Where Are Your Notes?

Today in class I had my students write me a summary on the lecture about X-Men I gave them a couple days ago. In the class I just got out of I have two students who always talk to each other and never pay attention. So even though I gave them plenty of clues like "you should take notes now" and "you will need these notes later" I could clearly see them not paying attention.

So today when I told them to start writing the summary, I walked over to the two of them after the other students bent their heads over their notebooks to write. I addressed one student;

Me: Where are your notes? (even though I KNOW he wasn't taking notes in the last class)
Student A: In class downstairs. (Surrrrrrrre)
Me: Did you take notes?
Student A (pointing to the student next to him): I copied his notes.
Me (to Student B): Where are your notes?
Student B: I didn't take notes.

*cue brain exploding*

I don't want to waste my time and energy on students who aren't even going to try, but at the same time I don't want to just ignore them. For one thing it distracts the students who actually are trying to pay attention and for the other I don't want to abandon them if they just need a little encouragement. And oy yeah...I'm obsessive and don't like to give up.

Ah well. I really should focus on the good students and good classes. Yesterday's morning class with Class B was so good I twirled around the room after my students left I was so happy. Everyone was taking notes and paying attention. I had students who normally don't even pay attention asking questions and everyone seemed really interested.

Well, as per usually I should run to make my lesson plan. Seems thats what I'm doing 80% of the time.

Much love,
Stephanie

Stressed Out Kids

So I am nearly finished correcting the holiday homework (60 students...5 pages of writing each? That's a lot to read!)

Mostly it's been enjoyable reading. Some went on cool trips, others wrote really interesting stories, some just told me about their day. I like learning more about them. My students are cool people.

I noticed a strange trend while I was correcting. First of all, MANY of my students took TOEFL or similar English Language classes over the break. I can't imagine how I would feel if my parents had made me take classes during my winter holiday when I was in high school. I am all for working hard but people need to take a break now and then.

Anyway, I think I mentioned in this blog that we did a section on dreams and what different dreams symbolize last semester. Some of my students therefore decided to write about dreams they had. To me it looked like case after case of stress and being overworked, reflected in their subconscious.

One student dreamed that as she tried to come back to school there was nothing but huge stairs that she had to struggle to climb. She got so scared that she ran away. Another dreamt that he was being chased around school and he didn't know what was following him but he knew he just had to keep running. Another dreamt she was taking her TOEFL test and the test sheet was blank so she didn't know what questions to answer.
These are just the dreams I remember off the top of my head. I know there were more, and not every student even talked about dreams.

I don't know why I felt like talking about this other than I think it would be an interesting study to look at the dreams of stressed out students.


In other news I am teaching my students some note taking skills and to help them practice what I taught I gave them a sample lecture.

About X-Men. Aww yeah.

Love,
Stephanie

Valentine's Weekend

So my weekend started Friday night with me doing my best to stay up until midnight. I think I can safely say I am totally over my jetlag now. It only took a week. Saturday I had plans to meet up with Isabelle for brunch. We both ended up getting big salads (mine was a warm spinach salad...yum) and mango smoothies. Then we went back to my apartment and knitted for about 300 hours. Ha. We listened to some CDs and watched some Friends and chatted and knitted. We left my apartment around and met up with Lucy and her friends around 9pm.

We met at a bar called Bluesroom. When we got there Lucy and her friend Audrey were already there. Then her friend Lynn showed up. Then randomly a friend of Audrey's showed up with three friends of his own. This was the whole group at Bluesroom.
The three guys are Eddie, a concert master violist man whose name I sadly forgot, and Jonathan. The girls from left to right are Audrey, Lynn, Lucy, me and Isabelle. Do you like the scarf Isabelle is wearing? That was a birthday present from me! She gave me a birthday present this weekend too. It was kind of perfect. The two times we hung out before we ate cheese, listened to CDs and knitted. Her birthday present was two burned CDs, a bag of yarn, and some cheese!

Anyway, after Bluesroom we walked to this bar called Sin (don't you just love ridiculous bar names?). Apparently it was free drinks for ladies until midnight but we didn't get there until about 12:15. Alas! Once Lucy sends me the pictures from that club I will have to post one. Sin had these couches with HUGE flowery backs. Like...you would look at it and think Louis XIV had designed it. We met up with some other friends of Lucys there. We had some drinks, did some dancing and lots of chatting. I got home around 3. I had one of my cheapest late-night cab rides back and I think it was because the driver didn't know where he was going. I had to direct him where to go and I took him on a back route. Go me!

