Plans

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I talked to my boss yesterday, and it looks like I will be doing a third year at my school in Wuhan. I'm quite happy about this. I've made friends here who I'm not quite ready to part with, and I'm honestly very attached to my little apartment here. The job can be difficult at times, but I love it. It has a stronger effect on me than any other job I've had in my life. I feel terrible on days when I don't think my classes have gone well, and elated on days when they do. However, even on the worst days, I know that there is no career that I could ever enjoy more than teaching. I like having work where I get to be creative, and do things that I thought could never be more than hobbies once I finished college. There's an element of theatre in teaching, for example, as well as singing, and even writing. I remember when I was at Marymount I used to take voice lessons just because I liked them, all the while thinking they were useless, and scolding myself for wasting money. It turns out that I actually use them every day. Granted the Spider Smith song is far from operatic, but it's good to be able to sing it loudly without killing my throat. There was a point where I never used to think of the voice lessons I took, and would go hoarse every time I had to teach a song, but that's been going much better ever since I made myself try and remember them.

I'm also very happy to know that I will likely be teaching the same kids. During my first year, I taught grades one and four, and sometimes used to wonder what my grade one kids would be like as fourth grade students. Well, I'll be teaching my grade ones in grade three next year, and as I suspect that there is a pretty big overlap between the end of grade three and the start of grade four, I guess I'll find out the answer to that question. It's very fun to watch as the students who started out only being able to say "hello" learn more and more sentence structures and vocabularly, allowing me to get to know them better. I think next year will also be a good chance for me to grow as a teacher, because I will most likely be teaching grades three and four. As these are both grades that I have already taught, teaching the same material over again will give me a chance to do my absolute best with it. I can see what went very well the first time I taught the material, and improve what could have used improvement. I've also had many chances to learn from my fellow teachers -- to listen to their ideas, and see their show lessons, and I'll be able to incorporate this into my lessons as well.

Anyway, on to some summer plans! School finishes at the end of June. My grandma and aunt are going to be in Xi'an in July, so of course I'll go see them there. I'd also like to head back to Shenzhen to visit a bit with some friends there. After that, I *will* be coming back to the states. Depending on how things go, and whether or not my contract allows it, I might look for some summer work in China for between a month and six weeks. That means that my time in the states will last somewhere between two weeks and six weeks. While there, I will most likely spend most of the time in Maine, but I don't think I could stand to be in the USA without at least taking a trip to New York as well.

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Comments

[mumsisdaughter]

I'm really pleased for you that you have your immediate future sorted out and that you're happy with it. Odd to think that as you start your new teaching year, I'll be retiring. All the best.

[Bruce Jones]

Good to hear that you are enjoying teaching so much.......Hope to see you in Kennebunkport this summer!