It seems that the stories from last night were not accurate. It is safe to be out at night and there is some confusion as to w
hether they enforce the written curfew. There are, however, some in the group that will not stay another night in the current hotel. This offended some high-ranking hosts that led to some serious discussions, hurt feelings, and emotion. The net result is that we are packing up to try a newer hotel about 30 minutes away. I fear the smoke and other things cited as needing to move may not be much better.
Not having Internet and not being able to use the phone are troubling me. I had my cell phone set up for international calls, but it won’t work and all the numbers I was given if there was a problem result in “Sorry, you didn’t apply for this service” and no operator intercept. It is difficult because of not being able to communicate with family and work through texting as I have been or Skype which I have not been able to do even in Beijing. Someone out there might actually be concerned with what is happening in China for me.
I visited a primary school (grades 1-5) this morning that made everything else seem less important. The teachers and students were wonderful to see and engage with. Everything we have heard and read about the Chinese system was shown to be true. The students are motivated and participate. We spent about 3 hours in the school seeing the following activities.
· Art class where we were given student work.
· A presentation by six girls on a Chinese instrument followed by being tutored on the Olympic song with the instrument.
· Watching and participating in the daily exercise program in the courtyard where we worked up quite a sweat in ten minutes.
· A physical education class where girls were doing gymnastics.
· A unicycle demonstration.
· A fourth-grade English class. The teacher was using a PowerPoint in the lesson focused on vocabulary around a bus trip to the zoo to visit the animals. The teacher used choral response to practice vocabulary, question and response to check for understanding, a guessing game to practice numbers, and then engaged us in question and answers. As long as we stayed on the words they were practicing they did a wonderful job in answering questions such as what is your favorite animal. When we deviated, such as asking what pandas ate, they struggled to understand the question.
I was struck by the focus on art and physical education with English being the only core class we observed. I don’t believe if we had visiting teachers that we would focus on observations in these content areas. As with everything else the visit was structured and we each had a teacher or other adult moving us from one place to another. It was over much too quickly.
The visit ended with an opportunity to share with the principal and teachers. It was here that I was reminded about hierarchy. I brought along packets in an attempt to invite collaboration between our schools and theirs. I first tried to share it with a teacher who quickly said no you need to speak to the principal. I then was successful in sharing the packet and a gift. Shortly after, she came back with someone higher on the hierarchy who I again shared with our desire for collaboration. As time was running out a new individual was introduced to me, but I was not able to share with him. I believe that there is a good chance to hear back from them.
Tomorrow is another visit, unfortunately for me the last and our group will be visiting a vocational school so I will not be able to visit a middle or high school.
Well the hotel issue is behind us. We are in a new hotel 30 minutes south of the old hotel. I am actually the first person to occupy room 807 as all of us are in new rooms. This is five star far better even than the Beijing Hotel. It is located in a community under unbelievable construction. Old buildings are being torn down and replaced by modern high rises on a magnitude I have never witnessed. The hotel we were previously in is government owned and the new on is privately financed. As part of the Chinese stimulus package the government is putting in the infrastructure such as roads and power and private enterprise is putting up the buildings. I’ll send a picture of the entrance to the two hotels and see if Kevin can include them in this post.
hether they enforce the written curfew. There are, however, some in the group that will not stay another night in the current hotel. This offended some high-ranking hosts that led to some serious discussions, hurt feelings, and emotion. The net result is that we are packing up to try a newer hotel about 30 minutes away. I fear the smoke and other things cited as needing to move may not be much better.Not having Internet and not being able to use the phone are troubling me. I had my cell phone set up for international calls, but it won’t work and all the numbers I was given if there was a problem result in “Sorry, you didn’t apply for this service” and no operator intercept. It is difficult because of not being able to communicate with family and work through texting as I have been or Skype which I have not been able to do even in Beijing. Someone out there might actually be concerned with what is happening in China for me.
I visited a primary school (grades 1-5) this morning that made everything else seem less important. The teachers and students were wonderful to see and engage with. Everything we have heard and read about the Chinese system was shown to be true. The students are motivated and participate. We spent about 3 hours in the school seeing the following activities.
· Art class where we were given student work.
· A presentation by six girls on a Chinese instrument followed by being tutored on the Olympic song with the instrument.
· Watching and participating in the daily exercise program in the courtyard where we worked up quite a sweat in ten minutes.
· A physical education class where girls were doing gymnastics.
· A unicycle demonstration.
· A fourth-grade English class. The teacher was using a PowerPoint in the lesson focused on vocabulary around a bus trip to the zoo to visit the animals. The teacher used choral response to practice vocabulary, question and response to check for understanding, a guessing game to practice numbers, and then engaged us in question and answers. As long as we stayed on the words they were practicing they did a wonderful job in answering questions such as what is your favorite animal. When we deviated, such as asking what pandas ate, they struggled to understand the question.
I was struck by the focus on art and physical education with English being the only core class we observed. I don’t believe if we had visiting teachers that we would focus on observations in these content areas. As with everything else the visit was structured and we each had a teacher or other adult moving us from one place to another. It was over much too quickly.
The visit ended with an opportunity to share with the principal and teachers. It was here that I was reminded about hierarchy. I brought along packets in an attempt to invite collaboration between our schools and theirs. I first tried to share it with a teacher who quickly said no you need to speak to the principal. I then was successful in sharing the packet and a gift. Shortly after, she came back with someone higher on the hierarchy who I again shared with our desire for collaboration. As time was running out a new individual was introduced to me, but I was not able to share with him. I believe that there is a good chance to hear back from them.
Tomorrow is another visit, unfortunately for me the last and our group will be visiting a vocational school so I will not be able to visit a middle or high school.
Well the hotel issue is behind us. We are in a new hotel 30 minutes south of the old hotel. I am actually the first person to occupy room 807 as all of us are in new rooms. This is five star far better even than the Beijing Hotel. It is located in a community under unbelievable construction. Old buildings are being torn down and replaced by modern high rises on a magnitude I have never witnessed. The hotel we were previously in is government owned and the new on is privately financed. As part of the Chinese stimulus package the government is putting in the infrastructure such as roads and power and private enterprise is putting up the buildings. I’ll send a picture of the entrance to the two hotels and see if Kevin can include them in this post.
2 comments:
Wow! How many kids do you think are participating in that daily exercise? It looks like a ton!
I also liked reading about your experience on the bus. When I was in Kenya I rode a bus where the driver had to take of his pants to tie around some tube in the engine or something and they also made a funnel and were pouring water down it onto the engine as we drove! Needless to say eventually the bus broke down for good and we had to sleep somewhere for the night while they sent another bus. ... Experiences like that just make me appreciate my spoiled American life even more.
Touring China vicariously is a kick, thanks for sharing Mike! Though your writing concerns me. I worry about you. Your writings smell of "state-monitored engrish." Having been a regular reader of your blog for a year now, the most-recent post does NOT sound like you, rather more like a Chinese translator making politically-correct communications. I had a good friend teach english in Beijing for 18 months and this post reminded me of something she shared about one of her state-sponsored school visits. But it may just be your difficulty with getting your message uploaded, second-hand and all.
I must say I empathized the most with your cuisine story. Eating conch and donkey organs...my experience involved the slaughter and subsequent consumption of a community swine in a rural village on an island in the Med; wine, in copious quantity, helped me to (not offend my hosts)by eating unmentionable (unrecognizable) animal parts. As the kids like to say, "way to represent, Mary-sizzle!"
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