Saturday, January 22, 2011

A Princess in Beijing: A Fairy Tale

I had another busy day of Saturday classes today. I enjoy Saturdays because I move from teaching the little ones in the morning, to the elementary students in the early afternoon and then finish the teaching day with the middle/high schoolers! It's a long day, but I enjoy having to think quickly and change my expectations every few hours. I think it will be a great tool to have if I ever get a "traditional" teaching job.

I co-teach one class with my boss every other Saturday, a high level elementary class. I enjoy teaching the class, but I never really felt that they were truly excited by anything that I have planned in the past. Today, I felt we reached a bit of a turning point. Our chapter's theme was learning about different types of literature genres and publishing stories. I wrote an example fairy tale for the students about a princess on an adventure in Beijing, with her trusty sidekick, Bartholomew. The students thought it was pretty funny and I had them start to create their own fairy tales. I don't know how well my explanation of fairy tales went... I had students drafting stories about going to math class and another is writing one called the "Night of the Living in the Dead." I'm sure it will be a page turner to grade next week! The most important part was that they were excited to do something, and were getting some writing practice, too.

I've been on landlady watch for the last three evenings. On Thursday, she was going to collect my rent and check out my busted washing machine, but she was having fun at a party and we postponed. Last night, she came over with her friend that had previously helped us with my Internet solution. They came bearing some Spring Festival window clings for my windows and collected my rent. She took a look at my washing machine, and said that she knew what was needed to be done, but she would have to visit again tonight. Tonight, she arrived with her dad in tow who I was really only able to say "Hello" and "Thank you" to in Mandarin, who was prepared with a snake to clear the sewer drain! After about thirty minutes of work, my washing machine is now fully functional again. Her dad reminded me a lot of my Dad.

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