Remember That Crazy Teacher You Used To Have?

Well I afraid I'm slowly turning into him.

I don't want to chalk it up to being here too long, or teacher-itis as I've taken to calling it, but some of my lessons have been getting more and more... bizarre.

I got to teach body parts to my C5 class, and had them label up a body. Sure I could have drawn something on the board, but that's just... boring.



Stretching my C4 student's creativity while having them practice... well, I'm not really sure... I had them concoct fantastic machines complete with accurate directions written in English.

But what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't provide them with a solid example first?


(I apologize to all my elementary school teachers for my penmanship. I also apologize to my students.)

A good reviewing game to play whilst drilling the kiddies is the "Ladder Man Game", where two teams have to race their stick man up the ladder on the board by correctly answering questions (and resisting the temptation to speak Chinese, which will undoubtedly cause their stick man to take an unfortunate tumble off of the ladder).

It wasn't my idea to name one of the stick men Mr. W.C., but I was willing to roll with it.





Oh yeah, and he won.

As an early gift for the holiday season, I brought in a special time waster... did I say time waster? I meant treat, for my highest level class. Their English was so good, I figured I'd reward them.



By bringing in my Wii.



I did make sure they did all their trash talking in English though.

And that's only the stuff I've documented.
- Shawn

Midterms Again

Midterms are an exciting time of the year over here. So exciting aparantly, that some parents will hover in the windows to the exam room and try and snap pictures of their kids struggling at English.



Extra pressure aside, this round of midterms means a lot of things: including the daunting realization that our stay in China is starting to wrap up. It's strange, because despite how long we've been here, it's pretty upsetting to think that we're going to be leaving soon.

Regardless, torturing little children with exams means that it's time again to turn the floor over to you, our Year of the Rats reading audience. This will possibly be the last time we'll be able to do something like this, since I have no idea how hectic things will get around finals time.

So post some questions for Corey or I. We'll do our best to respond right back, or even reply with an overly long post of its own.

See you in the comments section,
Shawn

Bringing Halloween to the Masses

Despite nonsensical and puritanical controversies, Halloween is an innocent and fun holiday celebrated throughout the western world. And as with all other things western, Halloween is slowly showing its carved pumpkin face here in the People's Republic.

There are a few shops that sell masks, and there was even a Jack O' Lantern display causing a significant amount of head scratching confusion in one of Dalian's larger malls.

We foreign teachers at Future 2 all decided it would be a great cultural mini-event if we took the last hour of our day last Sunday and dedicated it to a Halloween Party of sorts.

Despite the shocking amount of unexpected kids showing up, the party was a success, and had a few classic games with a neat little Chinese twist.

Of course there was Bobbing for Apples (But with Chinese pears for some reason... BIANCA!)





Gross digging through worm noodles (with Chopsticks.)



And a mummy wrap (with ummm... Chinese toilet paper.)



And of course, Corey and I both rocked China inspired costumes. Corey was half of a dead Chinese couple (noted by the ever stylish matching shirts).



And I paid homage to my students by representing the Dalian Primary School Uniform.



And yeah, I got laughed at a lot.

Happy Belated Halloween Everyone!
- Shawn

Back in Dalian. STOP. Embroiled in Conspiracy. STOP.

Hey everyone, I know its been a while. Hope we didn't lose anyone over the past two weeks, because we have some cool stuff coming up in the next few days on this blog.

Corey and I just got back from another whirlwind vacation where we hit Hong Kong, Macau, Yangshuo, Ping An (Rice Terraces), and Shanghai. It was really quite something and considering how long it was, the best possible way to cover it for this blog will probably be to break it up over the next three or four days. So keep coming back for a non stop thrill ride of traveling adventures.

That will all start up sometime tomorrow, but until then, I have a strange enough story to share to tide you over.

I got back to teaching this weekend and had my students doing a role play about something they planned hard for that wound up going very wrong. I got the usual role plays about tests studied for but ultimately failed, but I also got a really odd one where one student was enlisted to assassinate the President of the United States, but when (I'd assume) Bush got off the plane, he realized he had no bullets. Jumping in front of the president with an unloaded gun, he left himself wide open, so the President (who of course was packing heat), whipped out his gun and pumped him full of holes.

A plan gone horribly wrong indeed.

If this was an isolated incident, I would have written it off as simple strange Chinese imagination, but on Sunday, another student made a reference to assassinating the US president. He got some looks from his classmates and quickly added that it could be the president of Afghanistan also.

