Dear Parents,
Surprise surprise! In the end, 17 children took the swimming eligibility test (200 meters continuous swim in a 2 meter deep pool) last evening and guess what, 14 passed! (Bonnie was expecting maybe 3 or 4 to pass; so was I.) Those who tried but didn’t pass were consoled by Bonnie, Tian Laoshi and their friends and handled themselves well.
Today, we had the routine morning exercise and breakfast, followed by Chinese language lessons. I focused on C Class again, and was glad to see that things are improving greatly. In response to our feedback in the last two days, Yan Laoshi now puts up the day’s lesson plan in simple words on the blackboard, used Chinese language songs as supplementary materials, instituted clear rules to encourage use of Chinese in the classroom, and devised engaging activities for vocabulary learning. It’s a wonderful feeling to see our children directly and immediately benefit from improved teaching and to see our efforts come to fruition. We appreciate Yan Laoshi’s responsiveness to our concerns and we also thank Wang Laoshi (the head teacher) for the intermediary role she plays in the communication process.
I sat in B and A classes briefly. B Class was studying grammar (using HSK (hanyu shuiping kaoshi) materials) and building sentences. A Class was listening to “guan1du4 zhi1 zhan4” and a couple of other episodes from “The Three Kingdoms”.
As per the updated schedule, our lunch begins at 11:20 and ends at 12 noon. That is good because it gives the children one hour and a half to rest and take naps, if they want, before afternoon’s activities which begin at 1:30pm. Today from 1:30 to 3:00, I gave an orientation for the field trips we will be making tomorrow and the day after—Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. We discussed the layout of the city of Beijing, the culturally preferred orientation of Chinese buildings, the architectural features of Chinese royal palaces, the Chinese notion of “heaven”, the Chinese cultural meanings of shapes, colors, and numbers, as well as the contrast (in terms of architectural design and its symbolism) between the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The children appeared very interested—many times I had to regrettably ignore their raised hands in order to finish all the materials in time. To make sure that everybody understands everything, all field trip orientations are given in English. The worksheets for the trips are in both English and Chinese.
After fieldtrip orientation, the children had “self study” in their classrooms where they completed their homework assignments. Wang Laoshi got us a dozen Chinese readers for us to use during “self study” time as supplementary materials.
The children played balls and Chinese yo-yo on the sports field late afternoon with Tian Laoshi and the Chinese yo-yo specialist. Eight children went swimming (it’s optional) with Tian Laoshi and Ruiduan in the evening. The others had free time after dinner.
A few kids are falling sick (mild fever, mild diarrhea, or fatigue). By dinner time, all of them were able to get up and have dinner at the dining hall (when/if they can’t, we bring food to their rooms). Besides health concerns, we are beginning to see some social, interpersonal problems too. Some kids form “clubs”; some feel excluded. Some use unkind language; some feel hurt. Bonnie and Jenny are addressing all these tough (though expected) issues by talking to the kids individually and in small groups. Bonnie is also putting the YiB 2007 Rules of Conduct in print so that the children can review them and use them as guidelines.
The children clearly have a great deal of learning to do here, not just Chinese language and culture, but also living without parental supervision and outside their sheltered homes.
We’ll have a very busy field trip day tomorrow. Stay tuned,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)