First Day of School – Round 3
September 1, 2008
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So while you’re enjoying your day off for Labor Day, we just finished our first day of hard labor known as school and we both have to admit that we’re pretty tired. We’re seasoned veterans now that we’ve been doing this for a couple of years now, but because we are now the only two foreigners (i.e. “Americans”) working at the school, we’re having to cover the same classes taught by 4 people with only the two of us. In order to do this the school has lowered the number of times we meet each class from four times to three and then just taken all the extra hours and piled it on top of what we were already doing last year.
Don’t get me wrong, though…we’re not complaining! We have more hours than ever, and I’m sure if we were stubborn and mean we could tell the school that we refuse to push ourselves this hard (they will pay us overtime), but we don’t want to do that. One reason is because the school has taken good care of us. I really don’t know how it’s done in other parts of China, but for where we live, our contract, our school, and our living situation is more than just adequate…it’s very nice. We love it here, and right now this is “home”.
Excuse me, I sidetracked. Back to our first day, today consisted of giving English names to all the new kids, introducing ourselves, and getting back into the groove with our previous classes. I (Josh) love the fact that I have taught the same elementary classes 2 years in a row now letting me to see the progress that they’ve been making and knowing exactly what each kid’s strengths and weaknesses are. They in turn know and respect me (I hope) which allows us to hit the ground running with actual lessons instead of boundary-setting.
Tiff’s kindergarten classes are also going smoothly so far, although the usual homesickness will set in soon and then quickly pass. We are a boarding school for some of the students, so Tiff becomes one of many mothers that these children have while their real moms are off working. The kids are adorable and while some kids can be crazy, the majority of them actually catch onto whatever Tiff is teaching.
Well, we’re off to bed now…and it’s quite early for us. As I said, we’re tired. For those of you who forgot where we work or never knew, you can check out a previous post we did on our school here in Xinjiang, Karamay.
Have a great Labor Day!
Josh
Frank
Chinese Nationalist
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