Good news is I've hammered out my grading criteria for the remainder of the semester and now I have a template for next semester. Bad news is now I have to start failing students that aren't trying their best (or at all).
Before I forget, I need to add this little tidbit: Last week I saw a play with my "English-conversation-partner/Chinese-teacher" Julia about some high school students that have done very poorly on an exam and try to convince their teacher to give them the keys to the safe so they can change their answers and pass. I found the play a little disturbing and the premise and outcome a little cliché by American standards, but I think a lot of the students really enjoyed the performance.
The stage - low-budget, but I say use what works.
The Street Petshop of Wenzhou - rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and parakeets.
On Saturday I... ...go on, guess ...you'd never imagine I'd do this over the weekend... I went hiking with the Crazy English Club. This time we carried up a barbecue grill and some tents and sleeping bags that were rented from the school. We went way up into the pass and set up camp in the empty side-channel near one of the reservoirs.
Campsite - shared by ~100 people
I didn't stay the night, I had to get down and get up the next morning to run the 1500-meter in the 瓯江 学院 sports meet (the teacher's race, not the student race).
Jia Jing and Xiao Ming both walked down with me and then back up again. It was 5 hours round trip and the last three hours walking up they did in the dark. I felt really bad about putting them through that, even though they insisted it was nothing.
In the 1500m race it was only one other teacher and myself, I won by more than a minute and more than half a lap, pushing myself as hard as I could. I don't know what my time was, but I imagine it's the same time Matt would've run if one of his legs were chopped off.
On Monday, Julia (the girl who's been teaching me Chinese) asked me to be a part of a promotional video recording that took place at the same time as my second morning class. I refused, the class was more important, but then she called me after lunch and asked me if I could do it then. The scene involved me speaking to several English-competent students alongside a Swedish exchange student about four years my senior and a Korean professor.
The whole setup was a little odd but, eh.
Today one of the students (not mine) told me he'll be performing in a singing competition next Monday and asked me for two things: 1) English song ideas, and 2) if I'd sing with him. (Fortunately for me, the English faculty and all the other foreign teachers, the competition is at the same time as my Monday evening class, so I could only give him ideas).
This evening, after a day spent in the office talking with a colleague I walked by the cafeteria and found
Ben making Dumplings with several of his students. So I got invited to participate and got a free meal out of it.Very soon now I'm going to give my students a midterm about "definitive experiences" (I've explained the topic many times now), so this week I'm hammering out the last things that they need to do to be ready for the presentation day (I don't have my Thursday & Friday classes next week).
