I have worked out that if I stand right at the front of the class, right by the desks, then the children shut up quicker, as though they think I can see them better from here! Most of my classes were OK today, bar one, when I was devastated to see when I looked at my watch that I still had 20 minutes to go! I enjoyed teaching my only year four class, they are so well behaved and keen to learn, and I can even start doing basic grammar with them, much more exciting than flashcards…
I had to do speaking tests with year four, and they kept saying “I clean the cupboard”, which I didn’t understand but the course book often has weird and incorrect phrases in it, so I gave all the children full marks. Three quarters of the way through, one girl said, very clearly, “I clean the carpet”. Oooops… they’d all been saying it with terrible pronunciation and getting full marks..! When the teacher came back I hadn’t finished all the tests so she demanded that I came back and finished them in my break, so she could write the reports… the cheek!
During my break, I was telling my supervisor about the speaking tests I’ve been doing and he told me that some of his teachers will whisper a mark to him before the child arrives and he must give them that mark, because the teacher is being paid by the parent to give good marks! Crazy. Everything here is money, money, money, bribe, bribe, bribe.
There’s nothing like an unexpected free period on a Friday! Unfortunately I still have another class after it so I had to wait around, but it was one less class of screaming children!!
