Think Like a Teacher

Posted once I was off the plane and back online after some sleep…

As I write this, I am flying past Mt. Fuji on our way back to the U.S. The plane is packed with people, including more Americans than I have seen in the past two weeks. It seems strange to encounter strangers who speak to me in English! The long flight (10+ hours with a tail wind) gives me a chance to reflect a bit on the trip. I have many more posts to come with corrections to some of my early observations and a lot more to tell about each place we went.

Ten + 1 things I will miss about China

1.    Surprising juxtapositions of smells, foods, colors, people, and buildings

2.    Ni hao, xie xie, and “smiling”

3.    Traveling and learning amid forty amazing educators who see education as a dynamic, personal journey for both student and teacher

4.    Profound, broad Chinese pride without hubris, a pride in their historic ingenuity, current progress, and rising status in the world

5.    History unfathomable for those of us from a country a mere 235 years old and the Chinese people’s love for that history as their common anchor during times of trial

6.    Our national guide, Shawn (his English name), and his willingness to respond insightfully and respectfully to every question; his head bobbing slightly to the side as he began each response with a smile. His English was impeccable and quite sensitive to subtlety.

7.    Symbolism, spirits, dragons, earth, and heaven, feng shue (sp?) surrounding us until we actually began to notice the details on our own

8.    Streets, sidewalks, and highways swept spotless by lone workers with large, curled, natural straw brooms

9.    Learning to resist the urge to compare everything to the U.S. and to simply observe and learn

10.  Laundry opportunism: city apartment buildings tall or low, decorated with laundry drying in hazy sunshine, row after row of gadgets suspending sheets or shirts stories off the ground. Laughing to see more clothing left hanging from street lights by residents who climb to snag available drying space

11.  Crowds of petite, pony-tailed women in fitted wool or bright puffy jackets, short skirts, and fur-topped boots and men in black puffy coats and skinny black pants, waiting to dodge deftly across traffic

Things I will not miss: 

1.    Chicken knuckles

2.    Chinese traffic/drivers, especially motorbikes

3.    Crossing multiple lanes of Chinese traffic as a pedestrian

4.    Air pollution!!!

5.    “Pretty lady, you buy —!” yelled in my ear and grabbing my arm

6.    Nonwestern toilets/bathrooms bereft of toilet paper, hot water, soap, or paper towels

7.    Coins worth .10 yuan (about 1.5 cents)

8.    Small coffee cups with no refills

9.    Creepy Santa decorations with haunting, Chucky-esque faces and Christmas music played with odd rhythm or instrumentation, making Christmas into a cheap imitation holiday

10. Paper napkins big enough for no more than a cocktail and serving dishes placed beyond human reach in the center of the giant, glass lazy susan — and without a serving utensil. But at least I finally mastered chopsticks!

Ten things I will DO with what I have learned:

1.    Launch XW1W- a worldwide chance for students to exchange a taste of their daily life, coming soon from TeachersFirst

2.    Never again assume that I know what the Chinese want for themselves or for their schools

3.    Continue working to help make creativity a core classroom value and offer practicable ways to talk about it, value it, help students build it, and help parents (and those less accustomed to living it) find ways to appreciate and foster it in their own and their children’s lives

4.    Continue to ask questions and feel about for answers on the complexities of Chinese culture

5.    Try to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in Chinese education

6.    Never ignore a lost or confused international visitor in a U.S. airport or tourist attraction

7.    Stay in touch with this group of educators and continue to learn from their prism-like way of separating new light into different ideas

8.    Try to make TeachersFirst approachable and helpful for Chinese educators and those in other non-Western countries

9.    Get back together with our delegation at the ISTE conference 2011

10. Continue posting on this blog as I assimilate all that I have collected from the trip

Today was our first full day in Shanghai after arriving yesterday afternoon amid a steady snowstorm. The climate here is supposed to be roughly the same as Jacksonville, Florida, so snow is quite rare. The drivers, already insane in China, proved to be the same as U.S. drivers when winter weather hits. The streets were completely gridlocked, making what should have been a 15 minute bus ride (on a chartered bus used to get us to our city locations) last about an hour and fifteen minutes. We ended up having to cancel our plans to have dinner before an acrobat show. Instead, we ran into take out places right by the acrobat theater. We actually had Chinese take-out in Shanghai; that is we had take out McDonald’s! We had to order by pointing at menu items on the countertop pictures, since the people at the counter did not speak English. The cost was about the same as in the U.S., but the sodas tasted a little different, and the menu offerings were slightly different. In other words, it was about as bad as it is at home. They do manage to make the french fries taste the same. Incidentally, we have been offered french fries at a couple of our otherwise Chinese restaurants. I guess they think this is what all Americans eat. Do you have expectations of what people from another country will want if they visit you?

