Dear Parents,
Ma Laoshi is back, to the delight of those in A Class. Yan Laoshi, who teaches C Class, is now both a classroom teacher and a residence teacher (to replace Jenny who left the program yesterday)—a heavy workload, which we are glad that she accepted as we think she is dependable and hardworking. I believe I mentioned in a previous message that Yan Laoshi shares a room with Gong Laoshi; so she is available to the children 24 hours a day.
I heard that the morning exercise went well (I must confess that I have not been attending morning physical drills at 6:30am everyday). There was running, and soccer games too. When I met the children at 7:20 heading for breakfast, some older girls had apparently just taken a shower and looked clean and fresh; but most children still had sweat on their head and sweaty shirts on their back. For the second time, there was donut among the breakfast choices today. I have not had a chance to mention that the food here is excellent and abundant. For breakfast, we have baozi, jiaozi, pumpkin rolls, red bean pie, boiled egg, fried egg (sunny side up), millet porridge, green bean soup, grape tomato, dan4chao3fan4 (scrambled egg with rice), some western-style pastry (croissant, etc.), yellow cake, and sometimes tang1mian4 (noodle soup). For drinks, we have water, milk (regular and chocolate) and yogurt (Chinese-style), all in bottles or cartons. Truly, there is so much food that as long as the children eat well at meal times, there is NO need for them to take any snacks. So the no snack any time policy really makes a great deal of sense.
I sat in C and B classes today. In C Class, I see much improved student attention and participation. JohnRyan missed one day of class due to health reasons but he is catching up quickly and earning a lot of points for his competition team in terms of class participation. Gary and Felix not only are doing very well in class but also take turns helping Emily. Chloe sets a higher standard for herself by writing more vocabulary items than required. Today the lesson covered daily items (such as umbrella, pants), fruits, vegetables, natural phenomena (such as rain, wind) and names of places. With Landon and Angela gone, we now have 5 students in C Class and they receive a lot of individual attention.
B Class listened to episodes from “Journey to the West”, after some grammar and vocabulary work. Li Laoshi sat all students in one big circle. She walked around and made sure that everyone is on the same page (or rather on the same line). Not all students could follow well. To those who cannot, we have given them opportunities to try C Class but eventually they decided to remain in B because they said they have more friends in B… Our job is to make recommendations and make options available for the children. Ultimately, it is the children themselves who will decide which class suits their needs the best.
After language classes, Wang Laoshi gave the children an abacus lesson. The class went really well; by the end, the children learned how to do multi-digit addition using the abacus. During self-study time in the afternoon, the children had a chance to practice using the abacus again. There were some issues with equal opportunities
For late afternoon activities, Tian Laoshi led a group of about a dozen children play soccer. He said that while a few days ago the children were merely “having fun”, now they are playing more seriously and well. Other children practiced Chinese yo-yo.
Along with greater interpersonal connections (as I mentioned in yesterday’s report), there have also been inevitable greater interpersonal conflicts. Some children use unkind language when other children fail to score for their competition team; some children experience sadness when other children “betrayed” their secrets; some children feel anger when others criticize them; some like to argue and debate while others are annoyed. And so on. There were a number of instances today in the classroom as well as on the sports field that are of interpersonal nature. Bonnie is planning to address these matters systematically in the leadership training sessions.
Good night,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)