Well, the first week of standard courses went well enough. I enjoy having the early mornings off, which may allow for some late night exploits into the city even during the workweek. I would prefer having two consecutive days off, or perhaps having them separated by an additional day. It is a little awkward to work on Monday, have Tuesday off, then work on Wednesday, and be off again on Thursday. But I can't complain.
Classes continue to go well. My probationary period came to an end at the close of August, so I will receive a slight pay-raise on my next paycheck. I'm having a small amount of trouble getting my bank account connected to paypal. Checks are nonexistent here in China, so I cannot enter a routing number, furthermore my ATM card is set up through Unionpay which makes it difficult to add my account as a debit card. One of the other teachers, Cameron, apparently knows how to get Paypal set up for money transfers but I haven't had the opportunity to ask him about it.
I also received my initial performance review, where I've met or exceeded expectations in all aspects of my job so far. Perhaps this is why I've been trusted with covering classes for Ana, who is travelling to Japan with her boyfriend Rodrigo to renew his visa at the Guatemalan embassy. As a result my schedule has been a little more inflated this week than it will be in the following weeks. While i only work during the late afternoon and evenings during the normal work week, Saturday and Sunday are full days. In fact, my classes on Saturday run from the moment school opens until early evening, which means all of these classes must be prepared days ahead of time.
Most of my classes on Saturday are with the high Fliers age group, which eases this stress a bit. Of all the age groups, I've found that the High Fliers lesson curriculum best fits the allotted hour of class time. As a result these classes require the least amount of preparation before hand.
On Friday all the teachers were required to attend a training session at the downtown branch of EF regarding the new Small Stars curriculum, which is to be implemented in the next few months. This lasted a majority of the day, and made preparing for classes afterwards a bit annoying. However, I found out there is a school for 3D design on the floor below that branch of the school, which might be worth investigating, though i'm fairly sure all the curriculum would be in Chinese. This got me to thinking that perhaps when I return to the US with some educational experience on my resume I might be able to find a job teaching 3D modeling at a school back home. But that won't be anytime soon, so we'll just have to wait and see.
On Thursday, Lee and I had the chance to visit the local science museum. While I was disappointed that the dinosaur exhibit had ended mid August when i had no time to see it, the museum did have a number of other interesting interactive exhibits. These included an air and space section, a mechanical engineering section which focused mainly on the different mechanics inside automobiles, a virtual reality section, and a robotics exhibit that demonstrated hydraulics and electromagnetism. As lee pointed out several times during our visit, many of the exhibits have fallen into disrepair. I can only assume that instant access to information over the internet has replaced visits to museums both here and back home, reducing the amount of revenue available for upkeep. The functioning exhibits worked well enough to make the 30 RMB admission worth the visit. Here's a few photos of some of the highlights.
Classes continue to go well. My probationary period came to an end at the close of August, so I will receive a slight pay-raise on my next paycheck. I'm having a small amount of trouble getting my bank account connected to paypal. Checks are nonexistent here in China, so I cannot enter a routing number, furthermore my ATM card is set up through Unionpay which makes it difficult to add my account as a debit card. One of the other teachers, Cameron, apparently knows how to get Paypal set up for money transfers but I haven't had the opportunity to ask him about it.
I also received my initial performance review, where I've met or exceeded expectations in all aspects of my job so far. Perhaps this is why I've been trusted with covering classes for Ana, who is travelling to Japan with her boyfriend Rodrigo to renew his visa at the Guatemalan embassy. As a result my schedule has been a little more inflated this week than it will be in the following weeks. While i only work during the late afternoon and evenings during the normal work week, Saturday and Sunday are full days. In fact, my classes on Saturday run from the moment school opens until early evening, which means all of these classes must be prepared days ahead of time.
Most of my classes on Saturday are with the high Fliers age group, which eases this stress a bit. Of all the age groups, I've found that the High Fliers lesson curriculum best fits the allotted hour of class time. As a result these classes require the least amount of preparation before hand.
On Friday all the teachers were required to attend a training session at the downtown branch of EF regarding the new Small Stars curriculum, which is to be implemented in the next few months. This lasted a majority of the day, and made preparing for classes afterwards a bit annoying. However, I found out there is a school for 3D design on the floor below that branch of the school, which might be worth investigating, though i'm fairly sure all the curriculum would be in Chinese. This got me to thinking that perhaps when I return to the US with some educational experience on my resume I might be able to find a job teaching 3D modeling at a school back home. But that won't be anytime soon, so we'll just have to wait and see.
On Thursday, Lee and I had the chance to visit the local science museum. While I was disappointed that the dinosaur exhibit had ended mid August when i had no time to see it, the museum did have a number of other interesting interactive exhibits. These included an air and space section, a mechanical engineering section which focused mainly on the different mechanics inside automobiles, a virtual reality section, and a robotics exhibit that demonstrated hydraulics and electromagnetism. As lee pointed out several times during our visit, many of the exhibits have fallen into disrepair. I can only assume that instant access to information over the internet has replaced visits to museums both here and back home, reducing the amount of revenue available for upkeep. The functioning exhibits worked well enough to make the 30 RMB admission worth the visit. Here's a few photos of some of the highlights.
Outside of organizing classes, I'm continuing to work on my 3D projects. I came to the conclusion that I'm going to release a series of dragon avatars for Second Life based off of the Zodiac. This will not only allow me to corner the market on dragon avatars, but will provide an interesting theme to set them apart from the generic dragons that are currently available. Afterwards, I think a second series based on the seven deadly sins would also be interesting.
This morning I of course made my weekly trip to the Bookworm, where I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Peter, who is the adoptive father of the Bookworm's co-owner. It turns out he and his wife are visiting China during their step-son's trip to the three Bookworm branches, here, South of Shanghai, and in Beijing. He introduced me to Peter, the other co owner, who noticed me working on my 3D projects and told me about a network of modelers and animators here in Chengdu, which occasionally do freelance modeling for major motion picture companies when they decide to outsource aspects of their productions. I'll send him an email and see if I can make some contacts.
This morning I of course made my weekly trip to the Bookworm, where I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Peter, who is the adoptive father of the Bookworm's co-owner. It turns out he and his wife are visiting China during their step-son's trip to the three Bookworm branches, here, South of Shanghai, and in Beijing. He introduced me to Peter, the other co owner, who noticed me working on my 3D projects and told me about a network of modelers and animators here in Chengdu, which occasionally do freelance modeling for major motion picture companies when they decide to outsource aspects of their productions. I'll send him an email and see if I can make some contacts.