The building where I teachI had to start out class differently than with my sophomores as my new students did not have English names. I decided to give them names of my friends and family back home and currently I have names like: Dave, Deb, Susie, Ben, Allison, Sophia, Hannah, Kristin, Christy, Erica, Kendra, Wilmina, Tracey, Al, Misha, Linde, Katie, Carrie, Mary and so on . . . it is pretty funny =)
The class went great - they were very excited to be speaking English and hung on my every word although they were terrified of speaking out loud, alone in front of the class. When the camera phones became a distraction in class I explained the rule of no cell phones in class and then promised them 5 minutes of picture-taking at the end of the period. True to my word, 5 minutes before the bell rang I offered to take pictures with anyone who wanted to. There was an immediate line-up and I probably took a picture with about half of the students in the class while others stood by and snapped away on their camera phones. It is interesting how the students are shy in some things but not others. For example, to pose in the pictures the girls hugged me, put their arms around me while others just generally hung on me. I also noticed that while I passed my pictures around some students actually took pictures of my pictures.
It was a funny and entertaining first day and I think that they will be a good class.
When we were in Iceland there were some asian people trying to take pictures of the Northern Lights at night with a flash. The pictures just came out pure black but by god if they didn't keep trying.
It reminds me of my first oral English class. What you described in the article is exactly what we experienced when we were freshmen. Actually most Chinese students are quite passive in class which may disappoint you a lot.
By the way, I have seen my English name given to your students. That's great~~
O(∩_∩)O哈哈~