Frustrations & Happy Things

There is a mixture of things that I love about this experience, and things that are frustrating me. 

I like that my year four class is a pleasure to teach. I like that my preschoolers are very cute and enthusiastic, and that even though they’re not very good at English, that my 2B class tries hard and is always happy to see me. I like the little gifts that they give me: candy, a glass dangly thing, one of those rubber band loom bracelets they’re all into at the moment. I love how excited they get when I put up their artwork in the classroom, and how good it feels when a class is having fun. Also, being told that you’re beautiful on a regular basis doesn’t hurt! I was wearing a long-ish shirt today that kept poofing out in the breeze from the fan, my year 7A girls said that I looked like a princess. (I think I’ll keep them!)

My gifts:

Year 4 Art:

Unfortunately, there is a long list of things that frustrate me. Firstly, the lack of communication between the school administration and Vietnamese faculty and the ESL teachers. Rebecka and I found out today, and only because we went and asked after our students were already 15-20 mins late for their lesson, that our classes had been sent to the school hall for an assembly rehearsal. Morning wasted!

The school doesn’t have standardised tests for ESL, we have to write a new test for each class once a month, to check that the students have retained our lessons. This also goes for mid- and end of year tests. While I can see the reason for this, as each class is at a different level (even if they’re in the same grade), it makes it very hard to know exactly how much the students are expected to learn during the year.

It’s also frustrating because we’re supposed to be able to fit this in around teaching coursework and the Cambridge English Test, the various English Clubs (upper high school, lower high school and primary school), and Language Centre. I only know the approximate amount we’re supposed to be able to cover each lesson because I’ve asked the other ESL teachers what they do. I found out today that I’m also supposed to be teaching the year 7s from their workbooks, as well as the textbook stuff I’ve been covering in class. Sometimes I feel like my brain is going to melt!

One of my classes is almost completely out of control. I asked if a Vietnamese teacher can come and tell them off, since they won’t listen to me (it’s extremely difficult to teach a class of screaming and fighting 7 year olds), only to learn that they’re like this in their other classes as well! It’s good to know that it’s just not me, but I’m getting to the end of my tether with them. I’ve tried so many things to get them to settle enough to teach, but I can’t even get them to play games!

My 7Bs are a slightly different story. Half of the class is excellent. They’re not up to the same level as the 7As, but they put in the effort and are making me proud. Unfortunately, the other half of the class are some extremely bratty boys. Tomorrow the good kids get to play games and do very easy worksheets, while the rest of them get to redo today’s lesson with my undivided attention and no leniency. Next week they’ll be split up (I’ll decide the seating arrangements). If I have to treat them like little kids, then that’s what I’ll do. 

Ben, the school owner, wants us to be friends with the students. I don’t mind doing that, but it’s not going to work with some of these kids. It’s a case of going in hard and easing off when they’ve showed me that they want to learn.

I’m fairly sure that Mark is sick of me bitching about this stuff! I am keeping my spirits up though, and reminding myself that I’m only three weeks into the year. It will get better!!! 

PS. Meet the Wilburs! (I’m calling all geckos in my room Wilbur. They’re practically a band, the noisy buggers!)

Hard Times

Tonight, I’m really missing home. I can see that lots of my friends are either at or playing gigs tonight, and I wish I could be there with them! The closest I can get is what I call my gig simulator. This is listening to my friend’s bands while running on a treadmill in a room with no AC or fan, in a humid city. Maybe I should start taking a supply of beer with me… 

I miss my Tigger, Pinot and bed. I want to eat a big bowl of chicken saag with garlic naan and a bottle of red wine or scotch. I want my couch, and a movie on the telly. 

There is nothing very familiar here. I know that this is culture shock, and I was expecting it, but that doesn’t make it any better. 

Gripe over.

On Wednesday, I promised my year 7s music today. Last night, I realised that I have nothing in common with these kids and that I have no idea what kind of music they listen to. I’m not exactly up on my pop music! Instead, they received an education in The Living End, punk for beginners, rock, and other various non-pop stuff. I consider it my duty to broaden their horizons. I get the feeling that some of the girls are into boy bands. We want to discourage that kind of behaviour!

