My classes

Now that I have finally spoken to my link teacher (the Chinese English teacher that is supposed to answer all my questions about classes) and I have been to all my classes, I can finally explain what my classes are like. I am teaching first grade even though I asked for and I was promised high school. Even though I was disappointed when I first found out, now I see it as a blessing in disguise. The first graders are a bit noisy, but they are really cute and get really excited when you teach them songs or games. I'm sure the experience will help me when I finally get to set up the ESL summer camp that I've always wanted to create.

I have three first grade classes with around 30 or so kids in each class. Class 1 is the experimental class with students that have high test scores and a computer for every student. When I say experimental, it means that the way the other teachers instruct those kids is through experimental teaching methods. Basically they are trying out a new teaching method on these students to see how well it works. I basically teach these students once or twice a week. Class 2 & 3 are the E.T. classes (No, I don't know what E.T. stands for). I teach them 4 or 5 times a week, thus making up the bulk of my schedule. Each class period is around 40 minutes. I'm only supposed to be teaching oral English, and the Chinese English teachers are supposed to teach the students how to read. The problem is that the kids can't read the book I'm teaching from. I've decided that if I am responsible for teaching the information and vocabulary words in the book, I"m going to have to get them to at least recognize the printed words in the book. So I will be teaching a little of both written and oral English.