It has been a LONG and CRAZY week. At the end of each semester our school puts on a performance for the parents. Ours is on May 28th. However we just found out that they are having rehearsals 3 weeks early. So we spent the last week teaching our kids a dance to Bingo. I can't describe how difficult it is to teach a dance to 7-year-olds who don't speak the your language. Don't get me wrong, they speak English well, but there is a whole other jargon when it comes to dancing and singing. The next day we decided to speak the international language of "candy." Bruce held up a bag of suckers, and within about 5 minutes, they had learned the dance. They look so cute doing it! Kelly said we will get a DVD copy of the final performance. Also, I never knew how talented our students are. During the rehearsal I saw my kids do almost everything. Maia played two instruments, danced, and sang the English song with us. Amy (8 years old) played an instrument, danced, and sang our song and a duet with an older girl. When we weren't teaching, we were learning a dance to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." It is pretty popular here. I hear it on the streets all the time. But you will have to wait to see the video.
Today felt like a week's worth of work stuffed into a single day. We woke up around 7am to do a demo teaching at the town square. We were told it was for government officials. Our school set up blankets to teach our students so people can see how cool it is to go to our school. Basically it was a "LOOK! We've got white people and our kids can speak English! You should come to our school" advertisement. I don't know if the government people ever showed up . . . there were so many people. We were given microphones so everyone within 30 feet could hear us. It fun to see all the people gathering. I read a book for my lesson and sometimes kids that weren't from our school would sit and listen for 10 mins. I was nice to be in a setting where we could have fun with kids and not worry about keeping them in line. I taught Kitty (one of my youngest students) two hand clapping games; she picked up on them pretty quickly. I taught her "Down by the Banks" and "Double, Double, This, This." Drew (my little Korean boy) loved rolling around on the grass. He would do 4 or 5 forward-rolls in a row. After we were done teaching, most parents came and got their kids for the weekend. A few came back to school with us. Drew was one of them. I thought it would be fun to get out the bubbles on the bus. Both Drew and Chase loved them! Drew would blow bubbles in Chase's face and Chase would scream like a girl. After 10 mins I think the Chinese teachers were about to beat them. So I put the bubbles away. The rest of the way home Drew and I threw a ball back and forth.
We can home and ate a late lunch. I got a video of the kids eating seaweed soup. I wonder what American foods they would and wouldn't like...
Then we taught at the public school. I got a new boy in my class. He was really shy. He cried for the first half of my class, until his mom convinced him to stay. When he sat down I asked him what his name was. Brian, my little 6-year-old sweetheart, turned to me and whispered, "Teacher, his name is Kyle." So I don't know if that is his real English name or if Brian made it up, but the kid responded to it. For my public school lesson I cut up a picture of a panda and they had to put the puzzle pieces together. First I showed them the picture they were trying to make. Most of the classes got it right away. I decided for the last class to see how they would do if I didn't show them a picture of what the puzzle was supposed to be. They all took turns trying to rearrange the pieces to make them fit. I took about 5 mins to work out a 5 piece puzzle of the panda. I was surprised it took so long but it was fun to see them try to make a foot attach to the head. I've never seen them work so hard on a lesson.
