It is Friday afternoon during 8th period as I type this. I have a prep this hour so I figured I'd procrastinate a little more from lesson planning for next week by writing a new post on my blog-lucky you!
After my first full week teaching at ICA, I know that I'm going to like it here. All of the staff is super helpful and nice so I never feel dumb asking questions or seeking advice from anyone. Everyone also gets along really well so I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them better in the coming year.
I have also decided that I'm going to really like teaching this particular batch of students. First of all, the rumors are not true- Asian students don't just sit quietly in their desks waiting for the teacher to teach! They are just as loud and out of control as American students but the difference is that when you tell them to be quiet or to stop monkeying around, they actually listen (for the most part). I'm getting to know all of my classes better which makes teaching all of them much more fun! I know that this is the "honeymoon" period and that it will inevitably end, but I'm enjoying it for the moment.
The biggest challenges I have are my 7th and 11th graders. In general my 7th graders are awesome, but I have an uphill battle ahead of me with one boy in particular. I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly certain he is autistic. If he were in the U.S. education system, he would definitely have an IEP and be pulled out for some classes or have an aid with him. My struggle with him is that I have to educate not only him, but the other six students in the room as well. It sounds a little silly to complain about a class of seven students (an unheard of number for American public schools), but I also have no help or resources at my disposal for working with an autistic child. My goal for next week is to try to figure out where he is in math ability compared to the other students. So that will be interesting to say the least!
My 11th graders are what you would expect out of high school juniors. At ICA, each grade is separated into classes of A, B, C and D. The A's are the best in their English skills as well as their math skills. As you can guess, the D's are the worst in both areas and my last class of the day is the 11D class. Again, there are only six of them so you would think I would be able to control them no problem, right? Wrong! They are all over the place each class period that I still have no idea where exactly they stand in their math skills. I do know however that they are all really good friends and love to speak Chinese in class even though they are NOT supposed to. They will be an entirely different type of challenge than my one 7th grade boy, but a challenge all the same.
After a long and tiring week of trying to be a real teacher though, I still want to pick back up where we left off next week and try again-a pretty good sign I think. Now if you'll excuse me, I have yoga to attend then some cold beers are waiting for me at Family Mart tonight. Cheers!