July 28 - Observing Middle School in Bijie

Ni Hao, Dear Blog Readers,

It is almost midnight here, and just minutes before the 11th birthday of my daughter Annelise. I am saddened that I will not be able to spend her special day with her. She is going to celebrate by going to Michigan's Adventure and trying out as many water rides as she can. For those of you who know me, you know that Annelise is a miracle child every single day. We were told, when she was a toddler, that she would never read, never write her name. She was failure to thrive as a baby, so many of the links between synapses in the brain that are supposed to happen quite naturally as one grows did not happen with her when they should have.

We are elated that we did not simply listen to the gloomy prognosis given to us by the experts. Today, she is able to read and to write, but these tasks are often very difficult for her. She is an absolute joy for her teachers in school, as she will never give up and is always willing to try her best. She is truly a child being raised by a village of phenomenal teachers and family members.

To celebrate her upcoming autumn move from elementary school to the 5/6 building, we asked all of her teachers and para-professionals, since she was one year old, to come over for a "thanks" party in June. We are so very grateful to all the people who have helped her along her journey... So, happy birthday, dear Annelise!!! You are the most compassionate, caring person I know. I learn from you every single day. We have lots of cuddling to make up for when I get home...

Back to Bijie...

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of visiting and teaching at No. 2 Middle School in Bijie City. The headmaster was very welcoming and pleased that we were able to attend one of the Saturday sessions. There are about 500 students in the school for these weekend classes. This is approximately 50% of the school population. The parents have enrolled their children in these summer sessions to help them learn English better and to help prepare them for upcoming exams.Nancy and I observed a one hour class first.

The lesson focused on "humour, " spelled the British way, as many words here are spelled. They talked about comedians, funny television shows, clowns, jokes, and something called "crosstalk." The best we could figure was that "cross-talk artists" are probably talk show hosts, like Jay Leno or David Letterman, who interview a guest, bringing out a great deal of humor in the process. The lesson followed the format in their workbooks, which asked them to think about the kinds of performances they like that include humor. These were listed on the board as the students contributed.

All students rise when called upon, and they all spoke in very, very soft voices. The teacher would repeat their answer and then record the words on the board. The lesson focused on two new words for the day: clown and comedy sketch. They practiced the pronunciation of the words in a chant style, as is very traditional in many foreign language classrooms. The teacher was pleased to congratulate a student when a correct response was given. Sometimes, the student gave an answer that did not move in the direction the teacher was trying to go with the lesson. Or, the student gave a response that the teacher could not make sense of... When this happened, the teacher would say, "I can't understand what you wanted to tell me. This is not a good answer."

She introduced a little competition into the lesson as they covered the tongue twister of the day: Betty bought some bitter butter, etc... The competition was between herself and the students. She would say the tongue twister and then have individual students repeat the phrase. If they could say if a bit faster and a bit more precisely, they were the winners. The award for winning was a smiling face drawn on the chalkboard. The students became very animated during this game , and seemed very excited about competing with their teacher for the smiling face. As several students, individually, spoke the tongue twister when they were called upon, the teacher kept winning the smiling face. However, she called on one student who was able to say the twister faster and with more pointed pronunciation. "I am sorry," she told the student. "I can't say it as well as you. You are the winner!" The class appluaded and the student received a smiling face on the board. The teacher, under her column, drew a sad face with tears.

Near the end of the hour, students were instructed to open their workbooks again and take a look at the writing assignment. Their job, as homework, was to prepare a funny story. They were instructed to use their imagine (imagination) to prepare the funny story. They were also given a couple minutes at the end of class to look at the funny pictures in their workbooks to provide some humor inspiration.

To be honest, the lesson was not what I had anticipated. Based on my classroom visits in Nepal, in which the students had similar workbooks, the lessons were always rooted in grammar drills. There was a grammar component to the Humor Lesson in their workbook, but she ran out of time. The scheduled grammar drill was to focus on object complements in sentences. I believe this lesson will be continued on Sunday.

I was impressed with several things. Classroom management was excellent, even though the teacher had 56 students in the class. There were several young men crammed three onto one bench that spent most of the class staring out the window toward the mountains, but most of the students were focused and moved along with the lesson. I was also impressed that the information, both concepts and related vocabulary, were thematically based. The teacher livened up a very straight-forward lesson in the workbook by introducing the tongue twister competition, too. After observing the lesson, I was escorted to another classroom to teach. I had the time of my life with these students, which I will tell you about in the next blog entry!

If you are reading this blog on the East Lansing Schools site, I'd like to suggest that you check out the blog on another site, too: www.mariannechina08.blogspot.com/. I was finally able to send some photos home, and my husband has loaded some of them onto the blog. Please know that even though I am very busy here, I welcome your email. It always gets a bit lonely late in the evening, and it is good to hear from friends back in America. I haven't watched a lick of television in over a month, and I don't miss it a bit. The only show I really miss is "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". There are no English language papers here, either, so I am truly out of the loop with national and international news - both fake and real.

And so it goes...

I'm enjoying this special time to really focus entirely on the teaching. Until we meet again, in person or in this blog sharing, I hope you will embrace those you love. My students exude the power of love both in life and in the classroom. Today, my student Cindy wrote the following in our Dialogue Journals: "My students are very clever, some of them are also naughty. But I will try to change them, especially change their bad habits with my love. I believe that love is full of energy. In my mind, if you are a teacher, you should love your job, including love your students. Teaching is a special job. You will face all kinds of students. They are not animals, not objects. So, you should love the students." Words of wisdom from a very young teacher.

And, I had fresh mango today, too! How can I keep from singing?