The acrobat show was incredible, but no photos were allowed.  There were about 36 acrobats in all, about 2/3 male. They were teenagers who obviously practice very hard and do very scary things. The smallest boy was about the size of an American third grader, and he was always way at the very top of every dangerous stunt. This troupe is reportedly the best in China. I’d love to know more about the history of acrobats in China. Is there any performance that is famous where you live?

Shanghai is the financial center of China, like Wall Street in New York,  and has grown remarkably in the past 20 years. What was farmland on one side of the river that flows through the city is now a farm of skyscrapers, each more impressive than the last. Architects love to design for Shanghai because it is a real showplace for new buildings.  The people remind me of New York: very fashion conscious, very busy, and accustomed to crowds. There are 20 million people in this city, and it grows more each year! Young people in China like to move here for job opportunities, but the cost of living is very high. I bought the world’s most expensive bag of cookies this afternoon at a coffee bar similar to Starbucks where we stopped to get warm after walking outside on the Bund (waterfront by the river with a view to the skyscrapers). The bag of 24 small cookies cost $15!

As we travel around in public, we see people stare at us, both because we are a group of almost 40 Americans and because certain ones of us look very different from anyone Chinese. The African Americans cause a sensation because most Chinese have never seen anyone with dark skin. The three of us who are blondes are treated as an oddity, too, sometimes making people stop to take our picture . One of the men in our group is about 6 foot 2 or 3, and some Chinese men at the Xi’an airport ran up to him and pantomimed that they wanted to have their picture taken with him because he is so tall. They then “asked” us (by pantomime) to take their picture with an African American in our group and with our group member who has silver gray hair.  We all laughed together even though we could not actually talk to each other. I think the children who swarmed around me in Xi’an did so both because of my blonde hair and because I was American. It is a very funny feeling to be stared at as an oddity, though people are genuinely respectful and cheerful about it.

The rate of change in China is unbelievable. We joke that instead of the 1000 paper cranes of Japanese story fame, China has 1000 construction cranes in each city skyline. Our conversations continually underscore the urgency in China to progress and improve, both for as an expectation for students to learn and improve and for progress and change as a society. They are very proud of the way they can implement new ideas or new building projects. They expect changes to be complete very quickly, almost as a two year old asks, “Are we there yet” two minutes after leaving the driveway. The flip side of this urgency is that when they are not sure how to go about making changes, they seek advice on how to “get it done” very quickly. Our group has been asked for advice on making certain changes in education and use of technology during our visits with universities, schools, and national technology centers working with education.

From our perspective, some of the changes they are asking to make will first require some major shifts in the underlying culture and the culture of Chinese education. For example: schools and teaching in China have always been teacher centered, with a teacher at the front of the class talking while students sit and listen. They sit in rows, never making a sound until called upon. They recite aloud as a whole class. They do not do group projects or sit on the floor, except in very unusual, progressive schools who are trying to replicate models from other countries.

Just as educational technology leaders in the U.S. often struggle to get teachers to integrate technology as a learning tool, so do Chinese educational leaders want to see technology put to effective use. But until the teachers have SEEN and understand a different model of teaching, they will have no way to see the role technology might play. Most of the technology use we have seen has still been teacher-centered: projecting a video or PowerPoint show and then asking questions about it for students to stand and respond. Although this happens in the U.S., too, we are far ahead on student technology use as a learning tool. We have invited Chinese leaders from several places to come to the ISTE conference and to learn alongside this professional group in the U.S. If they are as determined as I think they are, I suspect we will see some Chinese folks with us at the annual ISTE conference in Philadelphia next summer.

A class left a question on this blog a day or two ago about Chinese number systems, so I asked. The Chinese use both roman numbers (1,2,3,4, etc.) and Chinese characters to represent their numbers, but they use the Roman numbers more. These are easier to print. The characters are more like spelled out numbers or number names. I am including a close up of a bulletin board in a Chinese school (click to see it larger). The math facts should look familiar!

