton candy that that tasted like burnt popcorn, then I got a hot chocolate boba drink, and then I bought this blown pig thinking it was sugar but it was actually molasses. We then got this bread cheesecake thing and then got a free sweet rice flower thing, it was really delicious. Then… I tried something very different, and I can’t say that I liked it but I tried … scorpion!!!! Then I got some beef on a stick that was my favorite, along with the potato stick. Then I went into this shop and bought some goodies. Then we came home and I tried to write, but I fell asleep on my computer.
Also, update on my mouth, I have no more pain, unless I bite down really hard. Thank you all for your prayers, and support, it was very much appreciated. Love you all, and be safe 😀
There's A World Out There 