Tag Archives: my students
No One Said Arbor Day
Today I asked my students to choose the most important holiday in their home country and tell me how that day is celebrated and why it’s important. I thought this would be an interesting topic that everyone would relate to, … Continue reading
Cranberry Sauce
Some of my students asked me about Thanksgiving, and I tried to give them a good description of the holiday’s history and it’s current incarnation, while hoping they wouldn’t equate Thanksgiving with their foreign teachers singing bits of Livin’ On … Continue reading
How Can I Leave?
Yesterday, I was handing out new schedules in my Drips class, thinking about how great it is to be at a school with actual schedules. “This class is becoming too big,” I told my kids. “Starting Saturday, there will be … Continue reading
Chinese Language Exercises
I started going to a yoga class. It’s really hard because although I can understand simple things like up, down, left, right and basic body parts, I can’t understand many verbs. I don’t think I understood a single verb in … Continue reading
In Yellow Wood
Today, my boss Will offered me really good terms to work in Yantai next year. (I’d get a lot of nice things, and none of that pesky responsibility junk) I really like my job, I like my students, and I … Continue reading
Secret Skills Of An RPG Nerd
As part of my quest to make my students more creative, my elementary-age kids played a little boardgame in class today. Basically, you race through the board, landing on squares and saying what time you do various activities, like going … Continue reading
Teaching Magic
A few months ago, Jay sent me a huge box of Magic cards. I had a brief dream of setting up a Yantai Magic league, but that was quickly squashed by scheduling problems. My Chinese students were already overscheduled with … Continue reading
Finding Equilibrium
I’ve known since I was little that gas expands to fill all the available space. I knew this rule like some of my students know their wordlists, so I mean I was able to repeat it when prompted or write … Continue reading
For Love Or Money
This story on Laowai!Laowai! talks about running a speaking exercise for high school age ESL students. This exercise asks each student to choose between Love or Money, and explain why. Without exception, the boys in his class chose Love while … Continue reading
Rorschach ESL
Fall has come rapidly to Yantai, as if the weather is trying to match our textbook’s explanation that September, October and November are autumn. It’s beautiful here, although it’s strange to feel fall and be going back-to-school on the other … Continue reading
