Today I rode the Ebike all the way to work on my own. The route is actually quite easy so my worries about getting lost were not great, but the worries about other bikers were. In the end it was fine, I arrived on time and didn’t fall off or cause anyone else to!
Today in class we looked at favourite foods and types of food, another vocab lesson. I hope to start making some resources to make the lessons more interesting as I only have flash cards at the moment. Barry was still very badly behaved but Cheery told me today that his doctor thinks he has ADHD which would explain the inability to sit still – although I am always unsure what such a diagnosis really does, it can give the child an excuse for bad behaviour ‘I can’t help it I have ADHD’ and he pills they sometimes give them never seem to do any good its either crazy or zombie. Barry did respond to me telling him off but it only lasts a few seconds before he is off again. It’s also hard to tell him off as he often realises what you about to do and gives you a big smile and a cuddle!
The smaller children are now going to be taught by Rebecca with me as language support, so she can have a go at being an English teacher. This is fine by me as Alan the youngest child has decided I am mama and insists on me picking him up and him giving me nice warm cuddles! The lesson was some simple repetition and I managed to engage Alan for at least 15 mins – which is hard for a 1 and a half year old.
For the older children I decided a game was in order. We had been too serious with the learning by repetition so I went on line and found a game called slam. Basically you print out a picture of 6 hand prints and in the hand prints you can write or draw things from your topic then give one to each child. You call out the words and the first child to slam their hand on their paper in the correct hand print wins. Some of the children can’t read so I did pictures for today but I may modify it to be more like bingo with a tailored set of hand prints for each child.
The final lesson of the day was just Jasper and Becky again but now they both have the text book it’s a bit easier. Jasper is way further ahead but at least there are moments when I only have to concentrate on one of them because the other has a task to do.
Today was my Dad’s birthday so Vincent bought an international phone card and I gave home a ring. It’s been hard to ring home in China as our mobiles don’t work so we can’t text and the one we have borrowed from a friend of Paul’s would use up all the money in 2 seconds to call the UK.