Category Archives: North Carolina
Still Life Without Stick
Stick left today, which was just as miserable as the last time he left China. Airport goodbyes don’t actually get any easier with practice. We had a really insane 36 hours getting him ready to go. Finally, as he was … Continue reading
Working Hard In The Teachers’ Office!
Model posing with Carol and Grace! Sven shows us blue steel. He has a lot of modeling experience. A rare photo of everyone at work. (Staged, of course)
In The Same Boat
I gave one of my classes a lesson on idioms, as part of my ongoing guest to eliminate certain abused phrases (like overuse of what a pity or using not at all as a response to thank you) from my … Continue reading
Office Adventures
In the office the other day… Sven: I’m off to class to have mad fun with our apathetic teenagers! Carol: Good job! Did you learn that word from David? Sven: What? Meg: He said “mad fun” not “ma fan“. (Chinese … Continue reading
Talent Show
On Friday, my class played Hippopotamus. This is an awesome game for mixed levels, easily modified for students’ English abilities and not mind-numbingly repetitive. You send one person into the hall while the rest of the class picks a verb. … Continue reading
At Least It Wasn’t Blue!
I started my new job at the high school today. We did a good warm-up where I told the kids that everyone is strange, and asked them to tell me something strange about themselves. We talked about “strange” and “unusual” … Continue reading
What Color Is The Sun?
Yesterday Stick made a bulletin board for his class, showing the kids’ vocab words “morning”, “afternoon” and “evening” with the sun in the obvious positions for each time of day. “It looks okay,” his TA said when she saw it. … Continue reading
Adventures In Tutoring
I met Joe about a month ago when he asked me to sub for Christina’s class one day, and he’s offered me occasional tutoring and substitute gigs since then. Subbing in an American middle school looks like torture, but subbing … Continue reading
I can feel the wrinkles already…
I was tutoring a teenage student last night, and we did a reading about finding jobs in America. The passage talked about looking in the paper to find a new, and I mentioned that it’s a bit out-of-date, and people … Continue reading
Professor Xavier’s Primary School For The Gifted
Amy campaigned tirelessly to be called a “postal worker” and not a “mail-cyclops”. Dr. Colin gives a booster shot of anti-gravity serum to his young patient. Although being a giant firefighter was a rewarding career, Kim couldn’t find pants that … Continue reading
