First Day

(No Internet, and I’ve tried every means! This is pretty sad since it is one of the only reasons that I brought my computer with me to China. Hopefully something better comes up).

The rest of the day went surprisingly smooth. Everyone found their niche by the third class, so afternoon classes went well. My teachers and students started to lose their energy, but their experience made things run better in most cases.

However, I have come to see that some people try to take ideas without their principles and apply them. This does not always work. There are some ways of doing things, which are great in their own right, but when executed incorrectly will fail. Doing something wrong is sometimes as bad as doing the wrong thing. So, when learning a method for disciplining children or getting the attention in a large group, it is important to know why such methods work in order to understand how to execute them. End of story there.

I had to meet with the local teachers this afternoon with Media. That turned into a sho~~~w, let me tell you. At first they didn’t come up to the room for the meeting because they had to wait for most of the students to be picked up by their parents, so Media and I sat nervously for some time. When they finally did come, it was the typical, “Oh, it was all very nice” and “We think you did very well.” Yeah. Okay. That’s kind of you to say.

And then one of the teachers became brave.

“Well, actually I noticed some things.”

That was it.

Suddenly, all the teachers were brave, and we had more than enough information to take back and tell our students about. They seemed a little defensive about all the critiques and corrections that we gave to them, but I tried to tell them that we were trying to make this camp the best for the children that we could. Also, it was their job to be here, so they had already promised to give us 100%, not slack off at all. I hope that I didn’t push any of them over the edge, but if I wake up with a snake in my luggage, I will know why.

Tonight, we have a meeting to talk about the ideas people have from Team Time and talk about their positive experiences or techniques. I will put the Yew Wah students in charge of Team Time for the last three days, so hopefully they will be able to get some good suggestions from tonight.

P.S. At the meeting, I put three watermelon seeds on my forehead to the question: Where will I live when I am older? A. America B. China C. Japan, and no one else had ever seen this done! Not even the Americans! I thought that this was a typical American thing!! Another part of my childhood turns out to be a lie.