Why did I have to open my mouth?

This week I had a new student in my class and when they introduced themselves they had hair around their face and to their chin, a high voice, and their English name was joyment. So I thought they were a girl. I handed them my attendance sheet and asked them to write their name in pinyin, their english name and their gender. That was plenty of information for them to fill out the form, but I had to keep talking and when I said write your gender I said and obviously female. There was no point for that comment, and when I got the paper back I was in shock b/c it said male. I thought since this is a lower class that they were just confused and did not understand the word gender. As the class went on I realized that he really was a male, and I felt terrible b/c he is so nice and answers questions in class and was very friendly and I called him a girl. Why was it necessary for me to say obviously female!

Oh how I love my job

This semester I was given all new classes and all new students. I am teaching all juniors which I was really nervous about at first because I have had some discipline issues with the juniors I already teach. However, I now teach the upper level juniors and it is a completely different world. They are excited about learning, are into the activities in class, and they actually take notes.

But besides them paying attention, I have had a lot of fun getting to know them the last few weeks. I have been able to help them with English work outside of class and many students stay after class to talk and practice their English. My students really bring joy to my day and really remind me why I am here teaching. Even my more difficult classes have really started to talk to me more. I also, have almost memorized 14 classes English names. That is a lot of names that I have floating around in my head, I can recognize and call them by name in class but I have to work on recognizing them outside of class.

We also got to bath with baby elephants.

In Malaysia we were able to ride elephants and then we could get on an elephant and he would take us in the water and fall over with us on it. It was quite scary, I felt like I was going to be under the elephant in the water but it was a lot of fun.

Back in Beijing

I am back in Beijing, and I started teaching this week. I had an amazing break, I was able to do a lot of traveling and I had an amazing time at home in America. However, I am so glad to be back and teaching again, six weeks off is a bit too much. It really kills your motivation to do anything. I enjoyed coming back to my apartment and seeing all my friends and students again.

This semester will be a lot different because they gave me all new classes. Our school changed how many class periods we have so I no longer teach seniors, I only teach juniors. I was not sure how this semester would go at first b/c the juniors I taught last semester were a real challenge. But after having my classes this week, I am so excited about the semester, my kids are a blast and I am having fun with them already. The only thing that stinks is I only see them once a week, so I have to work extra hard on memorizing their names.

My story of the week is about my first class on Monday. I let the kids ask me questions on the first day, and they all want to know how old I am and if I have a boyfriend. But in my first class instead of asking if I had a boyfriend they asked if I have a lover. This question came from a seventh grader who looks like he is about 10 and it was just hilarious.