Government Calling

A little fact you may not know about the school I teach at here in Changzhou is that it is in fact an experimental school. In being so they are allowed to branch out beyond the strict guidelines set for other schools and kind of do their own thing. However, in order to gain such a standing they have to submit to a yearly inspection to check up on their progress. It was our luck that this years inspection happened to be this last week. As part of the inspection we ILP teachers were asked to be part of a performance that many of the teachers and students would be putting together for the government officials who would be coming.

On previous occasions we had performed a "fashion show" for the kids to the popular Lady Gaga song Bad Romance. It basically consists of us strutting our stuff across the stage dressed in wild attire and then doing a little dance number. It's definitely a crowd pleaser especially since LG is kind of a big deal around here. They also wanted to take 8 of us and teach us an extra dance to a Chinese song that is very well known called Mo Li Hua. It's a love song that they say every Chinese child knows. It was a couple dance so our four boys participated and then four girls one of which was me.

One of my favorite things about our performance this last Wednesday was waiting down below the stage with the kids. They asked us to be down there right after lunch but as it turned out we had a good while until the show actually started. So to pass the time we played with all of the kids who would be doing their own numbers for the show. Now surprisingly enough one of the favorite pastimes of the children here is getting into pretend "gun fights" with us foriegn teachers. They consist of each side dipping into their personal arsenal of rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, and pretty much any other conceivable weapon, and shooting deadly missiles at each other while dodging behind pretend fortifications, dying multiple times and occasionally coming back as brain eating zombies to chase down the offending party. Yeah, you can say it, we have the coolest kids ever I know ;)

We also played a fun version of rock, paper, scissors that the kids taught us which involves attempting to stomp on the losers feet, and we taught a group of them how to play ninja which they very much got in to. The show itself was fun and it went well, but my favorite memories will forever be of those two hours just goofing off with those sweet kids.

In addition to the performance the school requested that three of us ELE teachers teach a lesson in front of the officials. Previously I was asked to teach a lesson in front of a bunch of the school's teachers as an example of how ELE works so I was not surprised when they asked me to be one of the teachers for the visit. I love my ELE classes so I wasn't too nervous, but the class I was going to teach was not one of my regular classes and the teacher over them told me that they tended to be more quiet and shy, so that made me a little more apprehensive. Luckily, the Chinese teacher for the class asked me to come the night before to meet the kids and introduce myself so that they would know me when I came to teach the next day. It was the best thing they could have done. I had a ton of fun just goofing off with the kids and talking to them for a good half hour. Turns out they are hilarious kids and one boy turned out to be a kid I had seen around campus who always tries to break your hand when he high-fives you. He's my favorite ;)

The next morning I arrived just before 9 o'clock and all the kids got super excited when I walked in the door. They kind of made me feel like a celebrity. Since I was already so at ease with them the lesson went super well. I went around and high-fived kids who were doing really well so they all participated and weren't nervous at all. It was one of my favorite lessons I've ever taught. Afterwards one of the lady's from the government came up to me with a big snile on her face and started talking to me in Chinese which another teacher quickly translated for me. The lady said that she though I was an amazing teacher and that it was obvious that the kids really loved me. She said she recognized me from the performance the night before and thought I was a very happy and upbeat person. She even asked if she could take a picture with me.

The next day at lunch one of the school coordinators who works with us named Anna came up to me and told me that everyone was talking about how amazing my lesson was and how all the kids loved me. She told me that I should consider coming back to China to be a paid teacher someday. Later the Chinese teacher over the class I had taught (April) told me that her kids had told her that they thought I was crazy and that they absolutely loved me. It was kind of a really good week :D

And you know, when Anna was talking to me about being a teacher someday I told her I might just have to consider it ;)