School update

        Beijing has been absolutely beautiful the past few weeks. There was a special world-wide conference in Beijing which means they completely change what it's like. Factories are shut down and traffic is restricted so the pollution leaves. Wow!!! We could breathe fresh air for a long time. In addition to that, we got six days off of school. Granted, we need to make some of them up, but... it was a very nice break to have. :)

    The first quarter has been going really well. Sometimes I feel like a real teacher. Yesterday I lead a professional development day for the teachers (I had to as part of my master's class). My students seem to be learning and most of the time the classroom is under control. Here are some pictures of the reading projects we did for the past book. They turned out really well!

Hallway bulletin board

Fourth Grade

Third Grade

 

   Each semester we need to go on a field trip. This semester we went to the Temple of Heaven with the students. The first grade teacher created a scavenger hunt complete with different tasks they had to do. It kept the students involved and allowed them to see a large part of the park. I LOVED spending a whole day with the students outside of the classroom. You remember more and more that they are kids, not just students. They worked together so well and each group had fun!

We were supposed to look scared.

   The holiday break gave me a chance to catch up on homework, do some Christmas shopping, and visit the 798 Art District. Now, a two day week and another weekend!!!

   Thanks for keeping us all in your thoughts. It's great to see my students growing as young chstians. It's great to know that the HS is working here and elsewhere. Enjoy the holiday season!



My group by the Temple of Heaven

The first week

Well, I'm two days into my first week. It's been interesting to say the least. I have some very sweet kids that will help me through the year. I have a few little rascals that will challenge my everything. Today I started the day with a little Brain tai qi. The question... "What makes your new school great?" Some of the answers were pretty cool:

I think mabe is the teacher is good. And I think is Gd help the teacher. And Gd help the studens. And the teacher is good teach. - oh yeah, baby! Teacher got two points on this one! :)

I like books. I like the food. I like the teacher. I like firend. I like the plant.

Making new 朋友 will make my new school great. I like my new 老师. I like the books in this school. I like the light in this school. I like the songs in this school.- I like that this student used Chinese in her English writing :)

I thing the student and the teacher. And if the student be great and the school will be great and every one is happy. new fries make the school graet and graet teacher. And the most is Gd made this school grate. It was graet at this school.

He said it! the fries here are great (he means friends) and Gd made it great!

Teacher bedtime is coming up!

A sad remark

Today in class we had some great debates. The activity was about starting a new civilization. There were 12 people who wanted to be saved, but they could only pick 6. Then, they had to defend their decisions. One of the 12 choices was a man with a religion. Only one out of nine groups picked this guy. They defended their decision quite well. "If we are going to start a new civilization we think they should have a belief. Everyone should have a belief. " I was feeling great... Yeah! You tell them!! ;) but... Then the debate kept going. I decided to let it. I was curious what they would say. One guy (he was sitting directly behind me) said quite loudly and clearly "G0d won't help you when your in trouble!"

They all know I'm a chsrtian, and I had a little reaction to that. Everyone gasped and looked at me. The boy was a little embarrassed. I wasn't upset with him, I was reminded that this is the philosophy of the majority of Chnese people. They are lost. They think people should have a belief, some even want one, they just don't know where to go or what to believe. So, they believe in what they see- themselves, their job, money and power. Earthly, temporary things.

Keep us all here in your thoughts please! We've got quite our work cut out for us. I'm thankful that I know someone who WILL help when I'm in trouble ;)

Picture: here are my students "writing down" their homework. They take a picture of their vocabulary words... Makes me laugh all the time. Does this happen in America?

My class

I love my class. They have great personalities, they respect me, and they work well together. There are things about them that make me laugh.

The other week we did an activity called "truth, truth, lie". You have to write two things true about yourself and one lie. The other teams get to vote on which one is the lie. Here were mine:
1. In grade school a boy pushed me and caused me to break my arm.
2. I've played basketball while riding on a donkey.
3. I rode on a tortoise once, fell off and hurt my wrist.

