I have 19 classes. 3 are advanced. 12 are average. 4 are low.

Some teachers don't really enjoy teaching the low classes, and while at times their laziness and lack of participation definitely bother me, I quite enjoy playing games with them. They don't think that games are beneath them; in fact, they get really excited, super competitive, and entirely wrapped up in what's going on (if they can understand).

This week, we practiced some useful words for giving directions, then practiced giving directions using a mini-map with basic places in a make-believe town. During the last 10 minutes of a class, we played a game.

I whipped out a blindfold ("hey Besssany, is that one of your headbands?") and asked for 2 volunteers. They were a little hesitant to volunteer because their English is really very poor and they can't say most things, but finally, two kids volunteered. I asked one of them to go outside the classroom and put on the blindfold. Then I hid 2 pieces of candy, and the other student had to use English words to guide the blindfolded student to the candy.

They got really, really into it, and I had tons of volunteers after the first round. In the beginning I had to  re-enforce that they could not just tell their friend in Chinese whose desk the candy was at, but it wasn't a problem in this class. All the students wanted to help their friends find the candy, and if anyone dared to speak English, there were a few self-appointed referees who repetitively shouted at them, "NO CHI-NEE-SUH! ONLY EN-GAH-LISH!"

This week, I told my little students to put on their inventor caps and we talked about inventing new things. In one of my classes with particularly poor English, I gave them 3 minutes, dictionaries in hand, a partner beside them, and a teacher at their disposal, to complete this sentence:

"If I were an inventor, I would make..."

Answers I received were the following:
-I would make a local duck.
-I would make a W.C. that is very interesting.
-I would make a superman.
-I would make invisible clothes.
-I would make no any pollution car.
-I would make an angle.
-I would make fly house.
-I would make dinner.

Some days I don't quite know how to respond. We usually just laugh together.

I've fried my voice. With 19 classes of 65-80 excited students each, I'm often left projecting a little louder than humanly healthy. And so finally, I have joined the line-up of local teachers with raspy, hoarse, dysfunctional voices. Hopefully, I'll not end up in the line who have taken it to an unrecoverable extreme and have needed surgery.

Fortunately, I traded classes with another teacher and taught his classes last weekend, so he's teaching mine today, which leaves me with a day at home. I made a bet with Austin that I could keep from talking all day long, so my day of silence began 1 hour and 37 minutes ago.

Ah... blessed silence. Maybe sometimes I even need a break from my own voice.

Two of my eighteen classes of high school sophomores have particularly challenging behavior... and particularly low levels of English, often leaving me clueless as to how to teach and manage 75 students at once.

Well, this week, I decided to play a game using paper airplanes. If they could answer my English question, they could throw their airplane at a target and potentially earn candy.

My favorite part of the lesson was when I introduced it.

"Do you know "airplane"?"

The resounding reply, "NO!"

Though they didn't know "airplane," I figured I'd go out on a limb. "Do you know "paper airplane"?"

All 75 students at once, "YES! WE KNOW!"

They would.

Here's just a quick note about some back to school bloopers... in case you haven't heard. Hope you can get a laugh...

1. I was talking with my students about kickboxing because they asked what exercises I enjoy. I broke the word into parts. For "kick" I naturally decided to kick my foot in the air. However,  in order for all 80! students to see it, I had to kick it high. Unfortunately, my feet were really slippery, and my shoe flew off my foot, bounced off a window, and was caught by a student. Oh, dear!

2. Maybe worse though, I had posted a simple question, "What did you do this summer?"  with the statement base, "This summer I..." for students to try to complete. (This was very difficult for them.) Then I went to students and said, "Okay, let's ask this girl, what did you do this summer?" and "And this boy" and so on, calling on various students as I shuffled through the tight rows of desks. Well, unfortunately, I eventually came to one student  wearing a plain grey t-shirt, no indication of being female, manly facial features, very short hair with bangs cut in the diagonally slanted emo style that all the guys here have, and I said, "And let's ask this boy," at which point all the students shouted, "Girl!" Yeah... it was a girl. I felt so so bad.

 I walk into class with an ovation from my new students.  

“Good Morning! How are you?”

In unison: “Fine, thank you, and you?”

“Oh, I’m great. I’m so excited to meet you.”

A few students: “Nice to mee-ta you.” (I love how English is spoken as a tonal language here…)

Some students: “Can I make-ah friends with you?”

“Nice to meet you too. Of course we can be friends. My name is Bethany.”

Students: “I know, I know. Bessssssssany.” (By this point, it's likely they'd all seen a copy of my passport as a "cultural relic" or something.)

 “Some students say Bessssssany, but no no no, this is not my name.” Students laugh. “It’s BeTHany.” [shout out for the “TH” sound—it’s beautiful!]

A couple of boys: “Sexy, So beautiful!”

“I am from America.”

A few students: “Welcome to our country!” “Ohhh! Ah-mah-rica!”

“I came here one year ago.”

Several students: [consulting each other] “One year? One year ago? What meaning?”

[I translate my previous sentence into their language.]

Students: “Ooh! Do you know our language? So ca-lever!”

“I came here because I wanted to travel. I came here because I wanted to teach. I came here because I wanted to make new friends. “

One boy: “A boy fa-rend?”

“No. I do not need a boyfriend. I came here with my best friend. He is my husband. His name is Austin.”

Students: “Ooooooh!”

One boy: “Is he more be-u-ti-ful than me?

“I think so.”

The boy: “I don’t thin-ka so!”

Now that we’d exhausted the scope of many students’ English, it was time to begin today’s lesson.

To the left, a construction site. To the right, my classroom building. Lovely. Just lovely. Last Thursday there were literally 4 guys outside my window banging on steel.

The smell of September is in the air,
Students shall rush in and begin to stare,
They'll look past their friends to find "The Foreigner."
What do you know? I guess I'm her!

80 students per class, lined wall to wall,
It will be a wonder if I can teach them all!
18 classes a week, each full as can be,
That's over 1300 students, you see!

Is it normal to be here, full grown in size,
yet with a tummy raging full of butterflies?
Should a supposed adult feel such apprehension,
such nervousness before teaching a lesson?

Well, ready or not, it's time to shine.
Starting tomorrow, these students are mine.
I really do love it; my job is so cool.
I just need to get through the first day of school.