At last, I have started up my blog again here in my new digs in Songjiang, Shanghai. I have finally managed to spend my free time more productively and not just focus on sprucing up my new apartment.

School has been in session for three weeks now. I’m officially under the umbrella of the kindergarten/CASA program at my school, but my class is actually one of the “prep” classes (a stepping stone between pre-school and grade one). Prep used to be part of the primary school, but then this summer the Chinese government decided that students in any kind of kindergarten-classified program should not be doing any kind of primary school-level work, so this year the prep classes got shifted out of the primary section and into the kindergarten section. The kindergarten/CASA program here also uses the Montessori method. In the prep classes, however, the entire day is not spent doing Montessori but rather just dedicating two periods in the morning every other day.

I have a class of twenty-five students as well as four teachers: a Chinese homeroom teacher, a foreign homeroom teacher, a teacher’s assistant, and a dedicated ayi (cleaner). Between the four of us, we have our hands full. The classwork is a departure from the last three years of primary school teaching that I did in Guangzhou. Now it’s back to the beginner basics, and more time is spent reading to or with the kids (as well as more interaction with the parents). Initially, when I interviewed, I was more interested in joining the primary section, but after waffling about the schedule and re-interviewing for the kindergarten section, I’m now feeling better than when I joined the kindergarten.

During orientation, it seemed like it was more efficient for us, and we had more time to focus on class preparation rather than spending lots of extra time doing social activities and joining in cultural workshops like the primary people did. I was also hesitant to accept this job because it would mean dealing with an age group that I had already dealt with during my first year in China (Hangzhou) at a training school.

The whole experience made me grow to appreciate little kids, but at the same time, it also made me swear that I never wanted to exhaust or stress myself teaching kids this age again. I realize that a big factor in that was working at a training center (and a Chinese-managed one at that). This, however, is a ‘real” school, and the overall environment is much different. This is in Shanghai, considered to be the most internationally-minded city in China, and the school staff is largely split between local and foreign staff, including all of the principal and deputy principal positions. In fact, the secondary school principal is from the US and is also the new leader of the school. Enough about me, though; it’s time to focus on the school and the kids. I’ll start with the school food.

Good lord, the food at this school is immensely better than at my last school. The food there was awful, so much so that I decided not to step foot into the school canteen during the last two years that I worked there. It was greasy, used really low-grade meat (of course), and half the time it was hard to figure out where the meat was and what was just bone and cartilage. The food at my new school is in a league of its own. During the orientation period, they had more time to focus on preparing food for fewer people, so it makes sense that the best food was served at this time. The food now is still good, though it’s a bit more inconsistent compared to before classes started.

They now have the soup/noodles section, the regular section, and the “international” section. The latter section tends to be the most inconsistent, but I’m still grateful that we get what we get. This school is still relatively new, and the higher up you go in each grade, the fewer classes and students there are. In the primary section, teachers eat lunch with their students at their table. I’m not a fan of adults being treated like children, so I’m not sure how the rest of the teachers feel about this. In kindergarten, the kids have their meals prepared and brought to the classroom, and the teachers and TA can choose to eat in the classroom or in the canteen at regular tables (although there should be at least one teacher in the classroom with the kids, so usually the TA will go to eat first). The ayi is the one who sets out the food and cleans the classroom. The TA and the Ayi are also referred to as “life teachers.” At this point, I tend to split my time between eating in the classroom and in the canteen. It usually depends on how much I feel the need to take a break from being around the kids. Since we are homeroom teachers, we will be with the kids all day (minus their other classes), and at this level, they don’t take naps.

Now it’s on to the little cuties themselves. Chinese kids are pretty cute, but the optimal period of cuteness tends to be earlier on. As for their names, once again there were some interesting choices thrown into the mix (ex. Seven, Shark, and White).

The first unit we have talked about is “All About Me.” I took these photos of the kids and their work while they were cutting and pasting parts of a face onto their blank face templates. After seeing them, I started to wonder if some of them were trying to channel Picasso or Frances Bacon.

Some of them were eager to show off their creations.

Every day the kids have ample time to play with the toys in the classroom as well as use the Montessori items.

According to some parents of kids in the other classes, our class seems to house the largest number of naughty kids from the previous year, including the most notorious (Yoki), who is known to many teachers in CASA as being completely in his own world and seems to just focus on whatever he wants or needs and does whatever he pleases, much to the frustration of his classmates and teachers.

Below is a video I took of one of my other infamous students, Ethan. He is smart, funny, and entertaining, but he also has a real problem with listening and focusing on the teacher, whether in Chinese or English. This is his Marvel Comics action hero dance.

As part of a reward system, we have re-introduced “Q-Bear” from last year. One student each week can take home Q-Bear for the weekend and take photos of their adventures together. The first Q-Bear recipient of the year went to Kaylee. This week, it went to Ariel (the one wearing her plastic space-age crown of sorts). (Q-Bear looks rather blinged out, too.).

Part of what made me hesitate to take this position (and still stresses me out) is how kids are brought up in modern-day China. Here you will find the largest concentration of selfish, spoiled brats. This is common among kids at this age, and of course you’ll find this type of upbringing everywhere, but here it is the norm rather than the outlier. The other aspect of it comes from the attitude of many parents in this generation. They seem to worry about their kids being pushed too hard in school, and as a way to try to counteract this, they tend to just let the kids do and have whatever they want with little or no discipline or establishment of boundaries. They have the mindset that kids are very fragile like glass and seem to not want to risk “shattering” them by instituting responsibility. China is also a very child-centric culture. All of this together can add up to a very stressful environment. I’ve discovered that since teaching kids here, I have come to realize that I try to create a balance between being an approachable, caring teacher and a stickler for establishing boundaries and calling out kids for their bad behavior. I like to think of myself as being the three F’s: firm, fair, and funny.

On the flip side, something that I do enjoy about teaching in China is that it’s also a place where physical contact is not only accepted but also constant. It does feel rewarding to be able to hold a student’s hand (unless their hands are dirty, which is all of the time) or to receive a hug. I think that in the west there is a legitimate concern about children’s safety regarding physical contact, but at the same time it has perhaps gone too far with there not being any kind of physical contact allowed. At this age, I think it’s important for kids to feel that they are safe and cared for, and physical contact is a great way to communicate that. That being said, it can get a bit annoying when they want to climb on you or pat you on the butt. This is where the establishment of boundaries comes into play.

With that said, it’s always nice to have the first holiday be Teacher’s Day in September. I honestly don’t remember this being a big thing when I was in school, but here it is. Teachers can expect to receive any number of gifts, both from the school and from parents. Flowers are a typical gift, and usually a student or two will make some kind of card. Sometimes parents can be lavish with their gifts. One parent got me this cool moon light, and another one got me a bottle of Dior Homme Sport! Below is a photo of the loot that I got.

Last but not least, we already had our first field trip this past Thursday to a local moon cake factory. This trip was set up because in another week there will be a national holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which includes making and giving moon cakes. The trip itself was rather short, as the only thing that the kids could really do at this age was to roll out a piece of dough and wrap up another piece of dough inside of it, followed by one of the employees assisting with shaping it with a plastic impression tool. The soap bubble show afterwards was a big hit and was more interesting than the moon cakes themselves. We also got back to school an hour later than expected. By that point, I had already been assigned to be the “partner” of Ethan, both on the bus and during the trip, by my co-teacher, and my patience was fading away. When you add being “hangry” to the mix, my patience was then running on empty.

Like all of my other teaching jobs here have been (as with living in China itself), this year will continue to be a never-ending roller coaster of good and bad moments. I look forward to bringing you more of them.