Ame: Observation Week

Today is our third day of stage. We are mostly observing all week. I have to say that I understand why students tend to fall asleep in class; I found them boring too. My mind goes numb after sitting there for an hour and just listening. I have advance students in form 6 and one of them comes to see me every day during lunch. He asked me if I liked my CT's teaching style because he finds it really boring. I tried to answer without answering but he's a wise kid and told me that I hadn't answered his question. I finally said that we are not used to this style back home and that things will probably be different when I teach. With my form 6 I can try pretty much whatever I want. They have told us to use movies, songs, poems, TV shows, etc. We have a lot more flexibility in form 6 than in the other classes. With my form 4, I have to follow the book to prepare them for the Uniform Test that will take place after the Easter Holidays. I also have two periods (once a week) with the form 1 students. It was to fill-in our schedule because it seemed that we did not have enough lessons during the week. I think this will be the most challenging class because I don't see them often and also because they are the weaker students that I have. Their regular teacher spends half the class talking in Cantonese and no one seems to really listen. She just talks over them while they are either talking, day dreaming or just sleeping (the students here seem to want to sleep all the time!). I have no idea how that is going to work.

Our office

I think the part that will be the most fun is going to be the lunch and after school oral practice. Four times a week (twice during lunch and twice after school) we meet groups of form 2 and form 6 students to practice their oral skills. We can do whatever we want, as long as the students talk. There are students who also come during lunch whenever they feel like it but sometimes they just sit there and stare at us because they are too shy to talk.

I can't wait to start teaching but I am really nervous. My CT is really nice but I have a hard time getting information from her so it is hard to know what to do, where to start, what I can or can't do, etc. It is even worse with my form 1 teacher because I saw her right before class and that's it. So I don't know what I will do for the next class and I have seen her twice in the school (right before class and during class). Flexibility and adaptability you said, right?