The children are absolutely adorable! We got to the school late last night and awoke at 6:20 to the morning wake-up song, which ironically was Lullaby and Goodnight. One minute later, hundreds of children were running around the school yard, preforming morning exercises and the day had begun. (Picture #1)
The neighborhood where we are staying is much poorer than where we were staying before in the city, but I think it is quite beautiful (Picture # 2). At the entrance to one especially poor area outside the school, there is a retractable fence an guard controlling who can and cannot go inside.
Here at school, we taught almost all day. We taught a lesson today on "How Not to Sound like a Chinese textbook," teaching them expressions like "What's up?" and less common responses to "how are you?". Speaking no Chinese, I had a lot of fun playing up the gesticulation and crazy facial expressions. "Good, great, WONDERFUL EXCELLENT!!" I said, my voice getting higher and more excited and my face stretching with a giant smile as I threw my hands up in the air. It was pretty fun, and the kids laughed too.We also had a lesson on not being afraid to speak English, which consisted of getting me to awkwardly try to pronounce Chinese words for ten minutes. Shuh-Lin-fuh-shu-muh-gu-doh, I struggled, hearing that the sound they were making was not what I was doing, but being at a complete loss on how to make the sound.
In the afternoon, we had sessions, and I helped teach outdoor activities. We did Simon says and basketball. The children are so disciplined. They have school from 7:30 until dinner and then more studying until bed. They line up in perfectly straight lines and they are very polite and excited to learn. It is going to be a great week
Until tomorrow!
Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment