Saturday, the test day
Saturday was a big day. Lengthy post behind the cut.
Saturday morning was our school's bimonthly test (that is, every two months). However, before that I had a Little Tigers class for two very eager 5 year olds whom haven't seen the school set up in this fashion. I explained to them what was about to happen and what the students were expected to do, and then decided to give them an unofficial Little Tigers Test of their very own! They were SO excited that they followed my instructions to the letter and performed each move I called out. It was adorable. I did explain to the parent that this test doesn't actually count, but I wanted them to know what they would be getting into after they grow out of the LT program. He appreciated the insight, and said that to keep with the program they'll have to switch to the afternoon class. I mentioned that I'm not in charge of that session and he... started reconsidering. The parents really like my teaching style, apparently, and didn't want to lose the progress they've seen with the kids. It turns out, the kids really are practicing at home! Huh, who knew?
Anyway, for the test proper I was proctoring for both the adults and the kids tests. Proctoring in this case means that I'm telling the students what to do during the test, arrange who is fighting whom, and repeating pretty much everything the head of the school says, all the while standing at attention off to the side of the table. It's more tiring than you'd expect, especially when you have to do it for four hours. Anyway, the test went really well for a majority of the students: our brown belts passed the pre-test for black belt, we've got a few red belts who reached brown belt, a kung fu student reached her yellow sash (two others have to take a make-up test), and most of the kids passed. We had our newly established demo team perform, too, which grabbed the attention of other kids (especially when the EXCLUSIVE Demo Team Patches were handed out!)
However, at the end of it all, there was a small ceremony recognizing one of the senior students for his contributions to the school. To my surprise, it was me. I was promoted and given an official title as Assistant Instructor!
This? This is goddamn exciting.
Saturday morning was our school's bimonthly test (that is, every two months). However, before that I had a Little Tigers class for two very eager 5 year olds whom haven't seen the school set up in this fashion. I explained to them what was about to happen and what the students were expected to do, and then decided to give them an unofficial Little Tigers Test of their very own! They were SO excited that they followed my instructions to the letter and performed each move I called out. It was adorable. I did explain to the parent that this test doesn't actually count, but I wanted them to know what they would be getting into after they grow out of the LT program. He appreciated the insight, and said that to keep with the program they'll have to switch to the afternoon class. I mentioned that I'm not in charge of that session and he... started reconsidering. The parents really like my teaching style, apparently, and didn't want to lose the progress they've seen with the kids. It turns out, the kids really are practicing at home! Huh, who knew?
Anyway, for the test proper I was proctoring for both the adults and the kids tests. Proctoring in this case means that I'm telling the students what to do during the test, arrange who is fighting whom, and repeating pretty much everything the head of the school says, all the while standing at attention off to the side of the table. It's more tiring than you'd expect, especially when you have to do it for four hours. Anyway, the test went really well for a majority of the students: our brown belts passed the pre-test for black belt, we've got a few red belts who reached brown belt, a kung fu student reached her yellow sash (two others have to take a make-up test), and most of the kids passed. We had our newly established demo team perform, too, which grabbed the attention of other kids (especially when the EXCLUSIVE Demo Team Patches were handed out!)
However, at the end of it all, there was a small ceremony recognizing one of the senior students for his contributions to the school. To my surprise, it was me. I was promoted and given an official title as Assistant Instructor!
This? This is goddamn exciting.