Noticing the Simple Things

It is so funny how when you're having a reallllly bad day, the smallest things can turn it around. This morning was AWFUL. My grade seven students have their reading exam tomorrow, and so I planned several review activities for today. During  first period, we began to play review jeopardy to review the three short stories, novel, and vocabulary words that they will be tested over. This is the class that is largest (24 students compared the the 16 or so in other classes), and their Chinese chatter was out of control! Finally, I had to stop the game and have them return to their seats to read quietly. The second part of the period I told them that they had a choice: Either they could remain on task and work in small groups to create and present posters based on review questions for each story, or simply answer the questions by themselves at their desks. Of course, they chose the posters, but after about ten minutes I could clearly see that was not going to work out. So, back to their seats and I was frustrated...I raised my voice more than I ever have during teaching, and they became silent. Then, I made them record the answers silently in their notebooks and I checked it all before they left. I felt miserable by the end, counting down the minutes. I hate to use these threats and always be hounding them about the Chinese, etc....but I don't know what else to do! My mentor said that it is cultural, and that's just how it is here because that is how all the Chinese teachers operate. Threats and yelling until it yields results....so NOT how I want to be acting in the ideal situation. So, I decided that maybe I am taking the wrong approach. I am going to try and do much more whole-class activities from now on, because I don't think they are used to doing any group work. It has taken me a couple weeks, but I think that they really do need the scaffolding and reinforcement of whole-class learning. Maybe, when I put them in groups, even though I assign roles and give them specific questions to look for, I am setting them up for failure because they're not used to it?

Anyhow, I marched into my last period class expecting to repeat the experience with my challenging grade 8 class. However, I am SO pleasantly surprised to report that they were WONDERFUL! During Jeopardy, they were dead silent, completely engaged and enthusiastic about the review. Then, they had a different set of projects to present and did wonderfully, and the audience was very attentive. During our last activity, they were again participating and engaged. At the end of class, they asked "Do we get our point for today?" (They need two more points to get a reward next week)....and they were interacting with me after class and willing to make conversation...oh how I needed that! It's really hard to build rapport here. Whereas in the halls of Mapleton kids would flock to the doorway to make morning conversation, it is very difficult to get even a hello in the halls here, probably because the student-teacher relationship is very different and they do not think of teachers as someone to help answer questions or confide in, at least that's how it seems from what I've observed.

The thing with teaching is that those small positive "deposits" are so necessary to keep going. It could be the slightest thing, and yet it means so much. Whether it's a student asking a good question, performing well on a test, or saying hello in the hallway, those things all count for something and they are so valuable. I think it's important, especially in this environment, when my day was going not well at all, to embrace the small blessings. They're easy to lose track of, but while it's important to learn and grow from the negative, searching for the good is crucial as well and is the fuel a teacher needs to keep going!

Also, today is Thanksgiving. Alaina and I didn't find a way to get our hands on some turkey, so we'll just need to celebrate when we get back to the USA. Still, I will say that being halfway around the world on this day is helping me to see the ways in which I am blessed much more clearly than if they were right in front of me. It's a very different perspective and I hope I don't ever forget the feeling of gratitude for my wonderful friends, family, and country that I have right now.