The second bulletin board shot shows science work on the human body in both English and Chinese (click to enlarge).

Another topic mentioned to us as something the Chinese want to bring into their schools is creativity. But I could write a ton about that. I also need to tell you about the meeting we had at the distance education center here in Shanghai…and many other tales of adventure.  We have only one more day here, but I hope to spend some time on the long flight home writing up more about our China experiences. Also to come: Shanghai at night, silk museum, laundry, Shawn– our guide and interpreter, pollution, “there is a policy.” Stay tuned.

We are in Shanghai now. I have no time to post this evening but will give you a preview of upcoming topics:

• Snow in Shanghai (check the usual climate to see how very rare this is!)
• China and teacher-centered vs student-centered learning
• Being blonde in China
• The Chinese approach to change
• Acrobats
•  Chinese drivers

I promise more tomorrow!!

I have only a few minutes left on my 24 hours of paid Internet, so I am writing quickly. I will add pictures if I have time.

Today we visited an elementary school ( they call it “primary” school) for grades 1-6, located in a village in the countryside of Hu County.  Most of the village is farmers (more on that later!). The school has 173 students and 16 teachers. They invited us into a grade 3 English class where students were learning numbers in English.The class had about 30 students (I think), and they were very excited to see us, even though our group of 35 or so filled the aisles of their small classroom. You will see how funny we looked taking so many pictures while they worked when I post a picture. They kept their eyes on their papers and worked diligently in spite of such an interruption! We sang “If You’re Happy and You Know it” for them when their teacher asked if we would like to teach them a song. They surprised us m singing the same some back in Chinese! Apparently it is a universal song for kids.

We saw their school library, built by People to People, the organization that is running our trip. It is very simple with very few books, but it has a nice clean floor and walls. The other classrooms are kept clean, but they have bare concrete floors that are VERY cold. They seem to wash the floors with water which does not dry easily, and they were very damp and cold on the feet. Both teachers and students keep their coats on all the time. The outside was about 38 degrees F, and inside was not a lot warmer! Each classroom opens to the outdoors and has open windows letting in the cold air. They have small coal burning heaters in the rooms to get a little heat, but it is a little heat!

Things we learned:

Elementary teachers teach no more than three 45 minute classes a day. Those who worked at those school did not live in the village of 750 people, but lived in the neighboring town and ride bikes to work – a distance I would guess is about 5 miles. They must get quite cold on the ride! The school day goes from 8:30 to 11:30, breaks for lunch until 2, then runs 2 to 5 pm. The students walk back home in their village for lunch. The school has two computers: one in the teacher office and one in a classroom they share for watching videos and computer programs on two large TV screens. Both are connected to the Internet. The teacher very proudly showed us a PowerPoint they had made to teach area, perimeter, and volume in grade 6. I think the numbering they used for math was the same as U.S.,  but I will have to look at my pictures in more detail to answer the question left on my earlier blog post.

Chinese teachers teach one, two, or occasionally 3 subjects in the rural schools. In the city schools they teach only one, even in elementary.  They are certified to teach a specific subject, but there is a shortage of teachers in the villages, so some teacher teach something they may not be certified to teach.

The teachers told us they are allowed to try new ways of teaching, and they like to find new ideas. They were thrilled with the gift of some books that our delegation brought, including alphabet letters and easy English picture books. I told them about TeachersFirst, especially the English teacher, since she can read it. The curriculum is set at the county level. Students go to elementary for grades 1-6 (there is no Kdg). They go to a neighboring town for grades 7-9, then only some go on to high school– about 60% of those who go to this elementary. Education beyond grade 9 is not mandatory.

The children were very happy and played outside at recess like any American children. We also saw some of them in the village later while they were home at lunch break. Our village visit is another story I will tell later.

Yesterday at the Terra Cotta Warriors museum I experienced the awe that most Chinese students have for Americans and the profound respect they show to teachers. I met a 6th grade Chinese boy who was there with his large group of schoolmates on a field trip from a school in a small city or town (not a farming village) somewhere an hour or two away. As we spoke, I was suddenly surrounded by at least 60 kids, all pressing close to say hi and to speak some English with me. When I said I was American, they were excited. When I said I was a teacher, they gasped and stepped back about a foot, being very cautious. I kept on talking and smiling with them, and they slowly closed in again. Their teacher videotaped our conversation (I guess to use in English class?). I gave them my email address and tried to act out the idea of sending me an email. I think they understood, but I am not sure. They gave the address to their teacher, anyway!

