A Day in the Life of Mark....Part 2.

Welcome back to the second half of every day at least for the next three more weeks.

At this point teaching for 45 minutes means we are responsible for actually structuring our class to make it this long and do our best to not go over....it's hard. You have so many things to think about. Are the students understanding, are they responding, are they enjoying? It is hard to be aware of your timing.

When you get through that 45 minutes, you have a mixed feeling of relief, all your mistakes, incredible joy and perhaps failure. My second teaching day I screwed up on my time and ended it 10 minutes early, thining I was going to long. Ugh.

There are usually three of us or two of us conducting the course for the day and for the rest of them time we observe the other teacher or evaluate them or the students. You need to think about your successes and your points to improve. Clearly, it will take time to perfect all of this teaching and make it all connect, but my biggest joy is that connection with the students. Most are around 19 and they understand all the structure and grammar, but not how to speak well. Also, the majority are girls and they are very, very shy and quiet. I am not always sure if they understand or are responding correctly simply because I cannot always understand them. I have been great at getting the class excited and energized. I want to be the fun crazy teacher, but at the end of the day they must learn....something.

At around 4.45pm, all five teachers with our tutor sit in the same class without the students to discuss teh successes and failures of our lesson. It can be very uncomfortable with your fellow teachers telling you what you did right and wrong, especially if you are beating yourself up. The end of the day is going over new assignments and perhaps what is ahead. You are already overwhelmed emotionally, exhausted and then bamm.....more work, more responsibilities.

It is 6.00pm and we get to go home. Some stay to prepare for next day. Michael and I need to make our very hot and sweaty trek home to walk Liu Ce, relax for a short time, eat, and then work the rest of the night getting ready for our next day to repeat it all over again. It is an additional challenge of will when you step back outside into the 95 degree temp with 95 percent humidity in the worst traffic of the day, the exhaust smoke, the insanity. You are thinking about your day, walking in a daze and yet you must, must, must be alert so you don't get hit.

When we arrive home, we are dripping in sweat. Immediately, the clothes are ripped off and one of us must walk the dog. We try not to bark at each other because we are tired and know that we have way more work to do than the time can accomodate. Planning your lesson or working on an assignment takes so long simply because you are not sure how to confidently do it. Part of this learning is figuring it out on your own and for those of us that are control freaks, it is frustrating.

It is approaching 10pm and wish I had two more hours, but must get some sleep. It is a negotiation of what is more important. I know I have a little time in the morning and hope I got some sleep. The other big issue is if you go to bed stressed, which I usually do, then you cannot sleep well. Your brain cannot shut down. Your alotted 5 - 6 hours of sleep is actually a quality 4 hours.

Recap.....yes, this all must sound like an absolute nightmare to you all and it pretty much is. This is education boot camp and the course is cramming 6 months into one. The instructors are very supportive, but honest and realistic. We all made this choice and of course can quit and run away. There were those moments, but know I will survive it all.

It is the weekend and though there is some relaxing, there are lessons to plan, assignments to finish before another very hectic week. I survived one week. I each hour, day at a time and consider each moment a success. Yes, I beat myself up and then pat myself on the back. Talk to you next week.....