Kids Club Performance

My Kids Club class had a performance day- this is the really little kids, like 5-6 years old. They have only been learning English for 6 months. They did really good. The Chinese Teacher did all the work to get them ready so I can claim no credit. They sang songs and did little conversations and read a couple of books. One of the songs was "Bingo"! When I was little I totally did not understand Bingo (the song)- I would always just clap randomly and shout out letters. When I first taught the song, I did it really slowly and carefully and almost everyone understood but there was one kid who just totally did not get it, and I was like, I know how you feel, man.

The one girl had a little sister who came, and she looked exactly like her big sister. She was so excited and proud of her, and she sat in the front row and tried to copy all the things the "big kids" did. It was absurdly cute.

I've started to teach a couple of classes at Junior High schools- they use Hess materials and meet once a week. Well actually I have been trained and I have taught one so far. It was pretty fun- a huge class (32 kids) but they were mostly polite. The idea is mostly to get them talking in English, because the English classes in schools focus pretty exclusively on grammar and reading. It's a nice change of pace- I'm allowed to speak Chinese if I think it will help (the NST are really not supposed to speak Chinese at Hess) and no homework to grade! The first class was a little hectic- I had training on Thursday then had to go straight to the class. The man who coordinates everything was there with me to help, but he could also see how I was no applying everything I'd learned in training... it's tough. The other one is on Saturday mornings. I think I'll enjoy it. Good to have more hours!