Our School, Etc

So, now that I have written a bit about our life here, I need to tell you about the reason we actually came here in the first place; to teach!

A few details: Our school is called “Nan Yang Model High School” and has about 1400 students from grades 10-12. The school is over 100 years old, but obviously the building is not that old. In the BC offshore school program we have 47 grade 10 students, randomly divided into two classes, called 10A and 10B. They have all come from different schools to be a part of this program, so none of them know each other very well yet… but I’m sure that will change very quickly! Our program has six 40-minute blocks each day, and Andrew and I each teach 4 of those and have 2 off for prep time and supporting other teachers. After the six blocks, the kids carry on with three more classes in Mandarin (obviously not taught by us!).

The kids are absolutely lovely. So far they are quiet, respectful, hard-working, and eager to learn- model students! I’m sure it’ll change a bit once they are more comfortable with each other and with speaking English, but for now this is a VERY welcome change to a lot of the kids we have taught back in Canada. One challenge is to get them to speak only English at school. Of course this is difficult for most of them whose English is limited, but so far we’re keeping on top of it- they need tons of reminders, but it’s the only way they’ll improve.

"My students doing the Human Knot on the first day to get to know each other up close and personal!"

"One of our two classrooms a couple days before school started.  Sorry this picture is kinda dark, but you can see a little bit that the walls have been freshly painted blue and yellow, and there are hardwood floors.  The teacher and his/her desk stands on a kind of little stage (see to the right where the desk is a bit higher)."

"View from one of our classroom windows- very pleasant!  We are on the 4th floor so it's quite a hike up every morning (when we're already really sweaty from walking to school in the humid heat)- no complaints though; at least it's not cold and raining like another place we know!  See the skyscrapers nearby?  You're never far from them here in Shanghai!"

Yesterday (Sept 1st) was the first day of school here. It began with a massive opening ceremony out on the sports field. All 1400 students, neatly dressed in their uniforms, were arranged in perfect lines of about 50 on the field. They all stood quietly through-out the entire program and didn’t make a peep! They didn’t even whisper to each other, poke each other, scratch itches, turn around, etc. Amazing! Their teachers all stood directly behind them and kept watchful eyes on them. The only disturbance was a few students fainting from the heat, despite it only being 7:45am. (Shanghai is about equal in latitude to northern Mexico, so it’s pretty far south compared to what we’re used to. The weather is around 30 degrees with a ton of humidity. Luckily we have air conditioning in our house, classrooms, and office.) The opening ceremony included a march to the flagpole, the raising of the flag to the national anthem, and many speeches from the big outdoor stage, including introducing us Canadian teachers (I felt like the president waving at so many people from high up on the stage!), urging the kids to work hard this year, and the “swearin- in oath” taken by all the Chinese teachers who are new to the school this year. Over all, it was quite the production with much fanfare and triumphant classical music.

"Marching in with the flag during the opening ceremony"

"Watching the opening ceremony: Andrew, Ron & Terry (our school's principal and his wife the English teacher from Maple Ridge), and Kate- our terrific Chinese co-worker"

"Harvey and Andrew.  Harvey is our real boss who is the owner and founder of the company that has hired us to teach here in China- he's a great guy and has been fantastic to work for so far"

There are quite a few differences in terms of teaching practices here. One of the most surprising ones is the use of paper. The school was shocked that we Canadian teachers have asked for computers, a printer, and a photocopier. Apparently, most Chinese teachers here just lecture for the entire class and the students take notes into little notebooks that are the size of what grade 1s would use in Canada. Then they go home and memorize it- that’s school here. Of course we’re used to making up worksheets and photocopying enough copies for each of the students. At first the school said they wouldn’t buy us a printer or photocopier, but that instead, if we gave them a copy of whatever we wanted, they’d go photocopy it for us somewhere. So we devised a plan of attack: we decided that we would make them photocopy SO much stuff that they’d get tired of it, give in, and buy us a copier. I’m happy to report that after only two days (and hundreds of copies later), our plan has worked!! The photocopier was installed just down the hall this morning and the printer is being installed in our office as I write this- yahoo!

"Us outside our new office a couple days before school started- see the sign behind our heads?"

"Inside our office- there are about 13 little cubicles in here; 3 for us Canadian teachers, and the rest are all for other Chinese teachers.  My desk is right by the window and Andrew's is one up from mine- it sure is nice to be desk-mates with my husband!"

"School's basketball playing courts- these are FULL at lunch time as b-ball is a super popular sport here, especially since there's a massive Chinese guy who's a basketball STAR at the moment- Yao Min (he plays for the Houston Rockets)."

"And finally, we've got Andrew posing in the school's garden- pretty nice, don't you think?  There are little tables you can eat at in here and it's all really well cared for- we love our school so far!"