Looks like China caught wind of my proxy and now I'm only able to get patchy access to my favourite websites: facebook, blogspot, and youtube. Freedom of access facebook should be a basic human right!
I'm starting to settle into my teaching rhythm, just in time for a holiday. I can't wait to see the pandas in Chengdu and go hiking in the beautiful scenic area of JiuZhaiGou. Anita and I fly out on Sunday night and get back again on Friday so that we have a weekend to relax before school starts again. I've had a touch of the flu lately and with the whole H1N1 scare, I had to get a checkup at the school's clinic. Thankfully I don't have a fever, so I'm still clear to teach, but many schools around the world are closing their doors for a while until the swine flu starts to clear. Even Maple Leaf in Wuhan is closed for the week, so I keep wondering if our turn will come too.
I'm trying as much as possible to turn lemons into lemonade with our extra homeroom block. Last week we had fun playing Balderdash and this week we read a current Time article about China's growth over the last 60 years and its current role in global economics and politics. The girls were surprisingly well-informed and able to discuss both China's achievements and the costs of growth over the past 60 years. Reading the article I learned many things I didn't know before, like that
* China has the third largest GNP and is set to overtake Japan in 2010
* China is the first major economy to recover from the global recession
* The communist party helped pull 200 million people out of poverty
* China operates on a model of quasi-state capatalism and semidemocratic authoritarianism (whatever that means)
* China makes two-thirds of the worlds photocopiers, microwaves, and shoes
* China has 2,100 peacekeeping troops in over a dozen nations - more than any other member of the UN security council
But at the same time,
* Pollution is among the highest in the world, which leads to 28.5% of deaths due to malignant cancer and 13.1% from respiratory disease
* 207 million people still live on less than $1.25 per day (poverty is really evident in JinShiTan in the migrant workers who built this campus and the people living in the villages. Many people are being relocated from their small brick farming homes in the countryside to the apartments so the land can be developed. For the elderly, the dramatic change can be traumatic and we've been witnessing a lot of funeral processions in Manjiatan.)
* Income disparity is among the highest in the world (which in some ways I'm propagating by teaching the upper echlons of society)
I took the opportunity to talk with my class about the work our Maple Leaf Angels club plans to do this year. Last year we fundraised and bought winter clothing and shoes for orphans. We volunteered at the orphanage a number of times and hope to do so again this year. We also want to visit the local public schools and set up a buddy/English reading program. I told the girls that it's not just the responsibility of the government to make change, but that individuals can make a difference in the world. I tried to show them that making a lot of money, getting into the best universities, and getting a great career wouldn't necessarily make them happy or fulfilled, but most of the girls seemed skeptical. There is a general feeling that wealth will solve problems and bring fulfillment.
As we prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the PRC, I encouraged the students to celebrate how far China has come, but at the same time to keep in mind the current challenges and how they might be able to address them. I urged them to connect with their families during the holiday and learn the personal stories and history of their parents and grandparents. Here are some amazing pictures of preparations for the celebrations in Beijing:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/china_prepares_for_its_60th_an.html
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Fall of my Discontent
There is a general sense of disenchantment hanging in the atmosphere at Maple Leaf this year, which even manages to flap my unflappable optimism. Maybe these sentiments have simply been exacerbated by the twelve-and-a-half-hour workday I put in yesterday and I'm sure I'll find some relief after our week-long trip to Chengdu coming up September 27.
