Hump week...

If Wednesday is 'hump day' because it's the middle of the week and from there it's all downhill to the weekend, then this week is the hump week of my time in Suzhou. We are now exactly half way through our internship and it feels strange; simultaneously it feels like we've done so much, and done so little.

Undoubtedly it is a downhill stroll from this point rather than the uphill struggle that some days and weeks have been, and now feels like a good time to reflect on the journey so far. There have certainly been struggles, adjusting to teaching was a big and gradual change, which is still going on, and I'm sure there are still some difficult days ahead but at the moment I'm enjoying life and feeling very content. I have no regrets about my decision to come to China; and even though not everything has gone how I thought it would, I have no regrets from anything that I've done or experienced here. At least not yet.

The thing that strikes me most when I look back on the journey from that first week to now is how many sides a teacher has to have. It's not just about teaching, well...it is, it's just not as simple as that. Teaching means wearing a lots of different hats (no, not literally. Although that could make lessons more interesting hmm...). Just to show you what I mean here are some of the roles I take on daily:

Actor

If there is one thing I do a lot of it's acting. Whether this is pretending that I don't feel like I want have a very long nap, or that I don't sort of want to strangle a particularly naughty student, or pretending to be a rampaging elephant, acting is a necessary classroom skill. Step into that classroom and I'm in teacher mode, ready to make a fool out of myself and throw myself into the most benile topics (vegetables anyone?) if that's what is going to engage the class. They love it when I pretend to be a snake so I do it, if over exaggeration helps them to remember a word then I'm going to prance in my imaginary flowy skirt so that they NEVER forget that word. Its a hell of a lot of fun, but by god is it exhausting.

Artist

One thing I lack here are teaching resources. No computer, expect my tablet, limited printer access and the students having no paper means that I spend a lot of my weekend and break times drawing beautiful flashcards for class. Sometimes I think it's strange that I'm probably doing more colouring in than the 7 year olds I teach, but then I look at my flash cards and pray that all that colouring is going to maybe make learning a bit more fun. More often than not my pictures get roars of laughter so maybe it's working?

Poet and musician

I've recently discovered that Chinese children love to chant. I have no idea why, I think it's mind numbingly dull, but they lap it up. So in an attempt to engage and keep them under a controlled noise I've started writing little chants. It's amazing what they will remember when it's said in a rhythm and their school training kicks in and they're actual well behaved when they're chanting. It's a blessing. Although it definitely isn't a fail safe method of control, some days they just wont chant or repeat anything you say. They sure know how to be frustrating! 

On top of the chanting I am singing a lot in class, if working on summer camp taught me anything it is a huge repertoire of silly songs. I find the best way of grabbing the classes attention is to kind of just start singing randomly, and it was one of the cringiest moment of my life when I just started singing the banana song to a class of slightly stunned 7 year olds. But it works! By the end of the second song I was shamelessly singing and dancing like a banana with my class despite the horrified onlooking Chinese teacher.

Plaything

Less of an official role than what the kids have turned me into. Because of the freedom and movement of a TEFL classroom, my students have come to regard me as a fun machine and therefore have pretty much zero respect but a lot of affection. They will all scream and start clapping when I walk into a classroom and refuse to be quiet until and scary Chinese teacher gives them a strict talking to, they will randomly hit my butt (still) as I walk by in class and at break times I often turn into a climbing frame as they jump and clamber on me. I think I made a fatal mistake by not being stricter in my first week and although some ground has been gained back by bribery, the damage has been done and so for now I'm the fun toy who doesn't understand a word of what they are jabbering on about.

Over the past eight weeks these are some of the roles I have adopted into my teaching strategy,  and when I look back I can see how I'm improving as a teacher and it's a relief. More and more often there are little moments of success to celebrate, when a class remembers all the vocabulary from the week before, or when a typically naughty class actually behave. But last week I had one lesson that was probably my biggest success to date. On the bus home I suddenly realised, I hadn't had to say "be quiet" or "shhh" once in that class. The class were all engaged and having fun the entire time! Of course they were loud and they were mad but crucially they were mad and loud on my terms! Now I'm not foolishly idealistic, I know a class like that is a complete rarity and that its probably not going to happen again any time soon, or maybe not ever, but I am more than happy to take it as a success and remember that it can happen!

I hope that over my final eight weeks there are more of these uplifting classes that down heartening ones because it is amazing how much fun I have a lot of the time. There are days when I wake up in the morning and just think I can't be bothered to teach and that all I really want is a lie in, but once I've struggled into school and am in front of my first class my mood often does a 180° turn around. Lots of my classes make me laugh, I have fun teaching them and I like to think my students are enjoying them too! Its a great feeling to have a job where you actually get in a better mood by being there, and I'm pretty sure this is a very rare thing too. It makes me want to continue teaching after my contract is up here. 

Pretty soon I'm going to come to the point in my journey where I have to start thinking seriously about what I want to do next, and there are so many options!

I know the summer is for travelling through China and South East Asia but then where I'll be when school starts in a complete mystery. The one thing I know for sure though is that I am definitely not ready to head back to the UK and sit at an office desk all day just yet!