Because of that experience, I was not surprised to see the children today act very disciplined at school. They always stand up to respond to the teacher. The children in English class recited their numbers for us. We could hear other classes reciting together loudly many times during or visit.

Students have jobs at school, just as they do in the U.S. I saw some emptying the wastebaskets at recess.

I have much more to share, but want to try to add a picture or two before my time runs out. Tomorrow we travel to Shanghai, a very modern Chinese city.

I have had limited access to the Internet in the last two days, so am trying to post both about our school experiences so far and about our various culture experiences. I am going to toss some pictures up for you with captions.

This is in Xi’an. Proof that dogs are safe as pets in most of China. Manchurians sometimes eat dog in winter

The garden at the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an

Rubbing the belly of a big jade buddha at the Xi’an Jade center is supposed to be good luck.

Do you know where jade can be found? These jade rocks show what jade looks like in various stages from natural rock to polished rock. Jade comes in MANY colors!

The “eighth wonder of the world,” the Terra Cotta Warriors. Find out more about them on the Internet. They were discovered in 1974 by four Chinese farmers drilling a well.

Restored Warriors

Look carefully to see where the many pieces have been put back together. It makes Humpty Dumpty sound easy.

Pit 1: How the pit looks when the warrior pieces have not been collected and rebuilt. What a jigsaw puzzle! All the warriors are/were in pieces.

Bronze Chariot found in with the warriors (only HALF the scale of the warriors)

Stay tuned for more info on schools and culture. It is late at night now, so I have to stop posting things.

Disclaimer: The information expressed here is based on professional visits to one public secondary school (grades 7-12) and the Center for Educational Technology (a national center) at Beijing Normal University. It is supplemented by a asking questions of our very knowledgeable guide (about age 30) who grew up in southwest China, the son of a HS math teacher. This information may not represent all realities in China. Information based strictly on one person’s experience is so indicated. 

1.  For about 30 years, China has had a one child policy (couples permitted to have only one baby). That policy has loosened, but most children still have 6 adults (two parents, four grandparents doting on them and watching their every move. This, combined with a powerful respect for teachers and drive for education make classroom behavior remarkably focused.

2. School is free (and compulsory) from age 7 (1st grade)  through 9th grade. Then parents must pay. The cost of senior high school in the one we visited is about $350 per term ($700/year). But average income is FAR below what people make in the U.S. Our guide said a city professional might earn $1200/month. (This statistic should be researched further for accuracy.)

3. There is a HUGE divide between rural (“village” or “less developed areas”) and urban/town schools. Keeping in mind that municipalities called “villages” can be as large as several hundred thousand people or more, I am not sure where the line is drawn between “rural” schools and those in “developed areas.” We will see a village school on Tuesday.

4. School day/year: HS students are in school 8-5 daily. Regular classes end at 4 with after school courses until 5. The school year is comprised of two terms: Sept 1- late January, then one month off. The second term ends in time for a two month summer break.

5. Class sizes in the high school are typically at least 40 students, and many 50+. The computer class we visited had 54 but room for up to 60. The video we saw of an elementary class in a pilot edtech school had 48 in a 2nd grade class. When asked how teachers handle students who may struggle or those who are advanced, both teachers and the teacher ed professor readily acknowledged that they “cannot do this with 40-50 in their class” and must “handle it after school.” The professor said that “this is an area where we can learn from you” [the U.S.]. There is little problem with classroom behavior, however, because the the great respect afforded to teachers and high value placed on education by the entire society. I will tell you my experience with this in a post about meeting students at the Terra Cotta Warrior museum!

6. When we asked a veteran teacher how teaching has changed in her 30+ years, she explained: Students and their parents are interested in other things, more than just getting a grade. They say, “I am learning to be good, not only to be knowledgeable; to be kind, generous, to help others.”  The teacher also smiled as she explained that teaching for her was first just a job. Then she grew to enjoy it. Now it is “an addiction.” Some things about teachers are universal!

7. Teachers we spoke to looked immediately to their principal for the answer when asked whether they are interested in trying something new, such as collaborating with classes/schools outside their own. They do not seem to have the autonomy to make such decisions and may even be afraid to. This observation is based solely on a few teachers and their responses to questions from our group.

