Sensei Michael

This essay was written by a Chinese student of mine, Sarah Zhang, currently in Grade 5. “Great,” my mother told me, “Linda, Jason and I are going to take part in a play!” A few days ago, we went to Beijing by car. We felt happy we had seven days to learn drama. Our drama teachers, Durand and his assistant Alice, came from America. They were nice and ebullient. They were funny and good at drama. Our play’s name was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Linda portrayed Quince, Jason portrayed Flute, and I portrayed Queen Titania. The exciting day finally arrived. The morning of the day we put up our play, we got up, and the first thing we did was to review our dialogue. Everybody did what he had to do. Our teachers were very caring, they wanted us to rest at home that morning. When noon came, everyone’s hearts were jumping fast. After lunch, Ms Alice put on our makeup, one by one, in accordance with our role's character. She was very careful and diligent, our dresses were different too. Time ...

This essay was written by a Chinese student of mine, Jason Shan, currently in Grade 5. An Accident A month ago, I was on the street. I saw a car and another car collide. I was very surprised. The accident happened like this. The first car turned left, the second car went straight. The two cars went along. Then the two cars collided. The policeman saw the accident and came to help them settle the accident. One hour later, the accident was settled. There were many cars on the road, bumper-to-bumper. All the cars could not go. The policeman came and directed these cars. Later, these cars went on their way. I thought to myself: we should think first before we do anything. We should not do anything sloppily.

This is an essay written by one of my Chinese students, Linda Huang, currently in Grade 6. An Exciting Day After our laborious practice, the most exciting day was coming! It was the day that we were performing our play! We were allowed to sleep in that day, so I slept until nine o’clock. In the morning, except the time when I was sleeping, I was practising the lines with Sarah and Jason. I was so nervous about the show in the evening. The time passed by quickly, the afternoon was already coming. Our parents sent us to the place where we always practised. Alice and Durand were there, too. These two were the teachers who taught us to perform our play. A busy afternoon was waving at us. Teacher told us to put on our costumes for the show. After Alice reviewed our performance, we practised again and again, because Alice and Durand wanted us to be perfect. This time everyone did a good job, no one was distracted. Everyone wanted to be the best, too, including me. Soon, it was time for suppe...