Saturday, April 24, 2010
Today is my final day in China and the first day where we did not have school visits or conferences during the day. So, an associate principal from Hudson High School in Hudson, Wisconsin and I decided to go see the Olympic Village, site of the 2008 Olympic Games and Beijing’s famous Silk Market.
We took the subway to the Olympic site and that was a pretty neat deal. The subway system cleans, efficient and very fast. That ride was very fun. When we got to the Olympic Village plaza it was amazing how massive just the plaza area, where people walk, was. It was a HUGE area. We walked large sections of bells and drums that were used in the opening and closing ceremonies. The Olympic torch was very large, reaching into the air at least 20 stories. Of course we immediately saw the “Birds Nest” and the architecture of that building was extremely impressive. The inside of the stadium was like a lot of the Division I football stadiums. There was a large field, which was being rolled, and two big video screens at either end of the stadium that was playing highlights of the 2008 games. There was of course an eight-lane track and I remembered the “Bolt” from Jamaica setting the world record in the 100-meter dash. Of course many pictures had to be taken inside of the “Nest”.
After going inside the stadium we were besieged my vendors on the way out selling kites, “Rolex” watches and many other items. The plaza was fairly filled up with tourists. People had cameras out taking pictures. There was a group of about 15 people that had a speed skating oval set up and were “speed skating” with roller blades. There was the indoor facility, a mammoth convention center and of course the famous swimming venue, the “Cube”.
When finished taking a lot of pictures, we went back to the subway proceeded to the Silk Market. Like a gigantic flea market, the Silk Market has everything one could imagine to purchase practically. But there were also things there that one does not normally see at a flea market. Things like fine jewelry, clothes, racks and racks of material (particularly silk) and tailors to measure someone and within twenty-four hours have a custom made suit, dress or jacket ready for you.
In the late afternoon, for our last official get together before getting things ready to return to the United States we went to an incredible Chinese (of course) acrobat show. As you may be aware, we have had Chinese Acrobats perform at Helfrich Park nearly every year for the past six years. Those are great shows but the performance we saw Saturday night was a notch or tow higher in some of the stunts. Besides the tumbling, dancing, pyramid making and body testing we have seen at school, this show also included some very high stunts in which the artists kicked things on top of their head into bowls. Additionally there was a stunt where one lady was riding a bike and TWELVE other gals made like a huge bird on either side and on top of her.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Blog #17- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Friday, April 23, 2010
My last blog discussed my final full day in Changchun, which was Thursday. Today, Friday I will leave for the airport at noon. So, I woke up to a beautiful day in Changchun City and left for the Second Experimental School campus two to observe a spring celebration that the primary school students have each spring. This celebration is done to welcome the eagerly awaited warmer weather and to welcome potential first grade students that are considering enrolling in the fall. Campus one is a public school that serves 4,000 students and campus two is a private school that serves 3,800 students. Both schools have students that are enrolled in grades 9-12. I can also tell you from numerous classroom visits, observations and teacher discussions that the students at each school work extremely hard on their academics. Like American students, doing well academically in school, at all levels (college or vocational), will allow a person to have opportunities in life.
I finished packing up my things and arrived at the school with Mr. Wang (one of the vice principals) and Christina, my interpreter (three other teachers, Jennifer, Rose and Susan also served as interpreters at different times during my stay and they all did a great job). We went to one of the other vice Principal’s office, Mr. Yang. We debriefed a bit about my week at the two schools and then went outside to the track (I believe that I have mentioned that the students have a few times during the day at which time they do physical exercises as a school; before school begins at 6:55 AM, after second period class and then again after fourth period when they do their eye exercises).
On our walk to the track I noticed a lot a students on the field. The primary grade (1-6) students were lined up on the field in their class rows. All of the teachers, administrators, future first graders and special guests were sitting in the stands and on a press box area. After a welcome and praise given by a member of the staff the students welcomed their guests and then jogged to another area while a group of students (about 60) got lined up and did a fabulous routine which involved dancing and using big rings to twirl. It was very cool. Then the students ran a lap in front of the stands by class, with their teachers jogging with them. After going in front of the stands the students line up on the field. The entire field was covered with 1,800 kids in their school uniform and it looked great. Mr. Yang then gave a short speech. Following his speech, I was given the opportunity to go to the field and shake the hands of the kids that were at the front of the lines. That was a thrill and about halfway through we started doing “high fives” which was a blast. What an exciting program and way to end a terrific week at the school.
We then had a quick lunch. Principal Song, who had to leave the program early for a prior commitment, stopped by as we were getting into the car after lunch to bid farewell which was extremely nice of her.
Time was a little tight by time we got to the airport to go to Beijing. The staff that came to the airport with me, Mrs. Guan, Mr. Yang, Mr. Lien, Mr. Wang, Mr. Lee and Christina “pulled some strings” to get me ticketed and have my bags checked which again was very nice. As Cristina stated, “our school is very large and we have a lot of friends, a lot of places”. And how!
I have been asked what is the purpose of this journey. My response is to partner with an established and highly successful school in another country to:
1. Provide to staff and students (in both schools) experiences in education and culture in a foreign country
2. Share ideas for instruction and planning with colleagues across the world
3. Increase student achievement by the collaboration of different styles instruction
4. Reflect on planning and instruction, to continually move forward as a school
5. Offer all of our students the very best we can do as a staff every day
6. Have students communicate personally with students in China through
a. Skye (which we have been doing this second semester)
b. Email “pen pals”
The future for our students at Helfrich Park is to continually provide innovative opportunities for core experiences and learning. This is one way to accomplish that ever changing dynamic.
Principal Song and I also hope to begin an exchange program of some sort for staff and students of both schools. What a tremendous experience I had at the schools what outstanding hospitality I was afforded.
My last blog discussed my final full day in Changchun, which was Thursday. Today, Friday I will leave for the airport at noon. So, I woke up to a beautiful day in Changchun City and left for the Second Experimental School campus two to observe a spring celebration that the primary school students have each spring. This celebration is done to welcome the eagerly awaited warmer weather and to welcome potential first grade students that are considering enrolling in the fall. Campus one is a public school that serves 4,000 students and campus two is a private school that serves 3,800 students. Both schools have students that are enrolled in grades 9-12. I can also tell you from numerous classroom visits, observations and teacher discussions that the students at each school work extremely hard on their academics. Like American students, doing well academically in school, at all levels (college or vocational), will allow a person to have opportunities in life.
I finished packing up my things and arrived at the school with Mr. Wang (one of the vice principals) and Christina, my interpreter (three other teachers, Jennifer, Rose and Susan also served as interpreters at different times during my stay and they all did a great job). We went to one of the other vice Principal’s office, Mr. Yang. We debriefed a bit about my week at the two schools and then went outside to the track (I believe that I have mentioned that the students have a few times during the day at which time they do physical exercises as a school; before school begins at 6:55 AM, after second period class and then again after fourth period when they do their eye exercises).
On our walk to the track I noticed a lot a students on the field. The primary grade (1-6) students were lined up on the field in their class rows. All of the teachers, administrators, future first graders and special guests were sitting in the stands and on a press box area. After a welcome and praise given by a member of the staff the students welcomed their guests and then jogged to another area while a group of students (about 60) got lined up and did a fabulous routine which involved dancing and using big rings to twirl. It was very cool. Then the students ran a lap in front of the stands by class, with their teachers jogging with them. After going in front of the stands the students line up on the field. The entire field was covered with 1,800 kids in their school uniform and it looked great. Mr. Yang then gave a short speech. Following his speech, I was given the opportunity to go to the field and shake the hands of the kids that were at the front of the lines. That was a thrill and about halfway through we started doing “high fives” which was a blast. What an exciting program and way to end a terrific week at the school.
We then had a quick lunch. Principal Song, who had to leave the program early for a prior commitment, stopped by as we were getting into the car after lunch to bid farewell which was extremely nice of her.
Time was a little tight by time we got to the airport to go to Beijing. The staff that came to the airport with me, Mrs. Guan, Mr. Yang, Mr. Lien, Mr. Wang, Mr. Lee and Christina “pulled some strings” to get me ticketed and have my bags checked which again was very nice. As Cristina stated, “our school is very large and we have a lot of friends, a lot of places”. And how!
I have been asked what is the purpose of this journey. My response is to partner with an established and highly successful school in another country to:
1. Provide to staff and students (in both schools) experiences in education and culture in a foreign country
2. Share ideas for instruction and planning with colleagues across the world
3. Increase student achievement by the collaboration of different styles instruction
4. Reflect on planning and instruction, to continually move forward as a school
5. Offer all of our students the very best we can do as a staff every day
6. Have students communicate personally with students in China through
a. Skye (which we have been doing this second semester)
b. Email “pen pals”
The future for our students at Helfrich Park is to continually provide innovative opportunities for core experiences and learning. This is one way to accomplish that ever changing dynamic.
Principal Song and I also hope to begin an exchange program of some sort for staff and students of both schools. What a tremendous experience I had at the schools what outstanding hospitality I was afforded.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Blog #16- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Thursday, April 22, 2010
With this being my final day in the beautiful city of Changchun, we were on the move early. Our first visit today was to get a tour of one of the car assembly plants in Changchun. Changchun city is known well in China as being the number one auto-manufacturing city in China. The city has the reputation that Detroit, Michigan had back in its heyday as a car-manufacturing city.
The company plant I went to visit was the first car manufacturer in China and is well-known. It made Mao’s first vehicle and also made the vehicle used for China’s recent anniversary celebration. The plant was spotless and was very similar to the Toyota manufacturing plant in Princeton, just north of Evansville. They make a couple of Chinese model cars, the flagship model being named Red Flag. They also make the new Mazda 6 car. If you happen to see any of those cars in Evansville, it may have been made here in Changchun. The tour was only for our group of four, as they normally do not open the plant up to tours. But, Principal Song and Mrs. Guan, I have seen many times, have an incredible network of friends. They run two shifts at the plant and make hundreds of cars each day. It is as automated as Toyota and they use Henry Ford’s idea of an assembly line to get things done quickly and efficiently.
Following the tour we went back to campus number one and observed an 8th grade computer graphics class and then a 6th grade computer graphics class. The 8th graders were working on an Adobe program in which they make some type of cartoon or picture with animals in it. Then they add different parts of the program to make the people or creatures move (I have seen Mrs. King’s classes do similar things, perhaps with the same program). The 6th grade class was working on cutting and pasting pictures onto the screen. Once they had what they wanted, they added text to the scene.
We then met with the computer Head Teacher and he explained the types of things they do in class. We met in the office he shares with other teachers where he had a chart on the wall of every classroom in the building and a listing of exactly what types of technology they use in the classroom (remember earlier I told you that every single class uses PowerPoint presentations).
Following our meeting we went to lunch in the cafeteria. Again, all 3,200 students eat at the same time. The cafeteria is in three-story building for the middle grade students (grades 6-9). The elementary students (1,800) eat in their own building. After the students eat and put their trays up, they go outside to recess and play (volleyball, soccer, basketball, tag, on the playground, elementary only or walk). Like Mrs. Gris and her crew, the food was delicious and there was plenty of it to go around.
Next we had a meeting where we prepared for a little news conference. Prior to the conference beginning, we exchanged gifts for schools. Principal Song greatly appreciated the quilt made by Mrs. Biesecker, Mrs. King and Mrs. Gries.
The news conference was pretty neat. There were three newspapers represented and a television crew from Hong Kong. The reporters asked questions about my impressions of China and the educational system of China. They were also interested in any comparisons or contrasts between the two countries educational cultures or philosophies. They were very interested in the beautiful quilt and took some pictures of it. Mrs. Guan was very complimentary of her visit to Helfrich Park. She also made some very positive comments about our wonderful students and staff.
Keep up the good work PUMAS!
With this being my final day in the beautiful city of Changchun, we were on the move early. Our first visit today was to get a tour of one of the car assembly plants in Changchun. Changchun city is known well in China as being the number one auto-manufacturing city in China. The city has the reputation that Detroit, Michigan had back in its heyday as a car-manufacturing city.
The company plant I went to visit was the first car manufacturer in China and is well-known. It made Mao’s first vehicle and also made the vehicle used for China’s recent anniversary celebration. The plant was spotless and was very similar to the Toyota manufacturing plant in Princeton, just north of Evansville. They make a couple of Chinese model cars, the flagship model being named Red Flag. They also make the new Mazda 6 car. If you happen to see any of those cars in Evansville, it may have been made here in Changchun. The tour was only for our group of four, as they normally do not open the plant up to tours. But, Principal Song and Mrs. Guan, I have seen many times, have an incredible network of friends. They run two shifts at the plant and make hundreds of cars each day. It is as automated as Toyota and they use Henry Ford’s idea of an assembly line to get things done quickly and efficiently.