Which one is the lie????

Here are some of their truths:
-in high school, there were many girls who fell in love with me and I refused them all (I'm not surprised, I would have fallen in love with him too)
- if I didn't give money to my friends, they wouldn't play with me. (She said it was 10yuan a day, about $1.50)
- I went to a boy's bathroom just for fun. (I asked "why would you do that?" The class responded "for fun!")
- I had considered to have a relationship with a girl. (This is a girl... She said she only considered it-not sure why she would tell us this...)

How do you go to work?

Traveling to work in America is simple. My guess is that the majority of you drive your car. Maybe a few of you walk or take a bike. Even less of you probably take the bus. None of you (to my knowledge) have ever taken the subway to work. Here is a simple blog about the variety of ways I can go to work. I have put them in the order of most likely to least likely. Notice that none of them include me driving a car...

1. Bike- it's healthy, free, and fast! I can stop to get fruit, vegetables, and meat for dinner and be on my way. At only 10-15 minutes per trip, it's faster than the bus!

2. Subway- super clean and really close! This is the lazy way I usually go to school. Door to door is about 20 minutes (depending on my walking speed) cost: 32 cents

3. School bus- no, it's not a little yellow bus with a red stop sign. It's a big brown van. Most companies provide transportation for their workers. My school bus picks me up about a 5 minute walk from my place. Only problem- if I miss the bus, I'll be late for school. Total time: about 15-20  min

4. Walk- nothing to explain here, just a 30 minute walk in the great sunshine!

5. Motorcycle- No, I don't have one, but many people in China do! You can find them all over. Older men sitting on street corners waiting for the next customer. It's not really through a company at all, you can just tell them where you want to go and negotiate a price. I don't usually use them because they are a bit more expensive than other transportation and I'm not usually running that late. Time: 10 minutes Price: $.80- $1.20

6. Public bus- There's a bit of a hike to the nearest bus stop, but it's an option if I need it. Cost: 29 cents

7. Taxi- Because of the one way streets near my area this is very inconvenient. I have never taken one to or from school, but it's an option if I'm coming from a different place. Price: about $2.40

Wow! 7 ways to get to school. I guess I can never have an excuse as to why I didn't show up!

p.s.- I could also take a black taxi- those are random cars that offer you a ride. Don't worry, not super popular and not that unsafe either. Never taken one, but I know other Focers who have.

p.p.s.- I also forgot one! I can get dinked! This is when I sit on the back of Nicole's bike like I'm riding side-saddle on a horse and she gives me a ride to or from school. Perfect for a time when only one of us has a bike and we both need to get home!

Shopping

Today I taught my students about shopping. We had some vocabulary in the beginning. Some of our words were: for sale, on sale, pharmacy, window shopping, shopping spree, debt, barcode, and compulsive shopping.
To review the words I asked some questions and they had to tell me which vocabulary word is connected to it. The last one I said was "what if I have no money?" Some of the students yelled out "debt" I laughed and said, "no, what should I do?" "Use your credit card." Me: "ha! Why don't you try using a vocabulary word." Finally I got someone to say "window shopping!"

Picture: Leona's birthday!!

Chrstmas in the Classroom

I taught my students all about the First Chrstmas. We even read the story directly from the NIV. It was sort of a happy/sad moment for me. Happy because I know some of them had no idea what Chrstmas is all about, sad because of some of the responses I got/heard  during class. Here is what some of the students said.

I was explaining who Mary and Joseph were, one student said something like "I heard something like G-d was the father, so then who is Joseph?" I then explained how Mary got pregnant. One student said, "Wow, that's amazing!" Another responded right away, "It's just a story." I was heart broken. I didn't know how to respond.

When two students were talking about the First Chrstmas, one student asked about J-sus and Zeus, "I always get them confused..." Hmm... I guess there names are similar???

