Lesson Plans and Close Escapes

Every Thursday lesson plans are due by the end of the day. The school has a shared drive where they keep everything (class rosters, lesson plans, student files, etc). Lesson plans are mainly just a personal benefit for me, but they are checked periodically by supervisors just to make sure you're on schedule and that you're doing them.

My lesson plans didn't take long to create. Since I'm teaching younger children, we repeat activities daily, and since I have a lot of newer students it is hard to do a lot of group activities in one class, so I have to keep things simple. There is a certain setup for the lesson plan though: the subject, class, time, and procedures. In the procedures area you have to have at least four steps: warm up, presentation, practice, and closure. For warm up I usually sing a song or say good morning and get them all to repeat it. Presentation is where I introduce any new words or lessons or just review past things. Practice is where we'd play a game or do a worksheet or activity. Closure is usually another song or simple review. Not very detailed at all. For my toddlers I can do bimonthly plans because we will repeat things for a week or two so that they can learn and remember. So far this job is easy :)

My friend Gretchen however, is having a harder time. She has some older classes and she has a daily class that's two hours long. Her lesson plans are more in depth and lengthy. She's also been having classes with more "problem" children and with the language barrier it has been frustrating for her. She has a pretty busy schedule and since we still only have one set of keys, I stay at work with her till she's ready to go home. Today I told her I was her personal assistant to help with anything she needed since I was finished with my work.

As part of my contract I have to teach 12 hours at the Joy Language school. I haven't been there yet and I don't know when I'll go in September. I'm guessing once that starts then I might have a harder time like Gretchen is now.

In other school news: for about an hour and a half today all the foreign teachers (me and the 7 others not from Taiwan) had to sit in the basement due to the fact that a government offical was here about us teaching. For those of you that don't know, it is technically illegal for me to be teaching Kindergarden, there is a law against it. I questioned this in my first phone interview and was told that the law isn't ever really enforced and that they have never had a teacher sent home because of it. I also asked why it was a law and they told me they thought it has something to do with the Chinese not wanting "foreigners" taking all the jobs. So I had some good bonding time with fellow teachers, we just played games while we sat down there. I almost got caught to! I had finished a class and was walking downstairs to get some water when Fiona (a supervisor) came running up, grabbed my arm and said "Marisa, come with me!". She pulled me upstairs and onto a balcony where we went down the outside stairs. She explained what was going on as she peeked around the building. She was trying to find an outside enterance to the basement. We then had to sneek around to the front of the building to the other side, through the bus parking garage and into a side door. Very "Mission Impossible" lol. I don't know what exactly would happen if we'd get caught, but I don't plan on finding out!!