My 1st weekend as a teacher in China

For the first weekend of teaching I arrived at my apartment around midnight and by 10am the next morning I was already at school getting my books.  Pretty overwhelming.  We met with all our CT’s (Chinese teachers).  I have 8 different CT's.  At the time my schedule was nearly impossible to put my head around. 

After seeing the school and having meetings we went over to the main school for a meeting about the calendar and our contracts.  We had a little time for lesson planning and then off to dinner.

The dinner was really good and it was nice to chat with teachers from the other schools.  After dinner I stayed up a few hours doing more lesson planning.  The next morning I was in my first class by 8:30am and it felt like I didn't stop till Sunday night.  I taught 17 classes over the course of 2 days.  I probably taught over 250 kids.  This isn’t even counting my 3 classes on Fridays that hadn't started yet.

The first weekend went by in a blur.   There is so much to remember - what class you're going to next, which room you're going to, if you're teaching the 1st 30 minutes, the middle 30, the last 30, or the entire class, which Chinese teacher you're working with (and what she looks like),  the lesson plan, and sadly I feel like the last thing I remember are the student's names.  There are parents in the classes with the really little kids.  That adds a whole other level of AHHHH.  But I made it through the first weekend and the 2nd weekend.   I'm gearing up for the 3rd weekend now.  It's really nice to have Monday thru Thursday off.  I don't have to even think about teaching until at least Thursday.

This is something totally different than what I've been doing for the past 7 years - or I guess in my entire life.  It's been a big adjustment but there are definitely good moments during class that make me laugh or make me feel good because they are actually learning what I'm teaching.

Some highlights from my first weekend:
-A little boy grabbed my butt.
-A girl wouldn't stop hitting my butt.
-I taught my students to say bike instead of bak.
-I was yelled at by an entire class of little kids - in Chinese.
-A student (girl) asked me for my phone number.
-One of my CT's answered all the questions I was asking the students.  Grrr.
-I got 3 completely mute 4 year olds to talk!
-One kid gave me the finger (on both hands) when I made a 'bad' call during a game. (Not sure if he really knows what that means)
-One class was completely fascinated by my blue eyes.