Friday, December 27, 2019

END OF TEACHING

Two semesters, 10 months and thousands of classes later, yesterday I finished teaching at my school in China. Having taught well over 1,200 students in my time at Shishijiaxing Foreign Language School, I have learnt so much about myself as a teacher and about the work ethic of students in China. It has been such an honour to watch them grow in confidence and ability since February this year, and I am so proud of myself for helping make that happen. 


I started teaching in February, not having a clue what I was doing! Found myself creating lessons and PPTs that weren’t particularly useful or helpful in any way but was just getting by on the basis that the kids loved having a foreigner teach them, and they didn’t care what I taught them! My first semester was a bit of a mess as I was just trying to find my feet with it and enjoy my new job. Like anything new, I made mistakes and learnt from them. The most challenging thing I found was trying to make lessons cater to the ability of everyone in the class. Within a classroom of any grade, there were some students that thrived and took any opportunity they could to practice their English with me, and then there were others that shied away, and whose English was so poor that they would not understand basic instructions or phrases.

I worked a lot harder in my second semester to make lessons easier for some students and more challenging for others. I found that my students were quickly learning from grammatical mistakes that they had been making for a lot of the previous semester. And I was making more of an effort to remember their names; although that is very hard when you teach over 1,000 students a week! 

There is nothing quite like the sensation of entering the school gates every morning and having students chanting my name because of how excited they are to see me! It’s a surreal feeling and makes me wonder if I’ll miss it! Although I certainly won’t miss my primary school students barricading me in the classrooms every afternoon because they don't want me to leave! 

It has been so much fun being a Laoshi (老师) here in China, and I am sad this chapter has come to an end. But I am so grateful for all the memories I have made and gifts I have received. 

I look forward to giving my students a surprise visit when I take another trip to Chengdu in the future!  

Bobbi 老师 

B x 
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