Almost a Year

Well, as of May 24th I'll have been in China for 11 months.
Almost a year of teaching English.
The only thing I have taught before coming to China was sculpture.
I would like to take this moment to apologize to all of the teachers that have tried to teach me anything in the past.
There is such a thing as KARMA. I've found that out first hand!
I was not an ideal student when I was young(big shock...I know).
I had more than my fair share of time spent in the hall, while class was going on without me.
And I'm sure I drove some of my teachers to an early retirement.
If any of them ever read this blog, they will be happy to hear...I got paid back!
Most students here are very smart.
Their handwriting is excellent and even some of their spelling is better than mine.
It's the ability to pronounce the words that they lack.
That's why I call myself a professor of pronunciation.

But there are those few little monsters that...PAY ME BACK!
Yes, I put them in the hallway and make them put their nose in a circle on the board.
(I had the whitest nose in my class)
If they are disruptive enough, I send them to the teachers office.
And they DON"T want that!
That's one of the first English phrases I taught them."Who wants to go to the teachers office?"
That usually quiets them down.

Anyway, I've learned a lot in the past 11 months. And I hope the kids learned a lot too.

It may seem like it's been all fun and games here in China...but it hasn't!
Teaching is hard work!


"Who likes to eat DOG meat?"



Here are two little guys getting scolded because if poor grades.

Every day, twice a day,everybody does eye exercises.


You need both hands to do eye exercises!


This whole class was being bad, so I had them put their heads down for the last 10 minutes.
Here in China we are told to hit he kids on the head...with a book or something, if they are being bad.
You don't dare do that in America.(Unless you what to lose your house)
I've seen some teachers really smack some kids around!(The ones that need it)
Once, I saw a young girl crying. When I asked her why she was crying, the other kids told me, "That boy hit her".
I took him to the office, and MAN-O -MAN did this lady teacher give it to him good!


"Don't make me roll up my book!"


But most of these kids are just awesome!



Later on that day, I caught MY kids playing basketball
One class against another.


Man, these kids LOVE basketball!


WHAT!!...Are you blind?!


This school is the best in the city!
Absolutely beautiful!




The kids are doing their daily calisthenics.



It hasn't rained for a while, so this guy was watering the flowers.


And these guys were getting water for their classmates!


A happy bunch of kids!


Practicing their English.


Who....ME?


Between classes, it was complete chaos.


"Who's your favorite teacher?"
Don't act like you have to think about it!!



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Okay... This proves that I am not just traveling around China and taking it easy!



Jim