Trying to Hit a Moving Target.

So, my first week of teaching is over, and boy, do I feel exhausted.  I think it's mainly due to the fact I have been sick all week, and throw in an erratic sleeping pattern, and you have a very mentally and physically draining week.  But, despite this, I have enjoyed it immensely.  The staff at the schools have been incredible friendly and helpful; the students have been fantastic, and my lesson plan has not been a complete failure.

The first day of teaching started very ominously, as it became pretty obvious that power point was a no go.  Out of seven lessons, I manged to get it running in one class, and that was after 5-10 minutes of downloading updates, etc.  I quickly abandoned power point on a projector, and simply walked down the aisles showing it on my laptop.  This led me to alter my power point to make it more music heavy (My first lesson was centred on Western music); plus, after a first day of blank stares at most of the songs, I changed the music to be very pop orientated (Michael Jackson, Lady GaGa, etc).

The changes worked great.  I changed walking down the aisles, to dancing down the aisles; the kids loved this, and would clap along to the music whilst I danced.  I would finish the lessons by having a voting contest to see which songs the students liked best.  It was always The King of Pop.  I did try to have the students sing along to one song in a class where the projector worked.  They where pretty good when practicing, but when I played the song, the volume was simply not loud enough for the whole class to follow and sing-along to.  Another lesson learnt regarding reliance on technology here in China!

So, in summary, my first week was a week of hits and misses with me adjusting my aim.  I learnt not to rely on technology, but utilized it when I could, I learnt the students love physical demonstration and participation, I learnt that my lesson plans can always be better, I learnt that I can always improve, both as a teacher and a student, and I learnt that it sucks to be ill in a place where everywhere is cold.

Here is a pic of the High School:

And say hello to one of my Primary School classes: