Suzhou Foreign Language School
I was able to get a few pics late this week of my school and some of the students I get to teach.
The school has about 4000 students and over 400 support staff. Each class of approximately 30 students has over 6 teachers, all with specialties. From what I am gathering it is considered a very prestigious school and is extremely expensive. This is probably why the teachers here are paid about double that of every other school I applied to. Most of the foreign teachers here have a lot of experience (average 10 years) but I think I just got really lucky getting this job because of my science background. Chalk one point up for the first time I ever used my science degree.
One cool thing they do is morning exercises. Every day at 9:30am, all the students and staff (except the 7 of us lazy foreign teachers who have a get out of jail free card in China called white skin) run for about 1/2 hour. It is crazy to see them all lining up and the music is very marching band-esque. I also got a pic of some primary kids learning how to march outside of my bedroom. It is one of the units they learn in PE, which is another class they all have to do once a day...no wonder there are so few fat Chinese! The pictures are posted on the right.
This pic here is of my Canada 2 Class. They are in grade 11 and all aspire to go to Uni in Canada. I teach them math every day and went on a mild rant about profit and loss yesterday which ended up being really funny. I basically learn the stuff a few minutes before class and a few of them are ahead of me which has become an ongoing joke. They are a really fun age to teach. All of them are fun actually. I dont know how keen I would be to teach much younger than my youngest class (grade 7) but I do like watching the really young kids misbehave and generally have lots of fun in the halls. So maybe I would like that as well.
So my first week as a teacher is over. I like it a lot. I am already feeling a cool connection with many of the older students that I see daily, and I feel like I make a difference in their lives which is totally awesome. Now it is time to play! Off for a big walk into town and then will likely end up meeting with some other teachers at a foreigner bar which apparently has a lot of hot Aussies. I dont think I will be complaining.
The school has about 4000 students and over 400 support staff. Each class of approximately 30 students has over 6 teachers, all with specialties. From what I am gathering it is considered a very prestigious school and is extremely expensive. This is probably why the teachers here are paid about double that of every other school I applied to. Most of the foreign teachers here have a lot of experience (average 10 years) but I think I just got really lucky getting this job because of my science background. Chalk one point up for the first time I ever used my science degree.
One cool thing they do is morning exercises. Every day at 9:30am, all the students and staff (except the 7 of us lazy foreign teachers who have a get out of jail free card in China called white skin) run for about 1/2 hour. It is crazy to see them all lining up and the music is very marching band-esque. I also got a pic of some primary kids learning how to march outside of my bedroom. It is one of the units they learn in PE, which is another class they all have to do once a day...no wonder there are so few fat Chinese! The pictures are posted on the right.
This pic here is of my Canada 2 Class. They are in grade 11 and all aspire to go to Uni in Canada. I teach them math every day and went on a mild rant about profit and loss yesterday which ended up being really funny. I basically learn the stuff a few minutes before class and a few of them are ahead of me which has become an ongoing joke. They are a really fun age to teach. All of them are fun actually. I dont know how keen I would be to teach much younger than my youngest class (grade 7) but I do like watching the really young kids misbehave and generally have lots of fun in the halls. So maybe I would like that as well.
So my first week as a teacher is over. I like it a lot. I am already feeling a cool connection with many of the older students that I see daily, and I feel like I make a difference in their lives which is totally awesome. Now it is time to play! Off for a big walk into town and then will likely end up meeting with some other teachers at a foreigner bar which apparently has a lot of hot Aussies. I dont think I will be complaining.
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