Jingdong follow-up
on Tina's Journal (China), 01/May/2009 09:06, 34 days ago
It's a National holiday here today, Labour day, so I'm taking it nice and easy! I got back yesterday evening after an intense five days of school follow-up visits in Jingdong county. From Simao where I am based it takes roughly seven hours on the bus to get to the county, the journey both there and back was extremely tiring especially the return part as we were packed like sardines on a bus with other passengers, chickens, boxes and bags galore and unfortunately a bus driver who liked to clear his throat and spit out of his window every five minutes. At one stage I was going to start counting how many times he spat but then I thought of better ways to pass the time and instead tried to switch off and just take in the sights and sounds of a beautiful county. Much of the journey was familiar as we passed through Zhen Yuan county where we did the previous follow-up visit. We have to try and get to visit as many schools as possible before the rainy season starts, usually about mid June as some of the roads will be impassable by then. We were accompanied by two officials from Jingdong Education Bureau, Mr Luo and Mr Wang who throughout the whole trip were very attentive and tried their best to make sure Lesley and I were taken care of the whole time. Mr Luo speaks a little English as he's an ex English teacher but I could only communicate with Mr Wang with gestures and body language but by the end of the trip I started to feel very comfortable with both of them. It's so important to have officials with us because they reinforce to the teachers how vital and necessary it is that they change their methods to the more communicative and student-centred way of teaching. To give a summary of the four schools I can say there is the usual problem of reserve and shyness with all the children. Most of them have never seen a foreigner before so when they meet us for the first time I get a sense of what it must be like to be a famous person as all eyes are on us, it can actually be quite disconcerting yet at the same time they are so eager to learn and want to listen to you that you forget how uncomfortable you may be feeling and just get on with the job. Once in the classroom there is always the challenge of finding the best way for them to interact both with each other and the teachers because in most of the teaching they receive it is teacher-centred and the whole class are treated as one entity and speak as though they are one person. For example, if I ask the class a question such as 'What's the day today?'I would most likely get a reply ofWhat's the day today?'because they are so used to repeating everything the teacher says. The teachers we went to observe though are enthusiastically trying better methods and it's quite a relief to know that they have learnt something form their training. It is not easy for them either because they have been brought up exactly the same way. It can be quite satisfying for me too when I receive comments such as 'I really learnt something form your model lesson today, I saw kids who have difficulty speaking actually speaking in your class'The reason it's satisfying is because one, giving a model lesson is not easy because of the barriers one is up against and the other reason is that the teachers observing are taking it all in and want to try new ideas. They begin to recognise how important it is to monitor; make the kids feel special and so importantly, help them to think for themselves!At one of the schools we observed they was a disturbing situation where three children sitting at the back of the class were getting completely ignored, almost invisible. I then noticed that one of them had some sort of disability and a teacher was sitting next to her. The teacher was doing nothing with her, not interacting or helping. Because all three of them have serious learning disabilities they are just ignored. Obviously, this became a serious and important point for us to bring up in the feedback session. Another issue I find hard to accept is when in answer to the question;"Do the children get upset and cry at times because they are away from home?"The reply from one of the teachers "No, they can't cry"So I ask "Is this because they will be punished?"Reply, "No, we don't punish them, we (the Chinese) just don't cry, the children hide their emotions and feelings". It was said in a way that's quite acceptable. The children come from families of farmers in the countryside and most live at the school during the week and go home at weekends. They go to class at 06.30 to do either homework or some schools let them play. Classes are from 7.30-11.30, a long lunch break and then classes from 14.30-17.30, stop for dinner and then more classes from 19.00-21.10. It's a very long day and not enough time for pleasure.Photos are: One of the schools we visited, me with some of the teachers from that same school, some lovely eager students and a beautiful sunset on the way home.