Wednesday 2007/07/18

Dear Parents,

We woke up to rain and then drizzle this morning. So the scheduled morning exercise was cancelled. Some children used the time to sleep a bit more; some played games in Gong Laoshi’s room. As there are not enough umbrellas for everybody, Tian Laoshi, Gong Laoshi and I escorted the children in two groups to the dining place for breakfast at 7:30. Classes began at 8:30.

I observed C Class (Elementary level) this morning. Yan Laoshi was well prepared. She began with greetings, then introduced a rhyme, and ended with vocabulary for body parts. Chinese characters, pinyin and in some cases English translation were presented simultaneously. Reading and writing were juxtaposed. The children in that class vary in their background, some stronger in speaking, others more balanced. Everyone was eager to learn. I would like to especially mention Angela. She is 7, one of the youngest in the entire group, with little background in Chinese language. Facing so many new words and sentences and not knowing how to put the strokes together, Angela was frustrated and sad in class in the beginning. I took her outside the classroom and we discussed the difference between “knowing” and “learning”. She realized that it is not how much she already knows that matters, it is how much she is learning. She also realized that no one will be punished for not knowing, but all the teachers at YiB will be very sad if the children are not learning. After a while, she collected herself and told me, with a quiet assurance, that she was ready to return to the classroom. And she did. She became a totally different student in the classroom, positive, attentive, and absorbing. Angela took a great leap forward today and we are all very proud of her! Felix always answers the teacher’s questions and sits in a corner reciting the rhyme by himself during the break. Emily has excellent speaking abilities and is trying hard to learn how to read and write. Chloe’s handwriting is just beautiful and is working on expanding her vocabulary. Gary and John Ryan work well together, testing each other’s words. Landon is focusing on how to read pinyin and to attach the right tones.

During lunch Yan Laoshi and I discussed ways to maximize interest and productivity in the classroom. We made some decisions regarding textbook selection, ways of presenting learning materials, and classroom management.

After lunch I went to LanDao (a mall that sells hi-tech equipments) and purchased a wireless network card. It took some effort to get it installed in my laptop and make it work, but the effort was certainly worthwhile as now we can communicate with you in a timely manner! When I was in the tech mall, Bonnie gave a leadership training session.

About 3:30pm, we had a lesson on Chinese yo-yo outdoors. It was given by a professional Chinese yo-yo player. The lesson was a little over an hour. Everybody gave it a try; some, such as Jesse and Eddie, were doing impressively well by the end of the lesson. All the children received a Chinese yo-yo that they can bring back to the dorm and practice.

Dinner was at 6:30pm. It is so wonderful to see Jason eating much more and wearing a smile today!

At 7:30, everyone went back to the classroom to do homework. About 8:00, Bonnie divided the entire group into 3 small groups in order to have some friendly competition among them. (She did so by dividing each of the three language classes into 3 subgroups, and then taking 1 subgroup from each class to form a competition group.) These groups can earn or lose credits depending upon their collective behavior (see yesterday’s entry for a list of rules of conduct). Bonnie asked each group to name the group with a Chinese word of their own choice. After some serious deliberation among them, here are our three competition groups – ying1 (Eagle), lei2 (Thunder), and long2 (Dragon). The motto for each group will be finalized tomorrow.

We returned to dorm at 8:45pm. Oh yes, this has been another long and busy day!

Beginning tomorrow, we will be following an updated schedule, which I hope you have received by now.

Good night,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)