Odd.

So I may have caught wind of some strange conspiracy, or my kids could be getting even more deranged. But either way, if someone tries to whack President Bush... I'd start looking Far East for answers. The kids seem to know something.

Anyways, check back tomorrow for the first of the trip posts where I yammer on about Hong Kong, Macau and all the fun of the Chinese Special Administrative Region.

over and out,
Shawn

Round Two

So this weekend saw the start of our second semester teaching at Future 2. It was a nice fresh start with a slew of new classes, with a few returning faces in the seats. It's sort of strange teaching a completely different class with a few students you know, but even weirder is seeing your old students running around the hallway, waving excitedly at you. It makes you feel somewhat accomplished. Like: hey, they like you! I did something right I guess.

The weirdest though is seeing the few students I had to fail. Who would have thought they'd be just as excited to see me in the hallway? Waving just as hard and grinning just as stupidly. Hmmm... didn't mean for it to come out like that.

Most of the classes are the same here, but one new class I'm teaching this semester is C14: The much feared highest level kids class. Teaching pubescent nightmares from 13-18 without a text book, syllabus or course objectives list. Plus, a good chunk of the class has already taken the course, so I have to make sure the lessons I pull out of nowhere aren't the same as the random crap other teachers have made up. All that said, this is the class I'm most excited for. I have some ideas, I got some from them, and I just hope it isn't a waste of all of our time when all is said and done. Challenges in the classroom, gotta love 'em.

Especially the ones that don't involve five year olds breaking into tears for no particular reason. Of course, if any of my seventeen year olds break into tears for no particular reason, I'm in real trouble.

The most exciting part of this semester is our new schedules. We now have our three days off in a row. No more Monday, Wednesday, Friday days off. Now, we're free from Monday - Wednesday, which means we'll see a bit more of China this semester. Which of course translates into more interesting blog posts for you, dear reader.

Should be a good semester.

- Shawn

End of the First Semester

Wow. Here we are at the end of our first semester. Six months into our China... I wanted to say trip there, but clearly this is a bit more than a trip.

The past six months have been some of the most interesting, fascinating, fun, dirty, head-scratching, hilarious, difficult, bizarre and all around adjective filled months of my life. And I wouldn't trade them for anything. I've got high hopes that the next six months should provide more of the same insanity and I'm looking forward to it.

The work I've been doing at school has been some of the most fun and fulfilling work I've done, and it's been great watching the kids (slightly) improve their English. I should reemphasize slightly. But still, I get how hard it is for kids this young to master a language so difficult to their own, so I appreciate even the subtle improvements.

The job hasn't been problem free, but for various reasons I won't go into detail about the down side at this moment. Suffice to say the good outweighs the bad, and I'm looking forward to the start of next semester come September 8th.

Until then, I have a few End of Semester blog things planned, the first of which is a repeat of the activating activity I had during the semester midterm postings. I'm opening up the comments section (not that they aren't always open, it's just that I so rarely get people writing in there) for any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, grammar corrections and job offers people would like to bestow on Corey and I. We promise to respond to them as soon as possible.

My next post will actually be something suggested last time I did this: Our First Semester Chinglish Awards. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're in for a treat.

I'm going to stop here by going back to the part where I talk about school, because I'm going to leave you with some pictures of Corey and I with our classes.

Catch you in the comments section,
Shawn

Abusing John's Legacy

Two weeks ago, John (one of our foreign coworkers) had to unexpectedly return home to Ireland, leaving a gaping hole in the teaching schedule. His classes were divided up among those of us with free time in our weekly schedules.

I missed him when he left, but as soon as I had to start covering his classes the feelings of fond memories turned into those of venomous hate.

It's ok though, because I have since taken to abusing his kids, and forcing them to endlessly run around in circles for no good reason.



Cheers John, we miss ya over here.
- Shawn

CT Pre-End of Semester Dinner

The other night, a healthy chunk of the Future 2 teaching staff went out to dinner at our local restaurant here in the DMZ. With almost 80% of them leaving next semester, we figured it would be a nice gesture of our appreciation to take them out to dinner, and force them to eat dishes off of the lists they gave us at the start of the year.

Fun was had by all as we ingested far too many dishes, and several spoons of corn too many. No real story here, but just a good excuse to throw up a nice group shot:




Also, we wound up playing Truth or Dare (as most dinners with the Chinese strangely turn out) so I've been dealing with the harsh reality of what happens after you down a giant plate of corn. Also worth sharing is this great video of Winnie, one of our Chinese Teachers, singing a Ricky Martin classic:




- Shawn

Fare Thee Well Kid's Movie Class

This past weekend saw the end of my least favorite, yet most ridiculous class.

