HUAIROU, Beijing Province: Only one class today - a perfect day to try out my festival lesson plan. And it worked really well! Class 3 are one of my favourite classes - and they're a higher level, so it's easier to explain stuff to them anyway. I'd made up a powerpoint presentation looking at 'weird festivals' from around the world - told them about the Tomato Fight in Spain, the Cheese Rolling in that odd town in England, and Zombie Marches in North America. ...

HUAIROU, Beijing Province: Hmm, well considering 'games lessons' are supposed to be fun - mine completely backfired! Class 12 and 6 were completely uninterested! Class 11 made me feel a bit better - they got really into my games, but they're normally a really friendly class to teach. I think some classroom games only work if the class is in the right mood - and there doesn't seem to me to be anyway of judging that! Start with my 'weird festivals' lesson plan t...

HUAIROU, Beijing Province: Lesson planning today - I'm doing a games lesson with my Monday classes, and then starting a festival themed lesson on Tuesday for the rest of the week. My Monday classes are the lowest ability, and I feel bad that they're always my guinea pigs for each lesson I plan! So I'm doing games with them to shift them round to the last classes I teach with each lesson plan! genius! For dinner we had hot chocolate and chips from Macdonalds....

HUAIROU, Beijing Province: Korean class again this morning - was really hoping to get my usual Korean class back, but was asked to cover Efren's class again! I seriously hope this is the last week because they are such hard work! When I arrived, Sarah told me that she'd just had to interview 10 Chinese students, and pick only 3 to join our Korean classes! She had to interview the students (with no warning herself!) in front of her whole class and the Head of th...

HUAIROU, Beijing Province: Friday, Friday, Friday! Very nice to be so close to the weekend! Had my two classes today - class 4 is supposed to be one of the higher level classes, but they're really difficult to keep focussed. I worry now, after seeing how the students responded to Miss Cao - about the fact that they just show absolutely no respect to my authority as a teacher! I think most of the students like me - they talk to me after class and always wave and...