Teachable Moment No. 2

We've been writing Feature Articles on famous/humanitarian personalities in the last week in my English 10 class and I've been going over and over all the formatting rules and stressing to them how important editing and proofreading is.  Also, they have been especially rowdy this class (and complained for the umpteenth time about homework.....) So, at the end of class today, I finally settle them all down and tell them, rather strictly:

"Now, your articles are all due tomorrow.  Remember I'm marking you on format AND content.  I've told you a thousand times what I expect to see from your Good Copy!"

Hypatia shouts out (in correct pronunciation, nonetheless) "Hyperbole!"

Thank you Hypatia for making my day and reminding me that things really do get through to you guys!!!!

Teachable Moment No. 1

So last week I taught my Communications 11 class about cliches.  It took about 2 classes (4 blocks) but they finally grasped the concept (and even came up with their own which mostly consisted of them making fun of their classmates! Read: awesome.)

Anyways, just before our midgi holiday break, I had to keep one of my better students after class for speaking Chinese too many times in class.  This is what I said to her: "Vicky, you are an amazing English speaker but sometimes you cannot control your urges and you just shout in Chinese!" This is her response: "I know Miss Adamson, sometimes I just wish I could eat my words!"

And that concludes the lesson for today.

I love my students!

One of my grade seven students comes running up to me at the end of class:

Student- "Teacher!!! Teacher!!"

me- "Yes what's wrong?"

Student- "I like you"

:)

I love my students!

One of my grade seven students comes running up to me at the end of class:

Student- "Teacher!!! Teacher!!"

me- "Yes what's wrong?"

Student- "I like you"

:)

Day of Torture

Sadness....

More Sadness....

The Checklist of Torture that we had to endure

This was the line up at the Public Security Building

Five hours is way too long to go without any food or drink while being poked and prodded and staring at this sign.....

Beijing Polluted??? Nah!

Adult Jungle Gym...

Just hangin' out.....no big deal

Written Assignment

Write 5 full sentences about the worst thing that happened to you this summer.

I still got no girlfriend.

I hope we've filled our interesting metro experiences quota for today.

Finally we decide to take the trek into town and explore Beijing.  It takes approximately 45 minutes to get to Tiananman Square which is much better than I anticipated.

First off, as expected its sweltering hot in the subway cars but no Chinese are perspiring.  Except for one.  This young woman had a few beads of sweat on her forehead and both Nisse and I are relieved that SOMEONE is like us.  All of a sudden she is crouching in the middle of the subway hurling into a CLEAR plastic bag - the evidence is very visible.  Chunky and very visible. Yeah so she's not like us; she's ill and probably infecting the rest of us with her airborne sickness.  We were standing right beside her and were not getting off for another 10 minutes.

Thursday, August 26 - D-Day

On the plane....bout 5 hours in

5:56 pm (Vancouver time) 

On this the day of birthday boxing, Liz and I have started our long awaited journey to the Mother Land (Well only my mother land...) We are approximately 5 and a half hours into the 11 hour and 23 minute flight. We have been keeping busy with cat naps and cookies (thanks Kati). We have already practiced our chopstick skills with our pasta and mushroom chicken lunch and practiced Mandarin from Lonely Planet Beijing- THEY’RE NOT GONNA KNOW WHAT HIT EM’!