This past weekend my school, Jimei University, celebrated it’s 100th anniversary. Chinese universities don’t need much of an excuse to have a big celebration and this is a worthy milestone, so for months the school has been preparing for it. My school was started by a guy who was basically
Chinese Wedding (with video!)
Remember those students I call “my babies?” The ones I taught for four years and watched them grow up? The ones who stayed with me when I was in the hospital 5 years ago? The one’s that sobbed into my shoulder as they graduated and said goodbye? The ones I
Chinese Kids Wishes to Santa
In my writing class I asked my students to write a letter to Santa. “Tell Santa if you’ve been a good girl or boy and ask Santa for something you want,” I said. While my students all know about Santa they obviously have never written a letter to Santa like
Thousand Character Chinese Classic
Like I do at the end of every year, I have my students in speaking class become teachers. Their final exam is to “teach class” for 15 minutes. (Not a presentation, but actually teach.) This is always super fun. Students freak out when I assign it to them, but then
Happy Easter from China
Happy Easter from my little bunnies to you.
Watching China Change Through My Class
Since I got here almost 7 years ago, I have made all my own lesson plans–dozens over the years. They have been tested, honed, and perfected where I know they will get the maximum class participation while teaching something useful. In the past several years, say about four, I haven’t
100 Day Milestone!
So I think by now you know I’m pretty obsessed with my Xiaomi bracelet. It’s a fitness bracelet ala Fitbit, but made my a Chinese brand that I love. (The fitbit is $88 the Xiaomi one is $10 and works better.) It tracks your steps, and your sleep as well.
What Chinese Students are Curious About the West
This semester I’m teaching all speaking classes. It’s my favorite subject to teach because we can talk about, and do, anything, as long as it is in English. So we have enormous freedom in class to do fun things. After years of teaching I have dozens of lessons already planned,
Badminton Queen
I’m one month into the semester so I thought I’d fill you in with how things are going. This year I changed departments. Before I was in a different department, but now I’m back to teaching English majors. I wish I could say it was some grand gesture to get
I Feel a Bit Guilty About Yesterday’s Post
So after I totally dissed my students in yesterday’s post, I had my last class with one group of kids. We had a christmas party (I do it every year) and when class was almost over one student stood up and said they had a special gift for me. He