Hmmmm hello all!

This Blog is not a blog persay, more of a rant...i may spread into other areas afterwards...but that will probably occur in the next email.

OMG! GAP SUCKS!!!!! AND SO DO JUNIOR TWO!!! I had my first classes yesterday (Tuesday) and i had junior two class one and senior two class one (caitlin took all the class two's). Shadow, my link teacher, had warned me that junior two were naughty and that she would sit in on my first class to observe and help out...big load of good that did, a class of fifty 13 to 14 year olds, who don't care about their education and where half the boys will probably end up in juvie. Shadow tried to calm them down but it was no good, they ignored me, apart from about 9 or 10 near the front, spoke to their friends, slept, were drawing or reading...wonderful. But i continued on, and finally got through 40 minutes of hell, only to go back to the apartment (after being invited out to play ping pong with a lovely uni girl) and cry like no tomorrow, panicking my mum and sister over msn at the same time (not very smart hey?)

But yes, anyway, i decided to give it another go, why not? It had only been my first day of teaching and it could just have been my nerves, so i went ahead, planned the next lesson for Junior two (which was for today). Throughout the day I felt a bit ill, though i wasn't sure if it was nerves or something i had eaten and had a wonderful, wonderful lesson with my senior one's this morning. They were enthusiastic, helpful and very funny, put a spring in my step it did, indeedy.

And then it happened...the hellish lesson that will forever name me the gapper to get students suspended! (hopefully). I walked in, determined to be more in control then last lesson, i had punishment work on hand and some easy, fun games to play with them as i knew they didn't like me talking too much, they prefer getting involved.

I should have gone with my gut feeling, bad, bad and bad. I stepped into the class, said hello and was instantly mocked by a a boy at the back, so i made him stand up in silence for the entire lesson. Fine, good, I was in control and it worked, he shut up.

Not so in control though i guess, within five minutes i was contemplating walking out, but i thought, no, that's giving in, don't do it. It only got worse, within fourty minutes things were thrown, i was insulted, laughed at, mocked again, ignored by almost everyone apart from about 5 or 6 students (at the front of the class) who were all girls. I also had to confiscate a boys phone from him (or mp3 player? hmmm) and within minutes he had another one out and was playing it and watching me laughing, so i went over to take it and he hid it and pretended he knew no english...which i knew was a lie because he had spoken english earlier to me. Afterwards he completely refused to speak any english...wonderful.

Maybe i sound like a drama queen, who knows, but the case is, i came out of the class a wreck, came back to the apartment crying saying i'd never teach the class again (Which i am sticking to) and found the bathroom and kitchen flooded. Do wonders never cease?

It was rather nice though to see how supportive everyone (Well nearly...) was, Caitlin got so angry on my behalf and demanded we talk to Shadow about it, which we did, but unfortunately she didn't understand completely, though she did say she would inform the headteacher or whatnot. Though now we are going to talk to him in person instead, so meh.

We then emailed Sally, our Gap Project manager for Guangxi...wow, what a help she was; "check your lesson plans, they may be too difficult or boring, talk slowly and in simple language, one instruction at a time, i've never heard of such behaviour before...i've seen some star lessons at that school..." - right, thanks alot.

So yes...slightly insulted on that front, especially as the lesson plans had worked with all my other classes very successfully. Though i won't say i'm arrogant, in my first lesson i did note that part of my lesson was too hard for junior two and changed to something different straight away, which they seemed to enjoy for a while in the first lesson. So i do admit that my lesson plans aren't perfect and that i make some mistakes, i'll adapt when necessary. But when the hell did boring or difficult lesson resort in violence, rude and cruel behaviour? I've never heard of it!!!

So here we are, i've ranted, cried and complained to family and other gappers and have somewhat calmed down...i think. But i just needed a final rant.

For those expecting a proper update i'm sorry, hopefully tomorrow or friday i will post up a nice blog about last weekend when we became super popular and went shopping and had kfc! omg i miss chips!

Until then, zaijian!

Lauren