Date: 13th March

Alarm Time: 7am

Hours slept: 4 hours

Weather: 18 degrees celcius. Winter has finally handed over the baton to Spring :)

Checklist: Found a Chinese tutor


"Be nice to teacher today, teacher is very tired!" as children roll on the floor, kick balls across the classroom or pretend to be animals.
I never go out at weekends, early mornings with 3 year olds, it doesn't work! A house party was taking place in Shanghai on Saturday night and with over a 100 people turning up, I couldn't say no to the offer, hoping to meet many more people; People being teachers. Everyone I asked, 'What do you do?' 'I'm teaching' I stopped using it as my opening line in the end, I already knew their answer!
I met an Australian who of all the places to visit in the world, yep he'd gone to Evesham! It's a mighty big but small world we live in!
Waking up a 7am, I wait for the 6 minute 'ping' of the microwave, my noodles are cooked! I needed something unhealthy! A cup of tea in one hand, a Red Bull in the other, it was going to be a very long day. But after my first lesson of 40minutes I was right as rain (phew)
Tingle (don't you just love his English name!?) Tingle is 5 years old and almighty cute. "Tingle I love you! Do you love me?" I say as he leaves the classroom. A huge smile on his face, "Nooo"


1:00pm - F Class (13-14 years old)

"What did you do last night?" The same answers as usual, "I did my homework" But today things were turned up a notch... "I went to a wedding" Good. "I went to a murder scene" PARDON? Whilst everyone else was telling me what they did, Polly had been writing down all she did last night 'A man killed 3 women on _??_ Road. 14 police cars we sent there. I was curious so went with my friend. We didn't see the bodies but the blood on the floor. I was dissapointed!' "Has anyone else seen a dead body?" I ask. Why I asked this strange question I don't know but I was happy for the conversation to keep flowing. F Class can sometimes be difficult to communicate with as they're at the age of a typical teenager, where it might not be cool to answer a question. A young boy saw some dried blood in the public toilets were a guy had killed his girlfriend. Another boy was having a bath and when stepping out, he saw out of the window a pool of blood in the road. The conversation started getting too deep and so we went onto page 250!


3:50pm - Rhino Class (6-8 years old)

I've been with Rhino Class since their first day when they all had labels on with their names. I feel like they're 'mine' now. We started on them actually remembering their names, learning how to say them, they were some tears and many frustrated sighs when a child didn't remember his or her name. But many lessons later, 'What is your name? Are you a boy or a girl?' They understand and take great pride in telling me; Standing up, shoulders back, "M-y- n-a-m-e i-s C-h-l-o-e" Richard and Racheal are siblings and Richard is now the only child who still struggles with his name, thinking he's Racheal!
At first Rhino Class were a bit disruptive but I've figured out what works best with certain pupils, how to keep their focus etc. I love teaching them. It's been so great walking into each lesson, seeing how each child has once again grown in confidence.
At the end of a lesson the team with the most points on the blackboard gets 5 stamps in their book and the other team 4. The stamps can then be exchanged for toys. A cabinet upstairs holds many interesting items from rubbers to bags and pens to books. For exmaple, 180 stamps can get you a rubber set. So collecting many points in a lesson is essential.
"Racheal, come get your book. Good girl, 5 stamps" I pass the book to Racheal. She grabs my face and delicatley kisses my cheek. "Thank you teacher"


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