Another student said, "Thanks for telling us about the first Chstmas, most Chinese people don't really know what it's all about. Now we do." Yuppers! "Now you can tell your family and friends." (This time I knew what to say. :)

At E-ster I will talk about the next great holiday :)

Oh the horror! You asked for what?!

Here is a text message conversation I recently had with one of my students...

7:25pm Me: Can I have your email address??

7:26pm Student: My horror. celia****@sina.com

8:03pm Student: Sorry! I just wanted to say it is my honor.

8:04pm Me: Yeah, I figured :)

I didn't realize that asking for an email address would cause such a reaction. :)

A Long Day

Tuesdays are a bit of a long day. I can't really complain because I only work three days a week (two of which are half days). However, today is a bit of a marathon. I have 8 hours of teaching on Tuesdays. 8-12 and 2-6. Thankfully, I have 2 hours off for lunch. That means I get to grab some street food (no cold lunches for me, few people pack a lunch here, it's super super convenient and cheap to eat outside) and then take a nap. I am very serious about my naps. There is a couch in our teachers' lounge. There is only one cushion, so most people don't sit on it, but sleeping works well. I don't trust the cushion (I'm sure it's never been washed) so I bring my own "pillow case" This pillow case is just a hand towel- small yet big enough. I also bring a blanket. So every Tuesday at about 12:30 I curl up on the couch for my hour long nap... it's glorious!

Today, and the next four weeks, we have a special activity after school. There is a speech contest and, since the speeches are in English, they ask the English teachers to judge them. That means that after supper, from 7-9, I got to listen to speeches and score them. They are ten minutes long and it's the strangest thing... the audience doesn't really listen to them. I'm not real sure why they are even there. There is so much talking going on that as a judge I got distracted. Even with the talking, it was interesting. These were the topics... Ernest Hemingway, the negative effects of mass  media, psychoanalysis, Gangnam style (it's a song), Mark Zuckerberg (or something), and Mass media and the truth. A variety of topics.

I have at least three more of those judging nights to go...

Dubbing Show

Last night I served as one of the jurors (not sure why they didn't call us judges) for my school's dubbing contest. Dubbing is when they take the voices out of the movies and others speak for them. Sometimes they do this when they play an English movie in China. They take out the voices and put in Chinese ones. However, tonight it was all in English. From English to English.

Each class could send two at the most, my class had two. Some classes only sent one (there was a semifinals- they didn't make the cut). Well, it was very interesting to judge. The first two groups were horrible!!!!!!! I couldn't understand them, their clips were really long and really boring. I scored them in the 60's, very poor. My class were clips 5 and 6. They did amazing!!!!!!!!!!! I worked with them quite a bit, so I knew where they struggle and where they usually do well. Their performance was nearly flawless! However, my class is also one of the higher level classes, so... they should be a bit better than the others.

After every three clips, they share the results... which, I feel is a bit odd because then everyone knows who is winning. There is no waiting and suspense at the end. In fact, the last clip was really bad, so almost EVERYONE left (not kidding, I turned around and there were like 20 people left- we started with over 200).

Needless to say, the only real competition was for first and second, both from my class. My girls won. They did the opening scene from "Enchanted" It was very well done! I helped them three times over the past few weeks, so that song has been dancing around in my head. Congrats class 4!

Test Mishaps

A while ago I wrote and administered a test to my History and Culture of the UK class. We covered topics like family, food, holidays, school, work, class, race, health problems, and a few other topics. At the end we had a written test. This meant I got to correct all of the tests! Although it got a bit annoying by the end, there were a few answers along the way that made me laugh. Also, a few that made me sad.

Question: Describe the typical British family.
Answer: After talking about how they get married when they are a bit older, one student said, "of course, some of them fall in love without any reason and just say, 'let's get married, baby!'"

Question: Tell me everything you know about a holiday (I gave them 4 to choose from, one was Chr-stmas)
Answer: Chr-stmas is the birth of _____- he actually left a blank. At least he knew it was the birth of someone!

