A Happier Jenna

December 14, 2011

I apologize for last week, for any discomfort I caused. I apologize for names I called in a public forum which should have been kept private. It was both unprofessional and unpleasant of me. I have been asked (very understandably) to not use names in the future, so if it gets confusing, I am sorry, but it’s how this is going to go!

So far, this week is much better than last week. I obviously need to find a coping mechanism within me for when days get tough. I have realized that I stop sleeping well, get cranky, and go from bad to worse. I am going to work on fixing it. John and I had a long discussion about ways I can do this. And, I have come to peace with praying, so I will keep doing that as well.

This week we have an easy song for the children, which they have all picked up really fast. Our song competition is in two weeks, and so far, I only have one teacher panicking. Her kids did a practice today and they all did the actions in different ways. She said that last year her class came first in the song competition, and at this rate, they weren’t going to win. We practiced today, and we will practice more tomorrow. Grade twos are doing their competition the 27/28, so we still have time. Next week’s song should be easy as well, so that leaves lots of time for practice. We made DVD’s with all the songs and the actions on it for the teachers, but the teachers haven’t gotten the DVD’s yet. With this DVD, the teachers can keep working on their students while I am not there. The grade ones have their competition next week! Nothing like so little warning! We knew it was coming, but I think we expected it to be during the exam weeks; I know I did.

After all my complaints about last week, my kids are doing better with the song than I expected. I walked into class ten, six days after they heard the song for the first time, after one lesson with the song, and had them do it to see where they were at. They did surprisingly well. I was really impressed. I thought that the DVD must have gone out for them to be that good, but it was either I rocked their one lesson (which is the lesson I was told I needed a meeting after last week), or their teachers worked them hard on it. I have spent this week doing both this week and last week’s song. Everyone agreed that last week’s song will not be done to music, and as long as the kids can say it, it is fine. When that song was recorded, someone read the song, and someone acted it out because even we cannot do it fast enough. So as long as they can do it to the DVD reading, they are fine. They should be able to. And I might suggest that they just do it – not to the DVD or the music, because my kids can do it at the pace I taught them, which might be different than the pace on the DVD. I am really happy with how well they are doing with it! In my fourth lessons this week, we are going to move all the desks, line up and do the song competition in the classroom. I will stop the song and correct if there are children going the wrong way with their actions, or if the words get messed up. Now is the time! And then, because we have practiced so hard, the final exam which starts on the 27th will be a piece of cake! I will still have kids who fail, but that is not for lack of trying on my part!

The school has decided to become a training school to bring in more teaching hours to teachers who want the money. So, on either Friday or Sunday (depending on your schedule), we will each pick up an extra 90 minute class. I have been assigned grade 5. I looked over the material briefly at lunch. I feel like it is such a complete change that I will try to get in to see someone in a higher grade’s lesson before Friday, which very well could be impossible as I have a full day tomorrow and Friday. I have a meeting with Paul tomorrow for more ways to improve my teaching, and I will definitely talk to him about it then as well. Patrick is the other grade 5 teacher for the training school, so I will hopefully meet with him as well. And then we will have a meeting with Paul to discuss. The new lessons will have reading and writing as a part of them, which isn’t a part of our regular lessons which focus on fluency in English. As always, I am nervous about this extra class. Although this week has been really good, I still don’t feel like I am good teacher. My “good bye to shy” course I took online last month told me that I will never succeed if I always compare myself to other people. However, it is so easy to do! Everyone seems like a great teacher, but me. But, then I think about it a little more. In classes I have watched of my peers, I have almost always found something I would take from them for my own lessons, and something I would do differently. Teaching is an individual thing. No one can teach the same; but we can have the same results.

I decided to implement a reward program in my two problem classes. For very good behavior (volunteering answers, trying, doing the actions for the song, being heard singing, not being silly while singing) I will give two stickers on a chart. If I have to talk to a child because they are not listening, are being silly, are not doing anything related to the class, the child will not get any stickers. Everyone else will receive one sticker on the chart. When they get to 50 stickers (a minimum of 25 school days), I will give them a present. I still have lots of Canadian things left, which is what I will start with. I have given the chance to get a present to 70 children so far, so I don’t want it to be expensive. I saw in one class today that the top students in something they do in Chinese got to pick a prize from a bucket. I think I will do something similar. Buy a bunch of fun pencils, or erasers, or small toys, or even candy, and let the child who gets 50 points pick something in front of the rest of the class. I will continue this into the next semester, so by my math, they have a maximum of three prizes they can win. It might be expensive in the long run, but I am determined to reward the good students in those classes. I am thinking about doing it in four of my classes – I have one class that just doesn’t need rewards. This seems almost unfair to me – you are too good to get a present! – but rewards are for those who need it not those who would get it anyways! I might get those kids a small thing at the end of the year (for the whole class) for being awesome. So far, on day two of the system, the kids seem to be doing well. Yesterday I didn’t pinpoint any bad kids and today I started to. I need to remind the kids that if their name goes in the “Bad” column, they can still get their name back to the one sticker column (which doesn’t exist) by being good for the rest of the class. Today, the kids who I listed in the bad column stopped participating at all – whereas if they were good, they could have gotten one sticker! I will remind them of the rules of it tomorrow. I will see at the end of this semester if it is worth implementing in my other classes in February.

I can’t believe it is almost the end of the semester! On December 23, the school is doing a Christmas dinner for us, and we will do our ugly sweaters and gift exchange then. I found a pair of purple leopard print underwear for my Secret Santa and I made him a scarf. The scarf is imperfect, but I still like it, and Krista who croquets said that it was imperfect enough to make it perfect. I still want to buy him something; I guess I better go shopping this weekend. It’s currently my Friday afternoon plan, unless I get lessons on Friday afternoon. We don’t know yet what it looks like for this weekend. If not Friday, I will go Saturday. I have an idea of what I want to buy, but it is 50 RMB on it’s own, and I am already half way to the 50 RMB minimum. I don’t want to spend 100 when everyone else really only spends 50! We get Boxing Day (December 26th for you non-Canadians reading this) off (and I don’t think we are doing training school that weekend), and we also get January 2nd off. Exams start on the 27th and run until January 6th. We are only doing the songs since the midterm, so it will easily fit in those two weeks. Then, we are on holidays for a month! I don’t know how often I will be online in that month, but I will do my best to keep you updated. Our plan for that month is coming together, but it is still tentative while we try to arrange transportation. It’s such a pain in the bum not being able to buy train tickets until 10 days in advance! But, the basic plan is we are going South until the just before the Chinese New Years (which is January 23), and we will be in Yangzhou for the New Year Holiday itself. George and possibly Mike and I are then heading to Harbin, home of the International Snow and Ice Festival (Google it!) where we will find snow cities, ice and snow sculptures around the city. I understand it is Canada cold (-40 and dry), so at least I know how to deal with that! It’s currently -3 and I am so bundled up its ridiculous. I wore my new winter coat on the weekend, but I only worse a long sleeve shirt under it. I was quite cozy. I have been wearing my regular jacket at school, but I have had at least one long sleeve shirt, and possibly a hoodie or sweater on as well. I just don’t know how to deal with damp cold!

That’s about all I know. I wanted to apologize for last week and tell you a little about this week. Thanks for being so patient with me! I really appreciate you all! I love you!

And some new pictures for you:
http://s1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa374/jennamac12/Yangzhou%20Temple%20Day/Georgies%20Temple%20Pictures/

http://s1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa374/jennamac12/Yangzhou%20Temple%20Day/