My first EF Observation

Today was an odd and sad day at work.

I started my day by reading the news and learning there has been another round of killings in a preschool close to Beijing. I'm not sure why these sick people are going to all of these preschools. Luckily, the man who has confessed to the accusations has been taken into custody.

I went in to work to teach my summer course small star drama course this morning. The students in that class are great, but today's video was much harder to recreate. It involved the students jumping to get fruit (of the names they just learned- we don't get too many plums in Beijing) off of imaginary trees.

I had a little break between that class and my OPT shift. I went to the grocery store and bought myself a new frying pan because the one that I had inherited from the last owner of the apartment was getting pretty bad to use.

I came back into work saying that one of our teachers, Amy, has to go back home suddenly and that I would be taking over some her classes earlier then expected. Amy came into work before her preschool classes this evening. Her cousin that she had grown up with passed away early in the morning from cancer. She had been given reports from home that he had been getting better, so it was really sudden and unexpected. She was exhausted from scrambling around to arrange a flight home on such sudden notice. Her new school had started to apply for her second year resident's visa so she had to run around the city collecting her passport and other important documents. I feel so awful for her. She was leaving EF to teach at an International school in Beijing starting in two weeks. Luckily, her new school has told her to take off as much time as she needs to be with her family and EF is letting her break her contract earlier. She's such a wonderful person and has really helped me. I'm sad to see her leave early in such a heartbreaking way.

Laura came in to observe one of my small star classes this evening. Parents had been complaining that the class was too slow for the students. This class is not my most fun preschool class. There is one boy in the class (the only boy which may be a reason for some of his behavior) that is kind of crazy. He would usually just cry through the entire class, but not he has started to be disruptive. He's been enjoying trying to rip out the carpet instead of learning the names to the parts of the body. I know that it is best for a child to start learning a foreign language early, but I think there is a large population of our preschool students who are just not ready. It's a very American statement on my part, but I think, in general, these little ones are just like all little ones around the globe. Sometimes they just need a little bit more time before they are ready for a classroom. I'm interested, and a bit nervous, to have my talk with Laura tomorrow. No one has observed me yet, so who knows how I'm doing!