最后课

Ni Hao Friends!

I can't believe it's June already and I only have two more weeks of school left! And this week is my last actual teaching week - the following week is just exams. Where has the time gone?

So for the next few weeks I'll be particularly busy with paperwork... unimaginable amounts of paperwork. Seriously, guys, paperwork in China is no joke. Submitting all my students' final grades and marks is possibly the most tedious part of the semester. I'll try to take pictures of all the stuff we have to fill out to submit final grades... it may or may not blow your mind.

Fortunately, one of my classes (my Thursday night class) ended early this semester (only a 14-week long class as opposed to the typical 17-week long class) and so it's been finished for a few weeks now. A normal person would probably be happy about this (who doesn't want more time off?). However, my Thursday night students were (am I allowed to say this?) probably my favorite. They were always so enthusiastic and ready to participate - and they smiled all the time! Seriously, I couldn't ask for more. Every week I enjoyed going to that class - we always had a great time.

The class was simply called, "Oral English" and the students were English minors. We did a variety of different activities in class, usually involving skits or other opportunities for the students to speak. Their final exam was a lot of fun! The class (35 students total) divided into groups of 5 people. Each group was assigned a traditional fairy tale (like "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Frog Prince") and, then, a different movie genre (like "Horror" or "Action"). The group was then responsible for re-writing the fairy tale to fit into whichever genre they had been given (for example, one group had to create a "Sci-Fi" version of the "The Three Little Pigs" - which involved time-travelling, outrageous inventions and even an action scene). Once the group adapted the story, they then had to create a 10-minute script/play and perform it for me and their classmates on the last day of class. The students had a lot of fun with it and they really got to stretch their creativity (which, I have found, they don't get to do very often in schools here). It was definitely a fun final exam.

After the performances, I wanted to get pictures of/with my students, so here are some of my favorites:

The whole class!

Emma, Amanda, Maleah, Me, Tinna & Julie

Julianna, Me, Jessica & Cookie

Sylvia, Amelia, Me, Jennifer & Daisy

Delia, Me, Louisa, Nicole and Casey

Siren, Me, Angelina, Apple & Orange

George & I - he was one of only two boys in class!

Although it's nice to have some extra time off - I do find myself missing this class. They always re-energized me and made me laugh. I can only hope I'll be lucky enough to have another group like this one next year!