Timeline Of My Work Day
I realized recently that although I spent a lot of time talking about teaching, I never actually described what I do and how my day works. So this will be a pretty short and sweet post about my day.
Every week I alternate between teaching in the morning or the afternoon. Whatever period I don’t teach during I usually spend doing paper work, lesson planning, important Facebook procrastination, writing articles, or just going to play with the kids anyway.
So for those of you that care here is a timeline of my day (during a week when I work mornings.)
6:30 AM: Wake up tired, snooze the alarm a few times, hate the whole world, burn off my first 3 layers of skin in a hot shower
7:30 AM: Ride my bike for about 15 minutes (through a crowded maze of lunatics) to get to school, then hang out and eat breakfast
8:30 AM: Go to the classroom and hang out with the kids while they play and get situated
9:00 AM: Begin my English lesson. This usually involves getting all the kids to sit around in a circle and doing some introductory sentence practice (“Hello, my name is Roxy and I’m from Australia”) and then singing a song or playing a game and then some flash cards to help them learn new vocabulary words. Occasionally, I have them do English work books.
10:00 AM: The kids have a short snack and then go outside to exercise and play.
11:00 AM: Kids have about 20 minutes of free time, eat lunch then nap. I’m there assisting and organizing.
12:00 PM: My lunch starts and I have until about 2:30
2:30 PM: The kids morning schedule basically repeats but with a Chinese lesson, outside, inside free time, then parents pick them up. I usually join them unless I have some work to do.
5:00 PM: Ride my bike back to the apartment, crash on couch exhausted
I know it doesn’t sound too rough, and it isn’t as bad as McCoys schedule, but it is still pretty tiring. Even though I only teach for an hour I spend all day with them and I constantly have to organize activities and games or break up arguments or fights. It goes really fast, but at the end you feel totally drained. After a few weeks though I bet I will be adjusted and it’ll be easier. Still, it’s nothing to complain about; it’s a pretty amazing job.
So there you have it. That’s my day.
