Fun Surprises

Just a few little things from today--a few little moments which, by themselves, don't look like much, but which, taken together, make for a nice day.

1.) Class 6-1 at Cing-Shan, my first class of the day every Thursday and the one which is notorious school-wide for bad behavior, was a little better today (or at least they seemed a little better to me). In fact, the whole day today at Cing-Shan went really well, I thought; the kids were engaged, I was enjoying myself, and the teaching really seemed to flow and tie it all together, which is something of a first for me.

I think I may have hit upon a better way of teaching vocabulary, actually. Our lesson this week involves household chores-- "do the dishes," "get the mail," take out the trash," "feed the fish," "walk the dog," and "clean the room." In our lesson planning, Patty asked that, while teaching these new words, I first explain the verb and then add on the prepositional phrase. But really, how do you explain a verb?  I explained it by telling the kids all the other things they could "do," "get," "take out," "feed," "walk," and "clean"--and not just telling them, but asking them to fill in the blanks. "What else can you do?" "What else can you clean?" When they answered, I'd act out whatever they said, which led to some fun moments--walking a lion and an elephant, for instance, and a boy saying he would feed his girlfriend (which I suppose is better than not feeding her)--and which actually had the kids all focused on me and enjoying themselves.

This was new for a lot of these kids. The kids at Cing-Shan sit at tables facing each other in cramped quarters, and possibly because of this, almost every class has issues of paying more attention to each other than to the teaching. Today was an epiphany: I made them all focus on me from the beginning (I wouldn't begin until I had everyone's eyes on me, I told them, and my heart warmed when one boy reached across the table to nudge someone who wasn't looking--self-managing classroom glimmering in the far distance!), and then I managed to hold their attention by directing their talking into productive replies.

Lesson learned: make them talk, but talk to me!

2.) I learned I can pick up finger-picking guitar fairly easily. I can play the bass guitar, of course, but I'd never really tried to pick up an acoustic before; I don't know chords, and I have not the slightest idea what note the upper two strings on a six-string are tuned to.

But tonight in Chinese class, Andrew announced he didn't want to play guitar for our performance (we're still trying to persuade him otherwise), and Analicia volunteered that I play the bass. I picked up the teacher's guitar and in a few minutes I was able to recreate, by ear-training/bass knowledge/piano theory training, "Wode Bao Bei." And it sounded decent! Granted, it's a simple song, but it was a thrill for me nonetheless. I still hope Andrew can be rallied to the cause, but if he can't, I guess I'll be well-practiced soon enough.

Lesson learned: I should buy an acoustic and teach myself!

3.) After Chinese class, I forced myself to go the gym. I had a headache, it was almost 9pm, and everything in me wanted to just stay at home, but I hadn't been to the gym since Monday, and I actually kind of missed it. And I was rewarded! My headache all but left me, and I got all the wonderful warm-and-fuzzy endorphins that makes gym-going addicting.

Lesson learned: couch potatoes can be retrained!

So that was my day--some nice surprises, making strides in teaching, music transferability, gym motivation; nothing major, but altogether great.