The Flag Raising Ceremony at our SchoolAfter spending our first few weeks in Zhuzhou getting acquainted with the city, setting up our apartment, and travelling, we feel as though we are finally getting settled into normal, everyday life in China. Four weeks into our duties as teachers in China, we have each had our share of ups and downs, both inside and outside the classroom. Thankfully, there have been far more ups than downs, and the downs have basically all been things we expected prior to coming to China. That has made them a quite a bit more manageable.
It has definitely been interesting to observe the differences between the US and Chinese school systems. One of the most evident differences is the students' schedule. It amazes us how scheduled our students' days are! Below is our student's daily schedule for the 2008-2009 school year. Our students are 7th and 8th graders, and this is their Monday - Friday schedule. (They also attend class for 1/2 day on Saturday):
6:00am: Wake up
6:00 - 6:20am: Clean up
6:20 - 6:35am: Exercise
6:35 - 7:10am: Reading
7:10 - 7:40am: Breakfast
7:40-7:45am: Preparation for class
7:45-8:30am: 1st Period
10 minute break
8:40-9:25am: 2nd Period
9:25-9:50am: Flag Raising Ceremony (Monday); Exercises (Tuesday-Saturday)
9:50-10:35am: 3rd Period
10 minute break
10:45-11:30am: 4th Period
11:30am-12:30pm: Lunch
12:30pm-2:00pm: Nap time
2:00pm: Wake up
2:00-2:20pm: Prepare for class
2:20-2:25pm: Sing songs
2:25-3:10pm: Period 5
10-minute break
3:20-3:25: Eye exercises
3:25-4:10: Period 6
10-minute break
4:20-5:05pm: Period 7
10-minute break
5:15-6:00pm: Activities (English Corner, Music,etc.)
6:00-6:50pm: Dinner
6:50-7:20pm: Evening exercises
7:20-8:05: Evening study period 1
10-minute break
8:15-8:20: Eye exercises
8:20-9:05pm: Evening study period 2
9:15-9:45: Get ready for bed
9:45: Lights out
Although our first classes are not until 9:50am and we don't have to be in our office until 8:30, we are up bright and early each morning at 6:00am. This is not by choice, however. We are awakened each morning by the students' 6:00am "bugle-call" that is played over the loud speakers right outside our window. It's great :).
Anyway, to us, it doesn't seem that our students are necessarily in class that much longer than an American student with extracurricular activities (although the hours appear longer due to the 1.5 hour nap that everyone -- including teachers -- observes in the middle of the day). The primary difference is the level of structure that is forced upon our Chinese students. From getting up in the morning to going to bed at night, virtually every minute of the day is planned out for them. A couple of the more interesting (and uniquely Chinese) parts of the day are morning exercises, the flag raising ceremony, and eye exercises.
Morning Exercises: Tuesday-Friday mornings all 4,000 students meet at the school's outdoor commons area (a big square between the classroom buildings) and do their exercises. However, these are not so much jogs, push ups, sit-ups, etc. It is more of a synchronized dance to a sort-of peppy show tune-like music. It is quite amusing to watch (we'll try to get some video on our blog at some point). I've never asked, but I'm pretty sure the students hate doing this.
Flag Raising Ceremony: Monday mornings are the time for the Flag Raising Ceremony. I would compare it to saying the US Pledge of Allegiance, but on a much, much larger scale. All of the students, teachers, and headmasters converge on the commons area. The students line up into rows and columns, the teachers stand behind them in two rows, and the headmasters stand atop stairs in front of the whole group and review things. The Chinese National Song is played, and the flag is raised. Then, representatives from the student body say some words about how the students should work hard to be successful and respect the teachers. As soon as this is done, the students (all at once) do an about-face, bow towards the rows of teachers, and say "Laoshi hao", or "Hello, Teachers!"
Eye Exercises: In the break between 5th and 6th period, eye exercises are done. The bell rings, all the students rush back to their seats, and in all classrooms across the school this fairy-tale like music begins to play over the P.A. system. All of the students put their middle and index fingers over their eyes and begin to rub their eyes in rhythm as a woman begins to count (or chant?) to 8 over the fairy-tale like music again and again (yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, chi, ba . . . ba, chi, liu, wu, si, san, er, yi). Again, I've never asked, but I'm pretty sure the students hate this part of the day, too. Incidentally, there is a class monitor / monitors who ensure that everyone does what they’re supposed to when the teacher is not in the room. Since the teachers, not the students, change rooms between classes, this happens frequently. During eye exercises, there are at least 2 students roaming the aisles prepared to holler at any student who is lax in exercising his eyes.
