I’m not a real teacher. I just play one on the internet.
Everything that I know about teaching I learned from advertising.
Adverteaching
Social Un-Distancing
There is one thing that unites students globally during this remote learning: Starbucks.
K.I.A-cademy Awards
I’ve tried a lot of things to get my 7th grade ESL students to use their vocabulary. These native Chinese speakers would rather memorize the longest sentence in a novel, from William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom (over 1200 words), than lose face mispronouncing a word. And yes, some want to take on that challenge. However, my middle schoolers got excited making […]
What the F@#K say?
Yeah! Yesterday was my last day of school. Make that YaWei. It was year to be remembered for many reasons, a lot of classes spinning out of control, making me wonder if I made a difference with the spinners, those born in the Chinese Year of the Entitled Child. But YaWei, my youngest student, helped me put things in perspective. […]
Monkeying Around
So I got a real cool teaching tool for my classroom. Not sharpies or flash cards, but a monkey mask. Slightly used, but just a buck fifty. I started the class by telling the students I saw a monkey in front of the school. They weren’t impressed. As they worked on their spelling words, I had to use the restroom. […]
China’s Got Talent
What could be more adorable than a Chinese five year old dressed up as Curly the cowboy? The one re-enacting a dinosaur battle. It was the Chine Speaks English competition in Kunming, and I got to be a judge for the shortie division ( four to eight year-olds). Participants were judged on their ability to speak English, not if they could comprehend […]