Hospital Fun!

One thing I didn’t know before arriving in Vietnam is that you have to have a full medical checkup in order to get a work visa. This means that today I paid for the privilege of being trotted around the local public hospital and having tests done. As the only westerner there (Long Xuyen is a rural city with no tourists), I was quite the novelty! If you’re into being stared at, this is the place for you…

First up was an ultrasound, which left me sticky from the gel, and tickled a bit when she checked up around the bottom of my ribs. The lady was nice though, she said that I was very beautiful. In Vietnam, this basically translates to “Wow, you’re so white!”. Hooray for my Celtic heritage! In a lot of Asian countries they believe that white skin is the ideal for women. This works for me, since I don’t tan.

I also had an eye test, a chest x-ray, a blood test, gave a urine sample (not easy at the best of times, and much worse on a squat toilet, I have to say), my weight and height were measured, and there were a lot of other places that we visited where I had no idea what was going on. There’s a long form that each doctor signs when they’ve seen/tested you, but mostly we just went in, the doctor made me sit down, signed the form and then sent me on my way. I avoided the gynecological exam by becoming temporarily married… Sorry Mark, I’m sure you could feel someone walking over your grave!

The optician was very interested in my tattoos, so we had a quick show and tell session along the way. This is the opposite of the reception they’ve had so far. I believe that some of the people in town think I’m some kind of gang member but, since I’m totally dodgy and will sic my peeps on you if you don’t do what I want, we all know that this is true… 😛

I’ll get all my results tomorrow, but I won’t be able to read them. Hopefully I’m not dying! I do have a souvenir, one chest x-ray. Just what I always wanted!! One of the good things was that it wasn’t nearly as horrendous as I was expecting. I was told some horror stories by Rebecka and Josie, but I must have been extremely lucky!

My New Home

Now that I’ve been at GIS for a few weeks, I’m mostly settled in. My room is comfortable, although I do tend to use my bed as a couch, desk and eating area… I do have a desk for working on, but I’ve found that once you’ve got the laptop running and the textbook, workbook, teacher’s book and class book open, you run out of room pretty quickly! 

There are hundreds of geckos here. Some of them live in my room. I’ve named all of the ones that visit me Wilbur. It’s easier than trying to remember which is which. They seem to like The Living End, so they can stay as long as they want to! The other things we have lots of are giant cockroaches, tiny ants, and mosquitoes. I spray my room with flyspray every night before I go to sleep to keep the mozzies at bay. The ants and roaches don’t come in, so I don’t have to worry about them too much!

My room is equipped with a little fridge, a wardrobe, two desks, two chairs, a double? bed, LCD TV and internet TV, a 20l bottle of filtered water (do not drink out of the taps unless you really want dysentery) and a bathroom (toilet, shower etc). I use one desk for working and the other is my TV cabinet/pantry. The kitchen has taken a little adjustment. We have a sink, toaster, kettle, rice cooker and an induction cookplate which accommodates one pot or pan and either burns food or takes forever to cook it… I’ve sworn to make it my bitch before I leave!! 

There’s a really nice pool outside, unfortunately I’m only able to use it on the weekends between 10am and 1pm, because I have so many tattoos! Well, I could wear a long-sleeved shirt and socks, but that sounds uncomfortable… Arceli has also recently acquired a treadmill, so I’ll be using that. I get enough staring when I leave the school (yay, rural city!) without adding red and sweaty to strange white lady!

There are two supermarkets here, Co-Op and Metro. Metro is a bit like Costco, they sell a lot of stuff there, but you need a member card. Co-Op is like a mash-up between Woolies and KMart. Between the two, you can get most of what you might need. There is also a market, the vegies there are very good but I do avoid buying meat there. You have to be careful buying things at the supermarket too. I ended up with tea-scented and cinnamon-scented tissues… 

That’s all for today, I’ll let you know how it’s all going in a few weeks!

