another weekend gone by? and......biking!

so we finished the first quarter and I had to do report cards for the first time. no big deal really. I only had to write maximum 4 lines of comments per student, and assess them on personal/social/development skills. it was just all the marks that needed to be added in. and I thought I was doing well. maybe I mark too many things. I guess I'll figure it out as I go. so on Saturday, while Scott was gone to a soccer tournament in another city, I spent TOO MUCH of the day at school marking, and planning for this week. sad sad story. and of course the stress isn't over, because today my student who has been absent for 2 weeks (funeral in Malaysia) returned! and grades are due tomorrow, so I might as well fit in a few more tests for him! haha

you think I'd be a bit more settled....but I cannot help but think of ways I can teach the material better to my students. my ESL students struggle a lot because the material and vocabulary is quite advanced. I do a lot of small dramatizations during the day to explain small concepts, like "effort". today they did a self-evaluation of the past quarter and had to comment on their effort on assignments this past quarter. it wasn't easy for some of them!

Saturday night Scott and I found ONE friend who was free to go out for dinner. Hannah is a student teacher from Minnesota. so we had dinner at the mall, which has many nice restaurants then decided to head back to our place to watch a movie. Scott and I had rode our bikes over, so we said she could take mine and I'd ride on the back of Scott's, as we often do. but Hannah is not much of a risk-taker....and to ride a bike in Beijing?! well, we just kinda forced it upon her. otherwise, she would've tried to get out of it (which she did, but I ignored it). I gave her a few suggestions and we were off. Scott and I with one broken pedal and me the heavy load. once she managed to sit on the seat (because she's shorter than me) she was fine. she got a little nervous when someone passed her.....all was good, hardly anyone on the path and then I hear "CRUNCH"!!! don't worry. no one was hit except the parked car!!! hahahha. Hannah was riding beside a parked car realized she was a little close, went to turn away but instead turned IN to the car! hehe. thankfully she was laughing and wasn't hurt :) probably embarassed more than anything. the car was a beater so we weren't too concerned. and we made it safely back to our place! I'm just glad she didn't run into another person or moving vehicle.

this Unit I'm teaching in Social Studies right now is all about the Northeast region of the U.S. , and the text had a section all about the Niagara River, Niagara Falls, and the power plants. it was nice to talk about something so familiar. I even showed them some of my own pictures from the area.

I went out for Hot Pot tonight with some other staff. Scott missed it because he went to a meeting about joining the worship team at our church. we've really enjoyed the sincerity of the leader, and he's looking to expand the team. Hot Pot is like fondue, but much bigger, and more like a giant pot of soup. I think I've mentioned it before. it's quite enjoyable, though I came back smelling like it!

'tis all for now my friends.
thanks for reading!