As promised today we are going to delve deep into the chaos that is teaching English in a Chinese primary school.
One of the best stories I remember was the first day I had a new T.A. for the primary school. When I first started teaching there I had a male T.A. who was normally pretty good but the primary school classes just ruined him. This is a man who 6 months later would end up managing one of our satellite schools literally brought to tears on several occasions by an unruly bunch of 11 year old children.
That's why when I was told I was getting a different T.A. I was both relieved and worried. When they told me it was a T.A. who had literally finished her training only the week before my heart sank.
When we headed out to classes that Thursday I was determined to be firmer with the class, the last thing I wanted was this young, shy T.A. being so demoralized that she up and quit (a response I really thought possible).
Before I go on I should maybe admit that within the next 12 months this same T.A. would go on to be one of the best I've ever met. I've only ever seen her raise her voice once in all the time I've known her (but that is a whole other story) and yet she demands respect from her students.
So in we walked and surprise, surprise the kids were going crazy. As soon as they noticed the change in T.A. they got even louder and their behaviour got worse. At this point I decided to take matters into my own hands and started yelling at the kids to sit down and shut up. As I've said before I am not particularly good at this and to be honest it has never worked for me.
In this particular class, the first of three every Thursday, there was one girl that pretty much ran the show. She was the real ringleader but catching her doing anything wrong was nearly impossible. She had basically made an art form out of causing chaos and not being implicated when it all went south.
Now even as I started to get flustered and run out of voice the new T.A. just turned to me and asked if she could have a couple of minutes. Sure I told her knowing that tirades and threats from other T.A.s had completely failed to have any impact in the past.
Instead of yelling or banging the ruler on the big metal desk she quietly slipped into the rows between the seats heading straight for little miss trouble maker. Apparently in less than five minutes she had already figured the pattern out and was headed straight for it's source.
As she reached the girl's desk the class started to quieten down, it seems just like me they were waiting to see what was about to happen. So Susan (the T.A.) bends down so her mouth is right beside the girl's ear and she stands there for a couple minutes just whispering to her.
Even as I watched the girl's face just seemed to crumple in on itself and in less than a minute the girl was sobbing. Not yelling or crying out loud, not even crocodile tears but that slow sob that you know will last for a while.
Slowly and gently Susan pulled her to her feet and told her to stand in the aisle. After that the class was much more subdued. Don't get me wrong it didn't turn them into little angels but one good look from Susan was enough to quieten them down most of the time.
After the class (40 minutes later) the rest of the kids went to break but the trouble maker was still in the aisle sobbing. Susan went over and had a chat with her and the girl seemed to brighten up a bit but was far from her usual obnoxious self.
As we were leaving later on that day I asked Susan what she'd said but she point blank refused to tell me. In fact I never did find out what it was she had whispered in the girl's ear that day. All I know is that from that point on not only did the students learn to respect this shy young lady but the foreign teachers did too.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 December 2015
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Wandering Misfit: Part 18 ... the student formerly known as Lucy
Staying with names I was reminded writing the last post of a great student I had who had a terrible time with her name.
I took over a class from the previous senior teacher and one of the girls really disliked me for replacing him. The kids in the class were in their early teens and so were just starting to get a little angsty. When I took over the class the girl's English name was Lucy. A little plain but overall pretty much okay.
After 3 weeks of refusing to speak to me Lucy finally calmed down and decided that maybe i wasn't all that bad. She decided though that now she was old enough to pick a name for herself and that now she had a new teacher it was the perfect time.
The name she settled on was Candy. Now I tried really hard not to groan or to discourage her after all she had only just decided to stop sulking in the corner and talk during class.
The very next week though she came storming into class, walked right up to me and yelled "I hate you" right in my face. Not sure yet what exactly I had done to receive this kind of venom I waited to see what would come next. The T.A. looking a little worried went off to talk to Candy. Sitting in the corner chatting the T.A. suddenly started to laugh.
At this point I was feeling a little hard done by and out of the loop so I set the other kids on a writing task and headed over to see what was up. It turns out that Lucy/Candy was upset because I didn't tell her that Candy was stupid name. Apparently my instinct the week before had been dead wrong.
At this point Lucy vowed once more to change her name but this time she said she would do her research first.
Next week eventually rolled around and in walked Lucy. "So what is your new name?", I asked. "I thinked a long time and I want my name to be Reborn because that is what I am", was the answer. Turns out that when she said she was going to do research she really meant she was going to use a dictionary.
