One Third Completed

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Pete and Elyse last blogged about teaching during the 1st week of school, now they just completed their 6th of 18 weeks. So what has been happening around WXP?



They got the approval to have smaller Oral English class sizes and it has been a huge success. This was implemented Week 3, 11-1 and 11-2 were split into groups of 19-21 students in each classroom with a foreign teacher: Peter, Elyse or Mark. Pete has had the pleasure of teaching one class on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Elyse has had the pleasure of teaching 2 classes on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons up until Week 5 when an "elective" night class was added to her schedule by the Hotel Management Dept.



Remember they were the Dept that never had a foreign teacher before and Elyse was to teach those students this term. But somewhere along the communication chain they didn't realize they actually should have me teach. The class has 30 students and meets once a week on Tuesday from 6-8:25pm with a 10 minute break. It is the longest class period that is held at WXP. At first, Elyse thought it would be horrible to teach students for this long but after meeting the students for 2 weeks it has gone by quite well. She even has students coming to the class that won't receive a grade or 2 credits for the class but just want to practice their English.



The 30 students who receive grades and credits are all first year students but have varying majors including: Business Administration, Hotel Management, International Trade, Business English, Food Safety & Inspection, Subway Planning & Management and Environment Studies. The majority of them have above average English speaking capabilities for this college but a few have no clue. You can always tell the ones that have no clue as they look like a deer in headlights. This class is a little harder to plan for as four students study Business English and have Elyse or Peter as their teacher during the day on Tues & Wed which means the same topic can not be taught.



On Thursday, Elyse received an email from the Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) stating that Peter and Elyse would beging teaching the Professional Teachers and Administration Teachers starting on Monday, April 9th. At least they gave a decent warning on this new responsibility. They will see how it goes as Elyse teaches on Monday from 2:45-4:20pm and Peter has Tuesday same time. A text book and video/audio files were provided along with the requirements of 3 lessons a week taught out of the book. Elyse's only concern at this point is ALL the teachers means 100+ and they have a wide range of English speaking capabilities, should prove to be interesting for all.



This week, Peter and Elyse hosted dinner for two winning teams from an in class competition regarding "Commercials". The assignement was to create a commercial and present it the next day in class, the BEST commercial chosen by Peter and Elyse would win dinner made by Peter at their apartment. The students could choose any product or service, bring props, pictures or Power Point presentation, be prepared, speak loudly and have fun. The commercials were so much fun and the students really enjoyed this assignment. The winning team from 11-1 was a lie detector light which lit up if a lie was told, quite creative and 11-2 winners did a Tiffany's Jewelry skit with a couple becoming engaged after he asked her the 2nd time with a Tiffany's Diamond Ring. The groups were given a choice of Mexican or Italian food cooked by Peter; 11-1 chose Mexican and 11-2 chose Italian. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!



Week 7 will go by quite quickly as WXP has no school April 2-4th in observance of Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Festival). This year the actual holiday falls on a Wednesday so the governement has decided to give Monday and Tuesday off in order for people to travel to their ancestors gravesites to celebrate. This means we need to make up Monday and Tuesday's days of classes so they don't fall behind in their studies. This Saturday and Sunday the students and teachers will be in the classrooom. Saturday is Monday's schedule and Sunday is Tuesday's schedule except for Tuesday night classes are being held on Wednesday night and Wednesday night classes are cancelled. Are you confused yet? There were lots of emails, phone calls and text messages getting this all straight as no one really knew what to do about Tuesday night class, which affected Elyse.



Peter and Elyse are in talks with the school to confirm their last days of working at WXP as their contracts end on June 30th along with their Residence Permits. This means they need to be out of China on June 30th. The school has finals June 25-29th and most likely Peter and Elyse will give finals on June 19th and 20th then turn in final grades to the Departments and depart China on June 26th. But no tickets have been bought just yet!

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Comments

[Mom]

1/3
So they are going to make you work a little harder for your check! At least at the most...it will be 2/3 of the semester!!! Keep your chin up and you both will do great! Sounds like they liked the winner winner, chicken dinner idea!