Question: Which Catholic would be terrorist is remembered on the fifth of November? (correct answer: Guy Fawkes)
Answers: Hitler, Frank Catholic (not sure if this is a real guy), the building in America (what?????!!!!!! did I teach them anything?)

Question: List three Christi-n festivals
Answer: bread and potatoes, fish and chips, steak

Question: What has happened to Chr-stianity and why? (correct answer- it has become less popular)
Answer: The reasons for this may be the freedom of belief in UK. People are no longer restricted by the religion. What's more, because of the development of science, many people believe in the truth rather than Chr-stianity. (ouch! This is what we are working with over here :( )

I tried to be a light in this class. We talked about a lot of difficult topics. By the end, they all knew I was a Chr-stian. Sadly, some just found out at the last class (I thought they knew earlier...)

I'm hoping to teach this class again next year. We'll see if I get similar answers.

Jumping Shrimp

This food deserves a post of it's own... by the name of it, you know that it is shrimp and that it jumps. BUT did you know when it's jumping? Yes, it's jumping when it's taken out of the boat. It's also jumping I'm sure, when they are transferred to the restaurant. However, the worst time to see shrimp jumping is when they are sitting on the table ready to eat. Yup, this shrimp is served to you jumping...

They put these tiny tiny shrimp into a bowl full of cilantro, peppers, alcohol, and I'm not sure what else. The most important thing is the alcohol. These shrimp are "jumping" because they are drowning from the alcohol. You can wait until they are dead, or you can kill them in your mouth. My co-worker killed it in his mouth and he wanted me to do the same. Hmm... let me see... that would be difficult. If it started to move around in my mouth, I would probably spit it out. However, I did get a video of it, so I hope I can upload it and you can enjoy watching him eat jumping shrimp.

Nicole had one in her bowl (waiting for it to die) and it jumped and splashed soup on my shirt. I almost got a stain because of a drunk shrimp! I couldn't eat mine alive, so I took my spoon and cut off it's head, then it went down ok. They actually tasted quite good. I do have a video of it, but I tried downloading it right now and it didn't work. I'll try it again later. Otherwise, I'll show you all this summer!!!

Looks good, huh??? :)

Last Day of School

Friday I taught my last class of the school year. I have been teaching the same students twice a week for 2 hours each time since September. I have seen them over 60 times this year (wow, that's a lot of lessons I've taught-what have we all done?). Anyways... I know them quite well and I will miss them next year. I probably won't teach them next year so Friday may have been the last time. They aren't always perfect, but they sure do come close. Here are some of the things we did this year:

• designed Halloween costumes
• discussed the impact of 9-11 on the world
• described what they want to be remembered for
• persuaded the class to choose the other person to eat for thanksgiving (they pretended they were turkeys)
• described the perfect teacher (one person just said, "Jessica" yeah, he's a brown-noser!)
• explained the true meaning of Chr-stmas
• watched Ocean's 11
• debated about whether money can buy happiness
• played Taboo
• solved a murder mystery (game with clues and English activities)
  
• so, so, sooo many more things!

The last  day we played Pictionary together. I will never forget Martin and how frustrated he got with his words. He had 12 words to choose from to draw and 2 minutes (he could draw as many as possible). He got 3 quite quickly and then stopped. I told him to keep going, he was sort of pacing up front. He turned to me and sort of screeched, "I don't know any of these words!" The whole class busted out in laughter. I stopped the timer to laugh. It may not seem funny to you, but you just had to be there. It was a great last day and I will be sad when I can't see them twice a week.

A little taste...

This week I am finishing up my History and Culture of the UK class. To end, I wrote a 2 1/2 hour test to give to my lovely students. Now, I get to grade that test. :) I'm traveling this weekend, so I'll be bringing those little buggers with me. Since I started marking these tests the other day, I can share some of the fun things I get to read...
1. Christmas is about the death of Jesus.
2. Christmas is when people welcome in the New Year and put presents in socks.
3. (My fav) Christmas is the birth of Genius. (Well... Genius and Jes-s do sort of sound alike...)

