...chinese primary school PE class! It has got to be not only the funniest thing I've ever seen, but the cutest too!
There is not an indoor gymnasium here at my school. So for PE they do various outdoor activities. Sometimes they play basketball, sometimes soccer, sometimes track/field stuff. Well sometimes they do little aerobic exercises for PE. So when they do that it's usually in the school building. The building is 4 stories high, with an open center with a big court yard/square in the center. So from the 4th floor I can see down to the open courtyard. Well yesterday they were in the courtyard for PE. So picture this... about 75 little chinese 6 year olds all in a line. They do some little aerobics, then they end their class with a performance in song and dance of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes..." It was the cutest thing ever!!
Then today, on my way to lunch, there is another open courtyard near the cafeteria. Well I was walking through it like I usually do, when all the sudden here come the 75 chinese 6 year olds all on roller blades!! It was like a little miniature roller derby! There were kids flying every direction you could imagine. They had on every kind of padding you could imagine - everything from helmets, knee and elbow pads, to shin gaurds, and wrist gaurds - and its a good thing to because they were wiping out all over the place. So funny!!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Whew... What a week!
Well this past week has been quite a week… that is for sure.
To begin we were visited by DanDan last week. She flew into Guangzhou on Wednesday and began working on Thursday. She was out to Chashan to my school to observe me teach on Thursday afternoon. Along with her she brought Mallory, Han (one of our friends from the first 2 weeks; also a PhD student at SCNU), and Liu Zhe (another student at SCNU) who will be out to observe me in the future as part of her research for her school work. It was so nice to see some familiar faces!
So these four, plus my teacher and supervisor at my school, all sat in to observe me. The lesson went well. They sat in on my 11th grade math class which is always a really great group anyway. It’s a small class, only about 9, in which they are preparing to take the British O-Levels Exam. On this particular day we were studying trigonometry. So for the class activity we used hypsometers and we went outside to use angles and trig to measure the height of the school building. It started to rain on us, but we got it all worked out and it went well.
After the teacher we had a meeting to discuss my progress and my teaching in general. Then the school administration treated us to a big dinner in town, which was quite an experience in itself. This restaurant was huge! Plus, to pick dinner you got to walk around and look at various tanks to see what little critters you wanted for dinner! So we were strolling through looking and there was quite a selection. There was a multitude of fish, some frogs, turtles, stingrays, snakes, eels, clams, shrimp, lobster, crabs, oysters, many other things which I had no clue as to what it was, and even a duck swimming around in a little pool! Then there were big barrels of rice and noodles and various vegetables as well as big pictures of all sorts of other dishes up on the walls. An interesting way to make dinner selections to say the least.
After dinner DanDan was able to steal me away from my school that night (getting me out of teaching on Friday) so I could go into Guangzhou and go see Mallory teach the following day. So DanDan, Mallory, Han, Liu, and myself took off for the train station after dinner to head for Guangzhou.
The next day I went to Mallory’s school to sit with all of her school faculty and DanDan to observe her lesson. Afterwards we had a meeting and then we were again treated to a huge, fancy meal. Little did we know these were only the beginning of our many meetings and huge, fancy meals during the weekend. We decided that they roll out the red carpet when DanDan is in town!
So for the rest of the day Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday morning we accompanied DanDan to various schools, meetings, and meals. It made for some long days but we sure had fun. Mallory and I even ended up staying with DanDan in her rather fancy hotel for most of the weekend! Also, Mallory and I even got several job offers to come back and teach in China throughout the weekend!
But now things have started to settle down, but only a little. I got back to my school on Sunday evening and began preparing lessons. First thing Monday morning my teaching schedule was changed AGAIN. So that was hectic trying to prepare for classes at the last minute.
Then, today some good news: I got a washing machine! This is the first time I’ve been able to wash my clothes in an actual washing machine since I’ve been here in China! Before that it’s been good ol’ hand-washing! Ha ha! So, needless to say, that was exciting. There was a minor incident which involved my door getting broken during the process of hooking up the washer, but all is well now and I have already washed my clothes!
So now, with clean clothes and a somewhat new teaching schedule, this week is almost done! The time sure is going by fast!
Also, I added some new pictures to my flickr site of my teaching, my students, and my school.
