Uhhh...Anatomically Correct, Ahem, Ahem...

Hello - just a quick post before we head to Yinchuan (Matt’s students have exams and I don’t have a Friday class this week). So, hopefully we will be able to find a Romeo and Juliet DVD for our drama class. If I can’t, I might be asking one of you loyal readers to send me a copy.

So, teaching this week was interesting. In my Junior 1 classes, we were working on a lesson on animals. But, of course, nothing is easy or without its snaffoos. The kids had fun making up an animal and all that. But the difficulty that I ran into was in every class, without fail, was that each class asked me about a particular picture. A nice elephant family, mother, baby and father. The father was the one in the front of the picture, you how I know? Guess. Yup. As clear as day. None of my kids shied away from the opportunity to ask, “Teacher Molly, what is THAT in English?”

After a couple of classes went by I began to recognize the warning signs of when the dreaded anatomical question was going to be raised. First, a group of kids would start to giggle during conversation practice time, then the groups around the initial gigglers would start. Then, students would start elbowing each other until, the bravest student, usually a boy, would raise his hand and call me over, point to the picture and ask (after much more giggling). In all cases I just smiled and told them to ask their other English teacher. Which I doubt they would do.

I think that man parts and woman parts were very much on the minds of my kids this week. Many of the animal pictures had um...additions. Also, my Junior 2 classes made some interesting women robots last week. I guess spring is in the air?

Okay, enough of that. The wind is really starting to pick up. So kites have been going up. It is kinda fun watching the kids with their kites. I have been trying to spend a little more free time with them. They can be pretty cool.

What else...this week I observed a new game. It involves a group of boys, one will try to pull down another’s pants while the rest of the boys try to punch him in the nuts. This happened in the middle of one of the presentations in class. A boy was up presenting his dialogue to the class, suddenly, no pants. Then he was on the floor, groaning. Man oh man! I had to break up a couple of fights in the hall (better if I do it, I won’t hit them for it).

I got a nice ego boost this week (I think...the Chinese confuse me sometimes). I had some extra time on my hands, so I curled my hair and decided to wear my contacts. First, my kids were concerned that I lost or broke my glasses, after I told them about the contacts they were relieved. They all really liked the curls and played with them (sprong! Sprong! Sprong!) The teachers told me that I was much, much, much more beautiful than before (thanks, I think). And my students oohed and aahed whenever I walked into class. My girls would run up to me and say, “Miss Molly, you look so beautiful!” The boys would whisper something similar and run away or yell it down the hall and run away.

Yesterday, my SFS got an A+ for participation in class, so I was proud of him. I also got some good video of some of my kids playing in the hallway. After my Junior 2 Class 1 class (my favorite class) we usually walk home together (last class of the day). My SFS yelled down the stair well, “Miss Molly, I think you are very, very, very beautiful today!” Then he blushed and ran down the stairs to walk out with me. Then he said to me that he was very sorry and he forgot that it was my week to teach his class (I alternate weeks with another teacher) and that he took his bike to school. I said that I would wait for him to get his bike, he insisted that I go and he would try to catch up. Then he promised that next time we would walk home together. Cute.

Anyhow, off to Yinchuan! Talk to you all next week!