Teaching in China is… interesting. I’ve been assigned to teach Grades 1, 3, 4 and 5 at two different primary schools in the Chongning district of Shanghai. I teach seven classes of Grade 1, six classes of Grade 3, three classes of Grade 4 and three classes of Grade 5. I have also been assigned two hobby classes, grade 2 and a group of grades 3-5 where we will be performing a short play for the parents of the school. I teach Monday, Wednesday Friday at one school and Tuesday and Thursday at another. I average a half-hour commute between the metro and the heel-toe express every day.
Since I was in high school I have had an idea that I want to be a teacher. My original career aspirations were to be something like a family physician, but my inability to sit down and focus on math and science scratched those dreams pretty quickly. I’ve always known that my skillset is best suited to help people and be social in some way, and I figure that through teaching I can reach a pretty large number of individuals over the course of a long career. While I’m still not ruling out Prime Minister of Canada, right now and for the past few years I have been steadily focused on becoming something that resembles a good teacher.
My experience so far in “legitimate” teaching practice bare no resemblance to the teaching I am doing here. The only concrete similarities between my past experience and this are that there are students, a classroom, and a teacher (me). I have previously taught grade 9-12 Physical Education (it’s not “gym!”) and grade 11 & 12 Social Studies. Although I am trained for high school, when I was told I would be teaching elementary I didn’t bat an eye. I consider myself a pretty flexible person and I am willing to tackle any age of students in any content area. My personal philosophy builds on the fact that whatever I am teaching, I will always know more about it then the students will, which in essence makes me qualified to be their teacher. And I’m pretty sure I have a better handle of the English language then a bunch of Chinese eight year olds.
My experience so far in “legitimate” teaching practice bare no resemblance to the teaching I am doing here. The only concrete similarities between my past experience and this are that there are students, a classroom, and a teacher (me). I have previously taught grade 9-12 Physical Education (it’s not “gym!”) and grade 11 & 12 Social Studies. Although I am trained for high school, when I was told I would be teaching elementary I didn’t bat an eye. I consider myself a pretty flexible person and I am willing to tackle any age of students in any content area. My personal philosophy builds on the fact that whatever I am teaching, I will always know more about it then the students will, which in essence makes me qualified to be their teacher. And I’m pretty sure I have a better handle of the English language then a bunch of Chinese eight year olds.
Chinese kids get to give themselves an English name, and many of them pull them directly out of their English language textbooks, so there are many Kitty's, Danny's, Peter's and Tina's. Some get a little more creative with their names, so there are a curious number of girls named Apple. I also teach a Jeep, an Evar, and a boy named Joy. My personal favourites include "Fedex", who I assume got his name off the side of a truck, and a student Tyler teaches named "Big John". I kid you not. To my students I am “Mr. C,” so when I have the students make name tags some of them want to go by “Mr. Tommy” or “Miss Judy”. Definitely cool with me.
Most of the classes use Oxford English materials, and want us to use material out of those books. In reality, the books are pretty elementary, and our supervisors encourage us to add in as much supplemental English as we feel appropriate. This week I introduced the words rhino, fence, and the colours of Indigo and Violet. It makes it much more simple to teach about rainbows after they meet our friend ROY G. BIV.
Having taken TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) courses, I was prepared to create exciting writing and reading activities for students, but we are basically used as the students’ personal English Channel. We travel from class to class, and our goal is to get the students to speak as much English as possible in our short 35 minute classes. Being used to high school length 80 minute classes, I have found the adjustment to short lessons difficult, and in my first two weeks I haven’t been able to get to the end of a planned lesson. Because I mostly just want the students to speak, it is not that big of a deal but it’s something I need to improve as I progress. I’m sure within a couple of months my lessons will be a well-oiled machine.
Most of the classes use Oxford English materials, and want us to use material out of those books. In reality, the books are pretty elementary, and our supervisors encourage us to add in as much supplemental English as we feel appropriate. This week I introduced the words rhino, fence, and the colours of Indigo and Violet. It makes it much more simple to teach about rainbows after they meet our friend ROY G. BIV.
Having taken TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) courses, I was prepared to create exciting writing and reading activities for students, but we are basically used as the students’ personal English Channel. We travel from class to class, and our goal is to get the students to speak as much English as possible in our short 35 minute classes. Being used to high school length 80 minute classes, I have found the adjustment to short lessons difficult, and in my first two weeks I haven’t been able to get to the end of a planned lesson. Because I mostly just want the students to speak, it is not that big of a deal but it’s something I need to improve as I progress. I’m sure within a couple of months my lessons will be a well-oiled machine.
Classes consist of a mix of songs, games and various question periods that get students talking. As a language teacher, we are constantly keeping a focused ear so the students are pronouncing everything correctly. We are encouraged to use powerpoints to make our lessons “more effective,” and they create a pretty useful starting point for most lessons. I plan on weening my students off of powerpoints more and more as the semester progresses to limit their daily screen time. Students in China are incredibly studious, and it is not uncommon for students to come in on Monday saying that they spent the entire weekend studying. The students have a legitimate fear of God for their local Chinese teachers and have a heart-warming respect for teachers in general. Teachers in China are as well-respected as doctors, which make our job much easier, as we do not have to fear meddlesome parents who think they know better limiting or questioning our abilities as educators.
As the only foreigner English teacher at either of my two schools, I can go an entire day without having a meaningful conversation. Thank God for technology. I'm set up with my own classroom as an office, so on mornings when I don't have teaching or prep to do I can catch up on hockey games on my personal classroom projector. This is a nice break from the monotony of teaching the same lesson over and over again, but it does provide me with some time to be able to think up inventive ways to reach the students. I'm always open to ideas.
Only time will tell how effective I can really be, but I look forward to the challenge. It can be intimidating to try new things in the classroom, but China is definitely the kindof place I can take some crazy risks. I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.
1.
As the only foreigner English teacher at either of my two schools, I can go an entire day without having a meaningful conversation. Thank God for technology. I'm set up with my own classroom as an office, so on mornings when I don't have teaching or prep to do I can catch up on hockey games on my personal classroom projector. This is a nice break from the monotony of teaching the same lesson over and over again, but it does provide me with some time to be able to think up inventive ways to reach the students. I'm always open to ideas.
Only time will tell how effective I can really be, but I look forward to the challenge. It can be intimidating to try new things in the classroom, but China is definitely the kindof place I can take some crazy risks. I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.
1.