We have been here for two weeks, and while there have been tasks connected to our group that both Hu Laoshi and I have done, we have not been given the opportunity to work with the Chinese students here. Yesterday was when this changed. We have been assigned some sections of reading and writing to a group of very competitively selected students who are part of a British style international program -- a kind of school within a school. Hu Laoshi taught a block yesterday on writing and I sat in on the second part of it as a kibbitzer, so the kids got two teachers' style, etc. Today, I finally got to teach my own class in reading to this same group.
The textbook I was given was a British one, so the article was about British homeschooling, and I found that I was able once again to call upon my training in teaching reading which were mostly from the early part of my career as an educator. Although this is something I have not done recently, I could see how a sort of "sleeper effect" had taken place and the lesson went well, I thought. The text itself was fairly high level, and it will be interesting to see what they do with the assignment I gave them. Their language skills are excellent, but unlike American students, they are a little shy about speaking up, at least just yet. Still in many ways, they are just teenagers.
One guy, who when he introduced himself, told me his name and age, and also said that that he was a "funny person." Funny meaning humorous. At the end of the class, he was the one who asked me if he had to create the T chart of pros and cons from the article I had assigned, or could he just leave his underlining in the text. The T chart, of course, was for them to practice paraphrasing and writing -- all part of reading comprehension in some way. So, here was this guy, in a completely harmless faux "troublemaker" style, trying to sort of get out of a part of the assignment, just like I have seen kids do at home. When I said that aspect of the assignment was not optional, he took it in good humor, again just like a student who was trying to "get out of it" at home would do. It felt good to be in a classroom, actually. I also really tried to talk slowly, which I certainly don't always do at home.
Tomorrow, I begin a series of short classes on American History and culture, and I will continue teaching reading and additional writing sections.
It took a while, from my perspective, to wind all this up and get it going. My personal tempo is a tad rapid, I would say, and while this is sometimes a good thing for me, it may not be the style here with regard to some things. Just like the kids, I continue to learn and adapt. There is a sort of routine here, but our days as teachers have not been highly structured.
Going with the flow? This is one of my lifelong goals, and the number of times in any given timeframe that I have to re-orient myself to this Taoist and Buddhist notion is a great reminder of why meditation is called a "practice." Anyway. I am learning a lot and also calling on so many different aspects of my past experiences to be here. Some of these are visible -- like teaching reading, and some of them are not yet apparent.
Jay Mc Inerny, of "Bright Lights Big City" fame wrote a somewhat uneven novella, really that genre, called "Ransom" about a young American man in Japan in the late 70s. (Yes I know Japan is not China). I have read and re-read this book over the years -- in part because I want the ending to come out differently, I think. One of the things the main character, Ransom, is doing in Japan is taking karate. He finally lands a punch on the top student in his school, and knocks him down, no small feat. The Japanese student he scores on congratulates him on this, and says," All your training went into that punch." That's what it feels like here: "All my 'training'" is required to, at times, just get through my 40 days here, not just teacher training, but all of it.
Hmmm. More to be revealed, doubtless.
The textbook I was given was a British one, so the article was about British homeschooling, and I found that I was able once again to call upon my training in teaching reading which were mostly from the early part of my career as an educator. Although this is something I have not done recently, I could see how a sort of "sleeper effect" had taken place and the lesson went well, I thought. The text itself was fairly high level, and it will be interesting to see what they do with the assignment I gave them. Their language skills are excellent, but unlike American students, they are a little shy about speaking up, at least just yet. Still in many ways, they are just teenagers.
One guy, who when he introduced himself, told me his name and age, and also said that that he was a "funny person." Funny meaning humorous. At the end of the class, he was the one who asked me if he had to create the T chart of pros and cons from the article I had assigned, or could he just leave his underlining in the text. The T chart, of course, was for them to practice paraphrasing and writing -- all part of reading comprehension in some way. So, here was this guy, in a completely harmless faux "troublemaker" style, trying to sort of get out of a part of the assignment, just like I have seen kids do at home. When I said that aspect of the assignment was not optional, he took it in good humor, again just like a student who was trying to "get out of it" at home would do. It felt good to be in a classroom, actually. I also really tried to talk slowly, which I certainly don't always do at home.
Tomorrow, I begin a series of short classes on American History and culture, and I will continue teaching reading and additional writing sections.
It took a while, from my perspective, to wind all this up and get it going. My personal tempo is a tad rapid, I would say, and while this is sometimes a good thing for me, it may not be the style here with regard to some things. Just like the kids, I continue to learn and adapt. There is a sort of routine here, but our days as teachers have not been highly structured.
Going with the flow? This is one of my lifelong goals, and the number of times in any given timeframe that I have to re-orient myself to this Taoist and Buddhist notion is a great reminder of why meditation is called a "practice." Anyway. I am learning a lot and also calling on so many different aspects of my past experiences to be here. Some of these are visible -- like teaching reading, and some of them are not yet apparent.
Jay Mc Inerny, of "Bright Lights Big City" fame wrote a somewhat uneven novella, really that genre, called "Ransom" about a young American man in Japan in the late 70s. (Yes I know Japan is not China). I have read and re-read this book over the years -- in part because I want the ending to come out differently, I think. One of the things the main character, Ransom, is doing in Japan is taking karate. He finally lands a punch on the top student in his school, and knocks him down, no small feat. The Japanese student he scores on congratulates him on this, and says," All your training went into that punch." That's what it feels like here: "All my 'training'" is required to, at times, just get through my 40 days here, not just teacher training, but all of it.
Hmmm. More to be revealed, doubtless.
.JPG)