First Day of Teaching

Today was a long and hard day, as it was our first day teaching at Qiaoqi. Still jet lagged, we woke up at 6 AM, thirty minutes before our wake up call. After putting on our matching San Francisco T-shirts, we went downstairs to eat breakfast and rehearse our introduction for the opening ceremony of the summer camp. At 7:30 we climbed on the bus and rode to the school, about forty minutes from the hotel. Upon arrival, we were greeted by students waving flowers and chanting "Welcome welcome, warmly welcome!" We then made our way to the auditorium for the opening ceremony, where the school principal formally welcomed us and thanked us for our service. Ms. Chu and Ms. Sung then said some words and passed the mic on to the rest of the English teachers, who introduced themselves. The principal then concluded the ceremony, allowing us to proceed to our designated classrooms.

While Alex and Patrick retrieved English books from the school's library and ate ice cream in the office, the rest of the teachers and I held our first classes. In class, the children surprised me with their ability to quickly adopt new English phrases. Whenever we exposed them to a new idea, concept, or word, the kids would quickly adapt and surpass our expectations. What didn't surprise me was the yearly re-occurring desire to begin P.E. class. At every break the boys would dash out of the classroom to the soccer field where they played soccer, or rather "football" for the entire ten minute break. One boy asked me, "Can we stay here for class?" I replied, "I don't think so, we should probably head back to class." Crestfallen, the boys returned to the classroom for the rest of the morning.

Class ended at 11:00, we left at 11:30 to eat lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch, we returned to Qiaoqi where we spent a couple of hours decorating the classrooms and playing soccer. We returned to the hotel at around 2:30 and immediately went to the bank to exchange money so we could shop for laundry detergent and snacks. At 5:30 we had a filling dinner, and then returned to our rooms, where we are now. We are both satisfied by this first day of teaching, and we are looking forward to tomorrow.

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Max Fong and Alex Hillan