First Day in the Classroom

First day of teaching, well, micro-teaching (doing a 20 minute lesson) is complete!

Here's a song that's been on my mind the past few weeks. Written by Chris Rice the song is about little Joe McGuffrey who experiences the difficulties related to a series of first days at school. If you search the song online, it's easy to discover probably only children younger than twelve listen to it, but I feel it's applicable as many of us are experience first days!

Metacognition

I haven't had the same experiences as Joe and I don't have a ton of medical bills, but I do have the realization that I have a lot to learn. I thought I knew enough about teaching and about life to "get-by", yet I'm realizing how little I really do know. Today, I realized that lesson plans really are useful and that more planning before class means there is a smaller chance of being caught off guard while in class. 

Here's to a good practice round in the classroom!
(The paper is one of my props from the degrees of disagreement I did a lesson about.)

Blue skies in the morning, blue skies all day!

You don’t realize how much you appreciate something until you don’t have it for a time. We’ve been blessed to have two pleasant blue sky days in the last few days. It has helped ease the anxiousness accompanied with once again packing and moving to a new city. This is the view from our hotel. The clouds have just started to come in towards the early evening hours. 

Next week we will have a new view from our windows. 

Chi-span-glish

Welcome to my day!

This is the view from behind me.

 No classes. Slept in. Packed a backpack for a nice, quiet day at the park. The bench I selected was off the common walkway. Not a soul in sight (except for the small tent in the distance and one boy climbing trees). I was enjoying some much needed alone time with my Creator. I was singing some songs ("All My Devotion" by Kristine Mueller) when I heard it: "Hello?"

This is the view in front of me.

I looked up and saw before me a Chinese man looking expectantly for a response from me. Little did I know that saying "Ni hao" back to him would result in an almost three hour long conversation using four languages. 

Little did I know I was like the Chinese child climbing the trees. Taking a leap and not sure where I might land. 

Language learning is not easy for me. I love learning new languages and cultures, but it seems my brain has one file folder labeled: FOREIGN. In any situation English seems inappropriate, my brain goes to the FOREIGN folder and pulls out any file that could maybe work. Today was a prime example.

How Lora's brain pieces together sentences in China: 

1. Fill in all the applicable Chinese vocabulary words.
2. Review sentence, if necessary words such as: a verb, a subject, because or but are missing then, go to Step 3. 
3. Put in some Spanish or English (whatever comes to mind first, preference for Spanish because it's more commonly also in the FOREIGN folder) to complete the sentence. 

Generally this process elicits even more confused looks than just saying "Wo ting bu dong" ("I hear you, but I don't understand")! Only today, the Chinese man knew Spanish too!

Thus, our conversation started. Our conversation was primarily in Spanish (both of us are low level Spanish speakers). Aside from really giving my brain a workout and muddling all the languages together we were able to communicate most effectively in Spanish because the sentences remained very basic.

Meet my conversation partner: Chen.

Topics of the discussion (all selected by him):

Polici-ar, FBI, CIA --- He kept bringing these up. My response - Wo ting bu dong.

Where are you from? - Me: Wo zai Meiguo. Wo shi Meiguoren. (I am from America. I am American.)

Him: "Que es tu trabajo?" - Me: "Wo shi lao shi"

Him: "In Spanish, Tu soy amigos?" Me: "Yes, Wo you 40 pengyou (I have 40 friends)" Him: "Oh, you single. Sing-Guhl haha."

Him: You will back at this same place tomorrow? - Me: No, I don't think so. Dui buqi (I'm sorry).

Him: You eat lunch. You eat with me. - Me: Oh, xie xie. I have (point to the food in my lap).

Him: I take your picture. - Me: Uh.... okay, (get out my own camera and also take a picture).

Me: "Como se dice <insert Spanish or English word> in Chinese?" Him: "Uh, <Spanish word> soy <Chinese word>."

Order of Conversation: Many of the above sentences were said on repeat. Eventually, he said good bye in four languages, Chinese, English, Spanish and French and walked away. By this point it was steadily drizzling/raining so most things were wet despite the trees. I returned my attention to my music ("And Now My Lifesong Sings" by Casting Crowns was playing). I was journaling and Book reading. Maybe ten minutes later I saw the feet in front of me again. He was back, this time with two ice cream cones and a cheesy grin. 

So, Mr. Chen thank you for the ice cream. I'm glad you were able to practice some English and Spanish. The afternoon was much different after meeting you.

I Made A Friend

Remember the first day of school experience?

Backpack is loaded with a boxes of Kleenex and of graham crackers. 

Your outfit was carefully selected and laid out the night before.

You "slept" or should we say had your eyes closed the night before in giddy excitement to experience this whole new world with new friends in a new environment. 

For some us, this experience has only happened once or maybe several times. For some this time was years ago, but for others this is a recent or soon to be recent event.

How do you handle these 'first time' experiences? What thoughts go through your mind just before you step onto the school bus, open the door to your new office building or enter the classroom on the first day?

Here are some of mine: 
A) Am I adequately prepared? Am I equipped for this adventure?
B) What will people think? Will they be kind, will they want to be my friend? How will they perceive me?
C) How will I portray myself? Will I be the farm girl from Kansas? Will I be bold or shy?

Did you ever experience the concern,

"What if I never make a friend?"

Can friendships be made?

Do they just happen?

What does friendship look like?

Is friendship important?

I am discovering that friendships take time. They require investment and a mutual desire by both parties to risk to be known. For me it has taken about a week to finally come back to my room and with a beaming smile say to myself (my mom's not here, so I couldn't tell her), "I made a friend today!"

These are some of my friends. I love introducing new friends to old friends!

It's more like coming home!

It has been interesting to observe how different people adjust to a new culture. For me, this experience has been more like I'm just coming home. Our first week has been more relaxed to help adjust through the jet lag. This has allowed for us to experience some of the the city. This has included visiting tea shops, eating baozi from a street vendor and  buying some awesome bunny ears (yes, I've seen nationals wear these with pride, I did myself yesterday too!). Next week our classes start, but I'm sure we'll still have time to enjoy new friendships!

Meet our team: "Every bunny smile!"

Hello China!

We've crossed the Ocean!!!! Hello China!!!


For my friends reading this in the States we're now living in your tomorrow. Our team commented that we never really had a Tuesday because we boarded the plane late Monday night and arrived here Wednesday morning. I'm grateful for the smooth flights. I think I was able to sleep off and on for maybe 4-5 hours (so that's better than nothing)! My motion sickness only started to kick in right at the end of the long flight. 


It's been fun getting to know our teammates. Trying my best to learn everyone's names. It was interesting to watch the journey yesterday and see how by the time we all reached Los Angles we were just glad to be there. There seemed to be a great peace about just sitting together even though we were all almost too worn out for discussions. 


I don't feel like everything has sunk in for me. Maybe by the time we step out of the airport in Beijing it'll hit home! This week is going to be interesting! Some of my Chinese language skills are coming back, so that's great! Hoping the adjustment process goes well and that I am am able to learn more about being an effective teacher!