Sunday I slept late, did some lesson planning, grading and cleaning. I met Lucy for dinner and a show. June had given me these tickets on Friday for a show at the Shanghai Circus called "Era: Intersection of Time". It's supposed to be a big famous show. It's really mostly aimed at tourists but I figured "Hey! Free tickets!" It ended up being a pretty cool show. There was a lot of acrobatic/Chinese show standards. Contortionists, a big guy throwing around vases, tossing bowls and balancing them on your head, jumping through hoops...pictures weren't allowed but I found this picture online from the show.
One of my favorite acts, and one that surprised me, was the classic American circus act "motorcycles in a big round cage". I didn't expect to see that in a Chinese circus. It was kind of insane. At one point there were 7 motorcyclists going at breakneck speed in the one cage.

Lucy's favorites was the aerial dancing with the couple holding on to long white sheets of cloth. This is also a picture from the show.
Yes. That woman is flying up in the air with nothing to support her but her partner's neck. There was no net, no safety harness. It was very graceful and breathtaking. After that I headed back to my apartment, corrected more homework and went to bed.

EDIT: While I was writing this post, Lucy sent me her pictures. Here is Isabelle, Lucy and Me in one of those ridiculous couches. Isabelle and I talked about sneaking one out when we left, but I guess we forgot.
Now it's Monday and I'm back in school. :-P

Anyway, sending love!
Stephanie

Wanna take a trip?

So if anyone was thinking of visiting me/checking out China but thought that the idea of a $1,200 flight was a bit much, I stumbled upon THIS when I was checking out a Shanghai website.

3880 RMB round trip NYC to Shanghai?? That's only $570! Less than HALF of what my round trip ticket here cost me. Jeez.

Of course I am not 100% sure if it's true and you would need to check out the details, but City Weekend is a good website/magazine and checks their sources to prevent scams.

Anyway. Thought that was cool.

*goes back to drinking cheap instant coffee*

Valentine's Day Themed Class

First off, I really like being back in the office. My office mates are all really nice and plus everyone is so generous and likes to share stuff. I've only been back since Sunday and I already got 4 different kinds of candy from Beijing, a little cake from Taiwan, some beef jerky, something called "fish candy" (which I only had one piece of so far), and some sort of prune candy. I try to do my part too. I brought back candy hearts and shared some of my chocolates. Last semester I shared candy corn, smarties, and reeses. I try to just share stuff that people send me, AKA that you can't get here.

ANYWAY...so I mentioned before my big classes are gone, so I see each class three times a week instead of four. The other change this semester is that I am supposed to teach two classes of writing and one of speaking. I think that's a little weird. Last semester it was three classes of "English" and one of writing. Ahh well.

I started doing poetry with my students but they looked bored out of their skulls. They had more fun with today's class. I am doing Valentine's Day themed stuff. First off I had them "translate" a Robert Burns poem from Scottish/Ye Olde type talk to modern day English (ex: "bonnie lass" to "pretty girl"). Then I passed out....CANDY HEARTS!
I gave each group of students a cup of candy hearts, which they were super excited about. I had them write a story using as many of the phrases on the hearts as possible. When they were done, they got to eat the hearts. Yum! They had fun writing and eating.

Last night I had dinner with Charlotte. The plan was to go "somewhere other than Blue Frog" because she was apparently sick of it. As we were heading out we saw Chris, Becky and Adam going to Blue Frog. We ended up going with them. Ha. Later Stephanie showed up too. We swapped vacation stories. Chris and Becky shared with us the worst vacation story I have ever heard. They met a couple that went scuba diving and while they were out their beach hut burned down. That means they lost EVERYTHING except the bathing suits they were wearing. Passports, money, laptops, cameras, clothes...everything. Ugh. After dinner and drinks I went back to my apartment and had a video chat with Rose. :-)

I am surprised how fast my first week back went by. I have a stack of holiday homework from my students to read this weekend. I have plans for Saturday brunch and knitting with Isabelle and then possibly a night out dancing and drinking with Lucy and her friends. And I seriously need to clean my apartment. I haven't even been back for a full week! Why do I have a sinkful of dirty dishes and a messy floor!?

Happy Valentine's Day if I don't post until after then.

Love,
Stephanie

P.S. I was eating the little cake from Taiwan while I was posting. It looked like cornbread but it was filled with a sweet pineapple filling. Delicious!

Back in School!

So I am feeling much better now, just so you know. :-)

First of all I got some nice gifts while I was away. Zeno sent me a postcard and card from England. June got me these lovely Celtic knot earrings. Jane got me English Breakfast tea. The older woman in my office got me a purse with like 5 little purses inside. One of my students got me a key chain from Hawaii that has my name in Hawaiian. Plus lots of candy from different places. I also got a crank pencil sharpener shaped like a cow as a thank you present for judging the drama contest at the primary school about a month ago.

I put the picture frame from from Liz and the small stuffed frog from Rose on my desk so it feels even more homey.

