Laura is a beautiful!


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November 30th 2005
Published: December 1st 2005
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Thursday morning and here I am, squatting on my maja (little Chinese stool), head stuck into the closet where my computer is now located, drinking my milk tea and finishing the last of a PB and J sandwich on stale bread. What a morning. I taught at the college, a completely unprepared class, as lately my mind's been preoccupied with other things.

"Other things" mainly being this afternoon's class. Long story, but I have time, so here it is.

The program we use in our Childrens' Department is a program very unique in China. It's originally from Korea and the only schools that use it in China are schools who go through Shanda (our school) to get the materials. The program has different modules and topics anywhere from beginners "My Face" and "Colours" to "After School Activities" and "Going to My Friend's Place" at the more advanced level. We use a combination of a classbook and homebook, flashcards, posters, a Big Book for stories, and we have an interactive CD that the kids can use at home to learn the words, story, songs, etc. Really unique.

So.

The English program that is currently most highly recommended in Kindergartens across Shandong province is the Cambridge Childrens' English Program. And programs like our CEC program are secondary and usually offered for children in private English centers, like the JAC and Little Sunshine, where I teach on weekends. The Shandong government recently reviewed the Cambridge English program and decided that they wanted to change which program is used in the kindergartens. So a representative from the Education Department was sent to observe Richard, Jon, and myself each teach about 40 minutes of our program in a regular classroom setting.

We were warned well enough in time to prepare, but plans changed a few times and next thing I knew, I was told I'd be teaching a class with no flashcards and no CD ROM. Fantastic. So I spent my day off making home-made flashcards and planning the best lesson I could to impress the woman who'd be observing us. Observation day came, and my class was amazing. Everything just went very well. She then watched Jon teach and started to observe Richard, but left half-way through his 40 minutes. She'd already made a decision.

She chose me. Chose me for what? Chose me to do a demonstration class at a big convention, in front of over 250 Chinese teachers from all across Shandong province.. to represent our program. That's this afternoon. In... a couple of hours.

If I do well, the CEC program will replace Cambridge as the most highly recommended childrens' English program in Shandong and will be used in kindergartens across the province. This demo class will also be recorded on videotape to use as a training video. And might be televised.

Needless to say, there is a lot of pressure for me to do well today. We've prepared very well I think, I've met the kids I'll be teaching... they're brilliant. It's only half an hour, but I know once I'm up there, those 30 minutes will feel like forever, and I need to time things just perfectly.

It's time to go. Good or bad, I'll let you know how it turns out.




As for other news...

. the Roommate saga continues
. girls night out with Sophia.. Jenny's, palm readings by Allen, walking in the cold, and talks about love and loves lost
. i was stickered to death by favourite class at JAC, while they chanted,

Laura is a beautiful. Laura is a beautiful.

. Not beautiful. Not a beauty. A beautiful.
. somehow overnight, Carrefour was transformed into the "Jinan Christmas headquarters". Glittery snowflakes hanging from the roof, decorations galore, wrapping paper, stars, lights, Christmas trees of all sizes... all overly gaudy and tacky. Add the Carrefour workers in santa hats and some Christmas carols to enjoy while shopping for tacky decorations and you've got the Carrefour Christmas experience. Would you like that gift wrapped?



More random observations:

The mullet. I may have mentioned this before, but it's worthy enough to be mentioned again. Some of the Chinese girls here have the craziest mullets I've ever seen. I mean serious business, serious party. I'll try to get a picture.

Bike balancing. Everywhere you look, people here are riding bicycles. Thank god, because if they all drove cars, that would mean more pollution, more traffic, more road rage (though it's not so common here as it is in Canada), more accidents and more chaos all around. But everywhere you look, there are two to a bike. One pedaling and one balancing on the back. The balancer is usually a girlfriend or a child, but I guess it's something that must be learned at a very young age because there is no way I could balance on the back of a bike. Trust me, Danny and I tried. I ended up walking.

I commented last post about the guy I saw puking out of a cab. Pretty rare, I thought. This past weekend, driving home from JAC... sure as shit I look over to see a guy hurl out the window of a passing van. I suppose these things are common in China?



And again, any new pictures can be found here.

One month, nine days of work left.
Two months minus one day and I'll be home.

The countdown is on.



Laura





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1st December 2005

laura's a tv star? killer!
1st December 2005

Oh my!
G'luck gal! See, that is why bein' a under-achiever is sometimes best :D

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