Best of Days and Worst of Days

(Our team, plus Jodi's family members, playing knockout recently on a beautiful day).


Howdy from Nanchang!

After three of the most beautiful days Nanchang has seen in about a million years supposedly, we are currently in a couple of the nastiest days. All of a sudden it is pretty warm for this time of year--about 75 degrees. The sun is no longer shining, because it is blocked by a consistent haze of pollution.

Yesterday I felt like I wanted to pass out, because I could not escape from the smell in the air. It was like the entire city reeked of burning trash. Even in class, that's all you could breath. Today it's slightly better, but not much. It still smells quite stale outside, and the haze is just hanging like a gray shroud over everything.

I wouldn't complain that much, but I'm battling a cold or something right now. I have a pretty bad cough, which isn't helped by the very poor air quality, and by inhaling chalk dust from class.

Anyway, despite that, my spirits are still pretty upbeat. Relationships are great, the culture is great, and classes are mostly great.

This morning I had two classes. It is strange, but the first class was the worst one I've had, probably. It is with my business English class, which is my most gigantic and craziest class. It is always my goal to keep the class just below the level of controlled chaos.

Today I wore a microphone while I was teaching, since my voice is shot. Students can hear me much better, but then I feel like I'm performing on a stage or something. We were learning about American government. I tried to explain everything as simply as possible, but people looked really confused, or they just fell asleep from boredom. Nobody ever falls asleep in that class, because they are always busting with energy. So I knew I wasn't connecting with them today very well.

Right after the ten minute break, I started coughing and then choking on chalk dust. Students were no longer sleeping, because their formerly boring teacher was now uncontrollably coughing up a lung. I tried drinking water, but I could barely stop coughing long enough. I was coughing so much that my eyes were leaking, and my nose was running. My little crazy students now looked very concerned. When I finally stopped coughing, I tried to start talking again. But talking just made me cough more.

Somehow we managed to get through the rest of the class, in between episodes of continual coughing. I was happy to run out of there when it was over, as were my students, except for one who paused long enough to tell me to take better care of myself. :)

After that mini disaster, I then taught another class, which probably turned out to be the best class yet. I only coughed a tiny bit, and I was able to engage the students better. I revised my strategy in how I communicated the basics of American government with them. They were very interested. We also talked about different political parties, practiced voting, and they gave election speeches. It was all a little foreign to them, but they loved it.

Groups formed their own political parties and gave speeches in front of the class on how to make campus better. For example: install heat in the dormitories, give the students better food in the canteen, and make class sizes smaller. They were all so articulate and passionate. I was so proud of them. And it was extremely interesting to talk about political values in a Chinese classroom.

So my lessons were redeemed today, thankfully. I will continue to make mistakes, but it's just a part of the process of becoming a better teacher, and getting students to think critically about the world around them.