It all starting with a tantalizing, yet elusive carrot dangled before our noses. We had planned to start this year with professional learning communities - a block built into our weekly schedule for small-scale local pro-d. This was intended to go hand-in-hand with a laptop program which would equip each student with one computer so that they would be able to use language programs to improve their English while we were in our learning communities. This plan is still pending approval and is now set to begin in February, so for the first two terms, the admin adjusted the schedule to Plan B. This plan was brilliant in theory, but impossible to implement in practice. We have five 75-minute blocks every day, and the kids take nine different classes. We alternate between day 1 and day 2 on Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday respectively, while Fridays alternate every other week between day 1 and day 2. We teach 6 of the 9 blocks and get 3 blocks of prep time. So you might be wondering what happens to the tenth block? At first, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon was scheduled tutorial time. Our tutorials were actually built into the timetable. I naively thought this was wonderful and scheduled my tutorials for the end of Tuesday and Wednesday lunch. My schedule is a little unbalanced this year since all my prep blocks are on Monday and Wednesday, whereas I teach straight through Tuesday and Thursday. I still put my tutorial on Tuesday, just to ensure I would never need to stay after school for tutorial. The trouble was that after the first week, it was evident that most students were not attending tutorials, so there were a lot of unsupervised kids running around, which really didn't please the Chinese administration. In comes the sudden change of plans. Instead of tutorials and the end of the day on Tuesday/Thursday, now we need to hold classes with our flag-ceremony homeroom kids in order to ensure that every student is in a class. This year Sherman Jen hired a bunch of experts to help us with English enhancement across the curriculum. So in our previous tutorial blocks, now each of us teaches an English enhancement lesson. We are provided with a lesson plan, but the trouble is that it's the same lesson plan for ESL students who have barely learned a hundred words, to the grade 12 zhou en lai class who are studying words like fallaciloquence for the SAT. Last class, the students spent 75 minutes making flashcards.
The trouble is that now I've had to move my tutorial block to afterschool (while I kept the Wednesday one at lunch time). So here's what happened yesterday: wake up at 5 am to shower early so that the hot water recovers enough for Anita's 6:30 am shower (our hot water lasts about 10-15 minutes and then takes about an hour to recover), go to school at 6 to prep/mark, start teaching Math 10 at 7:40-8:55, 15-minute break spent answering student questions, Math 10 again from 9:10-10:25, 25-minute flag break spent answering questions and checking dBabble, Math 12 from 10:50-12:05, lunch spent in a Math 11 meeting, Math 12 again 1:00-2:15, homeroom block making flashcards 2:30-3:45, afterschool tutorial typically 3:45-4:45, but this time I had to invigilate exams for kids who claim to already have credit for math courses completed in other countries so tutorial went until 6:30 pm. Come home too exhausted to eat dinner (but still managed to heat up some pepper steak and mashed potatoes, mmm :)
Aparently these homeroom-tutorials are supposed to last only until the September holiday and the admin is looking for ways to improve the situation. There have been rumours that we might return to the old timetable of seven 50-minute blocks per day, but that wouldn't provide enough break time between classes for teachers to run back and forth between the two campuses. Rodi, for example, teaches boys on the fifth floor, then girls (a five-minute trot across the somewhat dangerous street) on the four floor, then boys again on the 5th, girls on the 4th, boys on the 5th and finally girls on the 4th. She will be so fit by the end of the year!
Money is tight in the Maple Leaf system this year after the expansion of the school buildings despite declining enrollment. Teachers on the boy's campus need to account for every whiteboard marker they use (for me, these whiteboard markers run out after two blocks of teaching). I've been trying for weeks to get a key to my console so I can use my projector like I did for lessons last year, but I wasn't able to get it until yesterday. I was elated to open my console, only to find that the wiring hasn't been completed yet. This means I need to rewrite all my lessons from last year and that I'm going through exponentially more whiteboard markers.
The one positive thing is the Maple Leaf people. We're all in this together and somehow the trials only strengthen our bonds. I don't blame the admin team - they're a wonderful bunch, but it's just difficult to find compromises and solutions within this Chinese/Canadian system. There's still so much segregation between the two cultures - it would be so nice if we worked together more. Here's hoping that all the wrinkles will get ironed out soon!
