Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday was a very busy day at the Second Experimental School Campus #1 in the Jilin Province of China! The day began wonderfully because after two days of rain, the sun was out and the city has a whole different look to it when it is sunny and the temperatures are decent. The weather has been a little damp and the daytime temperatures have been in the upper forties (in case you were wondering about the weather!).
Yesterday Mrs. Guan’s school held a conference in which three teachers had a classroom of kids on a stage in an auditorium. The teachers all presented the same lesson and the conference attendees (700 educators) observed the methods and style the different teachers used when instructing. Then, in the afternoon session, the teachers held a discussion and question/answer period with all of the people attending the conference. It was pretty neat. I sat in on two of the presentations (I was fortunate to have lunch with one of the presenters).
Prior to going to the two conference sessions, I toured the school campus. The school I am at now is the first campus and was built in 1984. The school has a second campus with was completed in around 2005. As I have said, both places are large with around 4,000 students in grades one through nine. I do like the uniforms they wear here and their school day is a little different than ours. They begin their school day at 7:00 AM and leave school at 5:20 PM. During the day they have nine periods, three exercise times (excluding physical education) but including lunch. The students stay in the same classroom all day with the teachers being the ones that rotate rooms. The middle school is housed in two five-story buildings (the high school kids feed into two seven story classroom buildings). Space is a little tight. They have an outdoor track and turf field where they do their building exercises, no matter the temperature. If it is raining, they will do something inside the building.
After the tour I sat in on a planning meeting for 6th grade English teachers. It is similar to our team plan and they discussed their student’s work and assessments. I explained to them our two big assessments, Acuity and ISTEP as well as the normal classroom assessments teachers use. They also showed me student’s work and we discussed perhaps setting up an email (pen pal) program with some of our 6th grade classrooms.
Next I went to an English class (remember this is English as a foreign language). The students do some reading, discussion, and listening to the lecture (like Frau Kluesner’s classes).
Following that class I went outside to chitchat with the Physical Education teachers. They were a very nice group (7 teachers) and one of them, Mr. Zhang, is an expert in the martial arts area of Tai Chai. He gave me a demonstration in which he used a sword. He then invited me to try a few moves and unfortunately, I move like an elephant and not as light on my feet as he. But it was fun, and I am sure they got a giggle as he told me to work on it!
At this time it was exercise time for the students. All of the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students filed out of the building (the 9th graders were preparing for a practice exam) lined up on the field by classroom (55-60 kids) and did a light aerobic activity for about 12 minutes. I have some tape of this and it is a sight to behold.
I went to the two conference sessions after this. Then I went to an art class where the teacher was talking about colors, matching them up with what looks best. The students were designing T shirts and this discussion centered around what would look best with the color of their shirt and what they had designed.
We then went to lunch and I was very fortunate to sit with Principal Song and some of the conference presenters (remember?). The discussion was lively and from the translation I received from my interpreter, Christina, the group really thought the conference was worthwhile and thanked Mrs. Song for hosting the professional development.
After lunch I observed a music class where the kids were going over the footwork and sounds of the Chinese Opera. The teacher gave a PowerPoint and history of the movements and the emotion needed at different points of the opera. She demonstrated the sounds and the kids then took part. The next segments she demonstrated the steps of part of the opera and had the kids move their desks and take part as well. Then, I was asked to participate and my only dance steps includes watching Mr. Weber’s class and watching Dancing with the Stars! Of course she went slow and some of the stuff was on one foot. How do you think my balance is? I was praying she would speed it up because I was tilting in a big way. And, like Mr. Zhang, she patted me on the shoulder and told me to work on it.
I then went to a 7th grade psychology class where they put on a wonderful skit. The skit was titled Growing Pains and was excellent. After listening to instruction and watching the play, the students asked me some questions about our students and their interests.
I then spent quit a bit of time with students, teachers and parents in a question and answer session. That was fun and there is not enough time here to share it so I will save that for another day.
By now it was 5:25 PM. I went to Principal Song’s condo with some other people for some fruit and discussion. She has a gorgeous place and it was a good time. I then went to Mrs. Guan’s condo. She lives with her husband on the 17th floor and what a view of the city they have! They had a little dinner party for twelve and it was neat. We had all kinds of food. I helped make dumplings and like my marital arts and dancing prowess, they got a good laugh on how I was folding the dough. I also made a little veggie salad (Mrs. Gries would be pleased).
That was my day. It was long but awesome. I hope all is well at the STEM Academy and students…follow the Simple Six.
