I like to supplement the Better Chinese material with cultural stuff too...and last year we spent several lessons making Chinese New Year crafts--a dancing dragon, a string of Firecrackers (not real ones, of course), a lantern, and the 4th and 5th graders made a scroll with good luck sayings on them. I just don't think there's enough time to do any of these things this year, which really bums me out. In total, I will have less than 18 hours total teaching time with each student in my class. I just got a notice for a free workshop that is teaching Chinese painting, papercuts, and scroll making. These are all awesome things to do, but if I take just one class period to do a cool cultural craft project, it takes away from teaching language and communication. That's 1/36th of my overall time with my students.
So...I've talked to other Mandarin Chinese teachers that also have very limited class times with their students. How do you do it? How do you succeed in having your students learn? What kind of goals or objectives do you set for what they need to learn in class? I just feel as if I've been spinning my wheels and not teaching enough (and the student aren't learning enough) of what I think they should...even in the short time frame.
Any advice? Comments? Suggestions? All are welcome!
So...what do you teachers do that have short classes? How do you teach and reinforce what they've learned so that they actually learn something in class?