It all starting with a tantalizing, yet elusive carrot dangled before our noses. We had planned to start this year with professional learning communities - a block built into our weekly schedule for small-scale local pro-d. This was intended to go hand-in-hand with a laptop program which would equip each student with one computer so that they would be able to use language programs to improve their English while we were in our learning communities. This plan is still pending approval and is now set to begin in February, so for the first two terms, the admin adjusted the schedule to Plan B. This plan was brilliant in theory, but impossible to implement in practice. We have five 75-minute blocks every day, and the kids take nine different classes. We alternate between day 1 and day 2 on Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday respectively, while Fridays alternate every other week between day 1 and day 2. We teach 6 of the 9 blocks and get 3 blocks of prep time. So you might be wondering what happens to the tenth block? At first, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon was scheduled tutorial time. Our tutorials were actually built into the timetable. I naively thought this was wonderful and scheduled my tutorials for the end of Tuesday and Wednesday lunch. My schedule is a little unbalanced this year since all my prep blocks are on Monday and Wednesday, whereas I teach straight through Tuesday and Thursday. I still put my tutorial on Tuesday, just to ensure I would never need to stay after school for tutorial. The trouble was that after the first week, it was evident that most students were not attending tutorials, so there were a lot of unsupervised kids running around, which really didn't please the Chinese administration. In comes the sudden change of plans. Instead of tutorials and the end of the day on Tuesday/Thursday, now we need to hold classes with our flag-ceremony homeroom kids in order to ensure that every student is in a class. This year Sherman Jen hired a bunch of experts to help us with English enhancement across the curriculum. So in our previous tutorial blocks, now each of us teaches an English enhancement lesson. We are provided with a lesson plan, but the trouble is that it's the same lesson plan for ESL students who have barely learned a hundred words, to the grade 12 zhou en lai class who are studying words like fallaciloquence for the SAT. Last class, the students spent 75 minutes making flashcards.
The trouble is that now I've had to move my tutorial block to afterschool (while I kept the Wednesday one at lunch time). So here's what happened yesterday: wake up at 5 am to shower early so that the hot water recovers enough for Anita's 6:30 am shower (our hot water lasts about 10-15 minutes and then takes about an hour to recover), go to school at 6 to prep/mark, start teaching Math 10 at 7:40-8:55, 15-minute break spent answering student questions, Math 10 again from 9:10-10:25, 25-minute flag break spent answering questions and checking dBabble, Math 12 from 10:50-12:05, lunch spent in a Math 11 meeting, Math 12 again 1:00-2:15, homeroom block making flashcards 2:30-3:45, afterschool tutorial typically 3:45-4:45, but this time I had to invigilate exams for kids who claim to already have credit for math courses completed in other countries so tutorial went until 6:30 pm. Come home too exhausted to eat dinner (but still managed to heat up some pepper steak and mashed potatoes, mmm :)
Aparently these homeroom-tutorials are supposed to last only until the September holiday and the admin is looking for ways to improve the situation. There have been rumours that we might return to the old timetable of seven 50-minute blocks per day, but that wouldn't provide enough break time between classes for teachers to run back and forth between the two campuses. Rodi, for example, teaches boys on the fifth floor, then girls (a five-minute trot across the somewhat dangerous street) on the four floor, then boys again on the 5th, girls on the 4th, boys on the 5th and finally girls on the 4th. She will be so fit by the end of the year!
Money is tight in the Maple Leaf system this year after the expansion of the school buildings despite declining enrollment. Teachers on the boy's campus need to account for every whiteboard marker they use (for me, these whiteboard markers run out after two blocks of teaching). I've been trying for weeks to get a key to my console so I can use my projector like I did for lessons last year, but I wasn't able to get it until yesterday. I was elated to open my console, only to find that the wiring hasn't been completed yet. This means I need to rewrite all my lessons from last year and that I'm going through exponentially more whiteboard markers.
The one positive thing is the Maple Leaf people. We're all in this together and somehow the trials only strengthen our bonds. I don't blame the admin team - they're a wonderful bunch, but it's just difficult to find compromises and solutions within this Chinese/Canadian system. There's still so much segregation between the two cultures - it would be so nice if we worked together more. Here's hoping that all the wrinkles will get ironed out soon!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Teacher's Day
We celebrated teacher's day last week and we were serenaded by the whole student body in the school's rotunda. The girls sang a heart-rending rendition of "We Think of You" and showered their teachers with notes, cards, and flowers. Even though the new girl's campus still has some technical difficulties, I have to say that it is a beautiful building. And our offices our completely decked out with cupboards, drawers, and really comfy chairs.
