Donations

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Along with much of the world, China celebrates Children's Day. Kids usually get a gift and sometimes the rare option to play all day. Since most of our students come from affluent families, some of the coteachers in our school spearheaded a campaign to gather donations for a struggling school in our area for Children's Day. For a month, students were encouraged to bring in notebooks, pencils, erasers, books and more to give to the students at Haiqing Primary School. We gathered thousands items alongside creating an awareness for these children that there are kids living lives different from their own.

All the teachers were invited to deliver the donations and take part in a mini English class with the kids. Kendall, myself and another teacher Paul, along with several coteachers went on a hot summer afternoon, as the students took a break from preparing for their rigorous final exams. We unloaded the van and greeted all the students who were in the courtyard. Emily, the coteacher in charge, arranged for us to interact with one class of about 40 3rd graders. A few of them knew some English and we asked and answered some questions like "What's your name?" and "What color do you like?" Most students in Primary school in China have English class a few times a week. However, the students in this school only have it about once a month with a volunteer Chinese University student. After greetings, they sang a song for us in Chinese which was really sweet. Then we broke into small groups and the students drew some pictures on posters as a thank you to the students at Dotkids. The boys in my group wanted to know the word for everything they drew and how to write the word. Finally we took some photos and headed home.

It was really cool to see a glimpse of what a public school looks like. It was very full of students and tidy. The floors and walls were concrete and there wasn't much in the way of decor from what we could see. I had hoped to observe in some primary schools this year, but realized pretty quickly that it just wasn't possible. Foreigners are so rare that it is a big deal to have one around. If I went to a primary school, as we did with this one, it would be a big show and I wouldn't truly be able to see what they do in daily life. Also, getting permission to visit is quite difficult in itself. So I was grateful to see Haiqing and meet a wider population of students.

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Photos

Arriving in the School Courtyard
The students were changing classes and all rushed to greet us.

Classroom in Progress
Our coteacher & friend Vicky snuck in and took a picture.

Comments

[drew g]

wow
so fun to see you two in action. Can't wait to see you in person!