and your name is ???

 3-6-13

Well, Today was our first day teaching! I was just a team teacher and that was alright with me. We got up and again I wasn’t feeling the breakfast thing so I ate a few Twizzlers and headed on over to our school. (a building on our campus) I walked into the supply room with teachers frantically all over the place trying to get a few last minute things together. So I stood there and tried to help but felt more like an annoying body in the way so I just stepped back and observed.

When it was time to start I found a group with someone teaching Drama. I don’t think I explained it very well or at all how it all works. Us teachers get separated into groups A B C D and Kindergarten all those are Primary levels. Kindergarten - 2nd grade. There is 1 group for elementary levels and they have 3rd- 4th grade and then 1 teacher Luke, he has been through this program before is teaching ELE which is the older kids and he goes to class room to classroom and teaches about America and the Culture. So for groups A, B, C and D there are 3 teachers in each group. Each teacher picks a subject that they want to teach out of

Games (board games and games ha)

Gym (team sports)

Arts& Crafts

Drama (reading books and Acting them out if you have time)

Kitchen (making food)

Shop (building things that they leave with you. Legos etc

obviously there aren't 6 teachers so some subjects do get left out. But for the first 6 weeks we stick with that same subject until we can get the hang of teaching. So a class of students has about 25 kids in it and each group gets two classes. The first class (1st graders) come in and each teacher gets 8 or 9 students. They teach their subject for 20 min and then the students rotate to their other classes and then the 2nd graders come in and the same thing happens, they are split up and they go to their first ILP teacher and then another 20min the 1st graders come back and go to the 2nd teacher and then they rotate out and the 2nd graders come in to the 2nd ILP teachers class. Then the 1st graders come in to the 3rd ILP teachers class and then the 2nd graders come in to their 3rd and final ILP teachers class. So we teach a total of 1 hour to each group and a total of two hours and then add in the transition times etc we are there from about 8:00 – 11:30 because in between the 1st and 2nd rotation they all go outside and they have the whole elementary groups doing an exercise routine and stretches so that the kids can focus better! It was so cool.

Excersise time !

 Us teachers are far from perfect but we are  awesome if you think about  the fact that we are teaching 5-7 year olds in a different language. And here comes the funny story.

Us ILP teachers get to give our students english names. We are here in the second half of the semester so we only have a few new students to name. But all the other ones know to tell us their english names. I have found that the teachers before us have found a system to send messages to the other teachers. For example, “hey bud you need to sit down, no, bud you can't hit, bud hey, english only, hey, whats your name??” ….. he responds.... “my name is Satan” ...No kidding!!

you might be wondering how do you teach english to kids when you don't speak chinese?? well its a brilliant system. We have 26 “BMC” which are phrases that are essential to the english language, such as, “she wants that” “that is bigger/smaller than” etc. so every lesson we pick one of the BMC to focus on. So, if I pick the BMC concept of action in progress. I will read a book and focus on asking my students questions about the characters that will generate a response like “She's eating” or “Its falling over”. No matter what your subject, you base every lesson plan on your BMC for the day. So I chose to read the 3 little pigs for the BMC concept of self – defense because I can ask “what did the pigs say to the wolf?” then I prompt the answer,“ the pigs said Go Away!” I hope all this makes sense.

The kids were really good. I mean as fear smelling beings, they were definitely very considerate haha. Some classes are wild and some are awesome but long story short they are so awesome. I am still amazed that I am actually here. This is a dream come true!

After we got done teaching we hit the lunch room and we got our trays and lucky me looks down and saw that one of the teachers was kind enough to leave some of their left overs for me.... ew! So annoying that they don't wipe off the trays well enough. Lunch was........ Haha but it wasnt tongue so I suppose it was an improvement! After lunch I asked around and tried to see if anyone wanted to go work out with me and got shut down cuz they all wanted to sleep or go to the store or the elementry teachers had to teach. But Ben was game so we went to the track and ran about 2 miles and I learned some cadences that he learned in basic. After mile 2 Ben was done but I wanted to keep going and ended at 2.5miles because there was a class coming down to the field (not where I was running) and I felt like I was disrupting the class because every time I went around I would here “hello teacher!!” so we went back up and Sam was still Skyping her Family so I just rinsed off because we only have hot water from

6:00am – 8:00am

11:20- 1:00pm

5:40 – 7:00pm

8:00pm – 10:30pm

and even then its just a drizzle haha after that, Me, Sam, Crista, Ben and Josh hopped onto the bus and headed to the good ol supermarket.  Well we headed off and got off the bus. I knew that we needed to take the 38 bus or the red bus to get there then after we got on, I didnt realize which one we needed to get on to go home or if it was the same. Its 1un which is about $0.13 to ride the bus. But anyways we got off and went inside I tried to look for granola bars and some breakfast bars or even some ritz crackers. SOMETHING normal that I could snack on while I am in my room or if I dont feel like going to the cafeteria (it gets old) I wouldn’t say I was successful but I did come out with good ol Oreos and the equivalence of saltines without the salt!

 

I also got a tupperware thingy with dividers in it so that I can take it to the cafeteria and use that instead of our communal dirty dishes. We decided as a group afterwards that we would just walk home because why not take in the scenery (and we had no idea which bus to take back) but it was still cool. Infact, on the way back we heard one of several honks but then looked over and kelly was hanging out her window waving at us “Hello guys!!” and then she kept driving hahaha the roads are 100% WAAAY more crazy here. Utah aint got nothin on these chinese! The walk really wasnt that bad and we came back just in time to try out our new dinner trays! Cool huh? Haha well, it was a success and I was not quite as repulsed as in the past. Chinese food, or well, chinese cafeteria food... I just can't put a finger on it. Its not good and its most of the time not bad. I dont know. I think we are all craving sugar like wild banchees in the forest though. There is seriously no sugar in ANYTHING and to be honest, its probably best for us. But im sad to say I am running low on my tropical starbursts and Twizzlers :/ haven’t quite figured out what to do about that.

After dinner we had a group meeting and we discussed the first day of teaching. Over all it went well. However I found out that me and the other three kindergarten teachers need to write a Speech introducing ourselves because the kindergarten school we are going to Is hosting a banquet in our honor... huh? But if thats not enough, it needs to be in by 8:00 tomorrow morning to kelly so that she can read over it and know that she can translate it and that it is culturally acceptable. We need to be dressed to impress and at the gate saturday morning at 8:00 so that we can head over there. It is from 9:00- 11:00 they are taking us to lunch and then it is from 1:00 – 4:00.

*Panic*

You all know I hate giving speeches in front of people, now I get to give one where people are studying me and who knows if its translated in the tone that I intended it to be! * Gulp *

but I got it all ready for Kelly and it went like this,

at the Age of ten, I got my first job babysitting. Who knew that 10 years later my love for Teaching and children would lead me here! My name is Dellany Olsen but my Chinese name is Mei Lan, I am 20 years old and I really love kids! I have lived in Utah my whole life and I love it there, especially when there is no snow! I love being outdoors and being active wether it is running, swimming or just enjoying the sun. I have always dreamed about going to China and I still can't believe that I am here! I arrived in China 10 days ago (calculated as if it were Saturday) and I am already amazed by this country's rich culture and deep traditional roots (got that off of the amazing race) every day I learn new things and I am excited for all the many things I will learn while I am here!

For the next 4 months my students will be my #1 priority. I am so thankful for this opportunity and I want to thank you for trusting me to teach your children. I will do everything I can to not let you down. Thank you.

Not bad eh? I hope not cuz I am so ready for bed! Wish me luck!