Thursday, November 6, 2008
November 6, 2008
- Our trained arrived in Beijing at 6:45 AM. There were guides from the Beijing International Educational Exchange waiting for us as we departed the train. The Beijing station was even bigger than the one in Zangzhou. The enormity of China is constantly striking you. Outside the station there was a huge video screen…probably the size of the one in Times Square in NYC. I think I saw it during one of the Olympic broadcasts.
- We all immediately noticed that the skies were blue and there was very little smog compared to Shanghai and Yangzhou, where it was forever present.
- It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel, which was spotless. Again our rooms were very nice…quite a contract to the train and the back alleys we had just experienced.
- Everyone took a shower before breakfast. What a difference a good shower makes in your attitude!
- After breakfast local educational dignitaries and principals arrived. We heard the required speeches from the Deputy Director of BEII and then just mingled with principals from the Beijing area. They sought us out; most of the Chinese principals were escorted by one of their English teachers who served as a translator. Many of us suspected that some of the principals could speak English, but having a translator is a status symbol, so they use them.
- Every Chinese principal was on a mission to make “contact” in the form of agreeing to email and explore student and teacher exchanges between their school and ours. Establishing such contact is one of the criteria that contributes to a school’s ranking as a one, two, three, four, or five star school. These rankings mean a lot to the principals. Anyone who had a five star ranking would work that into the conversation within the first 90 seconds!
- Despite the pretensions, I really enjoyed talking to two different elementary principals and their English teachers. We would be visiting one of their schools after lunch.
- Our discussions continue right up to our luncheon banquet, which was mediocre. We’re all getting tired of banquets.
- The first school that we visited this afternoon was the Beijing Huang Cheng General Primary School. We observed a 1st grade Chinese class, a 4th grade music class, several PE classes, and a calligraphy class. Again we were struck by the number of students in each class 33-40, the outstanding behavior of the students who were not even distracted by the 20 visitors in their classroom, the enthusiasm of the students and their teacher, the absence of classroom decorations, and the smallness of the classrooms. At the end of each observation, the kids would join us for a group photo…I handed out some Lakeway Leopards pencils, and made friends for life.
- In the calligraphy class we were allowed to use the kids brushes and try to paint the good luck character they were practicing. After each student had completed 10-20 practice versions, the teacher gave
each child a piece of red paper and the kids completed a final copy. The teacher examined each student’s and directed only the best ones to be given to us! Talk about competition. I had my picture taken with the student who gave me her’s and rewarded her with a pencil. - We completed our visit to this school with a meeting with the principal, assistant principal, and several English teachers in the room they use for faculty meetings. It was a big oval shaped table that could seat 30 people. The table and room were very similar to what you would find in a large corporation’s “board room”. I ended up thinking that such accommodations really convey a sense of importance and value to such meetings and their profession. Clearly educators are very respected and valued in China.
- This school had a huge Times Square video screen in their outdoor piazza. They also had an outdoor stage, another common feature in China. Since this school was located in the middle of a very busy shopping area, there was a very sturdy accordion fence which was manned by a police man.
- We then rushed to our next school, the Feng Tai No.5 Primary School.
- When we arrived, their outdoor sign displayed, “welcome foreign presidents”, something was lost in the translation. Everyone took a picture of that sign.
- Our visit to this school focused on martial arts, PE, band, and children’s opera performances. The students were amazing…so reminiscent of what we all witnessed during the Olympic ceremonies. We learned that some of the kids from this school participated in the opening drumming performance at the Games.
- Each performing group gave us a mini lesson to the visiting presidents. I really enjoyed a chance to play an ancient guitar like instrument.
- Again we all posed for pictures with the kids. The usual press corps continues to memorialize every moment of our visit.
- We then met with the principals and English teachers. At this school were received gifts after the usual Q&A. I repeated my question about behavior…do the teachers spend lots of classtime establishing and reviewing behavior expectations, or do the kids arrive in 1st grade well behaved. Answer=they arrive well behaved. The teachers only spend 5 minutes in the first few classes explain behavior expectations.
- This visit closed with both a banquet at an enormous restaurant…bigger than any I have every seen. The principals and teachers were treating us. This ended up being our best Chinese food of the trip and restored my opinion about it. The Beijing duck was outstanding, as were the dumplings (Peking ravioli). Our conversations were equally rich.
- A great day, and a wonderful start to our time in Beijing!
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