The "Kid's Movie Class" is a two hour class (of which I am only subjected to an hour of). The first hour sees the Chinese Teacher drilling in lines from a thirty second clip from some inane cartoon movie. I wish I kept some examples of lines from these movies to illustrate how... useful... this technique is, but alas I did not.

Then comes the second hour, where I come galavanting in, and try to keep the kids excited for another round of repetition. Did I mention these kids speak no english, so my goal here is to get them to mimic sounds, and not understand why the cow is using three syllable words and out of date slang? No? Oh, I should have.

After my first lesson, I quickly realized that it would be impossible to fill a full hour considering there are words and concepts in these clips that would be difficult for some of my higher level classes, let alone a class of disinterested and bored kids who don't understand an single word.

I tried talking to Tommy about this early on, but he assured me that it's simply a cultural thing. "We are two separate cultures, working as one." Or something like that. Oh, my bad... I thought I was wasting their time or something. Good to know listening to a prehistoric sloth lisping (Oh, Ice Age) is culturally valuable. Riiiiiight.

So, I took a very advance teaching method approach to this class. I spent the first half an hour of the class poking the kids in the head, making sure they stayed awake and upright as I made sure that they could at least kind of, sort of make the sounds I wanted them to.

Then? Then it was time for games. Musical chairs, telephone (interestingly referred to as Chinese Whispers in China), and my favorite time waster: The Basketball game.

The Basketball Game consists of me pausing the 30 second clip at a certain line, and getting a student to repeat it. This is difficult because if I miss the pause cue, I'm five lines away from the one I wanted. Oh well, rewinding will shave another few seconds off of the class. Then, the student gets to try and throw a ball into a basket from various positions in the classroom, resulting in more points for their team. And if they speak Chinese? Minus twenty points. This is especially hilarious, since their English vocabulary limits them to screaming "Good, good, very good!", "NO!", or the occasional breaking into song with Ricky Martin's "The Cup of Life". I couldn't make this up.

And then, bam. The hour is up, and I go eat lunch.

This has been going on for the past 18 weeks, and you know... I may miss the mind numbing pain of the movie class. Sure it was harsh watching the kids struggle with words they had no business struggling with, but where else would I get to watch a kid falling asleep next to another who is absentmindedly eating clovers off of a potted plant on the window sill.

Again, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

So goodbye Spongebob, goodbye movie class students whose names I never even got to know since I never had a role call and they never answered me when I called their names anyway, and goodbye half eaten plant.

You'll be missed.

At least until I get over it during my newly found hour off.

- Shawn


Pictured: The delicious potted plants, the kid who eats them, another bored student, the basket!, and Mr. Squarepants.

Eviction Notice

The other day at our weekly staff meeting, Tommy informed us that next semester we would have the pick of the litter for moving into a new apartment. This sounded pretty cool at first, but after a few seconds of consideration, Corey and I both realized that while our apartment is rather out of the way for most of the city, it isn't too bad, and it surely isn't bad enough to warrant the hassle of moving.

We said thanks but no thanks, and were promptly informed that we misunderstood (read: it was miscommunicated to us). Our apartment will no longer be rented by the school at the end of the semester, so we're out if we like it or not.

I guess it's a good thing we've got first dibs on a new pad.

All things considered, I'm letting myself get excited by the move instead of being annoyed. I won't settle for a worse apartment, so there are no worries there. It'll be nicer, and if the rumors are to be believed, in a much better and more central location.

More on this story as it develops.

- Shawn

Ha Ha Huh? (Chinese Jokes and Games)

President Bush, President Putin, and President Hu are hunting in a dark forest. Suddenly, they are jumped by a pack of evil wolves. The wolves threaten to eat/kill/do unpleasant things to them, but the world leaders are ready to offer whatever they have on themselves to get away. Bush reaches into his pocket and pulls out an incredible sum of cash. He tells the wolves that if they let him go, he will give them them the money. The wolves take the cash, and President Bush runs to freedom. President Putin goes digging through his pockets. All he can come up with is a brochure filled with beautiful girls, but he offers them to the wolves in marriage if they let him go. They accept, and Putin is freed. President Hu nervously seaches what he has on him. He says "I'm sorry, but all I have here are my communist party papers." The wolves stare for a minute, and then bow down to him. Then they thank him. "Thank you sir for giving us direction in life."