Following the tour we went back to campus number one and observed an 8th grade computer graphics class and then a 6th grade computer graphics class. The 8th graders were working on an Adobe program in which they make some type of cartoon or picture with animals in it. Then they add different parts of the program to make the people or creatures move (I have seen Mrs. King’s classes do similar things, perhaps with the same program). The 6th grade class was working on cutting and pasting pictures onto the screen. Once they had what they wanted, they added text to the scene.
We then met with the computer Head Teacher and he explained the types of things they do in class. We met in the office he shares with other teachers where he had a chart on the wall of every classroom in the building and a listing of exactly what types of technology they use in the classroom (remember earlier I told you that every single class uses PowerPoint presentations).
Following our meeting we went to lunch in the cafeteria. Again, all 3,200 students eat at the same time. The cafeteria is in three-story building for the middle grade students (grades 6-9). The elementary students (1,800) eat in their own building. After the students eat and put their trays up, they go outside to recess and play (volleyball, soccer, basketball, tag, on the playground, elementary only or walk). Like Mrs. Gris and her crew, the food was delicious and there was plenty of it to go around.
Next we had a meeting where we prepared for a little news conference. Prior to the conference beginning, we exchanged gifts for schools. Principal Song greatly appreciated the quilt made by Mrs. Biesecker, Mrs. King and Mrs. Gries.
The news conference was pretty neat. There were three newspapers represented and a television crew from Hong Kong. The reporters asked questions about my impressions of China and the educational system of China. They were also interested in any comparisons or contrasts between the two countries educational cultures or philosophies. They were very interested in the beautiful quilt and took some pictures of it. Mrs. Guan was very complimentary of her visit to Helfrich Park. She also made some very positive comments about our wonderful students and staff.
Keep up the good work PUMAS!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Blog #15 - Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Blog #14- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Today was a great day to learn a lot more about Chinese education at the State, University and High School level.
To begin the day I went with Mrs. Guan to the Changchun Normal University. This university is ranked the third best education college in all of China. I met with Mrs. Guan’s husband, Dr. Liu. Dr. Liu is a professor at the university and is recognized throughout the country as a leading literature professor. We were given a tour of the university’s Chinese manuscript collection. This is not open to the public and I feel very fortunate to have been able to take part in this portion of the tour. The first document I saw was a one thousand year manuscript that was written during the Tang Dynasty. What a neat experience. We saw a number of other writings and books. Additionally we saw an actual cloth “order” written by an emperor that was used during one of the wars.
Next went to the Jilin Provincial Education Department. Dr. Sun Hejuan, Deputy Director, gave a wonderful presentation outlining the current status of education in this part of China. Some quick facts about the Jilin Province:
** The province covers 180,000 square miles
** There are 27 million people in this province
** In this province there are:
o 71 colleges/universities
o 660 high schools
o 1,020 middle schools
o 6,180 elementary schools
o 2,500 kindergartens
o 45 special schools
o 60 vocational schools
o 4.2 million school aged students
The province is known for its high educational productivity and their philosophy of educating the whole child: academics, arts, character, and fitness.
Dr. Sun also discussed China’s compulsory education, the provinces ten projects for education, educational strategies and interventions, the political system at the national, provincial and local levels and funding. The presentation and questions period lasted almost three hours. Following the mini-conference, we went to lunch and relaxed for a while. Dr. Lynn Reed, the superintendent of the Salem School district, represented Southeast Indiana.
After lunch Mrs. Song and Mrs. Guan took me to the school they both worked at not too long ago. The Second Experimental High School is the high school where many of the students of Mrs. Songs and Mrs. Guan middle school students feed into. Again, it is a large high school with around 4,800 students in grade ten through twelve. The campus is fairly large and we had a very nice presentation by their principal outlining the history of the school, its academic programs and her plans for continued success. The school was built in 1948. This high school is known for its programs in science, engineering and inventions and has had numerous students receive national and international awards (They also had a young lady win the equivalent of American Idol in the past couple of years). I met one young lady who had received a national science award for her work in using water and turning it into energy. I also toured their one of their labs. Another student showed his project to me about accelerators and brakes. Also in the room were a group of students that had some robotic demonstrations. I told them about our wonderful Mrs. King and the neat things she has her students do in the areas of robotics engineering. The school also has a distinguished list of graduates in the field of politics as well. The school makes a great of effort to recognize students performing well and the expectation is that students will rise to that level. There is a student mentoring and tutoring program and because of space, no students drive to school. They either walk or take public transportation. Like the middle school, each Monday they have a flag raising ceremony to pay respect to their country and build national pride.
The school has plans to expand and we met in a seven story academic building. The school has a new arts and fitness center which was very nice. The basketball team was practicing. Last year they took second place in a tournament in Hawaii. We took a quick picture and then they did a little dunking presentation. It would be neat for them to do a tour of southern Indiana and take on the SIAC teams. Mrs. Guan’s daughter, Bebe went to school here and as I have stated earlier, she is a PhD candidate in education in Beijing.
I enjoyed the presentation and tour a great deal.
Tomorrow I will be sitting in on a conference at the Second Experimental Middle School as well as visiting an elementary school
PUMA students, keep up the good work at school and remember to always to be helpful and polite.
Today was a great day to learn a lot more about Chinese education at the State, University and High School level.
To begin the day I went with Mrs. Guan to the Changchun Normal University. This university is ranked the third best education college in all of China. I met with Mrs. Guan’s husband, Dr. Liu. Dr. Liu is a professor at the university and is recognized throughout the country as a leading literature professor. We were given a tour of the university’s Chinese manuscript collection. This is not open to the public and I feel very fortunate to have been able to take part in this portion of the tour. The first document I saw was a one thousand year manuscript that was written during the Tang Dynasty. What a neat experience. We saw a number of other writings and books. Additionally we saw an actual cloth “order” written by an emperor that was used during one of the wars.
Next went to the Jilin Provincial Education Department. Dr. Sun Hejuan, Deputy Director, gave a wonderful presentation outlining the current status of education in this part of China. Some quick facts about the Jilin Province:
** The province covers 180,000 square miles
** There are 27 million people in this province
** In this province there are:
o 71 colleges/universities
o 660 high schools
o 1,020 middle schools
o 6,180 elementary schools
o 2,500 kindergartens
o 45 special schools
o 60 vocational schools
o 4.2 million school aged students
The province is known for its high educational productivity and their philosophy of educating the whole child: academics, arts, character, and fitness.
Dr. Sun also discussed China’s compulsory education, the provinces ten projects for education, educational strategies and interventions, the political system at the national, provincial and local levels and funding. The presentation and questions period lasted almost three hours. Following the mini-conference, we went to lunch and relaxed for a while. Dr. Lynn Reed, the superintendent of the Salem School district, represented Southeast Indiana.
After lunch Mrs. Song and Mrs. Guan took me to the school they both worked at not too long ago. The Second Experimental High School is the high school where many of the students of Mrs. Songs and Mrs. Guan middle school students feed into. Again, it is a large high school with around 4,800 students in grade ten through twelve. The campus is fairly large and we had a very nice presentation by their principal outlining the history of the school, its academic programs and her plans for continued success. The school was built in 1948. This high school is known for its programs in science, engineering and inventions and has had numerous students receive national and international awards (They also had a young lady win the equivalent of American Idol in the past couple of years). I met one young lady who had received a national science award for her work in using water and turning it into energy. I also toured their one of their labs. Another student showed his project to me about accelerators and brakes. Also in the room were a group of students that had some robotic demonstrations. I told them about our wonderful Mrs. King and the neat things she has her students do in the areas of robotics engineering. The school also has a distinguished list of graduates in the field of politics as well. The school makes a great of effort to recognize students performing well and the expectation is that students will rise to that level. There is a student mentoring and tutoring program and because of space, no students drive to school. They either walk or take public transportation. Like the middle school, each Monday they have a flag raising ceremony to pay respect to their country and build national pride.
The school has plans to expand and we met in a seven story academic building. The school has a new arts and fitness center which was very nice. The basketball team was practicing. Last year they took second place in a tournament in Hawaii. We took a quick picture and then they did a little dunking presentation. It would be neat for them to do a tour of southern Indiana and take on the SIAC teams. Mrs. Guan’s daughter, Bebe went to school here and as I have stated earlier, she is a PhD candidate in education in Beijing.
I enjoyed the presentation and tour a great deal.
Tomorrow I will be sitting in on a conference at the Second Experimental Middle School as well as visiting an elementary school
PUMA students, keep up the good work at school and remember to always to be helpful and polite.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Blog #13- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Sunday, April 19, 2010
Today was a day I have been looking forward to for a long time. I had the opportunity to visit The Second Experimental School for the entire day. Remember that the student school day lasts from 7:00-7:20, every day. The day begins with the entire school (4,000) doing exercises or jogging to get the day started off right. I began the day sitting in what is very similar to our Friday coordinator meetings. The purpose of this weekly meeting is to review the previous week, set the calendar for the upcoming week and discuss any concerns that may be brought up by the student council or teachers.
Next I went to a 6th grade class to listen to the daily announcements and observe the flag raising ceremony. Unfortunately it was raining outside. So, the ceremony was done indoors, over the announcement. The students stand and as the national Anthem is played, they sing it with gusto. This is similar to our way of doing things before sporting events or like we do when we have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Professor Tron. A bit of a great was that they also said part of the announcement in English for my benefit, which was pretty cool. Along with the flag raising ceremony there is a theme or two for the week. This week the themes were Earth Day (4/22) and Reading Day (4/23). The students were reminded to be good stewards of the earth: recycle and don’t pollute. The message for Reading Day was to “read to enrich your mind”.
Next I sat in a 6th grade math class where the students were working on linear equations with two unknowns. They worked individually, then in groups answering questions. Then in their groups the students checked each other’s answers and ranked them. The students then went over their work, presenting to the class. They also did “board work” and wrote short answer responses to how they got their answer, the steps they did to get there and if they had any other ways of finding the responses.
The students’ day consists eight forty-five minute classes, lunch/recess and a self-study period.
After the math class I went to a 7th grade English as a second language class. The teacher spoke English the entire time. The days discussion centered on what the perceptions were to American schools regarding homework, vacations, cell phones, testing, intensity of studying, students learning what they like, school uniforms, hair length, etc. I was given the opportunity then to respond to the class what we do at Helfrich Park about these topics. So, I answered their questions, differentiating what was fact and what was myth. It was an enjoyable period.
Next I went to an art class where they were learning about the different masks performers where in one of the Chinese operas. The teacher used a power point (every teacher used a power point) to illustrate the different masks and what the various colors represented. She also played part of the opera for the students. A key to painting the masks is to remember that the eyes, eye brows and mouth all need to be symmetrical. The students worked in groups of two for the activity portion of ties exercise in which I was fortunate to participate in.
After art class I sat in on an eighth vocal music class. There was a great deal of participation! The students were studying a love story that the song was about. The teacher showed them a power point the lesson and then sang with them. It was a good group to listen to.
After music class I sat in on an 8th grade chemistry class. The students were doing an experiment in which they were able to light a glowing stick when putting it in a test-tube with some chemicals in the test tube.
I also sat in a Physics class in which the students were reading the voltage off of meters with different types of light bulbs.
Then, at 3:15 I went to the annual English concert. This concert is done entirely in English because the teachers believe that student learn a second language better by singing songs and learning different words that way. The concert was wonderful and ten different acts performed. At the end I was tricked into singing a little tune let me tell you I won’t ever be on American Idol! It was a great concert with a lot of different costumes, music and lighting.
We ended the day at school about 5:05 PM and the day just flew by.
PUMAS, enjoy the week and make your final preparations for ISTEP next week. Remember, follow the Simple Six always and be good citizens every day!
Today was a day I have been looking forward to for a long time. I had the opportunity to visit The Second Experimental School for the entire day. Remember that the student school day lasts from 7:00-7:20, every day. The day begins with the entire school (4,000) doing exercises or jogging to get the day started off right. I began the day sitting in what is very similar to our Friday coordinator meetings. The purpose of this weekly meeting is to review the previous week, set the calendar for the upcoming week and discuss any concerns that may be brought up by the student council or teachers.
