Second day in my grade one class and it went very well. Miss Woo is there to help out with some crowd control, but it isn't bad at all. My previous practicum class had 56 students!! 14 is a breeze in comparison. Speaking of which... I am noticing such a drastic contrast between the grade ones here & the grade ones in Canada. & I by no means want to portray anything negative about it... but the students here seem older, more serious, & constrained almost. I have heard from many people that in Macau, studying is everything & the parents do everything that they can to make their child excel in school... but also make them work very very hard each & every night. On the playground, they are just like any other child... but the classroom is just so different. Not only did I completely drop the ball on giving them homework my first day, but when I assigned some today... I didn't assign enough!! Miss Woo said that the parents get quite upset if there isn't a 'substantial amount of work sent home to be completed'. I am not sure I will get over this pressure and importance that academia holds in this city. It's just amazing!
side note: I forgot to mention this yesterday! When I was in the Kindergarten class yesterday morning before the students arrived (everyone else starts at 8:20am, where as the Kindergarten students start at 9am). One of the student's father approached me & asked me if I was teaching his daughter. & I said that yes, I will be teaching them English twice a week. As soon as I said this he just grinned from ear to ear & couldn't stop thanking me for being in this class. It was very sweet... but for all he knows - I could have no idea what I was doing!!! haha
Today's lesson went very well. I wanted them to learn about using very simple nouns & adjectives, so we described some of their vocabulary that can be found around the classroom. They were so cute, pulling anything they could out of their schoolbag so that they could get a turn to describe it!
There are 2 boys in the class that Miss Woo frequently describes as 'naughty', and I have witnessed some of that behaviour... but today was awesome! So yesterday, Sam was flicking erasers at another students... so I told him to stop & go pick it up. He kind of gave me this pouty I'm pissed at you look but then finally did it. Today right at the beginning of class he was just bursting out nonsense, trying to get a giggle from everyone. I simply (& I think of Tara whenever I say this), shook my head no & said 'no thank you Sam'. He got it. & didn't revolt in any way. Just took it all in & continued what we were doing. The other little one is Paco, and yesterday I saw him across the room during our 'oral speaking groups' rolling around on the floor, crawling like a worm while pushing his chair & stomping around. But there was something about today that just ignited him. He was getting up.. going from one spot to the next to find me something that he could describe, he was taking that one step further in talking about more than one detail of an object, etc. It was fantastic. I just need to get this kid moving & challenge him a little. I think he (& Sam as well) are far more than competent in everything we do in class.. but just need that little extra push.
Hong was working until after lunch, so I came home & waited for her to get back so that we could get some grub! We wandered around as we usually do until we find something & we stumbled upon a fantastic dumpling place! They were soooo good. Not sure if they have meat ones though (pretty sure these only had veggies in them... but you never know). They were dirt cheap too! (don't know if that's a good thing.. ha) They were only $1 MOP each which is about 15 cents Canadian. We went to the market after to get some food for dinner & decided to get some more rice. There was this man running this stall & of course looked right to Hong & started speaking Chinese to here, even though I was pointing to what we wanted. He kept repeating the same thing & Hong would say something in English & finally she said 'Gong Yingman' which means 'speak English'. He then kept saying something over & over again in Chinese which we think it was something like 'really? you only speak English?' & was just creepily smiling at Hong, but still not getting our rice. It was pretty funny.. I think he had a crush on her.
Something else funny at the market. There was this mom just holding her daughter in the air with her pants down so that she could pee into the drain in the middle of the sidewalk. Right by all of the food stands!! Mmm
No comments:
Post a Comment