Another difference between our school systems is that in China, students are grouped into classes based on their Middle School Entrance Exam (zhongkao) scores. Students stay with these classes all day, everyday, all year. Each class has a classroom which they stay in for all classes (except P.E.). So, instead of the students switching classrooms in the break periods to go to math, science, etc., the teachers switch classrooms!
Another difference between our school systems is that in China, students are grouped into classes based on their Middle School Entrance Exam (zhongkao) scores. Students stay with these classes all day, everyday, all year. Each class has a classroom which they stay in for all classes (except P.E.). So, instead of the students switching classrooms in the break periods to go to math, science, etc., the teachers switch classrooms!
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One of our classrooms. No A/C but still Hi-Tech
Students with higher test scores are placed in advanced classes, and all other students are placed in regular classes. Although the classes are technically grouped based on ability, their "ability" is determined by the standardized entrance exam which covers a variety of subjects. This means that students could have a very high entrance exam score on the strength of their math and science intelligence but still be weaker in language, arts, etc. This means that there a wide range of ability levels in each class depending on the subject being taught. This makes teachers' jobs very difficult here!
This range is definitely evident in our English classes. In each of our "regular" classes, I would say that there are probably 6-7 students who I would classify as "advanced" English speakers for their age. On the contrary, in each of our "advanced" classes, I would say that there are 6-7 students who seem to only know how to say "hello" and "goodbye." It is a huge challenge for us to make sure the classes are interesting and difficult enough for our strong students without leaving the weaker students behind.
Generally, the students are great. They are fascinated by us Americans and are extremely curious to know our likes, dislikes, where we've travelled, and most importantly -- do we speak Chinese? We can't walk across campus without having at least 50 students stop us to say "hi." We feel so popular!
We've been fortunate to have gotten to know some of our fellow English teachers well. We've been included in regular group dinners organized by the Chinese English teachers for our respective grades, and we were also invited to sing in the big Chinese Teacher's Day performance a couple of weeks ago at our school.
The performance (and preparation for the performance) was a somewhat hilarious experience in itself. One day while over at our apartment looking at a maintenance issue after a long day of teaching, a teacher at our school mentioned (in a very ho-hum manner) that some of the teachers were going to sing a couple of songs for Teacher's Day and asked if we wanted to participate. "Of course! When is practice?", we said. The teacher responded, "Right now. Let's go." Of course, we didn't have anything else to do, but it is awfully funny that they just assume we can do things on a whim with little or no warning!
Anyway, we got to the practice and it turned out they were singing a couple of well-known Chinese songs (one was about friendship and the other was about Unity being powerful). So the practice went fine, but we were curious as to what exactly we were practicing for. How big is this performance? Are other groups performing as well? WHEN is the performance? We were told by a teacher that the performance would be on the coming Wednesday, it would be for just a few people, and that we would be the only group performing. Fine. So, we practiced a couple more times before the performance. The practice just before the performance, we were told that the performance had been changed to Tuesday and that we would be the last of 10 groups of students and teachers performing. We were also told that we would be singing the solo in one of the songs (Ahhh!). We told one of the teachers that we did not think we’d be very good since the song was in Chinese. His response to this was “I think that is the effect we are looking for." And with that, we became the Singing English Monkeys.
So, Tuesday afternoon came. As it turned out, the Teacher's Day performance is no "small-deal." In fact, the entire 4,000 person student body is in attendance. My first hint that this “performance” would be more than I expected was when the last period bell rang and all the students grabbed their terribly uncomfortable chairs, hauled them down 4 flights of stairs and out to the hardtop. We sat on stools (a popular furniture item that America is totally missing out on – the kind that make you bend your knees up to your shoulders they are so low) between the junior students, who thought it was hilarious to see their foreign teachers outside of class. The performances were actually amazing and wide-ranging: There was a copy of the Olympic opening ceremony with our school’s own amazing gymnasts and dancers; little girls in bare-belly spandex outfits dancing to a song called “When Religion Comes to Town” (a performance which we thought would be too risqué for an American school); traditional Chinese musical instruments played by beautiful young ladies in traditional attire; fan dances; poems; some ceremonial presentation of student awards; and then us. They definitely didn’t save best for last, as the student performances were far superior to ours. However, despite our pathetic attempt at singing in Chinese, we are still hearing from our students about our excellent singing abilities in Chinese!