Next I went to a 6th grade class to listen to the daily announcements and observe the flag raising ceremony. Unfortunately it was raining outside. So, the ceremony was done indoors, over the announcement. The students stand and as the national Anthem is played, they sing it with gusto. This is similar to our way of doing things before sporting events or like we do when we have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Professor Tron. A bit of a great was that they also said part of the announcement in English for my benefit, which was pretty cool. Along with the flag raising ceremony there is a theme or two for the week. This week the themes were Earth Day (4/22) and Reading Day (4/23). The students were reminded to be good stewards of the earth: recycle and don’t pollute. The message for Reading Day was to “read to enrich your mind”.
Next I sat in a 6th grade math class where the students were working on linear equations with two unknowns. They worked individually, then in groups answering questions. Then in their groups the students checked each other’s answers and ranked them. The students then went over their work, presenting to the class. They also did “board work” and wrote short answer responses to how they got their answer, the steps they did to get there and if they had any other ways of finding the responses.
The students’ day consists eight forty-five minute classes, lunch/recess and a self-study period.
After the math class I went to a 7th grade English as a second language class. The teacher spoke English the entire time. The days discussion centered on what the perceptions were to American schools regarding homework, vacations, cell phones, testing, intensity of studying, students learning what they like, school uniforms, hair length, etc. I was given the opportunity then to respond to the class what we do at Helfrich Park about these topics. So, I answered their questions, differentiating what was fact and what was myth. It was an enjoyable period.
Next I went to an art class where they were learning about the different masks performers where in one of the Chinese operas. The teacher used a power point (every teacher used a power point) to illustrate the different masks and what the various colors represented. She also played part of the opera for the students. A key to painting the masks is to remember that the eyes, eye brows and mouth all need to be symmetrical. The students worked in groups of two for the activity portion of ties exercise in which I was fortunate to participate in.
After art class I sat in on an eighth vocal music class. There was a great deal of participation! The students were studying a love story that the song was about. The teacher showed them a power point the lesson and then sang with them. It was a good group to listen to.
After music class I sat in on an 8th grade chemistry class. The students were doing an experiment in which they were able to light a glowing stick when putting it in a test-tube with some chemicals in the test tube.
I also sat in a Physics class in which the students were reading the voltage off of meters with different types of light bulbs.
Then, at 3:15 I went to the annual English concert. This concert is done entirely in English because the teachers believe that student learn a second language better by singing songs and learning different words that way. The concert was wonderful and ten different acts performed. At the end I was tricked into singing a little tune let me tell you I won’t ever be on American Idol! It was a great concert with a lot of different costumes, music and lighting.
We ended the day at school about 5:05 PM and the day just flew by.
PUMAS, enjoy the week and make your final preparations for ISTEP next week. Remember, follow the Simple Six always and be good citizens every day!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Blog #12 - Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Sunday, April 18, 2010
I arrived yesterday afternoon to the Changchun airport after a one hour and forty-five minute flight to an exceptional welcome by Mrs. Guan and a number of the Second Experimental School students an staff. It was really special and surprising.
I then went with Mrs. Guan, Mrs. Christina (one of the schools English teachers who along with Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Jenifer that will serve as interpreters) to the hotel. The hotel is called the South Lake Hotel and is where foreign dignitaries stay when visiting Changchun. It is also the location where German engineers and their families stay in sort of a compound of duplexes that is in a very nice wooded area. It is extremely nice.
After checking in to the hotel we went to a dinner where I had the pleasure of meeting Principal Song, a famous educator that has been on the CNN talk show of China, discussing educational curriculum. Mrs. Song has made such improvements in The Second Experimental School that it is considered a “model school” in China. Much of her work has been around the concept of educating the “whole child”. Additionally Principal Song has been recognized by the Ministry of Education for her vision and commitment to improving education in China. Mrs. Guan was also there as were five other assistant principals, the director of the office, and the three interpreters. We had an awesome meal, which included: pork, beef, chicken, rice, vegetables, mushrooms and soup. We tried a bit to get to know one another a little and then it was time it call it a night.
On Sunday morning I had the opportunity of getting an outside tour of one of the two campuses of The Second Experimental School. It was an outside tour because it was raining pretty hard outside. The campuses are both quite large. One of them has 4,000 students (opened in 1984 and funded by the provincial and federal government) and the other around 3,800 (opened in 2005 and privately funded) students. Both schools serve grades 1-9. The buildings are very modern and secure.
At the second campus I had the opportunity to meet a large contingent of students and staff. When we arrived, there were a couple of students dressed up in a duck and Panda Bear costumes. There were also a large number of students representing their classrooms with delightful signs of welcome that they had made. It was a very neat experience.
We then went to the school conference room, which rivaled the conference room we were in at the Ministry of Education in Beijing. It was large, had a conference table that sat 24 people and nicely decorated. There were also a number of chairs that surround the table because there were about 60 students and staff members present. Mrs. Song welcomed me and then gave a power point presentation of her school (she is Principal of both campuses). The presentation was terrific! Next it was my turn to talk about the Helfrich Park STEM Academy, which I proudly did. I gave a brief history of the school, spoke about our STEM initiative, the Simple Six, and our wonderful students and staff. Following my presentation, I answered some questions the students had. Some of the questions included:
1.How long and when were our vacations
2.What were holidays that we celebrated
3.If I liked Michael Jackson music (I do)
4.Favorite musicians of myself and students
5.My thoughts on Martin Luther King
6.Who my favorite basketball player was (the NBA is pretty big over here)
This meeting with the students and staff lasted around three and one half hours and it was a lot of fun learning more about their school, telling them about ours and meeting students and staff.
Following that meeting we had lunch, another feast and then toured the Manchurian Emperor Puppet Palace. What an exciting tour. Emperor Puhi is known as The Last Emperor. The history behind his reign and the historical significance the China as a country is an incredible story. The tour was very interesting and I wish every student could have the opportunity to take part in it learning about this piece of Chinese history.
Following the tour we had dinner where I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Guan’s husband. He is a fine man and a well-known intellectual. We ate at an authentic Mongolian restaurant where the employees are dressed in traditional dress; there is a lot of singing by patrons and an abundance of food.
There is so much to share that there is just not enough time to type everything. But believe me that this has been a tremendous learning experience. Tomorrow I will begin to spend my days at The Second Experimental School and I am looking forward to that very anxiously.
PUMA students, good luck to you as you prepare for ISTEP beginning on April 27. Follow the Simple Six daily do your best in all you do!
I arrived yesterday afternoon to the Changchun airport after a one hour and forty-five minute flight to an exceptional welcome by Mrs. Guan and a number of the Second Experimental School students an staff. It was really special and surprising.
I then went with Mrs. Guan, Mrs. Christina (one of the schools English teachers who along with Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Jenifer that will serve as interpreters) to the hotel. The hotel is called the South Lake Hotel and is where foreign dignitaries stay when visiting Changchun. It is also the location where German engineers and their families stay in sort of a compound of duplexes that is in a very nice wooded area. It is extremely nice.
After checking in to the hotel we went to a dinner where I had the pleasure of meeting Principal Song, a famous educator that has been on the CNN talk show of China, discussing educational curriculum. Mrs. Song has made such improvements in The Second Experimental School that it is considered a “model school” in China. Much of her work has been around the concept of educating the “whole child”. Additionally Principal Song has been recognized by the Ministry of Education for her vision and commitment to improving education in China. Mrs. Guan was also there as were five other assistant principals, the director of the office, and the three interpreters. We had an awesome meal, which included: pork, beef, chicken, rice, vegetables, mushrooms and soup. We tried a bit to get to know one another a little and then it was time it call it a night.
On Sunday morning I had the opportunity of getting an outside tour of one of the two campuses of The Second Experimental School. It was an outside tour because it was raining pretty hard outside. The campuses are both quite large. One of them has 4,000 students (opened in 1984 and funded by the provincial and federal government) and the other around 3,800 (opened in 2005 and privately funded) students. Both schools serve grades 1-9. The buildings are very modern and secure.
At the second campus I had the opportunity to meet a large contingent of students and staff. When we arrived, there were a couple of students dressed up in a duck and Panda Bear costumes. There were also a large number of students representing their classrooms with delightful signs of welcome that they had made. It was a very neat experience.
We then went to the school conference room, which rivaled the conference room we were in at the Ministry of Education in Beijing. It was large, had a conference table that sat 24 people and nicely decorated. There were also a number of chairs that surround the table because there were about 60 students and staff members present. Mrs. Song welcomed me and then gave a power point presentation of her school (she is Principal of both campuses). The presentation was terrific! Next it was my turn to talk about the Helfrich Park STEM Academy, which I proudly did. I gave a brief history of the school, spoke about our STEM initiative, the Simple Six, and our wonderful students and staff. Following my presentation, I answered some questions the students had. Some of the questions included:
1.How long and when were our vacations
2.What were holidays that we celebrated
3.If I liked Michael Jackson music (I do)
4.Favorite musicians of myself and students
5.My thoughts on Martin Luther King
6.Who my favorite basketball player was (the NBA is pretty big over here)
This meeting with the students and staff lasted around three and one half hours and it was a lot of fun learning more about their school, telling them about ours and meeting students and staff.
Following that meeting we had lunch, another feast and then toured the Manchurian Emperor Puppet Palace. What an exciting tour. Emperor Puhi is known as The Last Emperor. The history behind his reign and the historical significance the China as a country is an incredible story. The tour was very interesting and I wish every student could have the opportunity to take part in it learning about this piece of Chinese history.
Following the tour we had dinner where I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Guan’s husband. He is a fine man and a well-known intellectual. We ate at an authentic Mongolian restaurant where the employees are dressed in traditional dress; there is a lot of singing by patrons and an abundance of food.
There is so much to share that there is just not enough time to type everything. But believe me that this has been a tremendous learning experience. Tomorrow I will begin to spend my days at The Second Experimental School and I am looking forward to that very anxiously.
PUMA students, good luck to you as you prepare for ISTEP beginning on April 27. Follow the Simple Six daily do your best in all you do!
Blog #11 - Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Saturday, April 17, 2010
I am waiting to board a plane to Changchun City and have a few minutes to jot some items of interest down.
As we were returning today from the Temple of Heavens, we passed a procession that our guide, who is approximately fifty years old had not ever seen. There was a bridal “parade” marching down the street. Its members were dressed in traditional Chinese wedding costumes. The parade members consisted of two dragons leading, musicians playing a variety of instruments, four people carrying the bride sitting in a colorful box (like the Egyptian queens used to be carried) on their shoulder, and what I assumed was the wedding party and family members with some people at the end with colorful balloons. The costumes were very bright and colorful. They were all having what seemed to be a great time and I will be getting some video to Mr. Hartmann (thanks to him for setting this form of communication up and keeping it updated!).
I have been in China since April 7 and there are so many experiences I have been privileged to be a part of in areas of education (from American educators and Chinese educators) and culture. I am going to list some of my thoughts to give you a glimpse of some of my experiences in developing relationships with other educators and the diversity of the country to which I have been exposed. Some impressions are:
1. The Chinese culture is a blend of very traditional and modern thoughts and beliefs
2. The people that I have dealt with as I have explored different areas of China are very polite and hospitable
3. There are a lot of people in China. 1.3 billion and it is noticeable in traveling around the country that the transportation system is crowded in some areas. Moving people on a daily basis is a huge task.
4. There is construction everywhere. I have seen modern equipment but more often than not the laborers have equipment that was used many years ago for smaller jobs
5. The mix of the old and new buildings is interesting. Beijing has some ancient buildings but also many (business, apartments and condos) that are glass and steel.
6. Although I have heard there were many more just five years ago, there are a lot of bicycles, motor scooters and carts pushed or pulled by motorbikes or people.
7. There are innumerable tour buses throughout the areas I have been
8. In two of the three cities I have visited thus far, there are hundreds of trees and shrubs that look like they have been planted in recent years (maybe in preparation for the 2008 Olympics?)
9. In two of the three cities I have visited I have hardly heard any sirens. This seems unique with the number of people living there.
10. There are differences in education but there are also a many of similarities in the areas:
a. Funding
b. Equity
c. Curriculum
d. Workforce
e. Professional development
f. Student behaviors
PUMAS remember to follow the Simple Six.. Doing what is right is never wrong!
I am waiting to board a plane to Changchun City and have a few minutes to jot some items of interest down.
