Every morning, our alarm clock was set a little later each time. Our breakfast eaten by us decreased each time, as the novelty of waking up in a new hotel with a small buffet breakfast wore off.
We would make our way to the school in small groups.. most of the time normally....
But sometimes, when you're in a city full of people that don't know you... well its a chance to be a little silly.
In the morning, from 8.30 to 11.30, were the core lessons.
All the trainees (the English teachers we were training) were split into groups by the age of students they taught, and secondly their ability.
I was a teaching assistant in Class 2A, which were Junior high teachers, the half of higher ability. First half of the lesson would involve some sort of English game, such as build-a-word, or writing poems by filling out blanks....
Did I mention about the technology..?
You see that whiteboard thing.... and that computer thing I'm controlling . They are annoying. The little cursor thing likes to forget I'm supposed to be controlling it, and starts doing some stupid vibrating dance in random areas of the screen.
Oh, and you know most plugs have three 'teeth', the one behind me, which has all the power going to the computer system, has two teeth. And it does not work if the plug is completely in the socket, there needs to be a gap of about 2mm.
So, every time I get all the powerpoints, or internet pages loaded up, I lean on the plug, and *zoom*, the whole power turns off.
It is so frustrating.
There would be 10 minute break in the morning, where this woman in my class would go all the way down the stairs (silly, she would to climb up again), and stand in the middle of a basketball court to make a phone call. Most of the teachers just refilled their water bottles and chatted, and texted and made calls, although a lot of them just did that in class too.
The second half of the morning, our class were split into two. One half would be taken by Jacque, and the other half taken by Susana. I wandered around the two, 'helping', or I would sit the staffroom writing poetry. I am not a pretentious poet, in fact, I have no patience for poetry, unless I am forced to study it in class. I wrote the poems for future use in classes, with the help of an online rhyming dictionary.
At 11:30, everyone was dismissed for a lunch break. The trainers would go to a restaurant, which consisted of several rooms in a house-like home. (They did explain to me that the restaurant was located in a home, to save costs).
And if you're immature, you can play with the finished food.
The afternoon session started at 2pm, so at the beginning of the week most of us would go back to the hotel. Some took a nap, and some, well, sat about and read and killed time. By the third day I could not uphold not taking a nap any longer, and fell blissfully asleep while the Olympics was playing in the background.
In the end, instead of going back to the hotel, we just went back to the auditorium. And sang. Very very loudly.
Because we had access to microphones.... I'm pretty sure this is what I dreamed for when I was a little kid, having microphones...
According to the timetable... 2:00 to 2:15 was time for roll call.
Aaaaand, 2:15 to 2:45 was announcements & singing English songs... so basically singing!
The first song we sang was 500 miles. I liked that song. And in the first week we also sang Donna Donna (awfully dreary, rhythm is horrible, complicated, no likey), and Words ( which is a Bee Gees song, the only Bee Gees song I knew was Stayin' Alive, and I also thought they weren't that famous. This shows how much music knowledge I really don't have.)
I sang along, quite happily, though I cannot say the same for those who heard me sang.
On different days we did different activities in the afternoon.
On day 2, we started watching the movie 'Sound of Music'. But it was too bright, (the Sun is always shining in China, unlike Wales, except when there are clouds, or its raining, or it night), so the trainees could not see the projection clearly.
On day 3, there was a plenary led by Dorothy...
This is Dorothy on the left.
Her topic was 'Teachers speak less, students speak more.'
For example, the use of substitution or pattern drills.
You would begin with a sentence, with which the students will repeat, and then a single word or a phrase within that very sentence and be replaced or altered. This sentence can than be repeated as new sentence.
Afterwards there was a conversation session, in which each of the 19 teachers would be allocated a room in a unused building, which was once a school, and around 6-10 trainees.
This is the classroom I had... obviously, when I held the conversation session, there were people there. I moved the chairs and tables into a small circle at the front of the classroom. The first class I had was a group of female teachers, who really wanted to go home.
I wanted to play a simple game, which involved each teacher saying one sentence at a time, to string a short story together. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood the concept (I knew they didn't understand, I should have never told them I did not understand mandarin, they took to conferring with each other in their secret languages)
In the end we ended up with a story about a supermarket, with this guy who didn't know if he was stealing a wallet, or losing a wallet, or neither.
Oh, and I got bitten by lots of mosquitoes in that classroom.
And when I told them they could go home 5 minutes early only if they put away all the chairs and tables, they could not understand, even when I spoke the slowest. Which meant I ended up doing tai chi to demonstrate and mime the actions.
Day 4
Everyone watched the rest of the movie 'Sound of Music'. We had plastered bin bags over some of the windows, so you could actually watch the movie.
After the movie, the trainees were split into their classes again, for further discussion on the movie.
The announcement was made that if the headteacher of the individual classes chose to, the trainees could go home.
For our class, they voted on their favourite song, which would be the song to sing in the next day's morning lesson.
Day 5
The main part of the afternoon was a plenary led by Dr. Diana King.
It was about the phonology in English, which is a branch of linguistics all about the systematic organization of the sounds in a certain language. Which was very interesting to learn about how all the different sounds are made and grouped.
After that, there was another conversation session, which I actually enjoyed very much, as the group I had were the most advanced and could actually speak English well. We managed to have a conversation about things ranging from life in Britain to the Chinese government.
Day 6
On day 6 we started watching the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus', everyone told me it was going to be a real tearjerker.
Thank heavens they stopped the movie halfway, before I could get too emotional. Though I did have tissues in my pocket just in case.
