Last night, we went out to dinner with a high school student we’d been joint-tutoring over the last month, his father, and his cousin. He’d decided to discontinue the lessons, because he needed to take a ton of IELTS classes in the hopes of getting his score up to a 6.5, but apparently etiquette demands […]
Number One Teaching No-No: Students do not equal friends. I’ve learned this over the last year, and now I’ve taught a few new classes where I maintained enough distance between me and my students to be able to do my job and stay in control of the classroom. This was not the case for my […]
A while back, three students came running into my class five or six minutes late. Technically, they’re not allowed in the classroom after the bell rings, but these three had never been late before, always did their homework, and generally never made me angry. Plus, we were reviewing for an exam, and five minutes didn’t […]
When I came home to visit, the number one question I got asked was, “what’s the food like?”, which made me feel incredibly guilty. The truth is, I don’t eat that much Chinese food, and when I do, it’s not especially exciting. My favorite dish is scrambled eggs and tomatoes. There are a few beef […]