As we were returning today from the Temple of Heavens, we passed a procession that our guide, who is approximately fifty years old had not ever seen. There was a bridal “parade” marching down the street. Its members were dressed in traditional Chinese wedding costumes. The parade members consisted of two dragons leading, musicians playing a variety of instruments, four people carrying the bride sitting in a colorful box (like the Egyptian queens used to be carried) on their shoulder, and what I assumed was the wedding party and family members with some people at the end with colorful balloons. The costumes were very bright and colorful. They were all having what seemed to be a great time and I will be getting some video to Mr. Hartmann (thanks to him for setting this form of communication up and keeping it updated!).
I have been in China since April 7 and there are so many experiences I have been privileged to be a part of in areas of education (from American educators and Chinese educators) and culture. I am going to list some of my thoughts to give you a glimpse of some of my experiences in developing relationships with other educators and the diversity of the country to which I have been exposed. Some impressions are:
1. The Chinese culture is a blend of very traditional and modern thoughts and beliefs
2. The people that I have dealt with as I have explored different areas of China are very polite and hospitable
3. There are a lot of people in China. 1.3 billion and it is noticeable in traveling around the country that the transportation system is crowded in some areas. Moving people on a daily basis is a huge task.
4. There is construction everywhere. I have seen modern equipment but more often than not the laborers have equipment that was used many years ago for smaller jobs
5. The mix of the old and new buildings is interesting. Beijing has some ancient buildings but also many (business, apartments and condos) that are glass and steel.
6. Although I have heard there were many more just five years ago, there are a lot of bicycles, motor scooters and carts pushed or pulled by motorbikes or people.
7. There are innumerable tour buses throughout the areas I have been
8. In two of the three cities I have visited thus far, there are hundreds of trees and shrubs that look like they have been planted in recent years (maybe in preparation for the 2008 Olympics?)
9. In two of the three cities I have visited I have hardly heard any sirens. This seems unique with the number of people living there.
10. There are differences in education but there are also a many of similarities in the areas:
a. Funding
b. Equity
c. Curriculum
d. Workforce
e. Professional development
f. Student behaviors
PUMAS remember to follow the Simple Six.. Doing what is right is never wrong!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Blog #10- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Saturday, April 17, 2010
We got up early today and went to the Temple of Heaven. This temple was constructed in the 1400’s by the Emperor to pray for a good harvest. No nails or mortar was used to build the temple. It was constructed by cedar wood, had twenty-eight columns supporting the structure and every piece fit together perfectly. There was plenty of stairs and fancy carvings in the marble and rails. The painted pictures of many animals were very colorful and detailed. This artwork was done both inside and outside of the temple. The temple was round with three tiers. Below the temple was a square temple building. The significance of the buildings is that in ancient times the Chinese believed that the earth was flat and the heavens were round, hence the two types of buildings.
A huge park surrounds this temple and this Saturday morning was not like any park that I have ever seen. There were hundreds of people doing different things (they do this everyday) that were fitness related (attn. Mrs. Redd and Mr. Weber). People were dancing (ballroom), playing badminton (no nets), paddleball, slow aerobics, hacky sack. There were also many, many people playing musical instruments, singing (individually and in groups), playing cards; it was an incredible sight to be sure.
I am flying out today to Changchun City to reunite with Mrs. Guan. I am excited to see here and spend the week at her school. I met Mrs. Guan’s daughter (a PhD student in educational curriculum) and husband (an engineer) last evening.
Since it is the weekend PUMA students, take some time to play and catch up on your homework or read a little bit.
We got up early today and went to the Temple of Heaven. This temple was constructed in the 1400’s by the Emperor to pray for a good harvest. No nails or mortar was used to build the temple. It was constructed by cedar wood, had twenty-eight columns supporting the structure and every piece fit together perfectly. There was plenty of stairs and fancy carvings in the marble and rails. The painted pictures of many animals were very colorful and detailed. This artwork was done both inside and outside of the temple. The temple was round with three tiers. Below the temple was a square temple building. The significance of the buildings is that in ancient times the Chinese believed that the earth was flat and the heavens were round, hence the two types of buildings.
A huge park surrounds this temple and this Saturday morning was not like any park that I have ever seen. There were hundreds of people doing different things (they do this everyday) that were fitness related (attn. Mrs. Redd and Mr. Weber). People were dancing (ballroom), playing badminton (no nets), paddleball, slow aerobics, hacky sack. There were also many, many people playing musical instruments, singing (individually and in groups), playing cards; it was an incredible sight to be sure.
I am flying out today to Changchun City to reunite with Mrs. Guan. I am excited to see here and spend the week at her school. I met Mrs. Guan’s daughter (a PhD student in educational curriculum) and husband (an engineer) last evening.
Since it is the weekend PUMA students, take some time to play and catch up on your homework or read a little bit.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Blog #9 - Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be going to our exchange school. As you know, Helfrich Park has developed a relationship with the Second Experimental School located in Changchun in the Jilin Province. There are twenty-three provinces in China which are much like states in America but larger in size in regards to square miles. The city of Changchun has around four million residents and is the capital of the Jilin Province.
This morning I got up very early to get to Tiananmen Square for the flag raising ceremony. The ceremony is held twice a day, every day at sunrise and sunset. Today the sun rose at about 5:40 AM. Two platoons of soldiers march from the Forbidden City across Chang’an Street to the flagpole area. This area is off limits and guarded twenty-four hours a day for an area of about 50 yards front to back and 80 yards side to side of the flagpole. The ceremony begins as the solders march into square, line up on either side of the flagpole and stand frozen as the flag is being raised to the playing of the national anthem. It is an event that on weekdays draws between 6,000-10,000 people and lasts about three minutes. The ceremony is also very formal and there is an aura of great respect throughout the square. After the anthem is finished playing, the soldiers march back to the Forbidden City. As they march, the soldiers arms and steps are in perfect harmony and very crisp in their movements. It is impressive. There are military people throughout the area making sure that no one is in front of the barriers or walking on the grassy area to the sides. We then walked across the square to view the WW II Memorial and Mao’s Mausoleum once more from the outside, in Tiananmen Square.
After breakfast we went to the Great Wall of China. We rode a bus for an hour and forty-five minutes to Mutianyu to get onto the Great Wall. As I saw the wall I thought that everything I had ever read or saw about the Great Wall and its magnificence was true; it was truly a sight to behold. The day was a little foggy so one could not see the wall for miles. But, we could see for about 1.5 miles and it is unimaginable to think this wall was made, by hand, brick, buckets and shovels. At one time the wall stretched for over 5,000 miles and its purpose was to keep out invaders for the Qin Dynasty. This was about 2,200 years ago. The wall continued to be built through China’s last dynasty. There are a lot of engineering marvels in the wall (Mrs. King would love to see this work). Some of them are obviously the construction quality but also the drainage system and the way the defender’s defense system was set up along the wall as well as in the towers.
PUMAS, remember the Simple Six.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be going to our exchange school. As you know, Helfrich Park has developed a relationship with the Second Experimental School located in Changchun in the Jilin Province. There are twenty-three provinces in China which are much like states in America but larger in size in regards to square miles. The city of Changchun has around four million residents and is the capital of the Jilin Province.
This morning I got up very early to get to Tiananmen Square for the flag raising ceremony. The ceremony is held twice a day, every day at sunrise and sunset. Today the sun rose at about 5:40 AM. Two platoons of soldiers march from the Forbidden City across Chang’an Street to the flagpole area. This area is off limits and guarded twenty-four hours a day for an area of about 50 yards front to back and 80 yards side to side of the flagpole. The ceremony begins as the solders march into square, line up on either side of the flagpole and stand frozen as the flag is being raised to the playing of the national anthem. It is an event that on weekdays draws between 6,000-10,000 people and lasts about three minutes. The ceremony is also very formal and there is an aura of great respect throughout the square. After the anthem is finished playing, the soldiers march back to the Forbidden City. As they march, the soldiers arms and steps are in perfect harmony and very crisp in their movements. It is impressive. There are military people throughout the area making sure that no one is in front of the barriers or walking on the grassy area to the sides. We then walked across the square to view the WW II Memorial and Mao’s Mausoleum once more from the outside, in Tiananmen Square.
After breakfast we went to the Great Wall of China. We rode a bus for an hour and forty-five minutes to Mutianyu to get onto the Great Wall. As I saw the wall I thought that everything I had ever read or saw about the Great Wall and its magnificence was true; it was truly a sight to behold. The day was a little foggy so one could not see the wall for miles. But, we could see for about 1.5 miles and it is unimaginable to think this wall was made, by hand, brick, buckets and shovels. At one time the wall stretched for over 5,000 miles and its purpose was to keep out invaders for the Qin Dynasty. This was about 2,200 years ago. The wall continued to be built through China’s last dynasty. There are a lot of engineering marvels in the wall (Mrs. King would love to see this work). Some of them are obviously the construction quality but also the drainage system and the way the defender’s defense system was set up along the wall as well as in the towers.
PUMAS, remember the Simple Six.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Blog #8- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Tuesday, April 15, 2010
Today we spent the morning at Beijing Normal University. This is a teacher’s preparation college with an enrolment of over 20,000 students and is recognized as the number one university in China for teacher preparation. Mrs. Guan’s daughter, Bebe is currently a Doctoral student at this university.
Dr. Wang Ying Jie, a past vice president of the university and currently a professor, today delivered our presentation. Dr. Wang delivered an exhaustive report on the many changes that have occurred in China and the impact those changes have had on education. He also discussed in-depth challenges facing educators as China continues to evolve as a society.
Some of the challenges facing China regarding education include:
1- The question of whether schools should stress more on the concept of knowledge transmission or the learning of new skills
2- The dilemma of migrating students (in today’s China Daily newspaper there was an article alluding to this)
3- The rural/city classification system of citizens
4- Distribution of resources in an equitable fashion
5- The demands of education due to social or geographical situations
6- The transformation of China from a “closed” to “open” society
The presentation was very informative and there was quite a bit more than I have listed that I will share when I get back to the States.
In the afternoon we went to visit the Hutong area of Beijing. This area is centuries old and is noted the very narrow streets people traveled on centuries ago. Beijing had many areas like this but with the tremendous construction boom over the past 20 years, much of those areas have been torn down. While we were there, we ate in one of the villager’s homes. The homes are very tiny, much like the village homes of Xian City that we went to last week. The home we ate in was three hundred years old and the family living there has had family members in the house for over 150 years!
We also went to the Pearl Market and learned about the different types of pearls, where they come from throughout the world, how to tell quality pearls and how the elements of water affect their purity. It was very interesting to say the least.
PUMA students, good luck to you as you prepare for ISTEP beginning on April 27. Follow the Simple Six daily do your best in all you do!
Today we spent the morning at Beijing Normal University. This is a teacher’s preparation college with an enrolment of over 20,000 students and is recognized as the number one university in China for teacher preparation. Mrs. Guan’s daughter, Bebe is currently a Doctoral student at this university.
Dr. Wang Ying Jie, a past vice president of the university and currently a professor, today delivered our presentation. Dr. Wang delivered an exhaustive report on the many changes that have occurred in China and the impact those changes have had on education. He also discussed in-depth challenges facing educators as China continues to evolve as a society.
Some of the challenges facing China regarding education include:
1- The question of whether schools should stress more on the concept of knowledge transmission or the learning of new skills
2- The dilemma of migrating students (in today’s China Daily newspaper there was an article alluding to this)
3- The rural/city classification system of citizens
4- Distribution of resources in an equitable fashion
5- The demands of education due to social or geographical situations
6- The transformation of China from a “closed” to “open” society
The presentation was very informative and there was quite a bit more than I have listed that I will share when I get back to the States.
In the afternoon we went to visit the Hutong area of Beijing. This area is centuries old and is noted the very narrow streets people traveled on centuries ago. Beijing had many areas like this but with the tremendous construction boom over the past 20 years, much of those areas have been torn down. While we were there, we ate in one of the villager’s homes. The homes are very tiny, much like the village homes of Xian City that we went to last week. The home we ate in was three hundred years old and the family living there has had family members in the house for over 150 years!
We also went to the Pearl Market and learned about the different types of pearls, where they come from throughout the world, how to tell quality pearls and how the elements of water affect their purity. It was very interesting to say the least.
PUMA students, good luck to you as you prepare for ISTEP beginning on April 27. Follow the Simple Six daily do your best in all you do!
Blog #7- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Tuesday, April 14, 2010
Today was another eventful day on this very interesting trip at a location 6,500 miles away from Helfrich Park. This week we are in Beijing for the week visiting different levels of the educational system hierarchy, schools and colleges.
