first full week of teaching finished... check!

And it's done. My first full week of teaching completed, and it feels great! I am so excited that things are going so well and that I love my school so much. That's not to say that some things aren't a little challenging, I come across HUGE challenges everyday. The students in both my classes really like to try my patience :) The 3 year olds, now, they are 3. Enough said. They are rowdy, have the attention span of a small goldfish and frankly, they just wanna play. Also, again, they are 3! Their Chinese is just starting to get good and here I am trying to teach them English. My main goal of this week: keep things active and interesting. My unit theme is Numbers this week so I am going to research songs, games and mooorreee games with numbers.
My 6 year old class, well, out of the 13 kids, 10 are boys. They just wanna run around and fight each other! They usually stay in tune with my lesson for about 10 minutes and then it is all downhill. I promise my lessons are fun here people! haha Also, it takes me about 3 minutes at the beginning of my lesson to just get them to stop talking! It all takes practice - I am hoping next week goes a little better.

Friday was Teacher's Day! In China, Teacher's Day is a big deal! Its presents, cards, and early dismissal :) I got a bunch of cute cards, flowers, and even a mooncake certificate! (Pictures soon, once I get my camera batteries today). All my 3 year olds shouted I LOVE YOU MISS JAMI! down the hall way when i was with my 6 yrs. It was so precious. Also, all my cards were addressed to "Miss Jima" Yes, Jima. Parents can't seem to get my name right! I think my problem here is though that Jane, the Chinese teacher in the classroom, sent out my contact information spelled Jima. I saw it one day on a spreadsheet. Its okay though, my kids get it right. Jami. Jami. JAMI!
After the day was over and the kids went home, we had an all faculty celebration with the branch school. Basically, I sat through an entire hour long program... all in Chinese. I basically clapped when Tina clapped (another teacher in the school). Interesting, but boring. Then we went to a huge (an expensive, all paid) dinner with everyone. I also had whale fin soup!!! It is a Chinese delicacy. It was actually really good. When I asked what it was, I was told it was "whale wing" soup. haha Wing. Silly Chinese :) The night was followed by a LOT of toasting bosses, retirees, faculty and more. I think i greeted over 100 people and toasted almost 10 big-wigs!
Needless to say - after a 12 hour day. I slept good last night.
Excited to post more pictures soon. Check out my Flickr photostream (to the right) with pictures from orientation week!