Ha.

Ha.

Huh?

The above ummm... joke... is paraphrased from my C13 English class last weekend. We were discussing jokes and humor, and I figured this one should be shared with the blog reading audience. You deserve it, you really do.

On an only somewhat related note, in another class from last weekend, I was playing Tic Tac Toe as a review game (they get a question right, they get to mark a space... I don't waste time THAT badly that we play tic tac toe in the middle of class, I swear!) I drew the board on the floor, and as if they never saw the game before, the class went crazy. Word on the street is that the Tic Tac Toe board is remarkably similar to the character "Jing", which is the Chinese word for "Well" (the water/drinking kind of well).



Hey, it was fascinating enough to disrupt my class, it's surely fascinating enough for this blog, right?

Figured this was sort of related to the jokey, fun and games type theme of this post, so I figured I'd share these two non sequiturs together.


The more you know...
- Shawn

The World New County Economic Forum

Over the course of my employment at Future 2, I've been involved in some... strange... extra activities that have close to nothing to do with what I was hired to do. From my "promotional" adventures, to correcting translations for business plans, things are never boring here. But yesterday was by far the strangest thing I was asked to do yet.

First some background. Future 2, the branch of Aston English that we work for is (as far as I know) the only Franchised school in Dalian. It is owned and run by our principal Michael, who is also a used car salesman. And he is also apparently involved in the Chinese Information Technologies world, as he is starting a Linux training school (and a Japanese Business school) in the back of our school.

Despite knowing this, it was quite the surprise to my coworkers and I when we were told that to make up some missing hours in our week we would be VIPs at a mysterious conference. Even though it has nothing to do with our job in any way imaginable, we didn't put up a fight because A - we were most assuredly under hours, B - these random things we're "asked" to do always lead to a great story, and C - We were told there was a banquet in the evening.

So off to the mystery conference we went.



I've long ago learned to not expect any coherent or straight explanations from Tommy, our school manager, but the conference really didn't have anything to do with IT, but rather the Chinese Economy. It was also completely in Chinese. Yeah. Exactly.

At least it was at one of the fanciest hotels in Dalian. And by fancy, I mean it puts the Waldorf to shame.

And really, it wasn't all bad. Not being able to understand anything gave us all the opportunity to revisit old doodle favorites such as Dots and M.A.S.H. Who would have thought if you send a bunch of teachers to a conference, they'd start playing the same games that middle schoolers play in class.

Leafing through the conference's program, I found out exactly why we were there. The pictures of all the foreign teachers were there, with the implication that we work for one of Michael's many other companies. I don't know... last I checked, I taught Chinese kids the difference between toes and a nose... pretty close to "A Warm Hearted Team for Conference Service"



Oh yeah, and they spelled Corey's name wrong. Twice.

I guess that's what happens when they don't run these things by you.

But none of this matters. Really, I don't mind being used as part of an elaborate lie to show that foreigners are doing things we most assuredly aren't. And why is that you may ask?

Because of the aforementioned banquette. It turned out to be a gourmet western buffet, that was an unimaginably delicious treat at the end of a long day of speeches in Chinese. I don't want to go on and on about the food, so suffice to say begin to end, it was a nonstop joyride for your pallet. Lasagna, cooked to order steaks, mexican potatoes, breads, curried everything, and fruits from near and far! They even had make your own sundays, gummies, and cakes galore for desert! Ok, I'm stopping myself.





All in all, it was a strange day, but what the hell, we got fed quite well... and everyone knows the best way to get foreigners to cooperate on a really strange con/scam/business endeavor, is through their stomaches.

I'm off to continue digesting!
- Shawn

Parents, Lies, and Video Tape

Ok, there really aren't going to be any lies in this post, but since its been a while I wanted to catch everyone's attention with a snazzy, yet out of date pop culture reference.

This weekend at Future 2 is a sort of Open House Weekend, with parents being invited into classes to watch. I wouldn't say that I was dreading it or anything, but I surely wasn't looking forward to it. Our classrooms are all stylishly designed with giant window walls facing out into the hallway so parents can sternly stare in and complain later. Having the cranky 'rents in the back of the class can't really be much better.

