The highs and lows of friday

So my cold finally broke over night and while it is still around I don't feel quite so lousy. Today was my quiet day, I only had 2 classes. Ironically one is my lowest class and probably one of my favourite to teach. There are only 4 students and they are quite young (6 or 7ish). The class is only 2 weeks old so they are still learning their abcs and everything else. I love making them as active as possible. Being a small class I can have them all participating in a running game without too much carnage. The other class is probably the one I have the most trouble with and also as far as levels go they are one of my highest. Today I actually broke through and got their participation...my methodology however was slightly unorthadox and would probably be frowned upon by the other teachers.

Essentially after throwing a sticky ball at a whiteboard target failed to get their enthusiasm I offered myself up as a target with a very soft ball. Thus any correct answer resulted in a chance to hit me with the ball and get points. This may not be the most responsible teaching method around but after the results I saw today I really don't care. Even battleship failed to get a decent response.

While today was my quietest day tomorrow is my busiest yet again my oral GEPT class is one I really look forward to despite the fact it means I stay at least 30 minutes later than I'm meant to. Once again the class is small only 5 students. There is no prep necessary as the lesson plan is tight but the conversation level is quite high.

Fridays I always visit a certain street vendor for dinner. She is very friendly and while a lot of what we say is lost in translation she tries hard to speak English and I flex my Chinese vocab whenever possible. The food is great although there are things on her stand I've learnt to avoid such as stinky tofu and what I think is a form of kimchi (South Korean dish of spicy cabbage).

Tomorrow night I will hit the resturant near Brian's store and get a seafood noodle soup (seriously good and it's a steal at just under $4AU with unlimited drinks and sauces included. You'd never find that in Australia.)

Now all I need to do is get through tomorrow....and ditch this stupid cold.