Thinking back on the result of her last odd name choice i tried to explain that maybe she was being a tiny bit too literal, but she wasn't having any of it.
From that point on she became to all but herself "the student formerly known as Lucy". As far as I know she still calls herself Reborn and no-one else in the class ever got the Prince reference.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
I took over a class from the previous senior teacher and one of the girls really disliked me for replacing him. The kids in the class were in their early teens and so were just starting to get a little angsty. When I took over the class the girl's English name was Lucy. A little plain but overall pretty much okay.
After 3 weeks of refusing to speak to me Lucy finally calmed down and decided that maybe i wasn't all that bad. She decided though that now she was old enough to pick a name for herself and that now she had a new teacher it was the perfect time.
The name she settled on was Candy. Now I tried really hard not to groan or to discourage her after all she had only just decided to stop sulking in the corner and talk during class.
The very next week though she came storming into class, walked right up to me and yelled "I hate you" right in my face. Not sure yet what exactly I had done to receive this kind of venom I waited to see what would come next. The T.A. looking a little worried went off to talk to Candy. Sitting in the corner chatting the T.A. suddenly started to laugh.
At this point I was feeling a little hard done by and out of the loop so I set the other kids on a writing task and headed over to see what was up. It turns out that Lucy/Candy was upset because I didn't tell her that Candy was stupid name. Apparently my instinct the week before had been dead wrong.
At this point Lucy vowed once more to change her name but this time she said she would do her research first.
Next week eventually rolled around and in walked Lucy. "So what is your new name?", I asked. "I thinked a long time and I want my name to be Reborn because that is what I am", was the answer. Turns out that when she said she was going to do research she really meant she was going to use a dictionary.
Thinking back on the result of her last odd name choice i tried to explain that maybe she was being a tiny bit too literal, but she wasn't having any of it.
From that point on she became to all but herself "the student formerly known as Lucy". As far as I know she still calls herself Reborn and no-one else in the class ever got the Prince reference.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Monday, 7 December 2015
Wandering Misfit: Part 15 ... a shock to the system
The rest of my classes that first Saturday were not nearly as bad but I still found myself drained and stressed by the end of it. Even after coming from working longer hours I had never been so mentally and physically tired. I have worked as a labourer and as a community staff worker both of which can get pretty intense but apparently running around after little kids still took a greater toll.
Admittedly as time went on I found myself less stressed and less tired by classes and the job became in some ways the easiest I had ever had, but for those first few weeks it was tough. One of the biggest issues even as I became more comfortable was simply keeping up with what was going on in the classroom. When you have up to 18 little kids all running around and you are supposed to keep them all entertained and active for 90 minutes it can get to be a headache.
Now the T.A.s were always a great help but all of our classes especially our younger ones were supposed to be based on TPR (total physical response) methods. That means that the kids need to be running, dancing, singing and playing games along with the simple act of learning a new language.
It is also, to begin with at least, be very frustrating when no one (including the T.A.) understands what you are saying or what you want them to do. Simple games can take forever to set up and demonstrate and when that happens kids get bored fast. Bored kids tend to do things you'd rather they didn't and on it goes.
I feel like I am making this all sound pretty terrible but honestly it really did have it's bright moments and tomorrow I'll try and find a few of those gems rather than go on complaining about how tough it all is :)
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Admittedly as time went on I found myself less stressed and less tired by classes and the job became in some ways the easiest I had ever had, but for those first few weeks it was tough. One of the biggest issues even as I became more comfortable was simply keeping up with what was going on in the classroom. When you have up to 18 little kids all running around and you are supposed to keep them all entertained and active for 90 minutes it can get to be a headache.
Now the T.A.s were always a great help but all of our classes especially our younger ones were supposed to be based on TPR (total physical response) methods. That means that the kids need to be running, dancing, singing and playing games along with the simple act of learning a new language.
It is also, to begin with at least, be very frustrating when no one (including the T.A.) understands what you are saying or what you want them to do. Simple games can take forever to set up and demonstrate and when that happens kids get bored fast. Bored kids tend to do things you'd rather they didn't and on it goes.
I feel like I am making this all sound pretty terrible but honestly it really did have it's bright moments and tomorrow I'll try and find a few of those gems rather than go on complaining about how tough it all is :)
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Sunday, 6 December 2015
Wandering Misfit: Part 14 ... enter the children
So Saturday morning rolled around. We taught most of our classes across the weekend because most of our students had to go to normal schools during the week. My very first class at 8 o'clock was a group of 12 3 and 4 year olds.