Click Here to see my pics!
or go to this site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23953328@N03
To begin we were visited by DanDan last week. She flew into Guangzhou on Wednesday and began working on Thursday. She was out to Chashan to my school to observe me teach on Thursday afternoon. Along with her she brought Mallory, Han (one of our friends from the first 2 weeks; also a PhD student at SCNU), and Liu Zhe (another student at SCNU) who will be out to observe me in the future as part of her research for her school work. It was so nice to see some familiar faces!
So these four, plus my teacher and supervisor at my school, all sat in to observe me. The lesson went well. They sat in on my 11th grade math class which is always a really great group anyway. It’s a small class, only about 9, in which they are preparing to take the British O-Levels Exam. On this particular day we were studying trigonometry. So for the class activity we used hypsometers and we went outside to use angles and trig to measure the height of the school building. It started to rain on us, but we got it all worked out and it went well.
After the teacher we had a meeting to discuss my progress and my teaching in general. Then the school administration treated us to a big dinner in town, which was quite an experience in itself. This restaurant was huge! Plus, to pick dinner you got to walk around and look at various tanks to see what little critters you wanted for dinner! So we were strolling through looking and there was quite a selection. There was a multitude of fish, some frogs, turtles, stingrays, snakes, eels, clams, shrimp, lobster, crabs, oysters, many other things which I had no clue as to what it was, and even a duck swimming around in a little pool! Then there were big barrels of rice and noodles and various vegetables as well as big pictures of all sorts of other dishes up on the walls. An interesting way to make dinner selections to say the least.
After dinner DanDan was able to steal me away from my school that night (getting me out of teaching on Friday) so I could go into Guangzhou and go see Mallory teach the following day. So DanDan, Mallory, Han, Liu, and myself took off for the train station after dinner to head for Guangzhou.
The next day I went to Mallory’s school to sit with all of her school faculty and DanDan to observe her lesson. Afterwards we had a meeting and then we were again treated to a huge, fancy meal. Little did we know these were only the beginning of our many meetings and huge, fancy meals during the weekend. We decided that they roll out the red carpet when DanDan is in town!
So for the rest of the day Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday morning we accompanied DanDan to various schools, meetings, and meals. It made for some long days but we sure had fun. Mallory and I even ended up staying with DanDan in her rather fancy hotel for most of the weekend! Also, Mallory and I even got several job offers to come back and teach in China throughout the weekend!
But now things have started to settle down, but only a little. I got back to my school on Sunday evening and began preparing lessons. First thing Monday morning my teaching schedule was changed AGAIN. So that was hectic trying to prepare for classes at the last minute.
Then, today some good news: I got a washing machine! This is the first time I’ve been able to wash my clothes in an actual washing machine since I’ve been here in China! Before that it’s been good ol’ hand-washing! Ha ha! So, needless to say, that was exciting. There was a minor incident which involved my door getting broken during the process of hooking up the washer, but all is well now and I have already washed my clothes!
So now, with clean clothes and a somewhat new teaching schedule, this week is almost done! The time sure is going by fast!
Also, I added some new pictures to my flickr site of my teaching, my students, and my school.
Click Here to see my pics!
or go to this site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23953328@N03
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Finally... some time to write
Wow, let’s see… where to start. I honestly don’t even remember what my last blog included, and since I can’t even see it I guess I will just start with a little recap. The first 12 days were fantastic. We got to meet so many new people and make some really great friends. All of the people who were assigned the task of being one of our guides were great. So helpful, so friendly, and just so pleased to be spending time with us. It was really nice. Plus we got to see a lot of really different and amazing places.
We conquered the coldest winter Guangzhou has seen in 50 years, without heat mind you, and even with no electric for one day and night. We ate a variety of foods. Some of which burned like none other and some which were still looking at us when they were being served. We learned to make Chinese dumplings and we learned a lot about luck, fortune and tradition. We fought our way through the chaotic super-markets, the always busy subways, and the buses which nearly caused dislocated joints due to crazy traffic and crazy drivers. And we even eventually got to the point where we could do it on our own! So the first 12 days were definitely packed full of a variety of experiences, all of which seem so great looking back.
But now, we are all off on our own separate ways. I traveled just outside of Guangzhou to Chashan, Dongguan. Mallory stayed put there in Guangzhou, and the boys headed up north to Xi’an.