This range is definitely evident in our English classes. In each of our "regular" classes, I would say that there are probably 6-7 students who I would classify as "advanced" English speakers for their age. On the contrary, in each of our "advanced" classes, I would say that there are 6-7 students who seem to only know how to say "hello" and "goodbye." It is a huge challenge for us to make sure the classes are interesting and difficult enough for our strong students without leaving the weaker students behind.
Generally, the students are great. They are fascinated by us Americans and are extremely curious to know our likes, dislikes, where we've travelled, and most importantly -- do we speak Chinese? We can't walk across campus without having at least 50 students stop us to say "hi." We feel so popular!
We've been fortunate to have gotten to know some of our fellow English teachers well. We've been included in regular group dinners organized by the Chinese English teachers for our respective grades, and we were also invited to sing in the big Chinese Teacher's Day performance a couple of weeks ago at our school.
The performance (and preparation for the performance) was a somewhat hilarious experience in itself. One day while over at our apartment looking at a maintenance issue after a long day of teaching, a teacher at our school mentioned (in a very ho-hum manner) that some of the teachers were going to sing a couple of songs for Teacher's Day and asked if we wanted to participate. "Of course! When is practice?", we said. The teacher responded, "Right now. Let's go." Of course, we didn't have anything else to do, but it is awfully funny that they just assume we can do things on a whim with little or no warning!
Anyway, we got to the practice and it turned out they were singing a couple of well-known Chinese songs (one was about friendship and the other was about Unity being powerful). So the practice went fine, but we were curious as to what exactly we were practicing for. How big is this performance? Are other groups performing as well? WHEN is the performance? We were told by a teacher that the performance would be on the coming Wednesday, it would be for just a few people, and that we would be the only group performing. Fine. So, we practiced a couple more times before the performance. The practice just before the performance, we were told that the performance had been changed to Tuesday and that we would be the last of 10 groups of students and teachers performing. We were also told that we would be singing the solo in one of the songs (Ahhh!). We told one of the teachers that we did not think we’d be very good since the song was in Chinese. His response to this was “I think that is the effect we are looking for." And with that, we became the Singing English Monkeys.
So, Tuesday afternoon came. As it turned out, the Teacher's Day performance is no "small-deal." In fact, the entire 4,000 person student body is in attendance. My first hint that this “performance” would be more than I expected was when the last period bell rang and all the students grabbed their terribly uncomfortable chairs, hauled them down 4 flights of stairs and out to the hardtop. We sat on stools (a popular furniture item that America is totally missing out on – the kind that make you bend your knees up to your shoulders they are so low) between the junior students, who thought it was hilarious to see their foreign teachers outside of class. The performances were actually amazing and wide-ranging: There was a copy of the Olympic opening ceremony with our school’s own amazing gymnasts and dancers; little girls in bare-belly spandex outfits dancing to a song called “When Religion Comes to Town” (a performance which we thought would be too risqué for an American school); traditional Chinese musical instruments played by beautiful young ladies in traditional attire; fan dances; poems; some ceremonial presentation of student awards; and then us. They definitely didn’t save best for last, as the student performances were far superior to ours. However, despite our pathetic attempt at singing in Chinese, we are still hearing from our students about our excellent singing abilities in Chinese!
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Before the Teacher's Day Performance
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Watching the Teacher's Day Performance with Students
Overall, we did enjoy the Teacher’s Day festivities. We even got lots of gifts from our students the next day in class (flowers, live plants, pencil holders, and kind notes). The students are very kind to us here.
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Teacher's Day Gifts
Well, that is about it for now. We hope all is well for all of you back home, especially in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Please know that we’re thinking of you all!
Love,
Tiffany and David
Love,
Tiffany and David
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