After 4 weeks of teaching we have a week off for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. Time for a deep breath, quality time with family and friends, and a chance to finally do some things we’ve wanted to do but haven’t squeezed in amidst a busy schedule- such as write on the Pritchport blog.
I realized we haven’t really painted a broad picture of what our daily life is like here, and so I’m going to try to knock out a couple of blogs in the coming days.
Teaching the College Students
Each of the four adults teaches 8 classes at the college each week. A class consists of two 45 minute sessions with a ten minute break in the middle. For instance, the first class of the day runs from 7:50-9:30. It’s a good 10 minute walk to the teaching building so we typically leave the apartment around 7:30 to get there early and arrive back home around 9:45. I have four Business English classes. Deryk has four Speech and Debate classes and Tiffany has six Speech and Debate classes. The remainder of our classes and all of Wendy’s are Spoken English. We’re given a textbook for each course but also quite a bit of freedom as we develop lesson plans.
Each of our classes have between 35-45 students in them. This is a teaching college so most of the students will graduate with hopes of securing a much coveted and scarce teaching position at a primary, secondary, or higher education school. English majors (those who will become English teachers) are here for two and a half years followed by a semester similar to our student teaching (from what I’ve gathered). Many will then return to their home province to seek a position. Business English majors (I still can’t get a solid and consistent answer on what they will do after graduation; either teach Business English or work in a business?) graduate after two years. So, we will have two or two and a half years with the incoming freshman.
Chinese students are different than American students in many ways. They are so group-oriented and used to having lectures dumped into their minds that it’s somewhat difficult to have group discussion. I’ll ask a simple question like “how many of you will go home for the holiday?” and ask for a show of hands and no one feels comfortable raising their hand. They cautiously look around them to see who among the group will be the first to step out. As I taught in various contexts in America my goal in class prep was simply to come up with the two or three well worded, thought provoking questions which would get discussion started and carry the class. That strategy simply doesn’t work here. A teacher must come to class with a lot of material.
We are falling in love with our students. They are such precious young people and so eager to help and protect us any way they can. In China, teachers are very well respected and honored so our voice is powerful and our sphere of influence is vast. I have 350+ students….so as a team (4 adults) we have 1400-1500 students each week. Wow! We were told the enrollment was 10,000 so that’s 14-15% of the student body that one of us is teaching each week.
Teaching the kiddos
We’re also teaching Hannah, Brinson, Aiden, and Ayden. The core subjects are divided between the parents.
Deryk: Language Arts
Eric: Math
Tiffany: History
Wendy: Science
Each core subject is allotted one hour and forty minutes (same time as the college classes). The school worked hard to ensure that one adult is always at home during the day- which we greatly appreciated. Other subjects (spelling, vocab, typing, Chinese, etc.) are done by each family on their own time.
As a result, our days are roughly divided into six 2-hour blocks.
Teaching Block 1: 7:30-9:30
Teaching Block 2: 9:30-11:45
Lunch Block: 11:45-2:00
Teaching Block 3: 2:00-4:00
Teaching Block 4: 4:00-6:00
Dinner/Evening Block: 6:00---
The adults spend anywhere from 2-4 of the teaching blocks either teaching college students or teaching our kiddos. For instance……my schedule:
M: 3 blocks teaching
TU: 3 blocks teaching
W: 2 blocks teaching
TH: 3 blocks teaching
F: 2 blocks teaching
The Chinese have a rest time from roughly 12:00-3:00 each day in which the whole city seems to shut down and people take naps wherever they find a place to lay down. Men and women sprawled out and sound asleep on sidewalks, supermarket aisles, cash registers, medians, etc. are common sights during this window of time. Even the primary and secondary schools empty out so that students and teachers can have their rest. At 2:30 or so all the little children get back on buses and return to their schoolwork. I must say, I like this rhythm of life. It’s a mini-Sabbath each and every day.
It’s been strange to all of us how exhausting standing up teaching is. We are physically, emotionally, and mentally spent at lunch and each evening. I guess concentrating on understanding the students, remembering to speak slowly and clearly, and keeping a joyful look on our face wears us down. We must be “on” at all times. We really are worn out.
Many a days you could find the four adults in a comatose state during the lunch hour. The other day I was lying on Aiden’s bed going over his spelling words with him while he played legos—I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Brinson suddenly came into the room with a huge smile on his face. “Mom just fell asleep in the middle of my spelling list!” He was overjoyed with the unexpected freedom he had gained when mommy dozed off.
I had a Bad Dad moment last week as well. Aiden was so excited to read me the story he has been writing. Unfortunately for both of us, he chose to read it to dad during the lunch break when dad had just lain down on the coach. Aiden began to read and I decided to close my eyes while listening. I don’t think I made it through the first sentence. I woke up several minutes later to see Aiden’s sad and disappointed face. He had tears in his eyes. L Apparently Wendy had heard a sad “Daddy?” come from Aiden a few minutes earlier. He had gone into Wendy with tears in his eyes and said, “Daddy fell asleep during my story.” Ouch! Not one of my prouder moments. I repeatedly repented to Aiden and told him that my falling asleep had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the story or my love for its author and everything to do with how exhausted I was. There was simply no chance of daddy staying awake at that moment.
Such is life in China. We are tired but it’s a good tired.
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