I have nearly finished my 3rd week here at HS Kama International School and what an experience it has been. When I began here originally I was scheduled for 22 classes per week taught in the International Department. By the 2nd week I was up to 27 classes per week, 3 of those being 2 ½ hour long night classes, and expanding out into the Korean Department. Also, might I add that 17 of my classes were English classes… too bad I teach math! But now, by the 3rd week, it is all finally straightened out and begun to settle down. I’m down to 20 regularly scheduled classes per week, 10 math and 10 English, plus 2 morning reading sessions. Much better! I have 7th and 11th grade math and 9th and 12th grade English. Like I said I’m in the International Department, but don’t let that fool you. Nearly all of my students are still Chinese. This only means that a vast amount of the curriculum is supposed to be taught in English. Well don’t let that fool you either, because it’s not! So, most of my students have an English language vocabulary probably at least 3-4 grade levels lower than they are. This, as you can imagine, makes teaching them difficult topics such as solving systems of quadratic equations quite a challenge. I won’t lie, it is hard. But so far I am enjoying it. I really like my classes and my students. Chinese students by nature are very quiet and soft spoken, so when a 6’2” foreigner, such as myself, comes in speaking to them in English, they were probably a little taken aback. But now by the middle of the third week I am getting to know them. They are becoming much more comfortable with me. At first they were so afraid to speak up in class, especially in English. But now I find them to be very responsive in class and very talkative outside of class. They always come up to me chatting and asking questions, or at the very least telling me hello and asking about my day. They are really starting to grow on me, they are a really great group of kids for the most part. Even a lot of the kids I don’t teach are all so friendly and generally excited to see me. In fact, just today I got attacked by a mob of 7 year olds on my way back from dinner! They all wanted to say hello and either shake my hand or give me a high five. I was impressed by their English too. A lot of them were saying hello (which I’m used to, nearly everyone knows the word hello), but then they started asking me “how are you?” or “how is your day?” and one even asked where I was from. I told him I was from America and he said, “well, welcome to China!” It was so cute! And they are the tiniest little kids I’ve ever seen and they are just amazed by me: the incredibly tall American.
The overall experience here at the school though is without doubt a good one. My cooperating teachers and other co-workers are great. Some of their English is kind of weak, and there are a handful who don’t even speak English, but nonetheless they are all great. Everyone is so helpful and so friendly. They are always very eager to help me with anything. I have definitely made some great friends here with my fellow teachers. There is one other teacher, the science teacher who is from the Philippines. She and I are the only ones in the entire school who don’t speak Chinese, so obviously she and I have become good friends. We often times just sit back and relax because many times meetings and assemblies are done all in Chinese, so we don’t have a clue what is going on. Then I spend a fair amount of time with my cooperating teacher for my 7th grade class. Her English is a little weak, but she’s just super nice. And so funny! I think even funnier because she tries to make jokes in English and it sometimes doesn’t work out so well! I also have become good friends with a lady named Elaine. She is a secretary, but is the one who first picked me up and brought me to the school. She has been most helpful in seeing that I have all of my necessities. She took me to the super-market and sort of showed me the ropes when I first got here. Plus if it wasn’t for her I still wouldn’t have internet or any appliances in my room! Then there are my two immediate supervisors, the head of the math department and the head of the international department. They are a couple of older guys, both from Malaysia. And I tell you what, these are probably the nicest guys anyone will ever meet. They both speak great English (actually they each speak about 8 languages) and they are set on seeing to it that I enjoy my time here at Kama. They have taken me to dinner at least once a week since I’ve been here, and this weekend they are planning on taking me to a park in the city. They tell me that “the food here isn’t that great and there isn’t much around… so we think we should at least take you for a good meal every once in a while and take you to see something interesting while you’re here.”
