Teaching in Haikou

Monday whipped around the corner and hit me like a crashing wave. Fortunately for me- I’m a good swimmer. I got up at 6:30, ate breakfast, and began the 12 minute walk to the school. Julie, Ida, and I went the the first class we would be assisting in that day (grade 3) and began settling in and preparing for the first day of students. The classroom consisted of a chalkboard, 20 odd desks, and corners filled with dirt and trash. Lovely. Today, we were going to teach them “Hello” and “My name is” today so an icebreaker game seemed appropriate. When the kids arrived and class began, not a single student would open their mouth.

A very shy group of kids indeed.

We ended up “warming up” the class by playing a game where they stood by their desks and copied my body motions (coupled by ridiculous sound effects of course). Flailing arms in all directions, jumping in circles, and giggles galore eventually permeated through each student in the class. They became much less shy and seemingly more comfortable with their peers. Fantastic!!! Well… only kinda. Retrospectively, I realized many of the students had a paralyzing fear of failure. Or maybe, more accurately, a fear of looking stupid in front of their fellow students. Hmm, I guess these child-prodigy, Chinese baby genius are a little more human than I thought. Who knew?

Classes throughout the week continued in a similar manner. A vicious cycle of trying an activity, failing because the students refused to participate, improvising a game to warm them up, and being surprised when they still didn’t participate. Every class was a little bit successful but never to the extent that we anticipated. It has been a very interesting journey thus far evaluating myself as a teacher and the village kids as students. Unfortunately for the sake of the Meimei village, I did not quite come to an understanding with myself and teaching methods before the bulk of the week passed me by, but looking forwards, I have a year yet to figure it out 🙂

Bonus:

We had a music lesson in which I got to break out my saxophone for the first time in China. I tried to teach ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Old Macdonald’, and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ Per usual the kids were very reluctant to participate and I ended up doodling nursury rhymes on my saxophone to a practically silent classroom. Yayy!! I think I am the first exposure to organized music they have ever had…