Today we spent the day at a private boarding school observing classes in the middle and elementary schools. I felt sorry for the classroom teachers as there were 22 adults observing the lesson at the back of the room. Can you imagine having 22 adults sitting at the back of our room while I taught? The children were very well behaved!
It was great to see the kids playing on the playground with skipping ropes and basketballs (no cell phones means no gaming or chatting). The students were very eager to introduce themselves and everyone wanted to take photos with us. Schooling is MUCH different here. They do a lot of memorization in order to prepare for many many written tests that they must take. You have to take an entrance exam to get into high school so the pressure on students and teachers for high marks is enormous. They work and study and do homework until 7 or 8 at night. Very rarely do students have activities such as sports or music or dance after school as that time is set aside for homework.
At night we were taken to an ancient water town that was on the silk road called Xishi. It was very lovely. We went there for the specialty -- mutton noodles -- they were really quite good. We were joined by 5 of the teachers and 3 of them had their children come along as well. The children left after dinner though because they had homework:(
All in all, another busy day!
It was great to see the kids playing on the playground with skipping ropes and basketballs (no cell phones means no gaming or chatting). The students were very eager to introduce themselves and everyone wanted to take photos with us. Schooling is MUCH different here. They do a lot of memorization in order to prepare for many many written tests that they must take. You have to take an entrance exam to get into high school so the pressure on students and teachers for high marks is enormous. They work and study and do homework until 7 or 8 at night. Very rarely do students have activities such as sports or music or dance after school as that time is set aside for homework.
At night we were taken to an ancient water town that was on the silk road called Xishi. It was very lovely. We went there for the specialty -- mutton noodles -- they were really quite good. We were joined by 5 of the teachers and 3 of them had their children come along as well. The children left after dinner though because they had homework:(
All in all, another busy day!