Also, speaking of the weekends, I have actually been traveling back to Guangzhou on the weekends. And they have been fabulous. First of all, I travel all by myself to Guangzhou. I take a 20 minute bus ride from my school to the Shilong Railway Station. I then purchase a train ticket and take a 200 km/hour train 25 minutes to the Guangzhou East Railway Station. From there I have the option of navigating through the subway system (which is actually quite easy) or taking a bus into town. I must admit I was quite impressed with myself that I can travel through China on my own. But anyway, the weekends are great. I go in and stay with Mallory from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. We do all kinds of things. We usually visit Starbucks at least a few times. Nothing like coffee and free wireless internet! Then we will usually go to the supermarket to shop for the “staples” that we might need for the week. We also go shopping out in the city too. Last weekend we stumbled across some designer purses! We bought them too, but only after bargaining in Chinese with the seller. We were quite impressed with ourselves on that feat too. We have went to Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and even Chinese restaurants where we ordered and did it all by ourselves, without the help of a Chinese guide. We also have been taken out for meals quite a bit by friends in the city or by her teachers and professors. Then last weekend we even got to go to CHURCH. Who would have thought that would ever happen in China. It was really cool too. It was the Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship. It is approved by the government (not an underground church) but in order to be approved everyone in attendance must have their passports to prove that they are indeed a foreign citizen. The Chinese locals are not allowed to attend Christian services. So it was pretty cool, about 500 foreigners attending church in a hotel banquet hall in China. Very cool actually! There were people from the USA, Canada, Africa, South American, England (all over Europe actually), and I’m sure many more. We even met a girl from Columbus, Ohio. So it was just a really awesome experience. Mallory and I are really looking forward to being here for Easter! How many people can say that they have been to an Easter Church service in China?
So needless to say, Mallory and I definitely have fun on our weekends. We plan them out and spend them to their fullest! Plus with this warm weather even if we don’t have anything to do, it’s nice just to sit out in the sun! I know you are all jealous since it’s cold/snowy/icy back home!
So overall things are going great! In terms of teaching things are settling down and I’m getting into a groove here. The weekends are packed full and are so much fun. And I even got a package from home this weekend which was so nice! I am now stocked up on coffee, sugar, hand sanitizer, and other goodies from mom! Plus I am expecting 2 more packages from back home any day now so it’s going to be like Christmas here for me!!
Well, until I get some more free time to update again, I hope life is treating you all well back in the states.
Also, just to let you know, I have a flickr site set up where I have posted pictures. So you can get to the site by going to this web address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23953328@N03/
We conquered the coldest winter Guangzhou has seen in 50 years, without heat mind you, and even with no electric for one day and night. We ate a variety of foods. Some of which burned like none other and some which were still looking at us when they were being served. We learned to make Chinese dumplings and we learned a lot about luck, fortune and tradition. We fought our way through the chaotic super-markets, the always busy subways, and the buses which nearly caused dislocated joints due to crazy traffic and crazy drivers. And we even eventually got to the point where we could do it on our own! So the first 12 days were definitely packed full of a variety of experiences, all of which seem so great looking back.
But now, we are all off on our own separate ways. I traveled just outside of Guangzhou to Chashan, Dongguan. Mallory stayed put there in Guangzhou, and the boys headed up north to Xi’an.
I have nearly finished my 3rd week here at HS Kama International School and what an experience it has been. When I began here originally I was scheduled for 22 classes per week taught in the International Department. By the 2nd week I was up to 27 classes per week, 3 of those being 2 ½ hour long night classes, and expanding out into the Korean Department. Also, might I add that 17 of my classes were English classes… too bad I teach math! But now, by the 3rd week, it is all finally straightened out and begun to settle down. I’m down to 20 regularly scheduled classes per week, 10 math and 10 English, plus 2 morning reading sessions. Much better! I have 7th and 11th grade math and 9th and 12th grade English. Like I said I’m in the International Department, but don’t let that fool you. Nearly all of my students are still Chinese. This only means that a vast amount of the curriculum is supposed to be taught in English. Well don’t let that fool you either, because it’s not! So, most of my students have an English language vocabulary probably at least 3-4 grade levels lower than they are. This, as you can imagine, makes teaching them difficult topics such as solving systems of quadratic equations quite a challenge. I won’t lie, it is hard. But so far I am enjoying it. I really like my classes and my students. Chinese students by nature are very quiet and soft spoken, so when a 6’2” foreigner, such as myself, comes in speaking to them in English, they were probably a little taken aback. But now by the middle of the third week I am getting to know them. They are becoming much more comfortable with me. At first they were so afraid to speak up in class, especially in English. But now I find them to be very responsive in class and very talkative outside of class. They always come up to me chatting and asking questions, or at the very least telling me hello and asking about my day. They are really starting to grow on me, they are a really great group of kids for the most part. Even a lot of the kids I don’t teach are all so friendly and generally excited to see me. In fact, just today I got attacked by a mob of 7 year olds on my way back from dinner! They all wanted to say hello and either shake my hand or give me a high five. I was impressed by their English too. A lot of them were saying hello (which I’m used to, nearly everyone knows the word hello), but then they started asking me “how are you?” or “how is your day?” and one even asked where I was from. I told him I was from America and he said, “well, welcome to China!” It was so cute! And they are the tiniest little kids I’ve ever seen and they are just amazed by me: the incredibly tall American.