This weekend the weather was gorgeous. After worship practice, Anita, Sophia, and I went to watch the sunset in Labour Park. We took the gondola up to the top and absorbed the beautiful views of the city. Afterwards we had dinner at a Korean restaurant and I took off to complete my survey. I'm getting paid by a Swiss company to research the costs of tons of items in Dalian so that they can provide information about the cost of living in various cities around the world. It's interesting for me to find the prices of everything, but it's a lot more work than I was expecting. And some things like dishwasher soap and breaded fish sticks are just impossible to find. It's due today, so I'm just going to send in as much as I've finished and hopefully they won't ask me to keep working on it. I was lucky this time because the survey led me to the Shangri-La hotel. I felt odd just wandering in and writing down prices, so I sat in the cafe and ordered a delicious cheesecake for dessert while I perused the menu and surreptitiously recorded the cost of food, drink, fitness club membership, tennis courts, and hotel rooms. While I worked, I enjoyed a live piano/flute/cello trio playing the classics. It was just like home :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Gong shows
I witnessed two gong shows this year so far.
The first was at the drum tower in Xi'an this July. It was a gong show in the literal sense of the phrase and actually a lot less chaotic and more musical experience than I was expecting.
The second, the construction of the new girls' campus in Jinshitan, was a complete gong show in the figurative sense of the phrase. The only unchaotic thing about this gong show was that we were all expecting it. When we arrived in Dalian, one week before classes were to begin, the girls' campus wasn't even close to ready yet. The poor new teachers were housed in a smelly hotel in Jinshitan with no drinking water or laundry supplies, while the returning teachers got their old apartments back or bunked with friends. I've been sharing a bed with Anjali for the past week (and enjoying every minute of it :) In some sense it was nice to get the extra bonding time before the school year started. Classes started on Monday and we were still hauling over textbooks and office supplies on Friday and the weekend. When we carried things over on Friday, migrant workers were still living in bunks in the classrooms. Walking into the textbook room, I was surprised to see ten men standing around their bunk beds, half clothed, smoking cigarettes. I complimented them on their buff arms and offered them twenty kwai to help us lug the heavy books up three flights of stairs, and they willingly helped us out. I was shocked that everything was completed by Monday and we were able to have the first day of school. The classrooms are still incredibly dusty and dirty and every day a new road is paved and a new peice of equipment is installed. On Tuesday, I noticed a strange odor (which is totally normal in China) and then saw that one of the pipes was smoking and an electrical fire had started in the hallway between my classroom and my office. One of the teachers tried to pull all the fire alarms, but none of them worked, so we had to evacuate the kids by rounding them up and escorting them outside. On the weekend, they're going to cut electricity to the building, so hopefully that means the problems will be repaired and we won't have any more electrical fires in the near future. At the rate this school was built, it's no surprise that there are some problems. Anjali moved into her new apartment yesterday and I'm jealous of her bathtub, kitchen cupboards and counters, and a laundry machine that she doesn't have to drag from one room to another. However, they only have one hot plate to cook food on and the places are tiny and still very dusty. I'm happy to be staying on the boys' side with Anita, since there are no two-bedroom places on the other side.
I love my classes so far and I'm looking forward to getting to know my 170 girls. But most of all, I'm looking forward to the day when the dust settles, literally, and the new campus starts to feel like home.
The first was at the drum tower in Xi'an this July. It was a gong show in the literal sense of the phrase and actually a lot less chaotic and more musical experience than I was expecting.
