The weekdays are pretty standard here in Jinan, after the craziness of the weekend, I'm always left feeling like there's something I should be doing! But to be honest, there usually is. There's aaalways lessons to plan, and now that the summer school has started, I've been working hard on my Powerpoint Presentation about England, to discuss with the kids. My first session is on Thursday, and I'm going to be doing the basic geography of England, and comparing it w...

I just had another good class, very playful but also willing to sit down and do the work when they're told to! They saw a picture of my house that I had put in my folder for another class though, and that caused a 10 minute discussion about me! It was cute though, and I finally got to show off the pictures that I made an effort to take before I left! They thought Lucia was really cute, but they prefer dogs. They also think that my house looks like American house...

My faith has been restored in the classes! Despite being left terrified to teach again after my criticism, I hope that I've found a balance. Last night's class was alright, but over the course of today I think I've got the hang of it. Do an activity, play a game, do another work-load, play a game... sounds simple enough but boy does it take some creativity to keep these kids entertained!! I asked some of the more established teachers here for help, and they were ...

Today's been a bit of a difficult day. On our schedule I was put down as having to 'observe' two classes today, which is what we did when we first arrived here. When I asked Ivy, the boss, about it, she said she'd had some negative feedback about the classes I'd taught last week, so she wanted me to observe two other teachers, to try and improve. Apparently I speak too fast, don't play enough games, and the kids aren't comfortable with me. It was a real blow he...

We went to Beijing yesterday, and my GOODNESS it was amazing. Definitely worth the trip, we had to get up at 5.30am and catch a train up there but it was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time in one day to really look around Beijing itself, but we went to the Great Wall and it was fantastic. I can't put into words how amazing it was! I've got photos on the computer here, so I'll get around to putting those up! The Great Wall was quite a...