Double duty

As of yesterday, I have assumed a new title (drumroll please...) Chinese school teacher!! This may come as a surprise, since I've pretty much got my hands full with my normal duties as a special education teacher and a student of special education pedagogy, and my Chinese really isn't all that awesome; am I a fluent speaker? Yes. Do I have experience in the classroom? Yes. Am I a fluent reader? Not so much...but I get by! Do I enunciate "properly/roll my tongue at appropriate times (not the Beijing style! more like, su vs. shu)? Not so much. Do I really distinguish between the second and third tones? Nope! And yet, here I am, a teacher in the field, at none other than my Chinese school alma mater, if you will. Which means that the stakes are higher in more than one way:1) As someone educated in the system, I feel as though I have something to prove to the parents of my students; 2) My mom is apparently an awesome teacher of the advanced class and as the daughter of said awesome teacher, in theory, I should be nothing short of an awesome teacher myself; 3) I'm returning as someone who has gone through some education training, and so the expectation (and why I was hired in the first place) is that I can apply what I've learned in the field to my Chinese training. Which is why, apparently, it's acceptable that I'm a bit lacking in some Chinese skills. To further throw a wrench in my abilities to educate these kiddos, I'm teaching a pinyin class. For those of you don't know, I am a devout ㄅㄆㄇㄈbeliever.

In retrospect, I really put much thought when I first accepted the position (first as an alternate, if the first P2 class exceeded 20 students...which it has). I just thought it'd be cool to teach at a place in which I was familiar, and it was an additional teaching experience that wasn't necessarily tied to special education (plus, there was an added source of salary!). But, as the first day of school (yesterday) drew nearer, I started getting cold feet-circumstances had changed since I first accepted, since I now attend Fordham, my faith in my Chinese skills wavered, and this meant that I wouldn't have Sundays free to go places and really enjoy my free time.

Yet, the first day of school came and went, and although I was co-teaching (acting as an assistance for the first 2 hours, then taking over the last hour), teaching didn't seem all that bad! I'm sure that it'll take me a while to get the hang of things (so many questions still unanswered, such as, just how much English is appropriate? I am teaching a class of students who don't really have a Mandarin background/foundation, after all), but this is the kind of challenge that I thrive on. And as long as I make the lesson plans on Sunday after school, it really only takes me an hour and a half or so to hammer it out (if I'm really focused). As an added bonus, my classroom has a document camera that I have access to! There's a smart board too, but unfortunately, no access to that.

Will this additional experience, as I hope, serve as an opportunity to sharpen my teaching ability, or will it prove to be a frustrating and unwise choice on my part? Dun, dun, duuuun! Only time will tell. ;)