To summarize once more from yesterday’s conference, we met with Mr. Yu Changxue , Director of the Ministry of Education. His presentation on educational reform and development was very interesting and insightful. Professor Li Renzhu, the Director of Testing gave a power point presentation on one of the reforms, educating the children of migrant workers.
We visited Beijing National Day School this morning and had a presentation from Principal Li Xigui. The school looks like an American University or college. His assistant principal was Wu Fengqin and (not as cool as Mrs. Adams) and the school’s director of international exchange Mr. Zhou Bin gave presentations as well. Principal Li’s presentation centered around the following areas: Chinese Principals role in school management, teacher hiring practices, school curriculum design, and the pillars of educating China’s children:
1- Student evaluation
2- Student moral character
3- Student psychological development
4- Student health and fitness
We were also given an extensive tour of the facility and grounds. The science labs at the school were (now hear this Mr. Heard, Mr. Scherry, Mrs. Burkhart and Miss Wright) were equipped exactly as the labs at USI are! They were certainly impressive. Mrs. Biesecker would have loved the art rooms. The kids in art class were doing those projects where you cut a form from a block of wood and then put ink on it and make prints. And, Mrs. Michael and Mr. Farny would have enjoyed seeing the orchestra room for the whole orchestra and the rooms for group practicing by sections of the band or orchestra. Wow. They had a turf field, three cafeterias, a dormitory for teachers and a dormitory for students that are boarding. Students come from through out China (23 provinces) have kids attending. There are 4,000 kids in grades 7-12. Other tidbits about the school is they have an Olympic size swimming pool and 116 academic programs and 120 teams, clubs or after school programs. I will go into Principal Li’s presentation in more detail when I get back.
We were at BNDS for 3.5 hours and then we got on the bus and went to the edge of town to hear a presentation and get a tour from a migrant worker school. Remember that migrant worker schools are for students whose parents come to the cities trying to find work. There are so many students in the regular schools that some cannot take any more students. In the case of the school we visited, Longhai School, all of the students are migrant workers children and the school is like a charter school in America a little bit. We met the two benefactors who funded the startup of the school and it is a non-profit entity. Principal Su gave us a presentation on the history of the school, why it was developed and programs at the school academically. There is no comparison between the schools in facilities. The migrant school is in a very tough part of town and instead of a turf field in the middle of campus it is cement. The building was built seven years ago but looks much, much older. However, the staff at Longhai was incredibly committed to the students. Like BNDS, students come from all over China to attend but for much different reasons. There are 1,308 students and this school is Pre K- middle school. There are 2 pre K classes, 18 elementary classes and seven middle school classes. High school kids will either go to a local high school that has space, return to their village school or begin working. Again, when I get back I can go into much more depth on each school, their philosophies and curriculum. At this school I sat in on a lesson on English. It was an 8th grade class and the kids did pretty well. They even allowed me to read a passage from the reading exercise they were doing which was pretty neat. We were at that school for about 2.5 hours so our day was pretty full but very, very interesting and eye opening.
On April 13th after we spent the entire morning at the Ministry of Education, we had two tours. The first was to Tian’an men Square. That is a famous landmark in Beijing for many reasons and the square is a HUGE area. On those grounds is Chairman Mao’s, the Chinese Congress building and a memorial to WW II soldiers. At the end of the massive square, across the street is the Forbidden City. This area is where the Emperors lived for many centuries and the historical significance to this country these areas have is incredible. All of the HPSA social studies teachers would have been very impressed. It would be a great field trip for the HPSA students! Each day there are thousands of visitors to this historical area.
Today, April 15 I will be going to Beijing Normal University to hear a seminar on change in Chinese society and its impact on the educational system. In the afternoon we will be going to an ancient part of the city (Beijing) to see the Hutong areas. Mr. Nelson, Mr. Spear, Mrs. Brow, Mrs. Alford and Mrs. Brown should be able to talk a little about that in social studies class before I write about it.
PUMA students, remember the Simple Six and work hard. The PUMA students are great and would represent themselves very well here.
Today was another eventful day on this very interesting trip at a location 6,500 miles away from Helfrich Park. This week we are in Beijing for the week visiting different levels of the educational system hierarchy, schools and colleges.
To summarize once more from yesterday’s conference, we met with Mr. Yu Changxue , Director of the Ministry of Education. His presentation on educational reform and development was very interesting and insightful. Professor Li Renzhu, the Director of Testing gave a power point presentation on one of the reforms, educating the children of migrant workers.
We visited Beijing National Day School this morning and had a presentation from Principal Li Xigui. The school looks like an American University or college. His assistant principal was Wu Fengqin and (not as cool as Mrs. Adams) and the school’s director of international exchange Mr. Zhou Bin gave presentations as well. Principal Li’s presentation centered around the following areas: Chinese Principals role in school management, teacher hiring practices, school curriculum design, and the pillars of educating China’s children:
1- Student evaluation
2- Student moral character
3- Student psychological development
4- Student health and fitness
We were also given an extensive tour of the facility and grounds. The science labs at the school were (now hear this Mr. Heard, Mr. Scherry, Mrs. Burkhart and Miss Wright) were equipped exactly as the labs at USI are! They were certainly impressive. Mrs. Biesecker would have loved the art rooms. The kids in art class were doing those projects where you cut a form from a block of wood and then put ink on it and make prints. And, Mrs. Michael and Mr. Farny would have enjoyed seeing the orchestra room for the whole orchestra and the rooms for group practicing by sections of the band or orchestra. Wow. They had a turf field, three cafeterias, a dormitory for teachers and a dormitory for students that are boarding. Students come from through out China (23 provinces) have kids attending. There are 4,000 kids in grades 7-12. Other tidbits about the school is they have an Olympic size swimming pool and 116 academic programs and 120 teams, clubs or after school programs. I will go into Principal Li’s presentation in more detail when I get back.
We were at BNDS for 3.5 hours and then we got on the bus and went to the edge of town to hear a presentation and get a tour from a migrant worker school. Remember that migrant worker schools are for students whose parents come to the cities trying to find work. There are so many students in the regular schools that some cannot take any more students. In the case of the school we visited, Longhai School, all of the students are migrant workers children and the school is like a charter school in America a little bit. We met the two benefactors who funded the startup of the school and it is a non-profit entity. Principal Su gave us a presentation on the history of the school, why it was developed and programs at the school academically. There is no comparison between the schools in facilities. The migrant school is in a very tough part of town and instead of a turf field in the middle of campus it is cement. The building was built seven years ago but looks much, much older. However, the staff at Longhai was incredibly committed to the students. Like BNDS, students come from all over China to attend but for much different reasons. There are 1,308 students and this school is Pre K- middle school. There are 2 pre K classes, 18 elementary classes and seven middle school classes. High school kids will either go to a local high school that has space, return to their village school or begin working. Again, when I get back I can go into much more depth on each school, their philosophies and curriculum. At this school I sat in on a lesson on English. It was an 8th grade class and the kids did pretty well. They even allowed me to read a passage from the reading exercise they were doing which was pretty neat. We were at that school for about 2.5 hours so our day was pretty full but very, very interesting and eye opening.
On April 13th after we spent the entire morning at the Ministry of Education, we had two tours. The first was to Tian’an men Square. That is a famous landmark in Beijing for many reasons and the square is a HUGE area. On those grounds is Chairman Mao’s, the Chinese Congress building and a memorial to WW II soldiers. At the end of the massive square, across the street is the Forbidden City. This area is where the Emperors lived for many centuries and the historical significance to this country these areas have is incredible. All of the HPSA social studies teachers would have been very impressed. It would be a great field trip for the HPSA students! Each day there are thousands of visitors to this historical area.
Today, April 15 I will be going to Beijing Normal University to hear a seminar on change in Chinese society and its impact on the educational system. In the afternoon we will be going to an ancient part of the city (Beijing) to see the Hutong areas. Mr. Nelson, Mr. Spear, Mrs. Brow, Mrs. Alford and Mrs. Brown should be able to talk a little about that in social studies class before I write about it.
PUMA students, remember the Simple Six and work hard. The PUMA students are great and would represent themselves very well here.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Blog #6- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Tuesday, April 13,2010
The beginning of this writing is for Mrs. Gries and her wonderful associates in the Helfrich Park Paradise Café. As in any city, there are of areas within the city that have market places (like USA farmer’s markets) that sell different types of food. Usually there will be fruits, vegetables and meats. In addition to the local cuisine of the city or village there may be markets that sell other types of goods (like an open air Wal-Mart that varies in size depending on the size of the village or city). The market near our hotel in downtown Beijing is two city blocks from our hotel, is extremely large in size and has quite a bit to offer, thus my reference of the Paradise Café at the beginning of this paragraph.
Like the wonderful goodies that Chef Gries creates with Angie, Beth, Cheryl, Liz and Becky, I stumbled upon some delicacies that we do not serve at Helrich Park normally, if ever. Do you remember earlier I wrote that quite a bit of food prepared at our meals was like fondue (fried or boiled in a small pot at our table)? I would describe this market to be like Franklin Street during the Fall Festival times week except much larger in size. Like the Fall Festival, much of the food is deep-fried. Some of the items that our wonderful students may be familiar with include deep-fried bananas, beef, pork, lamb, cucumbers, green vegetables, etc. But I also saw some other goodies such as: big beetles, sea horse, starfish, scorpion, snake, squid, crab, and other types of bugs (how would the PUMA students like to have some of those fried items for lunch and then burn off the extra calories in Physical Education class led by Mrs. Redd and Mr. Weber?). With all of that, and I may have missed some foods, I was a bit surprised there was no deep fried Twinkies! Anyway, the variety of food that was offered was tremendous and for a weeknight, and the area was packed with city people and tourists.
Our work for the day began at the National Ministry of Education. We went to the second floor of a massive building and assembled in a room with a 30 foot conference table that had seating for 28 people. There are 40 administrators in our group so those that did not have seating at the table sat around the room in a second row. The Education Ministry Secretary for the country of China welcomed us and spoke about 90 minutes on the history of education in China, the educational reforms currently underway, obstacles regarding those reforms, educational funding, teacher professional development, and future goals of education in China. Currently there are around 300 million school aged students in China. They have compulsory education through ninth grade, which is fairly new, within the last decades. They have what they call a 3-6-3-3 educational system. Three years of pre-school, six years of elementary education, three years of middle school and three years of high school. If student wants to attend college, he must pass a very rigorous exam. It is their philosophy that students be well rounded and exposed to high academic rigor, moral education, sports, and arts. There was much more he spoke about but I am not a good enough typer to get everything down that he said although I have about six pages of notes.
Next the country’s Educational Research Specialist spoke about the educational reforms being put in place for migrant workers. In the past eleven years, Beijing’s transitional or migrant population has gone from 160,000 students to 500,000 students. This is excluding the students that live in Beijing! As you can guess, this is a huge task to get things organized and provide education to all of the school-aged students that are moving to the cities with their families in search of employment. As we have discussed many times at school and I am sure you have heard at home, education and skills will provide you with opportunities in life. In China, 70% of the population lives in rural areas (China has a population of 1.3 billion people) and in the last fifty years China has made a very concentrated effort to expand educational opportunities for people throughout the country. It is the philosophy of the government that education will give the people in the rural areas more opportunities to have a better lifestyle. That is the main goal of the Ministry of Education and it is not unlike our national Department of Education in the USA as it sets education policy for all of China. The youth of any society is the future, and like our country, China wants to prepare its youth to make sound decisions as adults in whichever field of work they choose.
This brings you up to date on today’s (Tuesday) activities. Enjoy your day, students, at school and work hard. I see the weather is nice in Evansville via The Weather Channel so work hard in class, play at recess and then get back to work to end the day on a positve note.
The beginning of this writing is for Mrs. Gries and her wonderful associates in the Helfrich Park Paradise Café. As in any city, there are of areas within the city that have market places (like USA farmer’s markets) that sell different types of food. Usually there will be fruits, vegetables and meats. In addition to the local cuisine of the city or village there may be markets that sell other types of goods (like an open air Wal-Mart that varies in size depending on the size of the village or city). The market near our hotel in downtown Beijing is two city blocks from our hotel, is extremely large in size and has quite a bit to offer, thus my reference of the Paradise Café at the beginning of this paragraph.
