Muscles I didn't know I had have appeared after a night's rest. Oof..

The first day of school was incredibly chaotic. A lot of things that were supposed to be done, was not done. For example, the air conditioner in one classroom was broken and though they promised to bring in fans, that was not done until later. Also, there are computers in every classroom but they did not give us the password and login to use it, also until much later. They encouraged us to use the mounted projectors but neglected to give us remote controls to turn them on and they were too high to use manually. Not only that, EVERY teacher forgot something at the hotel today. I forgot my sweat rag...boo...I also found that one of my worksheets was not photocopied so I had to be creative. Oh well, it happens.

One very big difference that I have seen in both Taiwan and Hong Kong vs. Canada is the use of a photocopier. Both last summer and this summer, the teachers have been asked to give prior notice for photocopying. In Taiwan, we gave our hard copies to our TA who filled in a requisition form for us and then gave it to one person who was in charge of photocopying everything on the school's only photocopier. There was a 3-day turnaround. But seeing as this was for only 20 or so teachers, we managed to ask for a 24 hr turnaround. Not terrible...This year in Hong Kong, I have to either give one person the hardcopies of my handouts and she will take them to the photocopier place or I can directly e-mail attachments to the photocopier place. Also a 24-hr turnaround. At Earl Haig, each floor has two photocopier rooms and each teacher/dept has a copy code and we can do it ourselves. Since teaching is an unpredictable job, this is WAY BETTER.

Anyhow, teaching a split class is very difficult. The timing is hard to get a hold on because all the students work at different paces. I can do it but I keep getting this feeling that I'm not teaching at my best, which is inevitable because I'm splitting my focus. So while half the students are working, I cannot go around to check on their progress because I'm busy teaching the other half. Also, I keep picking up the wrong lesson plans and handouts. But it is still only the first day and I was very sore from mountain trekking the day before.

Too tired for pictures today. Maybe tomorrow. Lots of planning to do and I had a late start on it because we got pulled in for a "quick 3-minute meeting" that turned into 70 minutes.