Year 2: Here We Go!

Well, Year 2 is officially underway. I've been back in China for 2 weeks now, and we've finished one week of classes. Everything seems to be running smoothly and it looks like we've got a good set of students again. See the pics:

Class A


Class B

I'm going to try to keep this blog a little better updated this year. Hopefully a post for each week. Don't hold me to that, though. Ha! You know I'm not good with keeping those kinds of deadlines. Oi.

Anyway, as I'm getting started with classes, I wanted to offer everyone a chance to help me out. I made new lesson plans this summer, and I can tell that they will be a great improvement this year over the last. However, the plans are largely contingent on the students being willing to discuss some topics in detail. And, I know that sometimes the students get a little tired. I mean, we have them in class for 3.5 hours each day, and they are constantly speaking in a foreign language...could you imagine signing up for a class like that? Yikes!

So, my request is this - do any of you have some creative ideas of classroom activities we could do for anywhere from 5-45 minutes? They might be things to spark creativity, or maybe to help them relax for a moment, or to help re-energize them after some discussions. If any of you have some ideas, please feel free to share. I want my class to stay fresh and intriguing each day, and that's difficult to do! So, any help you might offer would be great!

A final note: last year, when I was going downtown one day on the bus, a man started asking me some questions in English about who I was and what I was doing in China. I've had several experiences like this in the past, but this one seemed a little different than the others - something in my spirit said to take note of this. Well, I gave him my email address that day, and he contacted me later, but all last year we just couldn't get our schedules to work out for another chance to talk (maybe this sounds strange, but it's pretty common in a small city like ours).

Over the summer, I said that once I got back, my teaching partner (Rick) and I wanted to get together with him and his family. Today it finally worked out, and boy am I glad of it. Turns out he believes in some great Truth, although the rest of his family does not. And, you can probably imagine, this causes tension in his life. Honestly, I don't know where this friendship will go in the future, but I feel like things were definitely orchestrated for this cross-cultural connection to take place. Anyway, it might be something for a moment of praise or a moment of requesting if any of you think about it!

Now I have to scoot - time for dinner and then we're having students over! Keep in touch.