That's all for now. I'll give you some more when I get them all graded!

Exam Time = Funny Presentations

For my final exams, the students have to give an "Academic Presentation". Basically, one class is doing a persuasive presentation based on a debate topic. The other class is doing an informative presentation based on a topic I gave them. The second class has poor English so I gave them easier topics. They will be going to America, so I decided to give them topics about America. Today I had some presentations about American farms, Wisconsin (yup, I had one do a report on WI!), American sports, American food, President Obama, and a few others.

Sometimes I learn a lot of interesting things, sometimes I have to bite my tongue not to laugh, sometimes I can't hide my confusion. Let me share some of the fun things I experienced this morning.

topic: American weddings  mistake: every time this girl said "bride" she pronounced it "bridge"
topic: Obama  mistake: he kept pronouncing his name "Opama"
topic: American food   mistake: He was explaining pepperoni pizza he said, "Pepperoni pizza has hum, cream, and bread" not sure what hum and cream is
topic:Wisconsin   mistake:one of our special products is Panax. I had no idea what it was. I googled it and found out that Panax is the scientific name of ginseng. Little did I know that WI is a main producer of this product!
topic: Jay Chou (famous Taiwanese singer) mistake: not really a mistake, but the girl decided to include his name, age, weight, height, and blood type on her power-point. He has type O blood, if your curious.
topic: understanding other cultures mistake: his conclusion-word for word, "In a nutshell, it is not the only way to understand another culture by living or visiting there. We can read books, surf the Internet, make foreigners and even go to customs of the village. Above these, not only cheap and convenient." make foreigners.... huh????

I have the other half next week. I can't wait!

Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Thanksgiving has come and gone and now the Christmas season is here. I hope all of my friends and family enjoyed their Thanksgiving with loved ones. This year was yet another year to be thankful for all the wonderful things HE gives us every day. I'm working on a list of what I am thankful for, tell ya later. For now... I will tell you about Thanksgiving half the way around the world.

 First, China doesn't celebrate this American holiday. I asked my students what they know about Thanksgiving and most of them only knew that we eat Turkey (which in Chinese translates as "fire chicken"). Don't worry, I taught them all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Then, as a discussion topic, they had to pretend they were turkeys and Thanksgiving was near. They had to tell the class why we should eat their partner over them. Quite entertaining!

Thursday evening the four of us in the middle area of the city (Nicole, Peter, Darin, and myself) treated our friends to a Thanksgiving meal- Chinese style. We found a restaurant with a big private room and ordered the dishes. Altogether we had 15 people show up. It was a great time to show our friends how thankful we are for them.

Vivien, Joanna, Peter, John Wayne, Tracy, Bruce, Edward

Sherry, Jacquline, Nicole, Julian, Darin, Jonathan, Lisa

This was our Chinese Thanksgiving Feast! From the rice going clockwise: Rice, spicy bean sprouts, mushroom broth, something I forgot, donkey/cucumbers, spicy french fries, sweet and sour pork, eggplant, in the middle is tofu.

Today (Sunday) we had our FoC Thanksgiving meal. We all met at Beth and Sarah's home and worked on our feast. The final result was amazing! It felt just like a real family dinner. We had potatoes, chicken, rolls, veggies, fruit, cornbread casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, bacon wrapped hot dogs, wine, and of course... pie! After dinner we played some games and people fell asleep on the couch while watching football. Kidding... no football here. We watched a movie.

Our Western Feast!

Before tonight it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, however, having our whole "family" together is a great way to spend the holiday. I am Thankful for my great support system over here. Keep us in your thoughts especially as Winter comes and sicknesses are seeming to conquer us one by one.

Worth the wait

Went to get a massage tonight. The lady told us it would take 10 minutes, then we would start. We waited 15 and Nicole started. I waited another 30 and finally my guy came. I was a little annoyed for having to wait so long. But it was worth the wait... He was so good I felt like I was floating on the table. As I was laying there I was thinking... I can't wait for my parents to come and experience this. I hope they are able to experience a Chinese massage when they are here and will enjoy it at least 1/2 as much as I do.

