The second week of teaching was more challenging than the first. For one, my students and I already went through introductions the week before, so now I had to teach new vocabulary and ask the students questions for the entire class period. For me, asking the students questions was especially tedious and discouraging as some of the students either spoke too softly for me to hear or would not respond. However, I tried my best to be patient, understanding, and encouraging. I thought of how I would feel in my students’ shoes and tried to be the teacher I would want. I kept a positive and welcoming attitude, spoke clearly and slowly, and paid attention to everything my students had to say.
I have also been struggling to find a balance between speaking Chinese and English to my students. Speaking Chinese definitely spurs more engagement and attention, but I know one of the purposes of our program is to improve these students’ English skills. Therefore, I am reluctant to resort to explaining things in Chinese when the students start staring at me with blank stares, yet maybe speaking Chinese is necessary and not a bad thing for the students’ growth and understanding. I am still trying to find a good middle ground for being able to teach English but also communicate effectively and efficiently. For some class periods, I have also joined with one or two other Dukies to teach our combined classes. I find that this method is often less tiring and more fun. The students seem to enjoy the bigger class sizes and games with more people on each team. However, I do not know if this style is the best for the students’ learning as the more people there are in the class, the less chances each individual student has to answer questions and share his/her thoughts. I will try to monitor and observe the classes in the coming weeks to determine which method is the best for all of us.
This week also brought the start of extracurricular classes. I have had very little prior exposure to journalism in my life, so when I was called upon to teach this subject, I was a bit hesitant and nervous. When I also found out that the end goal of the class was to create a journal compilation of all the students’ writing, I was a bit discouraged and lost. I did not know how to make my class interesting and fun for the students, as writing articles and journal entries is not exactly the most exciting thing for a seventh grader to do. Shelsea and I tried our best, though. We created a slideshow and thought of some more engaging activities for the students to take part in. However, we had technological difficulties with the projector and VPN so we ended up not being able to present our slideshow. Shelsea and I tried our best to improvise and think on the fly to keep the students busy and let them have a meaningful time in our class. This experience really helped Shelsea and I work better as a team, think quickly, and learn to more carefully and thoughtfully prepare for our classes. I also really appreciated how mature and well-behaved our class was. For the most part, the students did not start chatting and getting up from their chairs once they realized Shelsea and I were not committing our full attention to them when we were improvising our new lesson plan. I know it must be hard for them to resist goofing off or playing on their computers (as everyone has a computer in front of them on their desks). I know I probably would have done something not too considerate if I were a middle-schooler again.
It was also my birthday this week, and I was really touched by my classmates, Professor Ku, and Yanan’s thoughtfulness in throwing a surprise birthday party for me. They contacted my friends and family to figure out what I like and even played some of my favorite songs on Spotify. It was so sweet of them, and I could really feel our group growing closer together.
To be completely honest, for the entirety of the group dinners throughout the school year and DukeEngage Academy, I had trouble remembering everyone’s names. But, by the end of the first week of the program, I know I knew everyone’s names, yet I do not think I actually talked to everyone personally. This week, however, I know I have talked to everyone in our group. There naturally are certain people I am closer to and others who I hope I can have more opportunities to talk to. I like how our group has a range of ages. I am confident that I will find friends and mentors through this program.
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