Interestingly enough, it did spice things up a bit. I felt like I was performing for an audience, and wound up leading some of my more rousing classes in a while. Although I did tire myself out a lot quicker... guess I'm out of shape when it comes to teaching stamina. All in all, I think day one went well, and here's hoping that day 2 of the parent's open house stays the same... coupled with the hope that there aren't any complaints that I make fun of the kids too much in coming weeks. I mean, I have no idea why they'd think that.

Another weird monkey wrench in the normal teaching grind this weekend was the last minute (as in text message from Tommy, our manager, late last night) announcement that our classes would be video taped for unspecified purposes. It's funny how people can hide behind the language barrier when they don't want to explain something to you. I mean, they told me it was for Chinese Teacher training purposes, yet somehow when the tripod was set, it always seemed to be facing right at me. Or a window. Whatever, it's not my mysterious video.

Thing is, that class went pretty well too. Who knows, maybe the whole bit about variety and spiciness is true when it comes to a grueling class schedule. Who woulda thought?

- Shawn

Oh yeah, and if ever get my hands on the tape from today or tomorrow, I'll do my best to put up a snippet on the blog.

First Semester Midterms

This past weekend was midterms at Future 2, and I have to say, I really got a kick out of the whole thing. I felt like a real teacher laying down the law. Watching the kids sweat buckets due to nervousness was a welcome change from hyperactive class destruction as well. Although it did make it that much harder to give some of the little snots bad grades. So it goes.

The midterms also mean something else - my stay in China is a quarter over, and that's sort of crazy. In honor of this milestone of sorts, I want to try something new on this blog. If it works, I'd expect to do this at least three more times. If it doesn't... probably still three more times.

Instead of a long rambling post, I'm turning the floor over to you, our loyal blog reading fan base. I know you guys are out there, and I'm sure you all have questions. Post them under the comments section, and Corey or I will answer them. Nothing is sacred, so feel free to ask anything!

Also appreciated are comments, criticisms and suggestions about things to focus on in the blog. As much as this is a way for us to log our experiences in China, it's also a tool for keeping friends, family, and complete strangers abreast of everything going on here.

So please humor me, and post something!

- Shawn

(Oh, and I keep forgetting to point out a cool new widget we added to the blog, and since this is largely a post about nothing, now is as good a time as any. Scroll all the way to the bottom, and you'll see that there is a nifty map that logs all of our visitors from around the world. I think it's sort of neat actually. Anyways... get to the comments section already, what are you waiting for!)

Lovely Faces of the Future (Aston School)

So I was recently asked to take portraits of our fellow teachers.... I'm not sure what they'll be used for but the Chinese Teachers did an excellent job of lending themselves, and their vast array of personalities to some great pictures. I would like to thank all of them for being so willing, and open to the idea of being photographed ( lying!! they loved it for sure!!)

Christine

Winnie


Winnie

Harry (short for Harry Potter)

Louis

Helen

Beme (our chinese teacher)

Beme (still our Chinese teacher)


Archie

Tony

Lucia


Amy

Bonnie

Lily

Lily

Snow



Well I hope you enjoy these portraits. These are the people who make our days go faster and smoother. They're pretty awesome, and always full of new things for us foreigners to do, try or eat in Dalian! I hope you can get an idea of their personalities from the portraits.

The Picture Perfect Plan

The picture above is of the outside of Future 2, the school that we work at. But if you look really closely, you may see something veeeeeerrry interesting. No? Too small? Maybe if we get a better cropped in look...



Yes ladies and gentlemen, after weeks of talk and empty promises, the latest and greatest gimmick in a long line of promotional plans has been unveiled. If you remember a few posts ago, I discussed the school's need/desire to let everyone know that they have real live foreigners in their employ. There are a lot of ESL schools in Dalian, but few have honest to god westerners. The ones that do flaunt it at every turn. Although I think our particular school may do it the most.

Not that I'm complaining. It's kind of cool to have your giant face in a window that can be seen by millions of people every day. Millions? Forget that, we're in China... BILLIONS! Of course, they need to look up first. But hey, it's a start. Maybe there'll be a bus campaign next.



The view from indoors is just as funny. Especially since my picture isn't even in the teachers room that I'm in. Corey and all the other teachers (foreign and Chinese) get to stare at my mug for the rest of forever.

But at least I block out the sun.

I don't know what I'm going to do with my newfound fame, but stay tuned to the blog for any and all further developments.

(Oh, and big ups to Corey for redoing the work of the "professional photographer". The guy they hired wouldn't even let me take a picture in my super contemplative pose. I mean... come on! I'm a teacher here. I'm supposed to think and stuff!)

