Apologies

I would just like to apologize for being a bit out of touch recently. The past 5 or so days have been extremely busy. I'm really starting to get the hang of teaching, but I need to work on a Long Term Plan for the year, which requires a lot of work on my part in addition to coordinating with individual teachers. So while I may want to teach second graders about Microsoft Word, the project that they do may be a bit different between the three sections because although the 2nd grade curriculum is the same, teachers choose to tackle the same areas of study differently. In addition to the long term plans, no one who has had my position previously has made lesson plans, let alone have provided a real legitimate long term plan.

I teach 4 classes on Mondays and Fridays, and then 5 classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. As of now I also have two lunch duties on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and I have only one lunch duty on Wednesday. This is a decrease from the 2 duties everyday and 1 on Friday that I had previously.

The guy who has been teaching technology at SCIS for several years now is wonderful. He doesn't like to keep things written down (so no lesson plans), but he has an electronic record of various projects he has done with his students. The other teacher who taught the younger children is an absolute doll, but she basically only had the kids play games for the entire year, which isn't really what they solely should be doing.

I joined a gym last Wednesday. It has basic weights, a few ellipticals, treadmills, a stairmaster, a rowing machine, and a few bikes. They also provide classes such as aerobics, yoga (but Chinese yoga), tae kwondo, and maybe one or two other classes. I got a lower price of 1700yuan for 10 months, which is about $23/month. After school Andrea and I worked out at the gym, as well as her husband Adam. Thursday was uneventful. Just school, working long into the afternoon after school, the elliptical at the gym, and then home, dinner, home, bed. Friday I had my normal classes, and afterwards I tried running for about 45 minutes with the cross country team. My friend Simon coaches it, and Andrea had tried running with them the day before, so I thought I'd give it a try as well. Even though I wasn't as fast as these 16, 17 year old guys, I was definitely more flexible with the stretches, and I still helped lead them.

Speaking of after school activities, as an elementary school teacher we are required to help out 2/4 quarters. New teachers are exempt from the first quarter, but we have to do a 1 hour activity once a week for two 6 week blocks. The same activity can be repeated (I think) because you work with different kids. I had spoken to Andrew who does college counseling for the upper school, and he mentioned that kids lack the appropriate interview skills. I said I am happy to help out, because I absolutely love interviewing, so I spoke to both someone in the administration and Jane (the LS principal) about possibly substituting my LS activity requirement with an US interview workshop. This place is so bureaucratic that in order to do the Interview Workshop, it cannot be substituted (even if I find an Upper School teacher to do my LS activity), so if I wanted to do the Workshop I'd have to do my LS activities in addition. I feel that totally discourages mixing upper and lower school students and faculty. Similarly it impedes people's abilities to really choose activities that will be truly beneficial to the student body. If I have time, I may, but Jane simply said, "Amy I honestly wouldn't recommend you put more on your plate anyway, since you're a new teacher." I understand her point because too much work could impede my time in the classroom, but it's still frustrating that I don't have support to do something that will really help the student body.

Anyway, after running for about 45 minutes Simon and I biked around and outside of our neighborhood. What I didn't know (and pictures will be posted soon I promise!) is that we are like a 5 minute bike ride from the rural farmland areas. It's incredible to just bike through fields of water chestnuts, rice patties, corn and cucumbers. Totally awesome.