Like the wonderful goodies that Chef Gries creates with Angie, Beth, Cheryl, Liz and Becky, I stumbled upon some delicacies that we do not serve at Helrich Park normally, if ever. Do you remember earlier I wrote that quite a bit of food prepared at our meals was like fondue (fried or boiled in a small pot at our table)? I would describe this market to be like Franklin Street during the Fall Festival times week except much larger in size. Like the Fall Festival, much of the food is deep-fried. Some of the items that our wonderful students may be familiar with include deep-fried bananas, beef, pork, lamb, cucumbers, green vegetables, etc. But I also saw some other goodies such as: big beetles, sea horse, starfish, scorpion, snake, squid, crab, and other types of bugs (how would the PUMA students like to have some of those fried items for lunch and then burn off the extra calories in Physical Education class led by Mrs. Redd and Mr. Weber?). With all of that, and I may have missed some foods, I was a bit surprised there was no deep fried Twinkies! Anyway, the variety of food that was offered was tremendous and for a weeknight, and the area was packed with city people and tourists.
Our work for the day began at the National Ministry of Education. We went to the second floor of a massive building and assembled in a room with a 30 foot conference table that had seating for 28 people. There are 40 administrators in our group so those that did not have seating at the table sat around the room in a second row. The Education Ministry Secretary for the country of China welcomed us and spoke about 90 minutes on the history of education in China, the educational reforms currently underway, obstacles regarding those reforms, educational funding, teacher professional development, and future goals of education in China. Currently there are around 300 million school aged students in China. They have compulsory education through ninth grade, which is fairly new, within the last decades. They have what they call a 3-6-3-3 educational system. Three years of pre-school, six years of elementary education, three years of middle school and three years of high school. If student wants to attend college, he must pass a very rigorous exam. It is their philosophy that students be well rounded and exposed to high academic rigor, moral education, sports, and arts. There was much more he spoke about but I am not a good enough typer to get everything down that he said although I have about six pages of notes.
Next the country’s Educational Research Specialist spoke about the educational reforms being put in place for migrant workers. In the past eleven years, Beijing’s transitional or migrant population has gone from 160,000 students to 500,000 students. This is excluding the students that live in Beijing! As you can guess, this is a huge task to get things organized and provide education to all of the school-aged students that are moving to the cities with their families in search of employment. As we have discussed many times at school and I am sure you have heard at home, education and skills will provide you with opportunities in life. In China, 70% of the population lives in rural areas (China has a population of 1.3 billion people) and in the last fifty years China has made a very concentrated effort to expand educational opportunities for people throughout the country. It is the philosophy of the government that education will give the people in the rural areas more opportunities to have a better lifestyle. That is the main goal of the Ministry of Education and it is not unlike our national Department of Education in the USA as it sets education policy for all of China. The youth of any society is the future, and like our country, China wants to prepare its youth to make sound decisions as adults in whichever field of work they choose.
This brings you up to date on today’s (Tuesday) activities. Enjoy your day, students, at school and work hard. I see the weather is nice in Evansville via The Weather Channel so work hard in class, play at recess and then get back to work to end the day on a positve note.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Blog #5- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Monday, April 12, 2010
Today we left Xian for Beijing. Prior to leaving our group went to the Huixian Art Gallery and were given a presentation on Peasant Art from a historical perspective in China. This art is extremely new compared to China’s history but very important (this was a museum Mrs. Biesecker would have loved). The Peasant Art began in the 1950s and it is art that is done by the rural people or peasants. It depicts the different events of China’s last 50 years in art form. Most of this is done through pictures and there we saw so many interesting paintings and other forms of artwork. Two of the original paintings we saw have been made postage stamps and one was painted for President Nixon back in the early 1970s when he visited China (and I was in middle school). At the time, that was an important event between America and China. If you have read the paper in the last couple of days you will notice that China’s leader is in Washington D.C. with other world leaders having discussions about nuclear weapons.
Following our art tour we hopped on the bus and hustled to the airport. We flew to Beijing in one hour and forty–five minutes and as we flew in it was very windy and for me, scary. We took a bus from the airport to our hotel, which is downtown. We ate a traditional meal, which means there were about ten different options of vegetables, meats, and bread.
Tomorrow we will go to China Ministry of Education and Tian’anmen Square.
PUMA students, I know you are following the Simple Six and working hard on your studies as you prepare for the upcoming ISTEP exams. Thank you for your leadership!
Today we left Xian for Beijing. Prior to leaving our group went to the Huixian Art Gallery and were given a presentation on Peasant Art from a historical perspective in China. This art is extremely new compared to China’s history but very important (this was a museum Mrs. Biesecker would have loved). The Peasant Art began in the 1950s and it is art that is done by the rural people or peasants. It depicts the different events of China’s last 50 years in art form. Most of this is done through pictures and there we saw so many interesting paintings and other forms of artwork. Two of the original paintings we saw have been made postage stamps and one was painted for President Nixon back in the early 1970s when he visited China (and I was in middle school). At the time, that was an important event between America and China. If you have read the paper in the last couple of days you will notice that China’s leader is in Washington D.C. with other world leaders having discussions about nuclear weapons.
Following our art tour we hopped on the bus and hustled to the airport. We flew to Beijing in one hour and forty–five minutes and as we flew in it was very windy and for me, scary. We took a bus from the airport to our hotel, which is downtown. We ate a traditional meal, which means there were about ten different options of vegetables, meats, and bread.
Tomorrow we will go to China Ministry of Education and Tian’anmen Square.
PUMA students, I know you are following the Simple Six and working hard on your studies as you prepare for the upcoming ISTEP exams. Thank you for your leadership!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Blog #4- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday was a busy day for our educator group. We began our day visiting the Pangliu School located about 45 miles from the city of Xian. This school is considered a village school and is also known as the best village school in the country of China. There is a difference between the schools in the city and the village schools. 70% of China is rural therefore a large number of the population is educated in these schools. The village of Pangliu is also the home village of our guide, Mr. Richard Wang. When people are born in China they must register into two categories: rural or city. As recently as 25-30 years ago, rural students had about two ways they could get out of the rural areas: by continuing their schooling or volunteering for the military. Either of these two ways guaranteed nothing as you had to do very well to continue on in your education or making the military a career. Back before the 1950s very little funding made its way to the rural areas. Our guide Richard was one of two students that continued on in a class of 60 students to middle school. Happily today, the number of students moving on to middle and high school I n 100% because through the years funding has found is way to the country.
The village is very basic and does not have a lot of the conveniences that we take for granted. Most of the houses have no heat, are fairly small and poverty is very high, according to our standards. The school was damaged during the huge earthquake in 2008 and the some students are in portable classrooms. The students welcomed our group by playing music and making a tunnel for us to walk though, like our basketball games. There are 140 students in the school and it is a k-6 school. There are 12 teachers and a principal and they are appointed to the school. Some of the teachers stay at the school. There is a computer lab at the school that the kids use and is one of the very few rural schools that are equipped with that technology. We toured the classes and students were doing much of the same things that our elementary students do at school. I will send some pictures shortly of the kids in their classes. I challenged one little boy in ping-pong and he barely beat me 10-1 in a game that ended because of the mercy rule…for me! The little boy was great and he seemed to really enjoy killing the ball after I had gotten it over the net. I am sure Mr. Weber and the little one would have a real battle. While we were in the village we visited a watermelon greenhouse and a brick factory that is unlike anything anywhere in America. We certainly all should count our blessings.
Following the village school visit we went to a warehouse where they make many things from Jade. We were given a lecture on the different types of Jade and where it comes from (Mr. Scherry and Mrs. Burkhart go over this in your 7th grade science classes). It was very interesting and then we went on a tour to see some of the finished products that are made from Jade. There were many things made from Jade ranging from jewelry to statues to you name it. Next we headed back to the city of Xian to visit the Muslim mosque. Muslims make up a small portion of China’s population. The mosque is near our hotel and is over 300 years old. Following that visit and tour we went to a huge bazaar or what we might call a flea market. There were venders of all kinds selling things and food. It was quite a sight.
On Monday we will tour an art gallery and then fly to Beijing for a week of meetings with the department of education, meeting with schools and visiting schools.
Students remember the Simple Six!
Sunday was a busy day for our educator group. We began our day visiting the Pangliu School located about 45 miles from the city of Xian. This school is considered a village school and is also known as the best village school in the country of China. There is a difference between the schools in the city and the village schools. 70% of China is rural therefore a large number of the population is educated in these schools. The village of Pangliu is also the home village of our guide, Mr. Richard Wang. When people are born in China they must register into two categories: rural or city. As recently as 25-30 years ago, rural students had about two ways they could get out of the rural areas: by continuing their schooling or volunteering for the military. Either of these two ways guaranteed nothing as you had to do very well to continue on in your education or making the military a career. Back before the 1950s very little funding made its way to the rural areas. Our guide Richard was one of two students that continued on in a class of 60 students to middle school. Happily today, the number of students moving on to middle and high school I n 100% because through the years funding has found is way to the country.
The village is very basic and does not have a lot of the conveniences that we take for granted. Most of the houses have no heat, are fairly small and poverty is very high, according to our standards. The school was damaged during the huge earthquake in 2008 and the some students are in portable classrooms. The students welcomed our group by playing music and making a tunnel for us to walk though, like our basketball games. There are 140 students in the school and it is a k-6 school. There are 12 teachers and a principal and they are appointed to the school. Some of the teachers stay at the school. There is a computer lab at the school that the kids use and is one of the very few rural schools that are equipped with that technology. We toured the classes and students were doing much of the same things that our elementary students do at school. I will send some pictures shortly of the kids in their classes. I challenged one little boy in ping-pong and he barely beat me 10-1 in a game that ended because of the mercy rule…for me! The little boy was great and he seemed to really enjoy killing the ball after I had gotten it over the net. I am sure Mr. Weber and the little one would have a real battle. While we were in the village we visited a watermelon greenhouse and a brick factory that is unlike anything anywhere in America. We certainly all should count our blessings.
Following the village school visit we went to a warehouse where they make many things from Jade. We were given a lecture on the different types of Jade and where it comes from (Mr. Scherry and Mrs. Burkhart go over this in your 7th grade science classes). It was very interesting and then we went on a tour to see some of the finished products that are made from Jade. There were many things made from Jade ranging from jewelry to statues to you name it. Next we headed back to the city of Xian to visit the Muslim mosque. Muslims make up a small portion of China’s population. The mosque is near our hotel and is over 300 years old. Following that visit and tour we went to a huge bazaar or what we might call a flea market. There were venders of all kinds selling things and food. It was quite a sight.
On Monday we will tour an art gallery and then fly to Beijing for a week of meetings with the department of education, meeting with schools and visiting schools.
Students remember the Simple Six!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Blog #3- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Saturday, April 10
I had two stories to share with you from yesterday before I share with you today’s adventures. One occurred on the wall encircling Xian and the other at the Museum of History. One of the administrators I have met here is a young man from Wisconsin. He is assistant principal at Hudson High School, located in Hudson, WI. I was born in Hudson in 1959 so naturally I figured this guy to be pretty cool and even better; he resides in the Great State of Minnesota. He is about the same size as I am and we decided to ride bicycles around the City Wall (approximately 12 - 14 miles) on one of those tandem bikes. You know, the two-person kind. Well, in hindsight that would have been fine for Lori and I, but it was not such a good idea for Mr. Scott Huffman and I! I did though relay my concerns to him prior to riding because the bike did not have balloon tires and there was going to be some serious stress put on the poor rims. We made it about two thirds of the way around and them we had to pedal fast to go up an incline. Well we got our speed up, landed our jump and them the back rim was stressed and that was the sudden end of our Hoosier-Badger tandem bike experience. Then, when we had our single bikes, one of my pedals came off and two other principals had to push me! Mr. Murphy’s Law had struck me…. twice, in China.
The second experience from yesterday that I did not mention was that Mr. Huffman and I met a large group of students from a high school in Xian at the museum. They were a great bunch of kids and we enjoyed talking to them about many of the things the PUMA students talk about when they are Skyping our friends at Mrs. Guan’s Second Experimental School in Changchun City, (where I will be at during the week of April 17). I will have to get the name of the school from Mr. Huffman and I will attempt to send you some of the pictures we took. It sure was a neat experience.
Today, April 10th was an exceptional day. The day began with a light
breakfast and then we had three visits: to a pottery factory where they hand make Terra Cotta Warrior replicas, musical instruments, Jade figures and exotic woodworking. There are very few workers but their craftsmanship is spectacular. We watched as the workers carved each clay figure, wet sand furniture or work a loom while they made a blanket. The PUMA STAFF wanted to get a gift for the students of Helfrich Park to be permanently displayed at school. That gift will be a hand made set of some of the Terra Cotta Warriors, a horse and a statue of the Emperor. Students, be sure to thank all of the PUMA staff for this school gift!
