Miss Rachel

After being in China for two weeks, I have finally begun teaching. Classes began on a Saturday which was unusual since our normal classes are Monday through Thursday, but we had to make up a day since we had a holiday the week before. I was definitely nervous to start teaching but once I got in the classroom, the nerves went away and it felt great to be teaching these students.

I teach freshman students which is very exciting because for most of them, this is their first experience having foreign teacher. I am teaching ten classes a week so I have around 200 or more students.

This week, I got to give my students English names. Some of them had already found names that they wanted to use. There are a lot of Shines, Suns, Leos, and Toms but then there are the really strange ones. I've been keeping a list of the really interesting names.

Grubby (2 in the same class)
Yuppy
Elf
Monkey
Devil
Hades
Greedy
Obama
Action Will
Lion
King
Big Sun
Meter
Kaka
Boke
Jane (for a boy)

Grubby and Yuppy are my favorite on the list, they really make me laugh.

Although this week has been fun, it has also been challenging. I'm having to get used to the discipline parts of teaching, as well as, making sure that they understand what I'm saying to them, and hoping that I'm being an effective teacher so they are learning something.

A couple of my classes are all boys who have SO much energy, so getting them to focus and take me seriously has been my biggest challenge this week. I think many of them are only interested in hitting on me. I've never been called beautiful so many times in my life (from the boys and the girls). What a confidence boost! Although, the boys call each other handsome all the time so it's just part of their culture, I think. I've also received a couple of text messages from one student that were probably meant to be harmless but it may have been a little inappropriate to tell your teacher you think she is "sooooo hot."

The joys of this week have been reading the information cards that each student has filled out. This particular card stood out to me.


After finishing my first day of teaching, I was sure that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. It felt great to be teaching these students and I'm so excited for this experience.