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Published: September 3rd 2011
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Fireworks
Erin's 30th birthday Photos:
…..you can all have a rest this week as I prepare to start teaching my Grade 8 students for the first time next week. After two years of teaching Grade 3 & 4 it's time to see what the older kids have to offer by way of methods to drive teachers insane. The little ones do it using a combination of relentless energy & an aversion to boredom coupled with the attention span of a sub-atomic particle. I am not necessarily expecting the middle school students to be easier to deal with, just different.....
…..there is the stress associated with the unknown, exacerbated by the absence of any schedule or timetable; no one has any idea on Sunday morning what their week will look like. I'm also concerned that, like Peter & Steven last year, Mike & I are in the Grade 7 teacher's office. I then go to search for the Grade 8 teachers I'll have to work with. It's difficult to find the office & when I do there is only one teacher there. The office looks too small for ten class & associated subject teachers. Apparently Grade 8 teachers are spread across two, or
maybe three, offices in different buildings. The others have left as they have Friday & Saturday off. So I probably won't get to meet them until we have been cast into the first week. At least Mike & I are in the English teachers section of our office, with Sunny, Miranda & Hope. There is a fall back when my Chinese is not adequate.....
…..Sunshine & I will need to polish up our songs a little but, for the second outing at Gloria Jean's, it's promising. I also have to steer her away from the cheesier material, although one or two have started to grow on me now that I've been playing them for a week or so.....
…..new schedule. 20 classes per week instead of 18, 45 & 50 minutes instead of 40, & some 30), minutes. Although there are classes back to back in the afternoons there are no classes Monday or Tuesday mornings, or Friday afternoons. If I can't organise some study & music practice time now then I need to study, (& practice), being more organised.....
…..the new teachers include 3 Canadians, one from England, (born in Pakistan), & 3 new Americans. Having
lost Peter & Emily we are now down to 2 Australians &, sadly, I have already been marked as a mongrel, having been born in the UK.....
…..it's hard going, the classes in the afternoon are back to back & not, as they were in the elementary school, next to the office. If I forget something when I go to the class I'll just have to make it up. I'm finding out the good & not so good classes, the attentive, helpful students, the smart arses & beyond-remedial ones. I am wondering whether the drugs taken by those who originally devised their English names have had some residual effect. I have notebook monitors called Reborn & Escher, computer monitors including Dakota & Laughing. Not surprisingly some have asked to change their English names but they included Ice Cream, who has requested a change to Dairy King! Sendark, Eleven, Einstein, Famous & Saggitarius retain theirs.....
…..I should also refer to a recent mention of a Grade one student with a speech defect that our recently departed teacher, Emily, cruelly named, “Rory”.....
…..I have included a photo of a letter from Robbie, a student from one of my most
Dear Robbie
Letter from Robbie and my reply troublesome classes from the last two years. It accompanies a box of chocolates & a glowing report on the classes. In fact when I go to thank him & give him my reply, I am mobbed by last year's students happy to see me. I have to say I'm happy to see them again though not necessarily sad to leave their English instruction to someone else.....
…..Erin chooses her favourite restaurant, the Japanese Teppenyaki, for her 30th birthday celebration. It is, by our standards, ridiculously expensive at Au$25 a head, for all you can eat & drink. It's pretty spectacular though, with 2 chefs in the middle continuously cooking our food as we look on. Afterwards we go to the wasteland where the soil is dumped from the nearby sites under development. The fireworks surely wouldn't be available to the general public in any other country. Here you can buy them & let them off wherever you see fit. It's the sort of freedom we find ourselves revelling in.....
Some photos from my new friends at the travel magazine:
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(group photo, I'm waving from the back)
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(impromtu concert at the hotel in the Chef, Teppenyaki
Erin's 30th birthday evening with the magazine staff)
Nothing directly to do with China but an interesting find as I was on the way to my email:
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