Ever fancied teaching?
Nah, me neither!
I always remember the crap we used to put our teachers and supply teachers through back in the good ol’ days… Locking Mrs T out of the classroom in french, shuffling the chairs and desks back a couple of inches every time Mr B turned to face the board in maths and hiding Mr B’s jar of chutney he had prepared for the Christmas raffle . When I say ‘we’, that obviously didn’t included me, I was a pretty good egg…
When the opportunity to teach English in China arose, I didn’t even consider thinking about what horrible pranks the kids would have in store for me. I just thought, what’s the worst that could happen?
HELP: The little cuteys
BUT FIRST: Lemme take a selfie
I taught two classes of 38 children twice a day for two weeks, and enjoyed every single moment of it.
(Yes, even the bit where I was almost strangled during a class selfie because all 38 of them wanted to be next to me in the picture. Look, proof in the pictures!)
Both classes were an absolute pleasure to teach, and they quickly caught on that if they weren’t quiet when I asked them to be, and if they weren’t working well, then they wouldn’t get any sweeties.
(They were suddenly fantastic at understanding English when I ever said the word ‘candy’… amazing right?)
Every morning before the walk to school, I’d nip into the local supermarket and buy so so many sweets, and being the only westerner in the shop anyway, and the only person in the sweet isle every single day, buying mounds of sweets, I’d like to think I became some kind of iconic figure.
BACK TO BASICS: Old school blackboard teaching
WHAT TO PACK: Vacation
SO MUCH ENERGY: Dom at his finest
Handing out sweets was my key to success. It played a massive part in the classes that I taught because they weren’t allowed sweets in any of their other classes or even for lunch! Very strict. It was a two week summer school for goodness sake, but I guess it made me more popular with the kids wheyyy.
ASIAN SWAG: Me and Dom rocking the snapbacks
Lesson planning was easy peazy lemon squeezy. The most enjoyable classes usually consisted of games, sweets, more games, and loads more sweets. The kids absolutely loved the game hangman, and this was a great ‘oh-shit-5-minutes-left-until-the-bell-what-will-entertain-them-for-5-more-minutes?!’
This went down well in my good friend Dom’s classes too. Dom is my Asian brother from another mother, (and I, his sister from another mister) and we often sat in on each others classes to check out how our teaching styles compared, and obviously to take part in the games too duhh…
It was clear that the energy and passion that we had when we were teaching both influenced and encouraged the kids’ learning heaps, and most importantly they had fun!
Check out the smiles on their faces?!
TOM CAT UP FRONT: Smiles all around!
THE HARD WORKING CORNER: Smiles all around!
HAPPY GLOBE TROT 