Love and Logic

Today was my the Spring Teacher's Conference for Beijing's Kids and Teens Schools at the newest school that has just recently opened. I was so happy to just find it on my own! Finding a place successfully in Beijing is always still sweet to me!

I got there a little bit early and had a chance to wander around the new school. It's absolutely beautiful! If our school looks a third of how nice Beijing 6 looks we will be in for a treat!

The conferences always fall on a day off for most teachers, but this time, EF really tried to show that they were appreciative of us attending. They set up a raffle system and made time for mingling socially with the other teachers. I went to a workshop on building rapport with students and was able to take away some new insights. Then, we were put into teams to do a pub quiz of sorts about random facts about EF and China. Did you know that China shares borders with 14 countries! I didn't. EF even paid for Subway sandwiches for lunch which is a big deal!

Then, it was time for my workshop on Love and Logic, which is a student management theory that I was taught to use at Outdoor School that emphasizes positive enforceable statements and guiding students to help them solve their own problems through examining choices and their potential consequences. I had some really nice people in my workshop which helped me be a little less nervous. All four local teachers from Beijing 2 attended my workshop, which was really special for me.

Then, we had a lesson plan share where we passed out some of best lesson plans for other teachers to borrow and adapt. Then, there was a raffle and my number was picked! I won a bottle of Chinese white wine! Then, it was off to one last workshop. I attended one on healthily releasing emotions. It was much different from all of the other workshops, but pretty awesome.

Then, we all gathered back together to learn who were the winners of the pub quiz. All the presenters were awarded with a certificate and an alcoholic beverage of some kind. I won six pack of beer! Then, the new head of Beijing took us out for dumplings and beer. It was pretty great!

My friend Sabrina had asked me where I buy movies, and I offered to take her to the movie store I go to. Stephanie decided she wanted to come along since we had a few hours to spare before meeting up with Marie and her family from Australia for a night of KTV. We successfully found some movies for Sabrina and headed back to Beiyuan to meet up with Ryan and Nina for dinner at the Korean BBQ restaurant.

Marie's family was running late at their own dinner, so we walked over to take a gander at the school. We have now started taking bets! It doesn't look like we will be able to start classes up on Monday! We'll just have to wait and see.

I had a lot of fun at KTV with Marie and her family. Her two siblings are pretty young, but are enjoying China. Her parents are truly lovely and I think they enjoyed meeting some of Marie's friends here. I was really tired, though. Tomorrow is my one day off this week and I am looking to chilling out a bit!