Hey everyone! I’ve been ridiculously productive lately and thought I’d write a humble brag blog post about it so you all think I’m much better than I actually am! So, here is a day (today in fact), in the life of Productive Daisy.
6.30-7.10: various alarms go off ordering me to leave my comfy cocoon and venture out into -1 degree temperatures. Winter is surely coming to Shijiazhuang, and with it the dark mornings. Today however it was light when I woke up. Turns out I’d left the lamp on when I went to sleep last night, but it got me out of bed quicker!
7.10-7.40: Coffee. Much needed coffee. Plus getting dressed/brushing teeth/appearance sorting, but priority is coffee before layering up and shivering my way to school.
7.40-8.20: For some unfathomable reason, the school has pushed first and second period classes back 15 minutes, so my earliest class is now even earlier. The reason why coffee is so important on a Wednesday morning is because it’s the day I start a new lesson plan for the Senior 1’s and, annoyingly, I start with my lowest ability class. This means that what they struggle with other classes will find easy so it’s hard to gauge timings etc.. They are a lovely class to teach though, really happy, and because this week is revision week, they were happier to pay attention.
8.20-11.15: This is a gap of 3 periods in which non-productive Daisy goes back to bed and sleeps. Productive Daisy however goes to her office at home (now that it has wifi) and does work for online courses. I just finished a really interesting one on teaching and as a result my wall is covered in post-its and scribbles as I want to remember ideas. More coffee is drank, and I managed to remember to eat a satsuma for breakfast as I organised my diary and learnt different assessment techniques.
11.15-11.55: Back in the classroom for another revision lesson. These students are a higher ability class than the first lot, and managed to have some time at the end for personal revision. By this point my stomach is rumbling and the lesson overran slightly as the students asked me questions about the exam.
11.55-14.10: Lunch. Usually I cook at home but because I’d moronically only eaten a satsuma I was starving so went to the old street food building next door and ordered some wraps from Meat Pocket Lady. While I was waiting for them to cook my students from this year and last year kept me company and seemed shocked to see me there. Once I’d got my food it was back to the desk for more online learning, plus an accidental wake up call for Dad since I called him at 4.30am UK time…Oops!! This time it was an Understanding IELTS course. Although the course is aimed at people who want to take the test, it’s really interesting learning more about it and seeing the discussions underneath. By the time I’d finished it was time to get ready for an afternoon of teaching.
14.10-14.50: More teaching! This class is one of the most enthusiastic, always greeting me with shouts, cheers and declarations of love. Whilst in more formal lessons this can get overwhelming and I have had to shout at them before, their enthusiasm worked well for the revision lesson, and they were really into the game of hangman at the start.
14.50-15.50: The last break of the day. This time I went through the links I’d opened over lunch from the IELTS course and got more ideas for the senior special lessons. Plus yet more coffee as I was starting to yawn and the sweets the students gave me in the last class could only give me so much energy.
15.50-17.25: 2 back-to-back lessons. Both enthusiastic, both loved Mr Bean, both comforted by the revision lesson. One had a teacher in the back who usually marks homework but got involved this lesson, and one had a huge debate about the True/False game we were playing at the end. In one of the classes the boys who usually ignore me at the back of the classroom got really involved with the game and ended up making their own signs to hold up so they could join in. There was one boy who was open mouthed staring at my chest until his friend nudged me, but he was quickly overshadowed by the students who gave me chocolate and sweets. He will forever be Perv Boy in my eyes though!
17.25-18.10: This is scheduled as dinner time, but I don’t have time to cook and eat in this time or grab something from the street without getting bloated so I went back to my desk and prepared for the evening class. By this point Productive Daisy was turning into regular Daisy and Youtube was calling.
18.10-18.50: The last class of the day! Today it was the Senior 2 specials turn to be my last class, and after explaining various ways to express likes/dislikes/indifference I was finally able to start to wind down. Luckily this class have already had me for a year so when I’m tired and can’t English, they’re amazing at understanding and incredibly can actually understand when I’m talking at my usual speed. Or they seem to understand at least! Finally it was time to go home and so I went, shivering once again but happy to have some students say they loved me again. My students this week especially keep giving me sweets and saying how beautiful I am and that they love me. If it means they won’t speak Chinese when they shouldn’t and they actually sit and listen to me, I’m not complaining!
18.50-20.30: Again, I usually cook dinner but after a productive day like today I was 1.starving and 2.too tired to cook and faff about. So it was off to the dumpling shop for my usual take out order. I say usual, the woman now sees me alone and says what I usually order since I get the same thing every time. Old habits die hard! I ate in front of Youtube again and then sat down to write this post.
It might seem like a busy day, and believe me it was, but not all my days are this hectic. Monday for example, I got out of bed at 12 and lesson planned until my one and only class at 18.10 before watching movies with the Squad. Since today was so busy, and the past couple of Wednesdays have been busy, I thought I’d give you an insight into Productive Daisy, and what sort of things I get up to. Now it’s almost 9pm and the 3 cups of coffee have worn off, I think it’s time for a movie in bed… 😀
lifeintheshiz 