Gambei
on Tina's Journal (China), 27/May/2009 08:36, 34 days ago
I've visited two schools so far in Jingdong. These school visits involve a full day of activity as lunch and dinner involve socialising with many teachers and the heads of the schools. This can be quite enjoyable but I personally find that I need my space to gather my thoughts and switch off from the constant demands that are made of you. At the meal gatherings you find that everyone wants to make a toast with you which involves either glasses of beer orBai jiu,a strong pure white spirit which you basically knock back in one go known as agambei,basically like'bottoms up'. This happened today at lunch time and I needed to get back to my room and rest on the bed for an hour!! Everyone is usually so friendly and wanting to help you so I try to do as much as I can. The main point I made today in Jingping school was for the teachers to believe in the students abilities more and also in themselves as teachers. Both the teachers I observed said they speak to the kids in Chinese because they are afraid they won't understand English, and also because they lack confidence in theirownability to speak English. In my model lesson in both the schools I attended this week the teachers observed how some boys who usually don't participate in class and are'poor students' were actively involved in my lessons. Hopefully, the point was made that you need to involve them and'keep them interested'. There are no real discipline issues like there are back home, generally the kids are well behaved. The teachers were really good though and are picking up so many more interesting ways to teach. It is quite a joy to see to be honest. The wonderful thing about the Chinese, well the Chinese teachers I have come across in my time here, is that they are open to listening and being told there are better ways to do things. This is due I am sure to the whole Chinese culture and way of doing things, that they have been'told' for so long by people in authority what they must do. I am realising that you can use this to your advantage in that you can tell them that'they can start thinking for themselves'. If you can get this message from the head teachers to trickle down I believe it will have an impact. It is sort of a'top down approach' to a'bottom up approach'. The children were lovely in both the schools and I will have to start practising on improving my signature for autographs..I was surrounded again after the lesson with pens and paper at the ready for me to sign!During my model lesson in Minzhong school yesterday a boy turned up late for the lesson. He was very shy and I ended up paying a bit more attention by doing some pair work with him as he didn't have a partner. He was really struggling but didn't seem any worse than some of the other children. At the end of the lesson the teacher of the class said to me his parents had died. I thought it had recently happened and that was why he was late! I got a bit tearful and she continued to say that she will be in trouble by the headteacher because he was late for my class, that it gave a bad impression to me! I said how ridiculous this was and that the teachers can't always be held responsible for the student's behaviour. During the feedback meeting with the teachers and headteachers I brought up this point but the headteacher is known for his unreasonable attitude. Lesley brought up a another serious point about neglecting the weaker students and giving priority to the better students. He argued that he had to get so many students into senior school and felt the best way wasto keep the students separated. He said he had to keep the parents happy because this is what they want!! This will probably mean that only a few good students will do well, where the majority of students will fall behind..no logic in that is there! Most of the teachers do not agree with him thankgoodness.The next few days are free as it's holiday here so I will spend time in Jingdong. Some of the teachers have invited me to go walking in the mountains. Jingdong is located in a valley and in every direction you look there are beautiful mountains.