At this point I had never really had anything to do with little kids so I really had no idea what I was doing. In they come with their parents. The first few are not too bad they are pretty fidgety but they are pretty young after all. As the next few start to come in though one of the new arrivals starts to cry. Now I don't know about you but even after years of dealing with it I still have trouble with crying children, especially when their parents are sitting in the back of the room watching what I am going to do about it.
Thankfully instead of the usual complement of a single T.A. I had 3 that morning for exactly that reason. Very quickly though all 3 of my T.A.s were tied up with one issue or another. It is amazing how one crying child very quickly leads to a whole class of them.
By now I was simply sitting in a tiny little baby chair up the front of the class waiting and wishing I was pretty much anywhere else. I remember thinking "at least it can't get much worse". You know what they say about thinking things like that though. Right in the middle of the crying and running around screaming Summer walked into the class.
Summer as I said before was a pretty strict and severe kind of person even though she was small she was also pretty tough. I'm not sure what I expected but whatever it was what actually happened wasn't it. Summer took one good look at what was happening, came to the front of the class and stood next to me. The next thing I know she is bellowing orders to the kids to sit down and behave. She started so suddenly and so loudly I have to admit even I jumped a little.
Amazingly all of the kids but one simply stopped. They stopped running around, they stopped screaming and they stopped crying. Slowly but surely all but the original crying girl came and sat in front of Summer and I. From the look on many of their faces I think they were at that point pretty much as surprised as I was.
I've never had a class begin as badly as that since and as much as I felt uncomfortable on that first day I am glad it happened because it taught me a lot about how to handle these kids, things I would keep using for the next 5 years. Don't get me wrong though there was no epiphany here just the start of a very long, very steep learning curve.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
At this point I had never really had anything to do with little kids so I really had no idea what I was doing. In they come with their parents. The first few are not too bad they are pretty fidgety but they are pretty young after all. As the next few start to come in though one of the new arrivals starts to cry. Now I don't know about you but even after years of dealing with it I still have trouble with crying children, especially when their parents are sitting in the back of the room watching what I am going to do about it.
Thankfully instead of the usual complement of a single T.A. I had 3 that morning for exactly that reason. Very quickly though all 3 of my T.A.s were tied up with one issue or another. It is amazing how one crying child very quickly leads to a whole class of them.
By now I was simply sitting in a tiny little baby chair up the front of the class waiting and wishing I was pretty much anywhere else. I remember thinking "at least it can't get much worse". You know what they say about thinking things like that though. Right in the middle of the crying and running around screaming Summer walked into the class.
Summer as I said before was a pretty strict and severe kind of person even though she was small she was also pretty tough. I'm not sure what I expected but whatever it was what actually happened wasn't it. Summer took one good look at what was happening, came to the front of the class and stood next to me. The next thing I know she is bellowing orders to the kids to sit down and behave. She started so suddenly and so loudly I have to admit even I jumped a little.
Amazingly all of the kids but one simply stopped. They stopped running around, they stopped screaming and they stopped crying. Slowly but surely all but the original crying girl came and sat in front of Summer and I. From the look on many of their faces I think they were at that point pretty much as surprised as I was.
I've never had a class begin as badly as that since and as much as I felt uncomfortable on that first day I am glad it happened because it taught me a lot about how to handle these kids, things I would keep using for the next 5 years. Don't get me wrong though there was no epiphany here just the start of a very long, very steep learning curve.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Wandering Misfit: Part 9 ... talking terms
Sitting in Summer's rather cramped little office I was not really sure what to expect. I thought maybe we'd talk pay or that we'd talk work, at this point I had taught but that had been as a flight instructor mainly to rich old men not kids. Instead the conversation started with a warning.
Don't go to bars, don't drink too much and don't do anything bad in front of the parents or kids. It seemed like she was trying hard to cover a long list of problems that had come up with foreigners, and often by the sound of it. I was a little put off by this. I'd never been a heavy drinker and nowadays I am one step from being teetotal,and some of the things I was being explicitly told not to do were things which honestly had never crossed my mind.
After assuring Summer on multiple occasions that I would act like a good boy we came to "the contract". You see all foreign teachers in China, and most of the local ones at training schools like Shane, are required to sign a contract. To be honest the system usually works pretty well, but the do tend to hold you over a barrel when it comes to the fine print.
Looking through the contract a few odd things caught my eye, mainly provisions for what happens if I quit or get fired. Overall though it looked like a reasonable document. I work for a year with them and get ¥7,000RMB a month (roughly £700 or $1,100) in pay on the 15th of every month. A pretty simple bargain. As far as hours go I teach 20 hours a week and do 5 hours of office time to prep for lessons. 20 hours a week sounds cushy after all I'd pulled 50 or 60 hour weeks before.
