Teaching

I work at a school called English for Excellence (EfeX). It is a private after-school English center. It is run by two of the most caring and compassionate people I have ever met, Dave and Ani. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and working for them over the past couple of weeks.  Ani is a very passionate advocate for people, which is great when it comes to education. She pushes for the best use of instructional time and practices. Dave is just as passionate about relating with students and finding new and effective ways to help them learn. They are quite the dynamic duo.  They have been so gracious in taking the time to coach me and teach me how to teach the curriculum.  

EfeX has classrooms at the center where students come after school for either an hour, or an hour and fifteen minutes, depending on their level. Most students receive English instruction at their regular school, so coming to EfeX is like getting a step…. Or 10 steps ahead.  There are currently 60 students on the waiting list to get into classes at EfeX. There simply aren’t enough qualified teachers to accommodate all of the students.  

They actually had me observing classes within 24 hours of arriving and then teaching 2 days later!  For this term, I’m teaching an upper elementary class, a middle school class, and a high school writing class. I meet with each group twice a week. It’s a neat challenge to plan for various levels of classes. I do, however, having about 1 hour of planning time for every hour of teaching.  

EfeX also contracts out to regular schools. One school, Xin Zhong, is a Chinese school. I teach kindergarteners there 4 mornings a week, Monday-Thursday. I work with them for three hours on basic phonics and reading simple 3 and 4 letter words.  It’s very entertaining to spend time with these little kids. They’re so cute!  Most of them have never seen a bule before (See last blog post!) and want to touch my hair and my hands. 

This is the center after my class yesterday. My students were confused as to why I was taking a picture.