Blogs from Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, Asia

Friday, July 29, 2011 We had a public lesson morning for teachers in our program. Several teachers from the 3 different classes prepared a public lesson and presented for the entire group of teachers. The lessons were quite good and instructive for all. Both my teachers who presented did an excellent job and I was delighted. One of the teachers -- Alice, who teachers at a senior high school -- did a very creative lesson about earthquakes -- a prereading and reading activity that provided scaffolding with vocabulary and ideas in the reading to help students understand and read the text more effectively. First she presented a song or poem that made students feel an emotional response and then she showed them pictures after an earthquake. Using the pictures she elicited a personal response from the ... read more

Yesterday and today have been spent getting ready for the beginning of the program. We reviewed all the materials. Judy went over many of the games and activities that she has on file with the assistants. She has a great deal of patience and enjoys going over every game in great detail. As she worked with them, I searched for the placement test --- began to develop a new one based on years past -- and then discovered the placement test and rubric that we had developed last summer. There were copies left over and there were also copies of the criteria for rating the oral performance so we will use that rubric. After lunch we returned to our teaching site at the Lin Xian Teacher Training Center and looked through the pronunciation materials and planned ... read more

Today we met with several teachers who will be attending the program, some of whom will serve as assistants and/or advisers to our teaching team -- perhaps they will be able to alert us if what we are doing does not really serve the needs of the teachers. Most of them teach in classes of 55-90 students...this is a real challenge for them and for us. We had a really nice lunch today at the hotel restaurant --- I wish that I knew the names of the dishes but of coruse I don't. Everything here is soaked in a sauce and most of the sauces are full of sodium -- part of the reason the dishes are so tasty. We went to a tea house yesterday and I bought the pu'ar tea and have been drinking ... read more

Monday -- Visiting the Teacher Training Center our site. Setting up the materials for the program. Meeting one of the local teacher volunteers. After a very long and tiring trip on Sunday we settled into our rooms at Lin Xian Hotel. I actually changed rooms the following day to a room across the hall that smells a little better and has more light and no leaky toilet, although the sink pipes are leaking...I guess you can't have everything. There is not so much noise on this side for some reason. Maybe it's because I didn't open the window -- but this room does face the parking lot so if there is a party, e.g., a wedding there is more commotion outside the window. On Monday afternoon there was a huge wedding with so many firecrackers going ... read more

Judy Manton and I finished our TESOL symposium yesterday around 5:30 and then in the lobby of the Jing Shi Hotel at Beijing Normal University we met Wendy Wen and her husband Brad and her brother and his wife. Brad and Wendy are visiting her family during July...we left NYC on the same day but arrived different times/days...we walked to a local student canteen on campus since we had some meal tickets left over and just made it in time to get a few dishes ...then went to this place that I found in the morning for coffee and a drink. It was a pleasant evening...not to hot not to cold and it was pleasant to see Wendy and Brad in a different venue. We went back to the hotel room afterwards...not too late around 10:30 ... read more

After checking in at the hotel, and re-noodling our empty stomachs, me and Cassie went out for a wander around. Being overheated, I rather ingeniusly decided against wearing even one of my jackets for the next outing. I must say, the first twenty minutes were blissfully refreshing. However as I paced the streets looking for a machine that would aknowledge my bank cards as something other than useless plastic rectangles, my body soon remembered how unpleasantly cold outside is (and has been for my entirety in China). Still, in an attempt to disguise my lack of thought , Cassie's periodical queries regarding my temperature were met with denial and a respectable reportoire of manly noises showing my content. I don't believe communicating with grunts and rasps suffers from a language barrier anywhere, thank you evolution. I ... read more

Yesterday we left Shilou City. The night before we had gone to a karaoke bar and I stayed up till about 2:30 doing my grades for the semester. I grabbed a nap and then then got up at 6 to finish. I turned in the grades at about 8:30....made the last of my Starbucks coffee, finished packing and was ready. By 9:00 We were all packed and waiting in the lobby, said goodbyes to the hotel girls and to Mr. Yin, the Education Bureau liaison, and loaded our things and ourselves into the van driven by Mr. Feng. The three Chinese volunteers went in another car to PingYao for a night there on the way back to Beijing. We drove the 5+ hours in the rain...it was miserable weather. Mr. Feng is indeed a good driver. ... read more

It's the last day of teaching and I began with some riddles followed by a listening from Great Ideas -- do you remember that book? That is a brilliant book for ESL..so many good listening and speaking activities. Although some are a lilttle dated now (technology is beyond land lines) it's still got some very innovative ideas. We did the unit called Once upon a time...remembering things that happened in the past. I felt completely happy about that but the students couldn't catch everything. I think they get discouraged because it's hard to catch the tape..no matter how many times I play it and how much I break it down for them. But it's good practice. In addition, we did some songs...basic songs for elementary school level -- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row,row, row your boat, ... read more

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Teaching went better today than yesterday. Although we didn't have the key to my room when we arrived at the middle school and we were about 20 minutes late getting started, the class time moved at a much better pace today than yesterday. In another classroom we started off with picture descriptions..the back-to-back exercise in which one student has to explain to another student what is missing in the picture. This took about 15 minutes and was a good way to begin the class. By the end of this warm-up we had the key and were able to get back into the classroom. We then continued the powerpoint on American Holidays with a focus first on Halloween...therewas an additional powerpoint on Halloween with pictures of costumes, jack-o-lanterns and a child trick or ... read more

Monday, August 9, 2010 It was a slow day teaching today. I got completely involved in the readings and I know that the students were bored. We did a reading on the role of women that Judy had suggested and I projected it on the screen...not a good idea. I know that readings on the screen are not a good idea but I thought ok it'll be a good follow up for the reading cloze we did on the traditional family last week. But it was not such a good idea and some people were falling asleep. Then we did holidays...no activity. So overall the day was pretty boring for them...and I ran overtime. I spoke too much and they were bored and well...it was one of those days. Then in the afternoon the entire program ... read more