I don't know what it is about the weather, but it can make children adorable and well-behaved or small evil devils in disguise. Most of the week was rainy and cold, and the kids were just out of control. Thank goodness Thursday and Friday were sunny and the kids could go outside to expend some of their energy on the playground.

For example:
Every day at the end of class I give every kid a high five, hug, or tickle (or whatever we have agreed on as his/her praise), my last class of the morning got their goodbye privileges taken away for the rest of the week because Monday and Tuesday they were just awful (Not paying attention, rambunctious, hitting/pushing each other, screaming, etc).  On Wednesday, one particular student (my least favorite student, too) decided to switch off the CD player in the middle of a phonics practice. Then, on Thursday, he decided to try to trip me and kick me as well.  He's just kind of a nightmare of a student.  On every other Friday, I give out stickers for students that bring their homework/books as long as the class was good all week.   So, this particular student threw a fit that I didn't give out stickers, went and grabbed his Chinese teacher's stickers and put them in my lap and threw his book in my lap.  What a brat!

However, for every awful kid I deal with during the day, I have around five-six great kids during the day.  Two of my students had new shoes today, which they told me.  Another student sat with me during lunch (why he was in the teacher's room for lunch is beyond me, but he was very excited to see me!)  Another student had a birthday today, so we sang him happy birthday and him and his best friend got a sticker from me.

On Tuesday, Cary and I had dinner with one of his students and his parents. We went to elementfresh. I had an eggplant and italian cheese sandwich and it was great.  (Unfortunately, it didn't really settle too well and I felt pretty crappy for the next day. So sad!)  The parents were very kind and treated us to dinner before going back to their home to play wii sports with them.  Cary will be tutoring their son and a couple neighbor kids on Tuesdays.

During this weekend, Cary and I went and explored People's Square, Nanjing Pedestrian Street, the Bund, and the whole general area.   Shanghai is just so huge.   Pictures below!  My camera was acting up during most the day.  It doesn't handle hazy/humid days very well, so most my pictures turned out pretty fuzzy and no good. =(

           Everyday, I wake up 7:00 to get ready for the day, and I leave for work around 7:40.  My first class is at 8:40 and generally is one of my less favorite classes of the day.  The kids are generally still half asleep and it takes a lot of effort on my part to get them excited about pretty much anything.  Some days, they're really excited and great though.  Friday, I got hug tackled by a mob of them when I left.  (I think it's because I gave them stickers today, so they were just very excited.)

          I have a short ten minute break and then have five back to back classes of either 2.5-3 year olds or 3-4 year olds. I just really don't enjoy teaching the youngest classes.  Dont' get me wrong- they are so adorable and most of them are very sweet.  I have one student, Ryan, who follows me around.  He comes up and stands right next to me during songs and mimics everything I do.  (Including, scratch my head or yawn, or whatever extra I do.) But, I just have the worst time teaching them because it's just so repetitive and difficult with the language barrier.  A week's worth of material for a beginner's class is usually one (maaybe two, if I'm lucky) songs and three to four new words.  This weeks new words: Teacher. Child. Friend.    Explaining some words, like "friend", to babies without using Chinese is a little tricky.

          When the morning classes finally finish, I have a three and a half hour lunch break.   I hate this break because it is just too long. It does give me (plenty) of time to lesson plan for the afternoon classes and the next day's morning classes, at least.  In this break, I generally take a walk around the neighborhood if the weather is nice (I'm pretty sure I will be still exploring for the next half a year), take a nap if I'm tired, respond to e-mails at my awesomely slow desktop computer, or lesson plan.  I could go home, but generally I feel it is a waste of time unless I want to take a taxi.  Needless to say, I'm always full ready for my afternoon classes to start and get done with. 

        My afternoon classes are the highlight of my work day. The kids are all 5-6 years old, and their maturity and English level is just so far beyond the younger kids.  I generally have the most fun in their classes, and I don't generally have to discipline them much.  I can play more complicated games with them and explain things a little easier. I sometimes feel like I'm not teaching Chinese students. They let me know if something is confusing or too hard (or their blank stares give it away.  The baby classes have blank stares probably 90% of the time.)       My last class ends at 3:50, and generally I rush out of work to avoid the mobs of kids leaving.  Its so much harder to maneuver out of the school with gobs of kids who want to say goodbye to you.

After work, I generally don't do too much. Maybe a walk, make or go find dinner,  relax and unwind.  Until this week, the weather really hasn't been nice enough to do much besid  I'm usually pretty tired after working with the kids all day.  I'm learning to cook slowly, since the ingredient here are a bit different, and I'm not used to not having a stove. Mostly, I've just been perfecting stir-fry and rice/noodles so we don't have to eat out all the time.   


Here's a bunch of random pictures from the last week:

Finally the weekend! Hurray!  I've had a bit of a nasty cold these last couple days, but it seems to be getting better. =)

Yesterday, all the new New Beat teachers had to get physicals (re)done.  Cary and I both had people covering our morning classes so we could go, but the other teachers had Friday off.  (Unfortunately, I probably won't get paid for that time I missed, even though it wasn't my choice!)

