The evening was young when I finished work and got back to the hotel. I needed some exercise so I decided to head further up the hill to where I see the children go every morning. They bump up the road on the backs of boda boda or walk with heavy legs past the hotel… Read More »
I was invited to stop and sit down and chat with some teachers the last time I took the shortcut up School Road. The road takes you straight through the school grounds but nobody seems to stop you. It’s also quite nice walking through a school without guards with batons and helmets stopping you, as… Read More »
I am the only qualified teacher at the school where I am currently doing some part time work. The other teachers are good people and do their best with what they are given. The Chinese teachers are routinely overworked and probably underpaid. I am valued. I know this. The staff and management say nice things… Read More »
I have been to Nanchang before – passed through is on the slow train to Ganzhou and didn’t like what I saw – lots of greyness, dirty streets, rain and low visibility. Mind you, I didn’t actually leave the railway station so my opinion of the place was formed from that limited viewpoint. However, I… Read More »
It’s getting towards exam time and the students have a lot to think about. They are surely regretting their earlier laziness and are now ankle deep in catch up exercises and walk around the place with a look of panic. The parents’ meeting last weekend was indicative of the importance of the various subjects not… Read More »
After today’s AS2 lesson when I had to wake Leo up 5 or 6 times and then gave up trying, I researched online about the problem with teenagers falling asleep in class and found the following. ‘Few high school students are awake enough to get much out of their first class, particularly if it starts… Read More »
It was our inaugural village fete at school and the G kids had all made stalls as part of their GCSE Enterprise coursework. They had planned for weeks for this event, bought prizes, organised games, worked out a pricing scheme and done a break-even analysis. At the end of the day I am not sure… Read More »
I came back from the Spring Festival today and on returning to my desk I found that the mouse which I have been trying to catch since the beginning of the year, had been active again. It had got a snack off a desk, bitten a hole in the wrapper and sucked it out. All… Read More »
I am very strict about heads on tables in my lessons. I know some other teachers have a more relaxed attitude but in my classes if their blink is even slightly longer than normal, they get a wake up call and if they persist in drooping they get to stand up and we open the… Read More »
It’s nice to be able to leave the classroom and go into the local park for a change. The students love it too and so we decided that the park should be the location for our filming. Each class was divided into four teams and was given a product to advertise. They spent two lessons… Read More »