Jess xx

What am I Doing?!

“What am I doing?!” was the first thing that I thought last Monday. Actually, the first thing I thought that day was “What the bloody hell is going on out there?”, since they were having an opening ceremony/blessing that started well before 7am involving drums, bells, and dragon dancers… I’d spent most of Sunday afternoon/night planning lessons for the first day. My instructions were to play games and sing songs with the students. I’d been advised of my classes a few days previously: year 4, year 2 and year 7. Aside from the general idea that my students would be mostly beginners, I had no concept of what level they would be at. I was all ready to go at 7.30 (first lesson at 8.05, year 4), when I was told that we weren’t having classes on that day at all, since it was the first day. An hour later, we were told that, yes, classes were on, but only after the morning break. Cue rush to organise myself for class 2B and then 2A. My year 2s weren’t as advanced as I had assumed, so I had to rejig my plan on the fly, but overall I think we had moderate success.

At lunchtime, I was told that on Mondays, my 7A class would have their lesson following the afternoon break but after lunch Tuesday-Friday. Oh, and can I please teach preschool Monday to Thursday as well? I agreed, mostly because 5 year olds are pretty cute. Unfortunately, I didn’t study how to teach little kids, so there have been hits and misses (today we had tears because they got carried away during a game…). Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon!

My 7B class has been testing my boundaries.The class is mostly boys, and apparently they were terrors last year. It doesn’t help that nearly half the class doesn’t have the textbook! After a few lessons, we’ve got the measure of each other, so incidences of bad behaviour have dropped significantly. I’m using a warning system with them, two warnings and you go outside, more than 4 warnings per week gets you sent to the discipline officer. Since we started this, I’ve only had to send one boy outside. I plan to introduce bribery on Fridays to encourage the improvement… With luck, I’ll have everyone cooperating in the next few weeks. There was an incident last week, involving a tooth. There was a bit of a ruckus, and when I checked it out, I found a tooth (or part of a tooth) on a desk. I believe it belonged to Kevin, but it very soon belonged to the bin…

7A has a completely different dynamic. It’s a mostly female class, they’re pretty bright, and pay attention most of the time. The only thing I’ve found is that the girls dominate the boys, except for a couple who are switched on. I need to find a way to get the rest of the boys involved…

My year 4s are a dream! They’re easily my favourites, always paying attention, participating and singing. They’re also pretty good at drawing, I’ll be putting some of their pictures up in the classroom.

Year 2A and 2B are interesting. They’re both very easily distracted, and need a lot of reminding to focus. 2A are a lot more advanced in their English than 2B. The classes need completely different approaches, and some of the kids in 2B are actually a bit resistant. We had a new student arrive today who doesn’t speak any English, so it’s going to be tricky business. Luckily some of the girls are helping to translate what I’m saying…

My preschool classes are incredibly hyperactive. As I mentioned before, I didn’t do any study about teaching littlies, so I’ve been finding it difficult to know how to approach it. Making it more fun is the fact that I have not been told what I’m supposed to be teaching. Last week we did body parts (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and the Hokey Pokey) and this week I’m focusing on colours. I figure that I can get them to do a colouring activity about a rainbow?

Overall, it was a difficult week. I didn’t get my textbooks until Wednesday afternoon, so I had to make a lot of things up for the first few days. Some of the lessons for years 2 and 4 involve singing, but luckily noone seems to be deaf yet due to my awful voice! I’ve also been trying to draw things, particularly for 2B. Well, I say draw. It’s mostly stick figures and smiley faces… On Saturday, Josie and I went to Fahasa (the bookshop) at Co-Op to buy a few posters, so my classroom isn’t quite so bare now. I’ll also put up some of the artwork that I get my classes to do to brighten things up more.

So, here are a few pictures of my classroom and my stellar artwork!

Lesson planning

Yeah, that’s right!

Kevin’s tooth!

Teacher Jess

Feelings smileys