Back to the 1st grade


"Me teaching" by Shalaya

I can't believe that it has only been one week...honestly, I feel like it's been weeks! Those 1st graders take a lot out of you! I have such crazy hours now and absolutely no free personal time. I miss vegging out in front of the TV and sleep. I know, that's really sad on my part. I got to be the "Queen for the Day" and they interviewed me and created a book for me. I wanted to put all the story pages on here but that would have been a lot. It was really cute though!

During this week, I also went to observe classrooms of different grades. I saw another 1st grade, 3rd, and 5th. What a difference in the classroom dynamics! Like for 3rd and 5th, I didn't see any behavior issues and their tasks were for longer periods of time. In my classroom, we're constantly switching subjects and activities. The time flies by quick just because you're jumping around so much but it's exhausting as well.

I've had so many students ask me: how long I've been in China, if I lived in ChinaTown, etc., those types of questions. One of the boys Adam tried to be slick and said, "Oh konichiwa!" Haha, I was like that's Japanese. The girls love complimenting you on your outfits and accessories. Oh man, I swear, you will become so sick of hearing your last name being called. Literally like every 5 seconds, your name is being called from left and right! I definitely have rough crowd of students but they're still very cute. It's strange because I have 23 and the other classroom only has 14, I really don't understand how they split the classrooms.

I had to go to a Saturday morning workshop today. In case anyone was wondering, it really is a workshop and is pretty intense. I always pictured them just sitting there and lounging around. There were a few other teachers from my school there too and they thought I was insane for showing up. They were like, "I only came because I get paid. You don't, why are you here?"

I feel like I have a million things to talk about but I'll post more later on. Oh yeah, I have to relearn how to write my letters of the alphabet. Since they're taught a certain way, I need to model it correctly as well. I was looking at the sheet...man, my letters are so different looking.