What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

When I was called to Eric's office today during break I thought it was to discuss how I have a short CNY vacation than the other teachers.

It wasn't.

Somehow I was asked to (and agreed to) sing two songs for some regional government education people on Friday with Saffron. (Who hasn't been asked yet.) One of them is in Chinese! I can barely order apple juice at a fast food restaurant, and they want me to learn an entire sing in Chinese. In less than three days!

Saffron and Chris had to learn this song for their Christmas play last month, but they had a lot more time to practice. I'm on my break right now, and one of the receptionists put Tian Mi Mi, the song, on the computer next o me to help me learn it.

If you can't tell by my rambling text here, I'm kinda nervous.

For the English song, I'm thinking of singing Country Roads. Mostly because it's a song that seems to be known world-round. And it's easy.

One of my Greatest Fears

It almost happened yesterday, and I'm even more nervous about it because of that.

It's a common occurrence. At the beginning or end of a class, a bunch of the kids will occasionally rush up and start grabbing/hugging/punching me. When this happens I have to be very careful not to fall on them. With that many five-year-olds latched on to you, it's very easy to lose your balance.

That's what happened yesterday. At beginning of class, practically as soon as I walk in the room, I'm swarmed by half the kids in the room. They quickly formed a little circular mob around me, and almost every one had a vice grip hold on me. Two or three kids is normally no problem, but this many caused a bit of trouble With that many kids all moving around and jostling me, I lost my balance and fell.

I was lucky that I saw it coming. Having all the kids holding on to me helped slow the fall enough that I was able to catch myself in a sort of push-up position, keeping me up enough that I didn't land on any of the kids. I'm a pretty tall person, so landing on a kid is probably a good way of sending someone to the nurses office at the very least.

I did catch myself though, and it ended up with all of us in a pile on the floor by the door. They all thought it was funny, but the teacher was a bit nervous. (Probably more for me than for the kids.) I was paranoid the rest of the class, and would crouch down to brace myself if any of the  kids even looked like they want to so much as touch me.

I've been afraid of falling on the kids since Day One. Hopefully if this happens again, which I'm sure it will, I'll be able to prevent any injuries.

Different Schools

One of the other teachers has been away getting married over the holidays, so I've been covering his classes at Sara's school to pick up a bit of extra spending money. This has been my irst time teachign at one of the evening schools, and it's very different from what I'm used to.

1. The classes are longer. Instead of the 20-25~ minute race of a class at the kindergartens, the evening schools have nice 45 minute classes, so I actually have time to teach a bit more than just a couple flash cards. Sometimes it's a bit difficult trying to make a 45 minute class for three words and a little poem, but once it get's going it's a lot of fun. I really have time to interact with the kids too.

2. The kids are older. The age of the kindergaten students is anywhere from 2-7. At the evening school, it's more of 6-11. I can actually comunicate with the kids on a regular level. I love it.  I got to talk to one of the smarter kids for about 10 minutes about a cartoon we had both seen. While we couldn't go into great detail, we were able to gether enough of what the other was talking about from both having a good knowledge of the show.

3. There are less classes, and less kids per class. The Greenland school has about nine classes with anywhere from 10 kids in the baby class, to 30 in the senior class. At last count, there's around 170 kids in that school, and I teach all of them. At Keji, there are usually only 8 to 14 kids, and much less classes. And with the extra time, I can actually remember a lot of their names.

It's a large difference between the two types of schools. I've still got till November before my contract ends, and I'll probably stay longer, so I wonder how many more times I'll end up teaching there.