The physical really wasn't that bad, despite the awful things we had heard about it .  (One teacher started crying when she had found out she had to have another physical here in China.)   It was very efficient and fast, but it was also very impersonal.  We had a general exam, short eye exam, Chest X-ray, EKG, ultrasound, and blood test.   We also weren't allowed to eat (or drink) after 8 PM the night before (and my cold was hitting me pretty hard.)   The worst was the blood test.  They had to take the blood out of my hand (apparently it is pretty difficult to find the veins in my arms, as this is the second time medical people have done this), but after she stuck me with the needle, about five seconds later my vision started to go out and I couldn't hear anything. I must have turned pale or looked funny because she asked me if I was okay.  Afterward, she made me sit (which was good, because my vision was still blotchy) and gave me some chocolates and water.   So, the physical took me probably a half hour or so instead of 10 minutes like it was suppose to.

After the physical,  I returned to work to teach my afternoon classes.  Unfortunately,  I lost my voice in the first class.   My afternoon classes are usually my favorite classes to teach (they are the oldest, too). Today, they were pretty well behaved and some of them were extra nice to me.  (One girl was like, "Cheryl! Cheryl! Teacher! Your..." and then pointed to  her throat.   She even sang extra loud during the songs when my voice just wasn't really coming out, and generally she's not very loud.) 

Okay,  details about the apartment:
  1. We have a really bad mold problem.  The other day, Cary and I uncovered a closet full of mold. It was probably the worst area.  As of yesterday, its much more under control, though.
  2. The apartment is pretty big.  We have a washing machine and drying room, which is great. Though, clothes take a while to dry in the cold and humid weather.  We also have a huge tv, but it doesn't really work right now.
3. The heat lamp in the bathroom and the small bedroom heater works great.  It's really nice to be warm when you're sleeping after freezing all day.
4.  We are on the ground floor.  This is excellent because we don't have to climb too many stairs.  This also sucks, because the location of apartment is most likely the culprit of the mold problem.  

If you don't know, the Chinese are pretty conservative with energy/heating in the winter. And, I feel like their heating units aren't always very effective.  Most my kindergarten classes are (thankfully) heated, but they are still rather cold.  For me (and many westerners who work in China), it is very uncomfortable to endure.  But, it also makes it a little frustrating to watch many people in the U.S. crank up the heat every time, when they really could just put on a sweater and be fine.  All my kids in my classrooms wear their coat in class, and when its cold I have four or five layers, a coat, scarf, and gloves when I am in my office.

More awesome Chinese names I've noticed:  Pudding, Crocky, Jray, Hour, Manfred.

I've attached some pictures of my kindergarten and my walk back from school.  It was actually nice out the last couple days so I was able to take my camera.

The internet in the apartment is finally set up! Hurray!

This first week of teaching has been beyond stressful.  I can't even describe to you the amount of pressure and stress the first week of class brings.

On saturday, we had our final day of Orientation.  Right now, I can't even remember being at orientation--it seems so long ago.  Our final CIEE excusion was to Tian Zi Fang.  This section of Shanghai is very famous for the art and quality shops.  I'll include some pictures tomorrow, because the area was quite beautiful.  We had our farewell dinner and karaoke party to say goodbye to the fellow teachers and most all of us parted either Saturday or Sunday.

Orientation at New Beat was overwhelming.  The schedule they gave us said we would be finished around 5:30, but we didn't leave until around 7:00 or 8:00. Not wholly unexpected, but after the sheer amount of information New Beat gave us, most all of us wanted to get out of there.  

My first day of teaching... Oh boy.  Nothing really could've prepared me for teaching ESL to kindergarteners.  My TEFL certification was helpful, but not applicable. If it wasn't for the Chinese facilitator (Jacqui) I would've been lost.   I did not make any kids cry on my first day (Which is very uncommon), though I did have quite a few new babies in my beginning class who did not speak any english.  They don't even have english names yet.   I teach 9 classes everyday. My morning classes are all 2.5-3 year olds and 3-4 year olds and my afternoon classes are all 5-6 year olds.  It is completely baffling to me to teach English to a 2.5 year old. But, man, they are adorable. They get very excited when we sing songs with jumping or goofy animal noises.  Unlike most New Beat english teachers, I stay at the same school all day long and teach the same students every day. And most my classes are 20 or 25 minutes long.  Even though I only actually teach in the classroom for 17 hours a week, I leave for my school at 7:45 and do not get back until 4:30.

The English of my 5-6 year olds is impressive. Some of them speak with clarity and they are able to think and make sentences on their own in English.   Some of these students have an outside English tutor, which is probably why they are so impressive. When  I was introducing myself to one child, he said back (with no accent and very clear), "Hello Cheryl! My name is ___. It's nice to meet you. How are you?" You would never have guessed his native language was Chinese.   The kindergarten itself is awesome.  The facilities are really great. All the kids wash their hands and get their tonsels and temperature checked before entering.  Generally, they are pretty well behaved. Though I am sure if their Chinese teachers left the room, they would be much louder.  My class right before lunch is pretty rambuctious though.  Most the classes have the heat on, but my office (I even have my own desktop computer!) is very cold.  My feet get numb during the break each day.  I will take pictures after the kids grow more used to me.  Some of them are very friendly and outgoing, but there are many who are shy as well.

Some of the kids have very interesting English names such as:  Lion, Shining, Maynard, Yoyo, Yolanda. There are many named Roger, Dora, Eric, Cissy/Cisi/Sissi. I only have one Nemo, though. Many other teachers have many, many Nemos.  
Mostly, I am just exhausted.  Kindergarten is a lot of singing/dancing/playing. Between all that and jet lag, I can't wait for my first day off. My hour nap last night turned into 13 hours of sleep.