8. High school teachers teach 3 classes per day. They spend the rest of the day “preparing in their office.” Teachers wear very casual clothes, often including outerwear for cool temps, such as a warm up jacket and sneakers. Even the HS principal was in casual pants and a sweater/sweatshirt.  Even the chair of the university edtech center wore jeans for his meeting with our professional delegation, which surprised me.

9. The Educational Technology Center at Beijing Normal University (an “ivy league” level school) has a strong graduate research program conducting pilots in 260 schools across China to determine which exactly which uses and strategies for technology are the most effective in promoting learning. Most of their work involves the teacher using the technology. They openly acknowledged to us that they are behind the U.S. in student use of technology at school.

10. In city schools, computer labs for computer skill classes (not classes using the lab for another subject, such as science or social studies) are typical in high schools. See the picture from the Jr/Sr high school we visited in Beijing. These labs are rarely used by other classes. Students do not typically use computers during the school day except in computer class. They do use computers during afternoon time after official classes end and before they depart at about 5 pm. They might use a computer for a club, for research, or extracurricular projects. In cities, most students have computers with Internet access at home and do use them. Students may use computer skills learned in their computer class to complete multimedia assignments using video or images, etc. The one example of a project type we heard mentioned was PowerPoint. It is typical for there to be one computer per classroom which the teacher alone uses,  possibly with a projector. The English language teacher who spoke with us said she occasionally shares pictures of things from the Internet on the projector as part of her instruction. Apparently web 2.0 tools are not in use at all for school. Microsoft products are by far more prevalent than Mac.

Bonus: I did ask our guide about curriculum and how much Chinese students earn of U.S. history, such as the Revolutionary or Civil Wars. He said they do study world history, including the U.S., but that it is “not very detailed.”

I will be sure to share more after we visit a village school. We have heard over and over and over how different the situation is “in the countryside” or “in the villages” or “for the farmers.” Now we hope to see it. After driving past such villages today, we know the divide is broader than any we can find in the U.S.

Yesterday (Friday) we spent visiting the educational technology department at Beijing Normal University (where they do the pre-eminent research on edtech in China, their equivalent of a Columbia Teachers College or Harvard) and also visiting a high school. I have much to tell teachers about teaching and tech use in China, but I need to organize it in a way that will answer your questions.

In the meantime, as promised, here is a picture of an “eastern” style bathroom. It is NOT what we are used to, that is for sure.

Today we spent at Ti’ananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and hiking on the Great Wall. In between, we drove past the “Cube” and “Bird’s Nest” from the 2008 Olympics. I am sharing just a couple of pictures.

The taupe color of Beijing from our first day has opened up to a beautiful blue sky the last two days, making the city and surrounding mountains remarkably clear for our time on the Wall.  It was breath-taking, both for its visual impact and because of the steep climbs!   The second picture shows  part of the steeper climb (not the worst) and the wall in winding over the mountains in the distance.

Tomorrow we travel to Xi’an, about a two hour flight from Beijing. Xi’an is the city of the Terra Cotta warriors. I hope I will have time on the flight to organize some thoughts about all we have learned about Chinese public schools.

We have been out visiting a university, a school, a market, the restaurant home of Peking Duck, and a skyline look at Beijing today, so it is very late.  I promise to write a post tomorrow, but I will give you  a “taste” of today in Beijing. Dinner tonight included scorpions! Tomorrow we get up bright and early to see the Great Wall! Stay tuned.

After about 24 hours in Beijing, there is so much to tell. We have mostly gotten over the 13 hour flight and have had a full day of food, visits to an international school, and city. Here is a set of impressions for now, along with some questions for YOU:

Airport
The international hall where we waited in many lines to be admitted to the country was eerily quiet. Even with hundreds of people lined up for multiple desks for “citizens” and “foreigners” (in Chinese and English signage), there was very little sound. I did not take a photo because it felt as though I perhaps was not supposed to. But each of us in our group of 35 Americans noticed the hush, a muted sensation uncharacteristic of Americans anywhere. The airport itself is beautiful, clean, and very efficient. Our guide pointed out that the expressway we took into the city was built for the 2008 Olympics, as much of the airport appeared to be, also. Does your city have any buildings or special features that were build because of a recent event– or one even a century ago?