Aaaaand, at the midway of a beautiful movie, was the end of the first half of the program. With the next day an actual day off, a relief for all trainers and trainees.
We would make our way to the school in small groups.. most of the time normally....
But sometimes, when you're in a city full of people that don't know you... well its a chance to be a little silly.
In the morning, from 8.30 to 11.30, were the core lessons.
All the trainees (the English teachers we were training) were split into groups by the age of students they taught, and secondly their ability.
I was a teaching assistant in Class 2A, which were Junior high teachers, the half of higher ability. First half of the lesson would involve some sort of English game, such as build-a-word, or writing poems by filling out blanks....
Did I mention about the technology..?
You see that whiteboard thing.... and that computer thing I'm controlling . They are annoying. The little cursor thing likes to forget I'm supposed to be controlling it, and starts doing some stupid vibrating dance in random areas of the screen.
Oh, and you know most plugs have three 'teeth', the one behind me, which has all the power going to the computer system, has two teeth. And it does not work if the plug is completely in the socket, there needs to be a gap of about 2mm.
So, every time I get all the powerpoints, or internet pages loaded up, I lean on the plug, and *zoom*, the whole power turns off.
It is so frustrating.
There would be 10 minute break in the morning, where this woman in my class would go all the way down the stairs (silly, she would to climb up again), and stand in the middle of a basketball court to make a phone call. Most of the teachers just refilled their water bottles and chatted, and texted and made calls, although a lot of them just did that in class too.
The second half of the morning, our class were split into two. One half would be taken by Jacque, and the other half taken by Susana. I wandered around the two, 'helping', or I would sit the staffroom writing poetry. I am not a pretentious poet, in fact, I have no patience for poetry, unless I am forced to study it in class. I wrote the poems for future use in classes, with the help of an online rhyming dictionary.
At 11:30, everyone was dismissed for a lunch break. The trainers would go to a restaurant, which consisted of several rooms in a house-like home. (They did explain to me that the restaurant was located in a home, to save costs).
And if you're immature, you can play with the finished food.
The afternoon session started at 2pm, so at the beginning of the week most of us would go back to the hotel. Some took a nap, and some, well, sat about and read and killed time. By the third day I could not uphold not taking a nap any longer, and fell blissfully asleep while the Olympics was playing in the background.
In the end, instead of going back to the hotel, we just went back to the auditorium. And sang. Very very loudly.
Because we had access to microphones.... I'm pretty sure this is what I dreamed for when I was a little kid, having microphones...
According to the timetable... 2:00 to 2:15 was time for roll call.
Aaaaand, 2:15 to 2:45 was announcements & singing English songs... so basically singing!
The first song we sang was 500 miles. I liked that song. And in the first week we also sang Donna Donna (awfully dreary, rhythm is horrible, complicated, no likey), and Words ( which is a Bee Gees song, the only Bee Gees song I knew was Stayin' Alive, and I also thought they weren't that famous. This shows how much music knowledge I really don't have.)
I sang along, quite happily, though I cannot say the same for those who heard me sang.
On different days we did different activities in the afternoon.
On day 2, we started watching the movie 'Sound of Music'. But it was too bright, (the Sun is always shining in China, unlike Wales, except when there are clouds, or its raining, or it night), so the trainees could not see the projection clearly.
On day 3, there was a plenary led by Dorothy...
Her topic was 'Teachers speak less, students speak more.'
For example, the use of substitution or pattern drills.
You would begin with a sentence, with which the students will repeat, and then a single word or a phrase within that very sentence and be replaced or altered. This sentence can than be repeated as new sentence.
Afterwards there was a conversation session, in which each of the 19 teachers would be allocated a room in a unused building, which was once a school, and around 6-10 trainees.
I wanted to play a simple game, which involved each teacher saying one sentence at a time, to string a short story together. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood the concept (I knew they didn't understand, I should have never told them I did not understand mandarin, they took to conferring with each other in their secret languages)
In the end we ended up with a story about a supermarket, with this guy who didn't know if he was stealing a wallet, or losing a wallet, or neither.
Oh, and I got bitten by lots of mosquitoes in that classroom.
And when I told them they could go home 5 minutes early only if they put away all the chairs and tables, they could not understand, even when I spoke the slowest. Which meant I ended up doing tai chi to demonstrate and mime the actions.
Day 4
Everyone watched the rest of the movie 'Sound of Music'. We had plastered bin bags over some of the windows, so you could actually watch the movie.
After the movie, the trainees were split into their classes again, for further discussion on the movie.
The announcement was made that if the headteacher of the individual classes chose to, the trainees could go home.
For our class, they voted on their favourite song, which would be the song to sing in the next day's morning lesson.
Day 5
The main part of the afternoon was a plenary led by Dr. Diana King.
It was about the phonology in English, which is a branch of linguistics all about the systematic organization of the sounds in a certain language. Which was very interesting to learn about how all the different sounds are made and grouped.
After that, there was another conversation session, which I actually enjoyed very much, as the group I had were the most advanced and could actually speak English well. We managed to have a conversation about things ranging from life in Britain to the Chinese government.
Day 6
On day 6 we started watching the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus', everyone told me it was going to be a real tearjerker.
Thank heavens they stopped the movie halfway, before I could get too emotional. Though I did have tissues in my pocket just in case.
Aaaaand, at the midway of a beautiful movie, was the end of the first half of the program. With the next day an actual day off, a relief for all trainers and trainees.
