The first week --Nina

As you can imagine, there is a lot going on here, since we just started school on Saturday. So many posters and tracking systems to make, so many names to learn! So, that is my excuse for not posting in such a long time.



After a somewhat relaxing (but nerve-wracking, due to a lot of uncertainties and fears about teaching) two weeks of living in a hotel in Xi'an, we moved into our rooms at Yongfeng last Friday. It is lovely here in the tiny village of Yongfeng. 

The classroom building, as seen from the second floor balcony of the teachers' dorms (where we live). 

The beautiful mountains behind our school

Yongfeng Village, as seen from the side of the mountain behind it. Our school is the big, happy, yellow complex.                                   

The first day of classes was on September 1st, despite the fact that that was a Saturday. Apparently that's the policy at Yongfeng. No matter when it falls, September 1st is the official first day. But, until Friday afternoon at around 7 PM, neither Abby nor I (nor the other teachers in the school) knew what classes, or even subjects, we were teaching. The principal and dean were not quite sure either. After a brief, informal chat with the incredibly helpful and friendly dean, in which we told him exactly what classes we'd like to teach, he made that happen for us, and he printed up the schedules for everyone by around 7 on Friday. (12 hours before classes started) 

I'm teaching English, science, art, and music to 4th and 6th graders, as well as English to 2nd graders. It's a total of 19 periods a week. (Abby has a similar load, but with 3rd, 5th, and then 1st graders.) So far, things are going well, but we are both incredibly exhausted. 

The 6th graders are awesome kids, who so far have gotten really excited by my YouTube videos of rotifers and amoeba, and, unlike the 4th graders, they approve of Beethoven and look forward to hearing more classical music. The 4th graders, however, have a bit more trouble focusing,* and they decided that Beethoven was "terrifying" and "not pleasant." We'll try again next week. 

The presents I've received from my fourth graders already! Unfortunately, it's very possible that many of these things were made during my class, since they often come up to me right after we ended class and proudly hand me drawings/origami.

The 6th graders are learning about microbiology, so we're doing an experiment where we see what happens when we rub our germy hands on an apple slice. This is what the apples looked like right after the kids had touched the one on the bottom. We have already learned a very important lesson! Let's wash our hands at least once a week! (Not an exaggeration. Some of their hands are caked in dirt, to the point where they seem to be permanently brown.)

*This is a vast understatement, but I'm trying to be optimistic.