And yes, this whole thing is giving me a huge ego boost. But why not? There is a giant picture of me up in China now.


- Shawn

Standard Citizen II: Audio Attack

Remember a few posts back when I wrote about a song that Corey (and sort of me too) corrected for one of my students? If you don't, scroll down a bit to the post named "I Want to Be a Model Citizen..."

First, I got the name of the song wrong. Sue me, it was after a long day. Regardless, we were handed CDs of Standard Citizen this past Sunday, and of course, I just can't wait to share it with all of you out here in internet land.

This is also the first of many posts where we'll throw you guys some audio and or video from over here. Don't get too spoiled though... only for special occasions. Just look for the A/V Club tag.

But enough jibber jabber. Without further ado: Standard Citizen (English Version) as sung by... umm... Peter.



And, as a special bonus for all you loyal visitors to Year of the Rats, here's the full song... in Chinese!



I hope you all enjoy them, as there might be much more news on this side project to come, seeing as how I gave Peter our names for a forthcoming magazine article.

Never a dull moment.

- Shawn

Pimp Your Foreigner

I'm signed to a 20 hour a week contract, so when classes of mine are cancelled due to no one showing up, I tend to sit around the teachers room doing nothing. If I'm feeling inspired, I'll write something here... or maybe even do a lesson plan or two.

All that (sort of) changed when last night I was informed by one of the other Foreign Teachers that since I was being paid for hours I wasn't working, I was to be put on promotional detail.

I didn't really know what that meant, but I was up for anything.

Turns out what it means is that I stand outside a competing school with two of the Chinese Teachers, and we all hand out fliers that let parents know that our school has way more English lessons than the more expensive one their tykes are in.

I know... minimal... Chinese, so I couldn't actually talk up the school to any of the parents, but I knew before I even went out that that wasn't why I was there. I was being (and will continue to be) paraded around so the parents could see: LOOK!! WE HAVE REAL LIVE FOREIGNERS!!!

It's actually really funny.

Also funny was running into other solicitors when we changed our location to in front of a heavily trafficked supermarket. The funny part was that he was handing out brochures of some sort for one of the city's hospitals. I never knew that hospitals had to resort to guerrilla marketing like that.

All in all, it was fun being on show I guess. Kinda cold, but... uhh... strangely flattering. Very strangely.

- Shawn

I Want to Be A Model Citizen...

Last week after finishing my classes on Sunday evening, I walked into the teacher's room to see Corey hard at work with one of my students and his parents. After some prying, I found out that the kid was going to be recording a song in English. The song, called "I Want to Be a Modern Citizen", was written by a Chinese composer so there were some English errors.

The parents quickly roped me into the correcting, and before long we butchered up the flow of the song in favor of grammatical correctness.

What'd we know?

This week, the kid came back with his mom in tow. I guess our (really Corey's) corrections made a strong impression. The song's composer wanted a picture of the foreigners that fixed his song with the student that would sing it.

On principle, I refused to take any picture until the kid sang us all the song. And sing he did. I was actually surprised... it sounded really good, and it flowed nicely, even though the words shouldn't have matched up with the melody.

We done good.

And the kid and the composer got their picture.



Here's to making waves in China,

- Shawn

A Hilarious Abuse of Power

Can't believe I forgot to write about this one... I mean, it was the same class that the previous post was about.

See here in China, it's April Fools Day. I mean, not all the Chinese know it... but uhhh... close enough.

Kids that come to our school come on the weekends, and during their free time during the week. We are the closest thing many of them have to a "break".

Louis, my Chinese Teacher for my level C7 class and I decided to pull a small tiny trick on the kids. We walked in, and told them there was no class. Louis said he had to go, and I told him I'll catch up with him after I give the class their homework for next week. I piled on a lot of work, and then peaced out of the classroom. We both waited in the hallway as we heard the confused "nigggaaaas..." inside. They got dressed, and then walked out the door. Where we were waiting telling them that we were just kidding.

They were confused, but one quick explanation of April Fools Day later, class resumed.

Now that I think about it... that was a damn mean thing to do. We just raised and quickly crushed their little hopes of having class and school-free time. Oh so precious freedom was in sight, and then snatched away by the big bad teachers with an evil sense of humor.

But I mean... it was kind of funny, and they got over it anyway. Not like they'd know what to do with the time anyways.

Yes, that was meant to be sad and tragic right there.

Happy April 1st.

- Shawn