Class has begun.

So this week I started teaching. This time of year in China is considered the 'low season', it's not necessarily the summer holidays that we have, but most parents decide not to send their children to school during this time, so there are only four children in class currently. The children are ages three and four, and are so adorable!

My first experience of teaching English is not quite what I expected. Of course at age 3/4 the children are so very young, and so it is going to be difficult to engage them when I do not speak their language. But these children seem to be much less enthusiastic than English children of the same age. I figured that it would just take some time for the children to warm to me, not being able communicate with them makes it more difficult to gain their trust and engage with them. Having observed their classes with the Chinese teachers however, I could see that the lack of enthusiasm stretched to these lessons as well, in that these lessons were not very 'fun' or 'interesting', and so the children in turn, were not having fun.

I organised a lesson packed full of English songs and games; 'good morning' song, 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes', and a children's version of the 'hokey pokey'. The children were able to follow along with the actions, and even sang along to some parts. But with the Chinese teachers sat along side them, they did not express feelings of joy or excitement. For the final few activities I asked the Chinese teachers to move out of the way, this worked well, and the children picked up on my enthusiasm and relaxed. So by the final activity; the 'hokey pokey', the children fully enjoyed themselves and laughed the whole way through it.

I love being able to fully plan my own lessons, I have the responsibility and freedom to organise my lessons however I wish. That is, with one exception. The Chinese teachers have to follow very strict rules and regulations; with daily staff meetings looking more like army drills than anything else. Luckily, me being the 'shiny new foreign toy', I do not apply to most of the rules.










But in terms of actual teaching, the school seem to have a set approach that they want their teachers to take including myself, and a specific way they wish the classroom to be run. This approach involves a lot of repetition, and a classroom routine that is set in stone. I am going to continue to observe this method of teaching, and see what I can learn from this. But I am also going to introduce to them to my own method of 'western' teaching in my English classes, and hope that they can appreciate the benefits that this style will have for the young learners.