The second, the construction of the new girls' campus in Jinshitan, was a complete gong show in the figurative sense of the phrase. The only unchaotic thing about this gong show was that we were all expecting it. When we arrived in Dalian, one week before classes were to begin, the girls' campus wasn't even close to ready yet. The poor new teachers were housed in a smelly hotel in Jinshitan with no drinking water or laundry supplies, while the returning teachers got their old apartments back or bunked with friends. I've been sharing a bed with Anjali for the past week (and enjoying every minute of it :) In some sense it was nice to get the extra bonding time before the school year started. Classes started on Monday and we were still hauling over textbooks and office supplies on Friday and the weekend. When we carried things over on Friday, migrant workers were still living in bunks in the classrooms. Walking into the textbook room, I was surprised to see ten men standing around their bunk beds, half clothed, smoking cigarettes. I complimented them on their buff arms and offered them twenty kwai to help us lug the heavy books up three flights of stairs, and they willingly helped us out. I was shocked that everything was completed by Monday and we were able to have the first day of school. The classrooms are still incredibly dusty and dirty and every day a new road is paved and a new peice of equipment is installed. On Tuesday, I noticed a strange odor (which is totally normal in China) and then saw that one of the pipes was smoking and an electrical fire had started in the hallway between my classroom and my office. One of the teachers tried to pull all the fire alarms, but none of them worked, so we had to evacuate the kids by rounding them up and escorting them outside. On the weekend, they're going to cut electricity to the building, so hopefully that means the problems will be repaired and we won't have any more electrical fires in the near future. At the rate this school was built, it's no surprise that there are some problems. Anjali moved into her new apartment yesterday and I'm jealous of her bathtub, kitchen cupboards and counters, and a laundry machine that she doesn't have to drag from one room to another. However, they only have one hot plate to cook food on and the places are tiny and still very dusty. I'm happy to be staying on the boys' side with Anita, since there are no two-bedroom places on the other side.
I love my classes so far and I'm looking forward to getting to know my 170 girls. But most of all, I'm looking forward to the day when the dust settles, literally, and the new campus starts to feel like home.
Can't seem to post
I don't know why, but I'm having trouble posting. My last post worked just fine, but all other attempts are not working. Maybe it's because of the content I'm trying to post...
The Great F*rewall of Ch*na
It's the beginning of another adventurous year at Dalian Maple Leaf International School. I'm finally able to post on this blog again after being bl*cked for months by the Great F*rewall of Ch*na. It all started with the 20th ann*vers*ry of Ti*n*nm*n Squ*re last school year. The ri*ts in Ur*mqi didn't help. So many sites have been bl*cked since: B*C, yo*t*be, blog sites and fac*book. I've tried a number of onl*ne pr*xies which have all slowly been bl*cked as well. After several frustrating attempts to break through, I finally found one that works, but I'm not going to divulge information about it lest it too be bl*cked and I once again fall off the map of cyberspace.
I spent July traveling around China with my parents. We had a wonderful time touring Xi'an, Beijing, Dandong, and spending a lot of time at home in Dalian. It was great to see China through my parents' eyes - it felt a lot like being here for the first time again. Here are some excerpts from my mom's journal:
I had the time of my life when I got back to Canada. On the day I landed, I went out for all-you-can-eat-sushi, watched Les Mis at the art's club, walked around UBC, had dinner at the Fairmont Airport, drank coffee at Starbucks, and shopped on Granville. I made sure to do everything that I love about Vancouver summers: Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver Art Gallery, kayaking at Granville Island, the planetarium, hiking at Mt Baker, walking the seawall, fireworks at English Bay, and spending time with friends and family.
Mandarin lessons are calling. More updates to come...
