Justin Bieber Followed Me to China

I thought I lost him in Washington Heights.

I was wrong.

Maybe I should explain.

While teaching art at Dutch Fork Middle School, I came to learn that most middle school girls and some middle school guys have contracted what is termed, "Bieber Fever." After a short trip to the Urban Dictionary, it started to make sense. Every day during at least one class I had to endure listening to Justin sing about a love he lost or about how happy he was going to make some other girl. But it's middle school, you do what you have to do to keep them from mutiny.

Justin chilling at home

Then we went to New York to work with Dominicans in and around 183rd street, and I found that the epidemic had spread there too. Thanks to Grace Marie Ward and Alexa Hubright, I had to listen to kindergarten through 5th graders belting out "Baby, Baby, Baby Oh" and trying to keep up with Luda. If you don't know who Luda is, that's probably a good thing, but if you need to know, I suggest the Urban Dictionary. Once again, you do what you have to do to keep the kids entertained.

But the class that I teach in China is filled with 19 and 20 year-olds. Their English is really good, and they're very driven to learn and get good jobs. I thought I was finally safe.

I thought.

One day last week during a class break I went to the office for a minute. When I returned, one of my male students had taken my iPod from the speakers and plugged in his iPod. To my horror, he and another male student of 19 were singing along!

Disheartened, I did the only logical thing possible: I took the song Baby and wrote an English lesson based on the lyrics. It's actually a good song for an English class; phrases like, "I'm in pieces," and "shake me 'til you wake me from this bad dream," make for good idiomatic discussions. And a really good grammar lesson can come out of the phrase, "Don't need no Starbucks."

Anyways, teaching is going very well for Corrie and myself, in spite of Bieber Fever. We're really busy getting to know our students and preparing lessons. Once we have more time, we'll post more details, and maybe a new video!