Shilou, Teacher Training Program, Week 3, Friday

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It's been a long week. We have done a lot and I'm beat. last week-end we went to PingYao. We returned on Sunday after having visited the Shanglin Temple and visiting the Ancient Government Building.. This building lies in the center of the city wiht an area of 24,00 sq. meters. According to the saying "all the gate of government buildings face south," the front gate of this building faces south. Thereare 6 doodrs in the 3 houses of the gate so the county governemnt was also called "Six Doors". In the f ront of the gate, stands a scenery wall of carved bricks with an ugly beast inthe middle, surrounded by gold, silver and jewels and trying to eat the sun inthe sky. It is called "Tan" which means 'greedy' and was erected to warn officials against corruption. It served as a bulletin board in ancient times. Inside the Tax Houses line the sides at the back of the gate and this is where tax and food were handed in to the government. the next gat was called the Gate of Dignity which required that people be dressed appropriately. That gate was opened for special officials. The eastern gate was the one that was usually open and another saying claims that the eastner gate is the gate for men but the western one is for the ghosts -- that was the gate for the criminals sentenced to death. There is a CentralHall in the middle yard and in the middle of the hall stands a pavilion and at the back is a horizontal board inscribed with 4 Chinese characters. Blue sky and red sun were drawn on the screen and the board was inscribed with Ming Jing Gao Xuan "A clear mirror hangs high."This was where the County Magisrate sentenced the criminals and we saw a reenactment of a hearing and sentencing there in the Central Hall. There were also private dwelling quarters of the officials...There are other halls and a subhall in which everyday lawsuits were conducted. An inscriptioon "Tianli, Guofa andRenqing" hangs in this hall -- Tinali is the Confucian principle, Renqing includes public opninons and customs and Guofa means the 'laws of the county.'
After the Government building we walked down The Government Street to The south Street which also has a lot of shops and vendors and headed toward the Ancient City Building. We shopped along the way, looking at Chinese souvenirs...by that time it was already noon and we were due back at the hotel at 1 pm so we grabbed another bite at the Sakura Cafe...iced coffee and fruit and yoghurt.
After we left the ancient city we made our way back to Shanglin Temple, which is about 6 km outside the city of Pingyao. This is an incredible old temple located in Qiadou Village and has a history of over 1500 years. There are over 2000 color sculptures made mainly in the Ming Dynasty. The sculpture of Guanyin with a Thousand Hands is one of the most impressive but the Bodhisattva Crossing the Sea is the most serene.
We then started on the trek home. It was a hair raising ride. Our driver was a good driver and of course he drives just like everyone else here drives but I was praying the entire trip. They pass everything that is in front of them whether it is a two-lane, one-lane or 3-lane road. They honk when they are approaching, when they are passing, when they are speeding ahead and they pass even when there is no visibility...even when a huge truck is on a curve in front and there is no way to see what is coming ahead, they pass. Cars travel sometimes -- speed in fact -- down the middle of the highway just in case they have to move one way or the other due to oncoming traffic...drivers sometimes seem to be playing chicken as they speed headon in the face of the oncoming traffic honking their horns for the other to get out of the way. There were at least 4 times when our driver was pulling out in the face of a mack truck...a coal truck or a loaded bus...and he seemed to want to keep going even though he didn't have enough speed to get by and there enough room for all three vehicles and the other car wasn't slowing down...I just prayed, thinking that if it was destiny I would die and I couldn't do anything a bout it.
We did get back safely obviously and I prepared for the next day. We videotaped the teachers as they presented a 15-minute lesson. I'm not sure that they had ever done this before so I think that this was a good exercise for them. We finished the taping that day and the afternoon we were lucky enough to be able to view the 2nd half of Harry Potter...the next day we finished videotaping and looked at teaching reading...and did some reading ourselves..and then viewed the videos that afternoon. We prepped before viewing by considering what makes a good presentation and teaching and then we reviewed the videos one by one soliciting feedback as we went along. The next day in class we did a strip story from Grammar in Use and they wrote their stories out and we read them aloud and corrected them. Then in the afternoon more reviews of the video. After that we did a short reading about woks and the following morning we did more teaching reading and worked with the EAsy English newspaper. We thought about how to get students to read and discuss -- reading response journal and vocabulary building. We then thought about writing -- how to teach writing -- prewriting, discussion, vocabulary generation/presentation, freewriting and focused writing, writing, and finally peer feedback. TEachers wrote in class and we were going to do some error correction today but there was no electricity in Shilou all day Friday until about 6:30pm....change of plans...we did a game, a competition in which different teams chose a categoryt of question for so many points -- first round they could try to answer with no penalty, the second round points were deducted for incorrect answers, and the third round one group could select a category for another group to answer...if the 2nd group got it correct, they got the points but if they didn't answer the 1st group got the point. It was a good morning...this afternoon we did a follow up to a reading about life inthe US...we analyzed the reading for the main points that were discussed and then different groups prepared a presenation about life in China and presented...we ended the lesson with writing comparative sentences about China and the US....

Yesterday after class we got a treat -- we went to a yoga class with one of the Zigen volunteers,Cecilia...we had a nice yoga and meditation session at the studio which is also very nice....and then we went to the Hot Pot restaurant for a very tasty dinner...tomorrow we will go to the First Circle...a huge circular island inthe middle of the Yellow River...and then on Sunday we are going to visit another ancient city on another river...Getting away will be a welcome relief...we're coming up to the homestretch and I am looking forward to the trip to Beijing.

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