It wasn't until later that I found out just how intense and tiring those 20 hours could be and how badly the were spread out across the week.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Don't go to bars, don't drink too much and don't do anything bad in front of the parents or kids. It seemed like she was trying hard to cover a long list of problems that had come up with foreigners, and often by the sound of it. I was a little put off by this. I'd never been a heavy drinker and nowadays I am one step from being teetotal,and some of the things I was being explicitly told not to do were things which honestly had never crossed my mind.
After assuring Summer on multiple occasions that I would act like a good boy we came to "the contract". You see all foreign teachers in China, and most of the local ones at training schools like Shane, are required to sign a contract. To be honest the system usually works pretty well, but the do tend to hold you over a barrel when it comes to the fine print.
Looking through the contract a few odd things caught my eye, mainly provisions for what happens if I quit or get fired. Overall though it looked like a reasonable document. I work for a year with them and get ¥7,000RMB a month (roughly £700 or $1,100) in pay on the 15th of every month. A pretty simple bargain. As far as hours go I teach 20 hours a week and do 5 hours of office time to prep for lessons. 20 hours a week sounds cushy after all I'd pulled 50 or 60 hour weeks before.
It wasn't until later that I found out just how intense and tiring those 20 hours could be and how badly the were spread out across the week.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Monday, 30 November 2015
Wandering Misfit: Part 8 ... meet the Boss
The "boys" as someone affectionately called them were a strange bunch. A mix of nationalities and ages with people from Ireland, the US, UK, South Africa, Australia and even Zimbabwe. Altogether with me included there were 14 of us.
Even though Dongying is as I said before a fishing village transformed only in the last decade or two into a city it had at the time the biggest Shane English school in China. The secret was oil. During the 80's oil was discovered nearby and since then the area has become the second largest oil field in China and as such bee catapulted into mega rich status.
Villagers made rich is a pretty good description of the place actually and like all the locals who have flooded the city in recent years the foreigners too have come seeking riches and a good time. Even though I was going to be working with these guys and I had just had dinner with them Tony forbade me from going out on the town with them. When I asked him why he didn't seem too inclined to answer just telling me I "needed sleep".
So after a brief round of hellos it was back off to my lonely little hotel room and an early start planned for the morning. The next day was going to be a big one with a talk from the manager, shopping for basic necessities with Tony and a tour of the school and city.
After what turned out to be a surprisingly good sleep I headed out the next morning to meet my new, and so far rather mysterious, boss. So across the main road we went (a scary challenge for a novice) and into a rather nondescript building on the other side. The building we entered looked old but as I was to find out it wasn't really it seems buildings in Dongying just start to look old the second they are built.
Up 4 flights of stairs and through a weird metal door into a tiny office space crammed with boxes and paper we went. Here in amongst all of the flashcards, books and cassettes (yes real honest to god cassettes) was Summer my manager. Summer turned out to be a short, petite middle aged woman with as I now recall the strongest grip I have ever felt.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
Even though Dongying is as I said before a fishing village transformed only in the last decade or two into a city it had at the time the biggest Shane English school in China. The secret was oil. During the 80's oil was discovered nearby and since then the area has become the second largest oil field in China and as such bee catapulted into mega rich status.
Villagers made rich is a pretty good description of the place actually and like all the locals who have flooded the city in recent years the foreigners too have come seeking riches and a good time. Even though I was going to be working with these guys and I had just had dinner with them Tony forbade me from going out on the town with them. When I asked him why he didn't seem too inclined to answer just telling me I "needed sleep".
So after a brief round of hellos it was back off to my lonely little hotel room and an early start planned for the morning. The next day was going to be a big one with a talk from the manager, shopping for basic necessities with Tony and a tour of the school and city.
After what turned out to be a surprisingly good sleep I headed out the next morning to meet my new, and so far rather mysterious, boss. So across the main road we went (a scary challenge for a novice) and into a rather nondescript building on the other side. The building we entered looked old but as I was to find out it wasn't really it seems buildings in Dongying just start to look old the second they are built.
Up 4 flights of stairs and through a weird metal door into a tiny office space crammed with boxes and paper we went. Here in amongst all of the flashcards, books and cassettes (yes real honest to god cassettes) was Summer my manager. Summer turned out to be a short, petite middle aged woman with as I now recall the strongest grip I have ever felt.
Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.
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