Following our trip to the pottery we went to the Huatang Hot Springs. The first emperor made this area to be a place where he could be after he was pushed westward by opposing armies. There is one pool in the complex that dates back 3,000 years! The springs are built at the foot of a mountain and are fed partially by waters that empty into the Yellow River on this side of the mountain. Streams and other water flow on the other side of the mountain empty into the Yangtze River (like what occurs at the Continental Divide in the United States). Emperors were not the only people that used the springs. In the 20th century one of Mao’s former allies that turned to be his enemy lived there awhile before he was captured. There are still bullet holes in window and in the walls from the final capture in the mid 1940s. There were five buildings to this General’s compound that consisted of his room, office, secretary’s office, a dining area and a room for his bodyguards.
Finally we went to the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum. All I can say is what an incredible archeological find this was. In fact, this is known as the 8th Wonder of the World (and would Mr. Nelson love to see this unbelievable exhibit). The Terra Cotta Warriors were commissioned to be made by the first Emperor of China (around 221 B.BC.) who became Emperor at age 13 but only lived until he was fifty because he was poisoned. He believed that he would live after death and wanted an army to protect him. Chinese officials believe that there were 8,000 clay soldiers made, along with horses and weapons for his tomb, which is located 1.5 km east of the Emperor’s Mountain. Two farmers digging a well found the warriors in 1974. Can you imagine?! In fact, another of the school gifts will be a book about the warriors autographed by the only surviving farmer that found the artifacts. The museum is actually five buildings with three of the buildings built over the actual tombs where the warriors are. The area the museum and the walkway area sits on is at least 15 times bigger than all of the Roberts Stadium parking area, if not larger! Today was not a “busy” day and I would estimate that at least 20,000 people visited. It was breathtaking and I have many pictures to share. To be in the buildings covering actual tomb sites that date back to time before Christ was born (over 2010 years!) and even being able to smell the dirt is really indescribable.
Following our busy day we had dinner at a restaurant that was where the people in the city would normally eat, nothing fancy. The meal was very good and consisted of a few different types of noodles (some long, some like ravioli but without the inside stuffing), a variety of vegetables and some other local cuisine. Again, everything was pretty and a couple of the dishes one would have to develop a taste for.
I hope the PUMAS worked hard in the classroom and followed the Simple Six daily.
I had two stories to share with you from yesterday before I share with you today’s adventures. One occurred on the wall encircling Xian and the other at the Museum of History. One of the administrators I have met here is a young man from Wisconsin. He is assistant principal at Hudson High School, located in Hudson, WI. I was born in Hudson in 1959 so naturally I figured this guy to be pretty cool and even better; he resides in the Great State of Minnesota. He is about the same size as I am and we decided to ride bicycles around the City Wall (approximately 12 - 14 miles) on one of those tandem bikes. You know, the two-person kind. Well, in hindsight that would have been fine for Lori and I, but it was not such a good idea for Mr. Scott Huffman and I! I did though relay my concerns to him prior to riding because the bike did not have balloon tires and there was going to be some serious stress put on the poor rims. We made it about two thirds of the way around and them we had to pedal fast to go up an incline. Well we got our speed up, landed our jump and them the back rim was stressed and that was the sudden end of our Hoosier-Badger tandem bike experience. Then, when we had our single bikes, one of my pedals came off and two other principals had to push me! Mr. Murphy’s Law had struck me…. twice, in China.
The second experience from yesterday that I did not mention was that Mr. Huffman and I met a large group of students from a high school in Xian at the museum. They were a great bunch of kids and we enjoyed talking to them about many of the things the PUMA students talk about when they are Skyping our friends at Mrs. Guan’s Second Experimental School in Changchun City, (where I will be at during the week of April 17). I will have to get the name of the school from Mr. Huffman and I will attempt to send you some of the pictures we took. It sure was a neat experience.
Today, April 10th was an exceptional day. The day began with a light
breakfast and then we had three visits: to a pottery factory where they hand make Terra Cotta Warrior replicas, musical instruments, Jade figures and exotic woodworking. There are very few workers but their craftsmanship is spectacular. We watched as the workers carved each clay figure, wet sand furniture or work a loom while they made a blanket. The PUMA STAFF wanted to get a gift for the students of Helfrich Park to be permanently displayed at school. That gift will be a hand made set of some of the Terra Cotta Warriors, a horse and a statue of the Emperor. Students, be sure to thank all of the PUMA staff for this school gift!
Following our trip to the pottery we went to the Huatang Hot Springs. The first emperor made this area to be a place where he could be after he was pushed westward by opposing armies. There is one pool in the complex that dates back 3,000 years! The springs are built at the foot of a mountain and are fed partially by waters that empty into the Yellow River on this side of the mountain. Streams and other water flow on the other side of the mountain empty into the Yangtze River (like what occurs at the Continental Divide in the United States). Emperors were not the only people that used the springs. In the 20th century one of Mao’s former allies that turned to be his enemy lived there awhile before he was captured. There are still bullet holes in window and in the walls from the final capture in the mid 1940s. There were five buildings to this General’s compound that consisted of his room, office, secretary’s office, a dining area and a room for his bodyguards.
Finally we went to the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum. All I can say is what an incredible archeological find this was. In fact, this is known as the 8th Wonder of the World (and would Mr. Nelson love to see this unbelievable exhibit). The Terra Cotta Warriors were commissioned to be made by the first Emperor of China (around 221 B.BC.) who became Emperor at age 13 but only lived until he was fifty because he was poisoned. He believed that he would live after death and wanted an army to protect him. Chinese officials believe that there were 8,000 clay soldiers made, along with horses and weapons for his tomb, which is located 1.5 km east of the Emperor’s Mountain. Two farmers digging a well found the warriors in 1974. Can you imagine?! In fact, another of the school gifts will be a book about the warriors autographed by the only surviving farmer that found the artifacts. The museum is actually five buildings with three of the buildings built over the actual tombs where the warriors are. The area the museum and the walkway area sits on is at least 15 times bigger than all of the Roberts Stadium parking area, if not larger! Today was not a “busy” day and I would estimate that at least 20,000 people visited. It was breathtaking and I have many pictures to share. To be in the buildings covering actual tomb sites that date back to time before Christ was born (over 2010 years!) and even being able to smell the dirt is really indescribable.
Following our busy day we had dinner at a restaurant that was where the people in the city would normally eat, nothing fancy. The meal was very good and consisted of a few different types of noodles (some long, some like ravioli but without the inside stuffing), a variety of vegetables and some other local cuisine. Again, everything was pretty and a couple of the dishes one would have to develop a taste for.
I hope the PUMAS worked hard in the classroom and followed the Simple Six daily.
Blog #2- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
Friday, April 9
Today promises to be quite an interesting day, as we will see number of historical sights and wares that date back hundreds of years. This will certainly be exciting as the history of China is incredible. I am “fired up” because there are many connections of ancient China with the western world through the centuries. How do I know this? Because I have learned that information from my Social Studies teachers in MIDDLE SCHOOL and high school!
There are many cultural things that one learns as they visit other world cultures. One interesting aspect of the Chinese culture is the food, one topic I feel quite comfortable writing about, which may come as a surprise to my PUMA students. For breakfast the last couple of days I have had cauliflower, tomatoes, noodles, and egg rolls in addition to our traditional bacon, sausage and eggs. For lunch yesterday we had what is called a Pot Lunch. This meal is served with meats, vegetables, and dipping sauces, that you create. Each person has a pot in front of the with hot water that is being heated by a small flame. And then, you choose what you want to put in the pot from a “lazy Susan” that is in the middle of the table that rotates around so that whatever you would like to eat is easily reachable. You then put your choices in the pot, let is boil until it is cooked, eat it and then repeat the process until you are satisfied. It is a lot like eating fondue. For dinner we went to a dinner show that featured a Chinese cultural musical and dancing. Prior to the show, for dinner we had many, many different types of Chinese dumplings (a Colonel Tron favorite). The dumplings are kind of doughy, stuffed and delicious. Again, there are a number of sauces that you can dip them in, whatever type of spice level you would like. The different types of dumplings we had were: beef, pork, a number of different vegetable fillings, shrimp, pickle. They were brought to your table in a pot. Also with the meal we had cucumber, cabbage, parsley, mushrooms, crab, and shrimp dough balls. A couple of the food items need to have a taste acquired for but again, everything was delicious. Enough about the food, now I will you fill you in on my day.
We began the day by going to the wall of Xian that circles the city. The wall is 39 feet tall and 60 feet wide with a large number of towers. Each tower is 100 yards apart so that if there were invaders, they would be able to be deterred by bow and arrows. Thus, 100 yards was what the protector’s thought was a distance where their arrows could be accurate. To further prevent invaders from having the idea they could attack was a moat around the wall that is approximately 75 feet wide. We climbed the stairs to the wall at the South Gate (there are four gates north, south, east, west). Inside the wall there are restrictions on the height of the buildings and that is quite different than outside the wall where there are a number of very tall skyscrapers and apartment buildings. The wall was built by the Ming Dynasty, which began in 1368 and lasted until 1744. The wall is earthen with a brick exterior and is approximately 12 miles around. We biked around the wall and that was very interesting, which I will explain later if time permits.
China has changed quite a bit over the years. There are two systems of government: Communist and government (local). The communist government has the final say in what goes on in the country with anything related to media, television, newspaper, etc. The system, according to our guide works well for China and in many respects may have many of the same workings of our government in some areas, although that there is no doubt that leaders have the final say in matters of interest to China and in his opinion things get down pretty quick when necessary. His example of this is the huge amount of development that is going on as one heads west into China. There is construction everywhere. In fact, some of the work, even though you see modern heavy equipment, is done like in times past my manual labor and craftsmanship.
We came into the city of Xian at night and during the day the city is extremely busy. I relate the traffic, bustle and activity to New York. Xian has a population of 8,000,000 people so there is a lot activity, all the time. The city is very pretty with many trees, flowers and shrubs throughout the city.
We also went to the Historical Museum, The Dayan Pagoda (Mr. Spear would love seeing that!), the Fa Men Temple, and the Confucius Museum where there are many of the actual tablets of Confucius calligraphy dating back hundreds of years (a great spot that Mr. Nelson would enjoy)!
Finally, after our dinner we witnessed an incredible performance at the Shaanxi Grand Opera House by the Tang-Dynasty Palace Music and Dance Company (Mrs. Michael, Mr. Farny and Mrs. Biesecker would have really enjoyed this)! There were ten different acts to the show. Eight of them were dance & song and two were solely ancient instrumental performances. The costumes were incredible, the sounds unique and the entertainment out of this world! It was wonderfully entertaining and delightful.
I will attempt to send some pictures with my next message, hoping they get through.
PUMA students…work hard in school and remember the Simple Six!
Today promises to be quite an interesting day, as we will see number of historical sights and wares that date back hundreds of years. This will certainly be exciting as the history of China is incredible. I am “fired up” because there are many connections of ancient China with the western world through the centuries. How do I know this? Because I have learned that information from my Social Studies teachers in MIDDLE SCHOOL and high school!
There are many cultural things that one learns as they visit other world cultures. One interesting aspect of the Chinese culture is the food, one topic I feel quite comfortable writing about, which may come as a surprise to my PUMA students. For breakfast the last couple of days I have had cauliflower, tomatoes, noodles, and egg rolls in addition to our traditional bacon, sausage and eggs. For lunch yesterday we had what is called a Pot Lunch. This meal is served with meats, vegetables, and dipping sauces, that you create. Each person has a pot in front of the with hot water that is being heated by a small flame. And then, you choose what you want to put in the pot from a “lazy Susan” that is in the middle of the table that rotates around so that whatever you would like to eat is easily reachable. You then put your choices in the pot, let is boil until it is cooked, eat it and then repeat the process until you are satisfied. It is a lot like eating fondue. For dinner we went to a dinner show that featured a Chinese cultural musical and dancing. Prior to the show, for dinner we had many, many different types of Chinese dumplings (a Colonel Tron favorite). The dumplings are kind of doughy, stuffed and delicious. Again, there are a number of sauces that you can dip them in, whatever type of spice level you would like. The different types of dumplings we had were: beef, pork, a number of different vegetable fillings, shrimp, pickle. They were brought to your table in a pot. Also with the meal we had cucumber, cabbage, parsley, mushrooms, crab, and shrimp dough balls. A couple of the food items need to have a taste acquired for but again, everything was delicious. Enough about the food, now I will you fill you in on my day.