I didn't realize how much I missed my coworkers and students until I saw them again. I just had my first class back and it was very laid back. One of my students who usually never pays attention talked a lot. I take it all as a good sign for the semester.

OH! And remember when I said that some of my classes were being taken away for another teacher? They took away my two whole class periods. The two periods every week where I had to teach all of class 1 and all of class 2. YAY! I hated teaching 30 students at once. I felt really outnumbered and more nervous. I couldn't move the desks around or really get a conversation started. I am SO HAPPY that they took those two classes away.

Last night I planned to take a nap from 330 to 6, then wake up and eat some dinner and stay up until 9 or 10. Instead I slept through my alarm until 1am. I stayed up until 2 and then slept until 6. Wow. Hopefully because of all that sleep I will be able to stay up until a normal bedtime TODAY and be back on China time by tomorrow. Unfortunately I missed dinner at Blue Frog with the other foreign teachers. Apparently they knocked on my door around 6 but I was dead to the world by then.

Anyway, even though not much has happened I wanted to post to let people know I was in much better spirits today. I feel full of vim and vigor. Although that could be the two cups of coffee. ;-)

Much love!
Steph

Hello Again Shanghai...

I am back in my apartment in Shanghai after a mostly good visit home.

My grandmother unfortunately passed away a few days after I arrived home. If this sad event had to happen, I am glad that it did when I was home. I was able to say goodbye to her and also turn to friends and family for support.

I also got a horrific cold that cut my trip to NJ short and had me home bound for a couple days. Bah. I am still a congested mess.

Other than that, it was a good trip back. I got time with friends, family and the dogs. Everything I wanted. I ate the foods I missed. I got to drive. Liz and Emily stayed over. There was an open house in which I got to see bunches o' people (including Bonnie, Nate and Beth, which was a nice surprise). I visited Drew (yay seeing everyone at Drew!!) and Burf and Jacob and Stacy's new apartment (along with lotsa B1S2 people). I went out to dinner with Sabrina and my cousin Savannah. I even gave a talk at my old high school. One of my favorite moments was when I was visiting Drew and my Chinese professor called me to tell me to come to class. For a moment I thought, "I did graduate...right?" Turns out she wanted me to talk to her class.

I received a couple of very sweet birthday gifts including a sword, a flask, a picture frame, a cross-stitched birthday card, a bow-tie and a bunch of candy. Hmm...if you look at that list of presents I think it shows my odd personality.

One thing I kept saying to people was that it felt strange to be home because...it didn't feel strange. I lived in another country for five months and had to depend on myself and create a new life and make new friends and learn all about this new job. I've been living in my own apartment for the first time. And in a city for the first time. I spent 5 months away from everything familiar. I felt like I had grown. Like I had changed. And yet...after only one day home I felt like I had never left and I was the same person I always was. Like my time in Shanghai was just some dream I had...

My ride to the airport was fun. I spent most of it chatting with a guy from CT on his way to Scotland. We talked movies, books, and a lot about LOST. At the airport I got myself something to eat with him and then waited for my plane. I apparently fell asleep as soon as I got settled into my seat. I don't remember taxing or even taking off. Wowzers. Unfortunately I woke up about 3 hours into the flight and didn't sleep for more than 20 minutes or so at a time for the rest of the trip. I watched "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", read a knitting magazine and all of the book "Stardust". I also tried not to wake up the woman sitting next to me that fell asleep on my shoulder. I figured one of us might as well get some rest.

It was strange going through customs and getting a taxi. I could remember how scared I was when I did that by myself only 6 months ago. Now it was just routine. While watching the streets signs and buildings pass as I got closer to my apartment, I didn't feel the same feeling of comfort and warmth as I did when I got my first sight of home two weeks ago. But it wasn't scary anymore. It was familiar. And that's something.

After a 4 hour van ride, 5 hours of waiting in the airport, a 15 hour flight and a half hour cab ride, I am a bit awash in feelings. I'm exhausted for one thing. I am already a bit homesick but I think that's because I am focusing on the things I just left behind and haven't yet gotten back to the things I like about Shanghai. And did I mention I was exhausted? Exhaustion makes me depressed. I also have to teach tomorrow and I have no lesson plan or anything. Not being prepared makes me antsy.

Right now I am waiting for the water heater to get cooking so I can take a shower and wash the feeling of travel off of me. Today is supposed to be a work/office day before school starts tomorrow so I am going to go in the office and hopefully someone will give me an idea of the lesson plan for the week so I can prepare.

Now that I am back in Shanghai it feels like home was the dream...

*sigh* Sometimes I wish someone would just come along and make all the decisions for me again like when I was a child.

Much love and hugs,
Stephanie