Being on the teaching end of class has taught us a few lessons – the main ones being that we now understand why teachers have teacher’s pets and that teaching is as much a motivational challenge as it is about passing on knowledge. While teaching isn’t difficult itself, it is extremely draining – and of course there is the preparation that goes on outside out paid hours.The advantages in relation to school include the fact that our schedules are identical, which means we have all our spare time off together, and that we teach the same level and can thus prepare for classes together.
Our students are second year students attempting to prepare themselves for attending Canadian Universities for the final two years of their study – it is our role to prepare them for the test they need to pass to get into international universities. So after saying goodbye to our university studies, we now have textbooks in our possession once more.
The first week of teaching was full of up and downs – the students who try in class reward our efforts, while those who couldn't care less leave us frustrated. Some students are clearly ready for their overseas experience, while others will get a harsh reality check once they arrive in Canada (if they make it).
Mondays and Wednesdays are both 8-hour days with an 8am start and a 6pm finish – the only saviour is the 2 hour lunch break between the four 2-hour classes. Basically we just try our hardest to survive these days but still provide the last class with at least an ounce of enthusiasm.
Tuesdays and Fridays are our 4-hour days, and we get to relax/plan classes on our day off on Thursdays! The weekends are true weekends, where we have time to ourselves to do our own thing in our way, except for late Sunday night when we enter cram mode in preparation for the week’s lessons. The excellent thing about our Friday classes, is that we have the ability to have the four hours jammed into Tuesdays, giving us a four day weekend to adlib our way around the China we haven’t seen yet.
After living in permanent weekend mode for months on end, where days were just numbers to us, our first ‘weekend’ (as in, a break from the working week) couldn’t come too soon! It seems we had adapted to the “do what you what when you want” way of living with ease, and now have to somehow struggle our way back into our new working life of schedules and class plans.
So when Saturday arrived we spent our time in similar fashion to the prologue week, by exploring the town and indulging in some shopping along the way. On Thursday we had attempted to go shopping, but ended up at a huge and expensive mall underneath the City Square (the Silver Plaza), which had just reopened after falling victim to the massive floods that wrecked havoc on the Chinese population. The same floods also wrecked havoc on our minds during our travels as we watched future destinations of ours feature in the news (underwater). As the prices in the Silver Plaza were comparable to prices at home, we had left empty handed with that feeling you get after setting out to spend money but not finding anything to buy!
For our second attempt at shopping, we armed ourselves with one of our students who was keen to practice his English. This resulted in an informative tour of shopping and eating spots around town, and seven hours later we returned home with bags full of goodies! Our main purchases for the day were computer-based accessories, and once the University fixes the internet (again) we’re geared and ready to skype our friends and family!
Sunday was pretty chilled – we started the day preparing for lessons and then made a brief foray to explore a market we’d passed on our regular bus trips, only a few purchases but we’ll be sure to return!
Adlibing it into the working world.
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