We began the day by going to the wall of Xian that circles the city. The wall is 39 feet tall and 60 feet wide with a large number of towers. Each tower is 100 yards apart so that if there were invaders, they would be able to be deterred by bow and arrows. Thus, 100 yards was what the protector’s thought was a distance where their arrows could be accurate. To further prevent invaders from having the idea they could attack was a moat around the wall that is approximately 75 feet wide. We climbed the stairs to the wall at the South Gate (there are four gates north, south, east, west). Inside the wall there are restrictions on the height of the buildings and that is quite different than outside the wall where there are a number of very tall skyscrapers and apartment buildings. The wall was built by the Ming Dynasty, which began in 1368 and lasted until 1744. The wall is earthen with a brick exterior and is approximately 12 miles around. We biked around the wall and that was very interesting, which I will explain later if time permits.
China has changed quite a bit over the years. There are two systems of government: Communist and government (local). The communist government has the final say in what goes on in the country with anything related to media, television, newspaper, etc. The system, according to our guide works well for China and in many respects may have many of the same workings of our government in some areas, although that there is no doubt that leaders have the final say in matters of interest to China and in his opinion things get down pretty quick when necessary. His example of this is the huge amount of development that is going on as one heads west into China. There is construction everywhere. In fact, some of the work, even though you see modern heavy equipment, is done like in times past my manual labor and craftsmanship.
We came into the city of Xian at night and during the day the city is extremely busy. I relate the traffic, bustle and activity to New York. Xian has a population of 8,000,000 people so there is a lot activity, all the time. The city is very pretty with many trees, flowers and shrubs throughout the city.
We also went to the Historical Museum, The Dayan Pagoda (Mr. Spear would love seeing that!), the Fa Men Temple, and the Confucius Museum where there are many of the actual tablets of Confucius calligraphy dating back hundreds of years (a great spot that Mr. Nelson would enjoy)!
Finally, after our dinner we witnessed an incredible performance at the Shaanxi Grand Opera House by the Tang-Dynasty Palace Music and Dance Company (Mrs. Michael, Mr. Farny and Mrs. Biesecker would have really enjoyed this)! There were ten different acts to the show. Eight of them were dance & song and two were solely ancient instrumental performances. The costumes were incredible, the sounds unique and the entertainment out of this world! It was wonderfully entertaining and delightful.
I will attempt to send some pictures with my next message, hoping they get through.
PUMA students…work hard in school and remember the Simple Six!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Blog #1- Mr. Mac’s Chinese Administrative Exchange Initiative
April 7, 2010
My wife, Lori, was gracious enough to leave the house at 5:30 AM this morning and ride with me to the Louisville airport. I needed to get to the airport two hours early to get checked in because it takes longer with the security being beefed up at the airports since 9/11. I flew from Louisville to Chicago (one hour and five minutes) and then flew non-stop to Beijing (12 hours and twenty five minutes). Because we pass the international dateline, we “lose” one day. My twelve-hour flight really costs me twenty-five hours in time on my watch. After arriving in Beijing we will have a layover of four hours and then we will fly to the Xiang province, in the middle of the country (kind of where Kansas is located in the USA). So, my flight from Louisville left Wednesday at 10:00 AM and we arrived at our hotel on Thursday evening at 11:15 PM. Whew!
The security in the all of the airports was extremely tight. In China, we went through three checkpoints and had my picture taken twice. I attempted to take a picture at the customs area and a security person very quickly waved me off from taking pictures in that area. At the airport we ate as a group and were served a traditional Chinese. The meal had five different types of noodles and meat with each being a bit spicier than the first round. We were also served dumplings and eggrolls. Water is not served with meals unless it is requested. Then, it is advised to drink bottled water only. But, hot water is served with your meal if requested as well as tea. I bet Mr. Hartmann would like the restaurant here more than he enjoys El Charro!!
There are 40 administrators here with my group for the next week. They are mostly Superintendents, about half, and the rest are principals, assistant principals and teachers. It is a very diversified group. This group of educators represents the states of Indiana, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts. They are a nice group and I look forward to discussing with them different things they are doing at their schools that can help us increase student achievement at HPSA!
While we were walking to our last flight in the Beijing airport, get this, I saw the TALLEST man in the WORLD! This gentleman must have been at least 8’6” tall and he apparently was going somewhere by plane. He was absolutely huge! He easily could have reached up and touched the TOP of the SQUARE on a basketball goal. Students, look up where the tallest man in the world lives and you will find he is from China. I have a picture I will send and hopefully it will come through the email. That was really something.
When we arrive at our hotel in the city of Xian, it was 11:15 PM local time or about 10:15 AM Evansville time. The city of Xian is called the “Birthplace of China”. There have been many Dynasties that had their beginnings here and the city wall is centuries old. The ruler of the Terra Cotta soldiers who also commissioned the Great Wall to be built, had his beginnings here. Hopefully I will be able to send some pictures for you to view as I will be getting a first hand look at the incredible historical beginnings of the Chinese culture and people. Thanks to Mr. Hartmann for all his working in setting up this blog and getting the material for you to view. PUMA students…work hard in school and remember the Simple Six!
My wife, Lori, was gracious enough to leave the house at 5:30 AM this morning and ride with me to the Louisville airport. I needed to get to the airport two hours early to get checked in because it takes longer with the security being beefed up at the airports since 9/11. I flew from Louisville to Chicago (one hour and five minutes) and then flew non-stop to Beijing (12 hours and twenty five minutes). Because we pass the international dateline, we “lose” one day. My twelve-hour flight really costs me twenty-five hours in time on my watch. After arriving in Beijing we will have a layover of four hours and then we will fly to the Xiang province, in the middle of the country (kind of where Kansas is located in the USA). So, my flight from Louisville left Wednesday at 10:00 AM and we arrived at our hotel on Thursday evening at 11:15 PM. Whew!
The security in the all of the airports was extremely tight. In China, we went through three checkpoints and had my picture taken twice. I attempted to take a picture at the customs area and a security person very quickly waved me off from taking pictures in that area. At the airport we ate as a group and were served a traditional Chinese. The meal had five different types of noodles and meat with each being a bit spicier than the first round. We were also served dumplings and eggrolls. Water is not served with meals unless it is requested. Then, it is advised to drink bottled water only. But, hot water is served with your meal if requested as well as tea. I bet Mr. Hartmann would like the restaurant here more than he enjoys El Charro!!
There are 40 administrators here with my group for the next week. They are mostly Superintendents, about half, and the rest are principals, assistant principals and teachers. It is a very diversified group. This group of educators represents the states of Indiana, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts. They are a nice group and I look forward to discussing with them different things they are doing at their schools that can help us increase student achievement at HPSA!
While we were walking to our last flight in the Beijing airport, get this, I saw the TALLEST man in the WORLD! This gentleman must have been at least 8’6” tall and he apparently was going somewhere by plane. He was absolutely huge! He easily could have reached up and touched the TOP of the SQUARE on a basketball goal. Students, look up where the tallest man in the world lives and you will find he is from China. I have a picture I will send and hopefully it will come through the email. That was really something.
When we arrive at our hotel in the city of Xian, it was 11:15 PM local time or about 10:15 AM Evansville time. The city of Xian is called the “Birthplace of China”. There have been many Dynasties that had their beginnings here and the city wall is centuries old. The ruler of the Terra Cotta soldiers who also commissioned the Great Wall to be built, had his beginnings here. Hopefully I will be able to send some pictures for you to view as I will be getting a first hand look at the incredible historical beginnings of the Chinese culture and people. Thanks to Mr. Hartmann for all his working in setting up this blog and getting the material for you to view. PUMA students…work hard in school and remember the Simple Six!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Evansville Courier & Press prints the story! Click here to see the April 6 article.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/apr/06/chinese-lesson-plan/
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/apr/06/chinese-lesson-plan/
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Schedule
Here is my itinerary.
Wednesday, April 7 - Departure from the U.S
Friday, April 9 - The City Wall and South Gate Tower with bicycle tour, the Museum of Forest of Steles, Hot Pot Lunch, the Big Goose Pagoda, the History Museum, a Dumpling Banquet and show.
Saturday, April 10 - Huatang Hot Springs, the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum, workshop with various Chinese handy craft making.
Sunday, April 11 - Visit Pangliu School. Lunch at farmers’ homes. Afternoon: Return to the city and see the Mosque and Bazaar, along with a traditional house complex. Evening: Muslim dinner by the Bell Tower
Monday, April 12 - Visit Huixian Art Gallery with exhibits of the peasant paintings and the art village with a painter’s home. Depart from Xian to Beijing
Tuesday, April 13 - Visit Ministry of Education: Basic Education Reform and Development with Mr. Yu Changxue, Director, Ministry of Education Migration Children’s Education and Professor Li Renzhu, National Education Development and Research Center
Wednesday, April 14 - Visit National Day School: Chinese Principals’ Roles in School Management; Teachers’ Selection, Education and Evaluation; School Curriculum Design and Students’ Evaluation; Students’ Moral, Psychological and Physical Education
Thursday, April 15 - Visit Beijng Normal University - Topic：Chinese Society Change and its impact on Chinese Education system; Presenter: Prof Wang Yingjie, Past Vice President of Beijing Normal University
Friday, April 16 - Visit the Great Wall (Mutianyu)
Saturday, April 17 - Temple of Heaven; Leave for Shadowing Schools
April 18 - 22 - Shadowing at host schools
Wednesday, April 7 - Departure from the U.S
Friday, April 9 - The City Wall and South Gate Tower with bicycle tour, the Museum of Forest of Steles, Hot Pot Lunch, the Big Goose Pagoda, the History Museum, a Dumpling Banquet and show.
Saturday, April 10 - Huatang Hot Springs, the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum, workshop with various Chinese handy craft making.
Sunday, April 11 - Visit Pangliu School. Lunch at farmers’ homes. Afternoon: Return to the city and see the Mosque and Bazaar, along with a traditional house complex. Evening: Muslim dinner by the Bell Tower
Monday, April 12 - Visit Huixian Art Gallery with exhibits of the peasant paintings and the art village with a painter’s home. Depart from Xian to Beijing
Tuesday, April 13 - Visit Ministry of Education: Basic Education Reform and Development with Mr. Yu Changxue, Director, Ministry of Education Migration Children’s Education and Professor Li Renzhu, National Education Development and Research Center
Wednesday, April 14 - Visit National Day School: Chinese Principals’ Roles in School Management; Teachers’ Selection, Education and Evaluation; School Curriculum Design and Students’ Evaluation; Students’ Moral, Psychological and Physical Education
Thursday, April 15 - Visit Beijng Normal University - Topic：Chinese Society Change and its impact on Chinese Education system; Presenter: Prof Wang Yingjie, Past Vice President of Beijing Normal University
Friday, April 16 - Visit the Great Wall (Mutianyu)
Saturday, April 17 - Temple of Heaven; Leave for Shadowing Schools
April 18 - 22 - Shadowing at host schools
Mr. McIntosh's visit to China!
Welcome to the Helfrich Park Cultural Exchange Program Blog. With these pages, I will document my experiences in visiting China as a representative of the United States and principal of Helfrich Park STEM Academy.
Helfrich Park, home of the PUMAS, possesses a rich tradition in academics, athletics and activities for our students to become involved with and excel in. Our staff of experts in the areas of academics, counseling, media, culinary and maintenance provide the very best instruction and care for students. Great efforts are given to address the individual needs of all students and in return, students are expected to perform at their very best academically, socially, and physically.
Our school motto is "Committed to Excellence" ! We as a staff strive to model that belief in thoughts and deed daily. Our goal is to assist each individual student to take advantage of the many opportunities they have available at Helfrich Park Middle School.
Helfrich Park, home of the PUMAS, possesses a rich tradition in academics, athletics and activities for our students to become involved with and excel in. Our staff of experts in the areas of academics, counseling, media, culinary and maintenance provide the very best instruction and care for students. Great efforts are given to address the individual needs of all students and in return, students are expected to perform at their very best academically, socially, and physically.
Our school motto is "Committed to Excellence" ! We as a staff strive to model that belief in thoughts and deed daily. Our goal is to assist each individual student to take advantage of the many opportunities they have available at Helfrich Park Middle School.
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