In my extra class tonight I started talking to one of my students about my name. He asked me if there is more than one Jessica in my class, how do they know what to call me. I then proceeded to teach my small group of students about nicknames, last names, and middle names. I had all of my immediate family's names on the board with circles around the common names. I also had a 2 minute lesson on how to pronounce my last name. Names in China are much different than names in the States. It was a fun little cultural lesson. :)

Teaching at University

As some of you may know, I am teaching at a university this year. It's completely different than my time teaching last year. Last year I taught 1st and 2nd grade. They were small, cute, and super excited about having a foreign teacher. This year I am teaching college freshman. They are not so small, not always cute, but luckily, still excited about learning English.

Every Monday I teach a Study Skills class. This class is to help prepare the students to go abroad and study in a university there. I cover topics such as taking notes, time management, stress management, how to give a speech, etc. The topics are a bit dry and their English level is a bit low, which causes some difficulties. The classes are also a bit big, about 30 students in each class.

On Tuesdays and Fridays I teach an Oral English class. This class is an opportunity for the students to use the English they learn in other classes. It gives me an opportunity to present topics and discussions to encourage talking. I have 2 classes of 12 each. An amazing number! I enjoy teaching this class and have gotten close to these students. Some topics have included crime, teachers, Taylor Swift, characteristics of a person, traveling, and many many more!

Two of my best students: Olivia and Sybil. They both work very hard in class.

Students working on designing their Halloween costumes.

Two of my favorite students: Jim and Ken. Jim (on the left) is AMAZING at violin

Two of my most talkative students, Larry and Jerry. Yeah, I get their names confused sometimes...

Han Street and Halloween

The other day I went to a new area of town with some friends. We traveled to Han Street. This is a western style street with western stores and restaurants. It is located along a river and includes a little river walk. At night the lights make it look really cool. This is one place I'm planning to take my parents when they come to visit. :) Getting that itinerary ready! Nothing really too exciting happened while we were there, but enjoy the pictures.

Julian, Brian, and Elsie

Julian, Me, and Brian

This looks like the Tower Bridge in London.

 On Friday I taught my Oral English class about Halloween. I began the class asking them what they already know about Halloween (for all those Education people... I sort of did a KWL chart). I had them talk in their groups and I walked around to talk with them too. Most of them knew about ghosts and trick or treating, but that was about it. My favorite question came from on of my students, "Do Easter eggs have anything to do with Halloween?" Luckily, I was able to keep a straight face and say, "No, that's connected with the a Spring holiday, Easter." Not even close!

I had them design their own Halloween costume. Here is what they did...

Back Left: Alvin, Martin, Peter, Lance Front L-R: Jason & Kevin

Back Left: Ken, Ocean, Larry Front Left: Jim, Elspeth, Jerry

Back: Ellen, Karen, Cookie Front: Vicky, Annie, Linda

Back: Sybil, Olivia, Cindy, Angela Front: Nicole, Claire

Same, same, but different

For those of you who have gone to Thailand, or read my posts from Thailand last year, may remember the phrase, "same, same, but different" That is how I can compare my school this year from last year. It's the same, but very different. Here are my lists:

Same:
Chinese students
Teaching English
Limited communication between office people and teachers
Students don't understand when I talk to them.

Different:
Older students
I am in the classroom alone (no co-teacher)
I never teach in the morning (unless I need to make up a class)
I can actually speak in English and somewhat be understood

Overall, I do like my school. It keeps me busy, but also allows me to have free time to do what I came here for. The past few weeks I have been able to have people over here Thursdays nights. We bake and play games. This past week I made pancakes for supper and then we baked cupcakes for dessert! I used one of my boxed cake mixes from America. The best part... frosting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have powdered sugar so I whipped some up.

Good news of the week, I got the tickets for my trip to and back from Vietnam for this winter break!