I spent July traveling around China with my parents. We had a wonderful time touring Xi'an, Beijing, Dandong, and spending a lot of time at home in Dalian. It was great to see China through my parents' eyes - it felt a lot like being here for the first time again. Here are some excerpts from my mom's journal:
"There is understandably a widespread fear of the swine flu virus. Before we were allowed to disembark from the airplane we were all given a temperature test, a quick swipe on the forehead. At the airport we were again given the test by young men and women smartly dressed in white shirts. All of them wore masks and looked very serious. They had badges on their sleeves that said “Police”. At Tianamen square we saw another group of young men and women wearing white shirts, but their badges read “security”. We know the people who work for the government are the privileged ones, probably envied, admired, hated, and feared by ordinary people"
"Going on the bus from the airport to city centre was great. The seats were clean with white covers at the head area. The highways looked strangely similar to our North American highways. The round signs reminded me of Europe. I was surprised by the greenery, the flowers and the trees. It seems the Chinese are serious about encouraging and preserving their natural beauty.
Going from the bus to our hotel was another story. We wanted a taxi and before we could get our bearings we were approached by a taxi driver. Thinking he drove the regular taxis we had seen on the streets, we accepted his offer, only to be taken to a beige car in an alley that didn’t look like a taxi at all. It was clean, though, and the seats were, as usual, covered with removable fabric. The driver insisted on carrying our bags but I think he got more than he bargained for. His grimaces spoke louder than words. He wasn’t a big man and the suitcases were weighted down by Catherine’s refried beans, canned cherries for black forest cakes, piano books, Body Shop shower gels, shaving cream and more. The handles were straining under the excess weight and I wondered if the suitcases might fall apart under the demands placed on the leather. They were old Samsonite suitcases I had bought for Art shortly after we got married. The suitcases survived and I’m sure the driver was glad to be rid of us. We still wonder if the price we paid for the trip was another rip-off. It certainly was a memorable ride through narrow alleys with many near misses and close encounters with other vehicles trying to squeeze by."
I had the time of my life when I got back to Canada. On the day I landed, I went out for all-you-can-eat-sushi, watched Les Mis at the art's club, walked around UBC, had dinner at the Fairmont Airport, drank coffee at Starbucks, and shopped on Granville. I made sure to do everything that I love about Vancouver summers: Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver Art Gallery, kayaking at Granville Island, the planetarium, hiking at Mt Baker, walking the seawall, fireworks at English Bay, and spending time with friends and family.
Mandarin lessons are calling. More updates to come...
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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On Thursday, we slept in a little bit and split up for kayaking and rafting. Anita and I took a rickety old van with no shocks for a half-hour ride over bumpy dirt roads in the countryside until we got to the river. Anita and I each got our own kayak and started paddling down the Li river. The current was so strong that we hardly had to propel our boats. It was so peaceful and relaxing to be out on the water. The river was quiet and secluded - there were only two other kayakers and one Chinese man carrying our backpacks on his motor-raft. We could only hear the sounds of the birds and the breeze through the trees. I kept seeing interesting things on both banks of the river, so I would quickly zigzag across and stop to take pictures of ducks, fishing boats and water buffalo. After the two-and-a-half hour ride, we ended up in a tiny village and decided to explore. We wandered into a small courtyard where we stumbled upon a Chinese retirement community. It was like we had stepped into a completely different era - pictures of Mao hung in many buildings and the people seemed cut off from the outside world. One elderly lady invited us into her small one-room home for oranges and conversation. She lived in the small room with her two grandsons and shared bathroom, shower, and kitchen facilities with the rest of the community. Talking with her was interesting and thankfully Anita was there to translate. When I was talking with Anita in English, the elderly lady commented that my accent was interesting - that she could understand Anita when she spoke, but that she couldn't understand my dialect. Surprisingly she had never heard of God or the United States. Her son and daughter-in-law worked in the rice fields in the mountains far outside the city, so she rarely saw them. She provided us with such wonderful hospitality, even though she had so little herself.
In the evening, we met up with SuiKi and Anjali again for one last night of shopping on the busting tourist streets before retiring early in preparation for our crack-of-dawn flight back to Dalian. It was a completely relaxing and invigorating vacation!
In the evening, we met up with SuiKi and Anjali again for one last night of shopping on the busting tourist streets before retiring early in preparation for our crack-of-dawn flight back to Dalian. It was a completely relaxing and invigorating vacation!
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