Friday 2nd September

I have been leaving the apartment at roughly the same time each day at 7.20am and each morning there has been the taxi driver I used on the first day waiting for me at the end of the road. I thought it was a bit creepy at first but it’s actually quite sweet and it only costs me 15RMB (about £1.50) to get to the school.

Today I had reading assessments to do with grade 1 to see what level their reading was at, it was interesting to see just how varied the standard of English was within the class. All of the children in the class are Chinese. There are two children who do not speak English at all, a few that can speak a little English and then a few whose English is very good for their age. The children call me Miss Pippa which makes me laugh, or shout “teacher, teacher” they are really cute at that age.

After lunch I finished the reading assessments that I started yesterday with grade 2 and then I did a lesson on opposites. The lesson started out really well with me explaining that black was the opposite of white and asking if anyone knew the opposite to boy, which the class answered girl, I then asked what was the opposite to up, cold, young, brother and north and got the right answers from the class so I was feeling quite positive. The lesson went downhill pretty fast after that, I then asked what was the opposite of North, to which a little girl put her hand up and replied “not north” erm... not quite what I was after! I had an assessment sheet that I needed to go through to see how much the children knew and after they got five in a row wrong I would stop the test. I asked for opposites to early (not early was the response) wet (not wet) good (not good) dead (not dead) and it really was like pulling teeth at one point, that was a very long 45 minute lesson.

As I am writing this I can hear yelps coming from the bathroom of our apartment, our shower is very temperamental and the slightest turn of the temperature can be the difference between a scolding shower or a freezing shower. My room mate has decided she hates the placement and is leaving tomorrow and her replacement will also be here tomorrow so it is a bit of a weird day knowing that I will be sharing with someone I have never met before in 15 hours.