The overall experience here at the school though is without doubt a good one. My cooperating teachers and other co-workers are great. Some of their English is kind of weak, and there are a handful who don’t even speak English, but nonetheless they are all great. Everyone is so helpful and so friendly. They are always very eager to help me with anything. I have definitely made some great friends here with my fellow teachers. There is one other teacher, the science teacher who is from the Philippines. She and I are the only ones in the entire school who don’t speak Chinese, so obviously she and I have become good friends. We often times just sit back and relax because many times meetings and assemblies are done all in Chinese, so we don’t have a clue what is going on. Then I spend a fair amount of time with my cooperating teacher for my 7th grade class. Her English is a little weak, but she’s just super nice. And so funny! I think even funnier because she tries to make jokes in English and it sometimes doesn’t work out so well! I also have become good friends with a lady named Elaine. She is a secretary, but is the one who first picked me up and brought me to the school. She has been most helpful in seeing that I have all of my necessities. She took me to the super-market and sort of showed me the ropes when I first got here. Plus if it wasn’t for her I still wouldn’t have internet or any appliances in my room! Then there are my two immediate supervisors, the head of the math department and the head of the international department. They are a couple of older guys, both from Malaysia. And I tell you what, these are probably the nicest guys anyone will ever meet. They both speak great English (actually they each speak about 8 languages) and they are set on seeing to it that I enjoy my time here at Kama. They have taken me to dinner at least once a week since I’ve been here, and this weekend they are planning on taking me to a park in the city. They tell me that “the food here isn’t that great and there isn’t much around… so we think we should at least take you for a good meal every once in a while and take you to see something interesting while you’re here.”
Also, speaking of the weekends, I have actually been traveling back to Guangzhou on the weekends. And they have been fabulous. First of all, I travel all by myself to Guangzhou. I take a 20 minute bus ride from my school to the Shilong Railway Station. I then purchase a train ticket and take a 200 km/hour train 25 minutes to the Guangzhou East Railway Station. From there I have the option of navigating through the subway system (which is actually quite easy) or taking a bus into town. I must admit I was quite impressed with myself that I can travel through China on my own. But anyway, the weekends are great. I go in and stay with Mallory from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. We do all kinds of things. We usually visit Starbucks at least a few times. Nothing like coffee and free wireless internet! Then we will usually go to the supermarket to shop for the “staples” that we might need for the week. We also go shopping out in the city too. Last weekend we stumbled across some designer purses! We bought them too, but only after bargaining in Chinese with the seller. We were quite impressed with ourselves on that feat too. We have went to Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and even Chinese restaurants where we ordered and did it all by ourselves, without the help of a Chinese guide. We also have been taken out for meals quite a bit by friends in the city or by her teachers and professors. Then last weekend we even got to go to CHURCH. Who would have thought that would ever happen in China. It was really cool too. It was the Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship. It is approved by the government (not an underground church) but in order to be approved everyone in attendance must have their passports to prove that they are indeed a foreign citizen. The Chinese locals are not allowed to attend Christian services. So it was pretty cool, about 500 foreigners attending church in a hotel banquet hall in China. Very cool actually! There were people from the USA, Canada, Africa, South American, England (all over Europe actually), and I’m sure many more. We even met a girl from Columbus, Ohio. So it was just a really awesome experience. Mallory and I are really looking forward to being here for Easter! How many people can say that they have been to an Easter Church service in China?
So needless to say, Mallory and I definitely have fun on our weekends. We plan them out and spend them to their fullest! Plus with this warm weather even if we don’t have anything to do, it’s nice just to sit out in the sun! I know you are all jealous since it’s cold/snowy/icy back home!
So overall things are going great! In terms of teaching things are settling down and I’m getting into a groove here. The weekends are packed full and are so much fun. And I even got a package from home this weekend which was so nice! I am now stocked up on coffee, sugar, hand sanitizer, and other goodies from mom! Plus I am expecting 2 more packages from back home any day now so it’s going to be like Christmas here for me!!
Well, until I get some more free time to update again, I hope life is treating you all well back in the states.
Also, just to let you know, I have a flickr site set up where I have posted pictures. So you can get to the site by going to this web address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23953328@N03/
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