I'll be honest: I don't have all that much energy to write a good post right now. The past week has been so insanely packed with running from one office building and meeting and class and seminar to the next. School has, indeed, begun! And I love it.
It feels wonderful to be back on a college campus. We were all getting pretty nostalgic for good old Madison once we heard from our friends who had begun classes there again. But now, here we are: on another campus, on the other side of the world. Though there's no Babcock Ice Cream or Union Terrace or Science Hall (there are a lot of identical Mao-ist buildings, though, if that counts?), there are plenty of wonderful people to hang out with, and tens of thousands of young people all around. This time, however, I'm on the other side of the podium. And as much as I enjoyed being a student, I think I enjoy being a teacher even more! Frankly, I think I'm learning a lot more than I would sitting in a desk, and I'm always motivated to take my own education to the next level. There is SO MUCH to learn!
- How do I get 30 college students to stop talking?
- How do I get the girl who can't understand me at all to get something out of today's lesson?
- How do I gently tell a boy that Dawn, though lovely, is actually a girl's name, but that yes, it's probably better than naming yourself Devil? (Just wait for the post on the English names our students give themselves ...)
- What's the most effective way for me to comment on paragraph-long writing samples?
- What's the most efficient way to grade 60 workbooks in one hour?
- How do I get up at 6:30 again tomorrow morning, for yet another pointlessly early administrative task?
- Where is the nearest place that I can get chocolate?
- How can I get my students to talk with each other without being shy? How do I get them to speak in front of class? How do I get them to talk to someone of the opposite gender? (You wouldn't think this would be an issue in a college classroom, but you wouldn't believe how very difficult it is here ...)
- How do I make tomorrow's lesson interactive and exciting?
- How do I explain what "creepy" is?
- How do I convince administration that I have no way of receiving my original college diploma in order to submit it to the Chinese government for a work visa?
- How can I prevent my students from ever learning that I'm not actually trained in this at all?!
Oh gosh. Sometimes I feel like I'm in over my head. Other times I feel like this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. More often, it's the second. And even if I do feel overwhelmed, it's in a good way, in the way of a challenge that I want to overcome. I feel more motivated than I did through most of college, more excited about waking up, and more eager to get it right than ever before. Truthfully, I'm fighting an enormous uphill battle. These kids have all been learning English for 10 years, except they probably only understand 10% of what I'm saying (however slowly I say it ...). They are not good students; they are going to a lousy college and have tested into a very low level of English. This is basically remedial stuff, and probably, at the end of the semester, they won't know much more than they started with.
Sometimes I get so mad at the Chinese government for its crappy education system, for teaching language lessons without speaking or listening, for teaching computer class without computers (yes, this actually happens for my freshman taking computer class ... even in class, they aren't allowed to use computers!), for stunting the creative and critical thinking skills of their youth. Oh, they know their grammar, and my students can even write fairly well (can't say the same for Jones's and Katrina's), but they cannot speak or understand the language. They have been drilled into a mindset where making mistakes is not okay, and standing out is even worse. The idea of doing anything outside of their comfort zones (such as talking to someone they didn't know before class) is absolutely foreign and repulsive to them. I think that if I don't teach them English, I can at least open up new methods of learning for them, learning that is cooperative, engaging, and practical.
Thanks for reading about my new job! If you have any tips for teaching low-proficiency ESL kids, LET ME KNOW!
1 comment:
Try to convince your students to let you give them Americanized names. For instance, if a student has difficulty sticking with his decisions I think Brett Favre would fit perfectly. Or if someone has a narcissistic streak and likes to interrupt you, Kanye would be a good choice. Hopefully none of your students are diligent, fun and hardworking since having two Nikki Carows in a class would just be confusing.
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