The picture is unrelated to the title. The golden arches are everywhere.
Today I met the Devil. I must admit, I was surprised that the Devil would be a 12-year-old Chinese girl. You learn something new everyday, I suppose. I was doing a review of what we went over last week (introductions), so when I called on a student he or she would say “Hi, my name is...” Now, so far the weirdest name I’ve gotten has been “Lemon,” nothing too crazy. This certainly raises the bar.
The other teachers have swapped the oddest names: Elvis, Bernie, Love (the three of which sat together in a row); (for those of you who have played video games) First Blood, Double Kill, and Triple kill; Stalin and Hitler; and now we have Lucifer. It makes me wonder how they choose their names. I’m thinking I need to talk with the other English teachers and get a list of each student’s name so we can avoid any awkward future encounters. Though introducing yourself as “Lucifer” would make one hell of a first impression (the pun was unintended, but then I had to keep it once I realized it).
Construction is everywhere. I can’t tell if maybe it is just my portion of the city that seems like one big construction zone or if this is just the current state of the entire city. The pictures I’ve attached may give you some idea of the scale. Trump tower in Chicago is small potatoes compared to some of these complexes going up. One is a brand new apartment development with 4+ giant towers and a building along the whole front of the complex, which I can only assume will be restaurants and upscale shopping. It is staggering to think that as soon as they are finished there will be thousands of new people living next to this school. I can’t even get a full view of the whole thing from the ground because it covers that much ground. To think that you could build that in the middle of a city is unbelievable. I think the closest thing I can think of in chicago would be the Presidential Towers around where 90 and 290 come together, just east of 90 (and my alma mater). It’s 4 apartment buildings in one development, and it’s impressive there. This development here is even more striking.
Today was my first day with lesson plan 2. It was an abysmal failure. The tapes that go along with the book haven’t come in yet, so all that remains is the “key words and phrases” section, which is useless. Even though the book suggests games, you just can’t do much with 56 kids packed like sardines in the classroom. I gave it my best try. I’ve got to think up more things to do with these kids. The lesson did go better as the day went on, but I was disappointed in the lackluster performance. Since I only see the kids once a week, each lesson has to be good. They have to come out of it knowing something more than they did before, otherwise I am just wasting their time by playing teacher. I am regrouping, rethinking, and going to retry tomorrow. I talked with one of the other foreign teachers and he gave me some advice I’m going to follow starting tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a better lesson!
I have been running on the track they have here, and depending on the time of day, they usually have had P.E. classes when I’m out there. I am quite self-conscious because, not only am I a foreigner, I’m a teacher. There are other teachers who walk along the track, or play soccer with the elementary schoolers that hang around after their day is over (which is just gosh darn adorable to watch), but none that do anything like the older kids do. I was tempted to join in the one class that was running a 400m for time, see if I’ve still got that speed from middle school track/freshman year. If I remember right I finished with a 57 in the 400, though there’s no way I would go that now. It’s probably best that I didn’t compete with high schoolers. I only see it ending poorly for me. I’d either hurt myself physically or I’d injure my pride, most likely both.
That’s all for now. Enjoy the pictures. The first picture is a different development than I wrote about. The second is a picture of the development right next to the school that I wrote about earlier in this entry.
Today I met the Devil. I must admit, I was surprised that the Devil would be a 12-year-old Chinese girl. You learn something new everyday, I suppose. I was doing a review of what we went over last week (introductions), so when I called on a student he or she would say “Hi, my name is...” Now, so far the weirdest name I’ve gotten has been “Lemon,” nothing too crazy. This certainly raises the bar.
The other teachers have swapped the oddest names: Elvis, Bernie, Love (the three of which sat together in a row); (for those of you who have played video games) First Blood, Double Kill, and Triple kill; Stalin and Hitler; and now we have Lucifer. It makes me wonder how they choose their names. I’m thinking I need to talk with the other English teachers and get a list of each student’s name so we can avoid any awkward future encounters. Though introducing yourself as “Lucifer” would make one hell of a first impression (the pun was unintended, but then I had to keep it once I realized it).
Construction is everywhere. I can’t tell if maybe it is just my portion of the city that seems like one big construction zone or if this is just the current state of the entire city. The pictures I’ve attached may give you some idea of the scale. Trump tower in Chicago is small potatoes compared to some of these complexes going up. One is a brand new apartment development with 4+ giant towers and a building along the whole front of the complex, which I can only assume will be restaurants and upscale shopping. It is staggering to think that as soon as they are finished there will be thousands of new people living next to this school. I can’t even get a full view of the whole thing from the ground because it covers that much ground. To think that you could build that in the middle of a city is unbelievable. I think the closest thing I can think of in chicago would be the Presidential Towers around where 90 and 290 come together, just east of 90 (and my alma mater). It’s 4 apartment buildings in one development, and it’s impressive there. This development here is even more striking.
Today was my first day with lesson plan 2. It was an abysmal failure. The tapes that go along with the book haven’t come in yet, so all that remains is the “key words and phrases” section, which is useless. Even though the book suggests games, you just can’t do much with 56 kids packed like sardines in the classroom. I gave it my best try. I’ve got to think up more things to do with these kids. The lesson did go better as the day went on, but I was disappointed in the lackluster performance. Since I only see the kids once a week, each lesson has to be good. They have to come out of it knowing something more than they did before, otherwise I am just wasting their time by playing teacher. I am regrouping, rethinking, and going to retry tomorrow. I talked with one of the other foreign teachers and he gave me some advice I’m going to follow starting tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a better lesson!
I have been running on the track they have here, and depending on the time of day, they usually have had P.E. classes when I’m out there. I am quite self-conscious because, not only am I a foreigner, I’m a teacher. There are other teachers who walk along the track, or play soccer with the elementary schoolers that hang around after their day is over (which is just gosh darn adorable to watch), but none that do anything like the older kids do. I was tempted to join in the one class that was running a 400m for time, see if I’ve still got that speed from middle school track/freshman year. If I remember right I finished with a 57 in the 400, though there’s no way I would go that now. It’s probably best that I didn’t compete with high schoolers. I only see it ending poorly for me. I’d either hurt myself physically or I’d injure my pride, most likely both.
That’s all for now. Enjoy the pictures. The first picture is a different development than I wrote about. The second is a picture of the development right next to the school that I wrote about earlier in this entry.