Second Week of School-Name Bingo
- So last week I gave them all English names, now I wanted to make
them use them
- I decided that if they ever decide to go to America, they had to
know what Bingo was so I made a Bingo template with character traits instead of
numbers, and I told them that they have to find a person who matches that
character trait and have that person fill in the box with their English name in
order for that Bingo square to count
- Explaining Bingo definitely wasn’t as much fun as watching them play
it
- Because my Chinese is at best “ok” I only did an “ok” job of
explaining how to actually play but after I actually played it with them, then
they sort of got it.
- It was only when I said, “Alright, who’s Chinese?” and after the all
raised their hand, I went over and I picked one of them and put their English
name in the Bingo box, then I asked “OK, who likes bitter melon?” and after
only seeing one girl like it, I went over to her and filled her name in the box
and all of the students in the class went “ohhhhhh”
- Watching them play name Bingo was actually kind of fun
- It was fun watching the really competitive kids run screaming around
the room “WHO LIKES SWIMMING!? WHO LIKES SWIMMING?! WHY DOESN’T ANYONE LIE
SWIMMING?!”
- My first graders are still a work in progess
- These kids just came from Kindergarten so they have no idea about
things/concepts such as:
- Lining up in a straight line even with the help of a straight line
- It’s not polite to pick your nose when the teacher’s talking to you
- I have one student who will just sit in class and just make noises
just for the sake of making noises. I know he doesn’t want attention because as
soon as I look at him, he just has this quizical look on his face like “Why are
you looking at me?”
- Giving sickness warning signs
- I remember looking at a kid and the student looked fine even though
she was staring with a really stoic face at the front of the classroom where
nobody was at the time and then I turn my head and not two seconds later I hear
“Blaaaaaaah”
- I didn't realize it was humanly possible to cry so hard a blood vessel in your nose will burst until this week
- I'm trying to change discipline systems now because maybe the "three strikes and your out" system might be too harsh so now I'm trying the "happy bar"
- It's a bar scaled from 1 to 10 and every day the students start off at 5
- If they're good, I move the bar up and if it reaches 10, then we have free time
- If they're bad, I move the bar down and if it reaches 1, they have to read the vocab list out loud and then the bar moves to 2
- Well one 3rd grader thought that this move from individual punishment to collective punishment meant he had free reign
- Well he was wrong
- After telling him 5 TIMES to sit in his seat while I explained something, he wouldn't do it so I just grabbed his schoolbag and told him, "I'm going to send your mom a text message, tell her to meet me at this school, and I'll will criticize you in front of her (which is effective because then the mother will criticize them in more standard Mandarin Chinese so I'll know that the kid understands)
- So I kicked him out of the class, told him to wait for me at his home room teacher's office, and I thought that was the end of it
- Well I was wrong
- He ended up just sitting outside of the doorway on the ground crying as loud as he could
- I (and the rest of my class) were ignoring him just fine until one student said, "Teacher, he's bleeding"
- And that's when I thought "oh...no"
- Sure enough, this kid was gushing blood out of his nose and I thought it was because he hit himself or something
- We went to the nurse and that's when we found out that his family has a history of nose bleeders
- I still took his bookbag and I still met with his mom that very night, but at that moment I was scared to death.
- Problems our students face
- Because I work in a relatively poor part of Futian District, even
though it’s way nicer than any poor part of America, we have problems that not
a lot of other schools face in our district.
- Most of our students are sons or daughters of migrant workers who
usually
- Can’t speak English.
- Don’t have the resources to provide their students with tutoring
services that richer students’ parents can
- Usually don’t have a high level of education themselves which isn’t
that much of a problem for elementary school students but that will be a
problem once they go on to higher grades
- Don’t have access to the internet or devices with cd playing
capabilities so when students can’t practice their listening skills they’re at
a big disadvantage compared to other students in other schools in this district
- But at least our school is doing its best to eliminate the educational inequality in our schools
- Every student has access to computer class once they get to 3rd grade so that they aren't as behind from their wealthier peers when it comes to information technology than if they had no computer class
- All of our classes have flat-screen TV's or large screen projectors and the latest education software available
- There's a lot of extra-curricular activities where students can join bird-watching clubs (our school's bird-watching club won first place in Shenzhen last year-REPRESENT!)
- That last point doesn't really help eradicate educational inequality but it does prove that even though the students at our school don't have the same access to information that students at other schools have but we still compete with the big boys
- English week activities
- So Shui Wei elementary school is going to plan an English week in
November and I need help from people who have any bright ideas about
activities.
- My ideas are:
- Create an English Honors Society that mirrors the French Honors
Society and Spanish Honors Society that exist in America
- Essay competition
- 1st-3rd graders write an analyze a famous
English quote and how it applies to their lives
- 4th-6th graders write about their favorite things and 3
reasons why
- Invite a group of foreign dance experts to give a performance
- Have a “Make words with your body” competition
Teacher’s Day gifts
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