Color
Visually, the first impression of Beijing is taupe: that odd, muddy color between gray and brown  not unlike very old coffee from the bottom of the pot when you add a lot of milk to it — or possibly like smoky eyeshadow.  Even the soil has an odd taupe color. My color impression is not a metaphor for the life within Beijing, however. If you had to pick a”color” as the first impression of your town/city, what would it be?

Traffic
The traffic is insane. Pedestrians take their lives into their hands. Cars, motor-scooters, taxis, and buses all have the right of way and do not slow at all for pedestrians in crosswalks. We learned quickly to follow a Chinese person to dodge our way through 8 lanes of traffic. Even at 2 a.m. (when I was awake from the time zone change!), the horns blow outside our hotel. We are glad we have a shuttle bus to almost everywhere we will go.  How often have you helped a stranger find his/her way on your town? Would people where you live offer to help?

People
Everyone has been very friendly, though we have not met any “ordinary people” yet. The high end shopping mall across the street, with stores like Gucci and Porsche, is not a likely place to see  the “everyday people”! Stay tuned on this.

Fashion(!)
I had to include one picture we took in the high-end mall. I don’t think I will be buying this dress for the holidays. People on the street look the same as those in the U.S. in colder weather: winter coats, etc. The weather has not been that cold, but is supposed to be colder tomorrow. Do you have store windows near you that display outfits few would actually wear?

Cars
I have seen many Volkswagens, Audis, BMWs, and VW Jetta cabs. We walked past a BMW dealer down the street with a nice shiny convertible in the window and young couples inside talking to a salesman.  Is your town a Ford pickup town, subway and taxi city, or a SUV suburb?

Language
Ni hao is hello in Chinese. That is all I can say. Everyone who sees you (inside) says it, but not strangers on the sidewalks. Many signs have English in this city because there are so many tourists, but the stores and restaurants that serve the Chinese residents have only Chinese signs in very bright colors. Do you ever meet people who know very few word of your language? What do you say to them?

Christmas!
We have been surprised to see as many Christmas decorations as we have and to hear Christmas music in the lobby and shopping areas, since most Chinese do not celebrate Christmas. We think this is because it makes tourists feel more at home and more willing to spend money (?) What do shops and restaurants where you live do to make people willing to spend?

Food
Setting aside the challenges of using chopsticks, the food is amazing. Our hotel definitely caters to “westerners,” so the restaurant has both Chinese and other types of food. The presentation is beautiful, sometimes better than it actually tastes, but we can certainly tell that EVERYONE in China wants to make a positive impression on us as American visitors. We had a traditional style lunch in a Chinese restaurant, served at round tables with large, glass  “lazy susans.” The many dishes just kept coming, and hey were wonderful. There is very little beef, though the Korean restaurant we went to for dinner had plenty of beef. Although we had been told that “everyone speaks English,” that is not true of servers in the restaurants. They know few words, but they find someone who can help if we ask a question. Diet Coke costs about $3.50 or more and is far less common than the ubiquitous Coke, Sprite and bottled water. Even the Chinese do not drink the water unless they boil it for tea. I guess Pepsi has not made it to Beijing. What does your townor city do to make a positive impression on visitors? Do you get many visitors? If you had to feed them one or two dishes that are most typical where you live, what would they be? What would be the “special occasion” meal you would offer very special guests?

BISS Beijing International School
We visited the BISS Beijing International School, a small private school (Preschool- gr 12) with students from many countries. This is not a public school or one that would be typical for the average Chinese student. Families pay tuition to send their children there, and it is expensive. These children are in Beijing because their parents have important jobs, many working at the Beijing embassies for other countries such as Korea, Germany, India, and others. The school is conducted in English, though it is the second language for the majority of the students. The head of the school explained that these families stay in Beijing for 2-3 years, then the parents move to another assignment, making them “global nomads” or “third culture kids.” The school was very welcoming and uses technology extensively. Students have their own laptops beginning in grade 5 (purchased by their family). The lower grades use netbooks and both Mac and Windows computers. There is beautiful student artwork throughout the school.

Their building has grades K-12 in one rather ordinary building (four floors), and they have a tiny paved outdoor athletic space and  careful security (fence, barbed wire, guards). They get to use some of the Olympic venues for their sports, however, including the “Birds Nest”  track and field stadium which is walking distance from the school! Because of the many nations represented in the school, there is a very strong  appreciation for culture. How many nationalities and languages can you find in your school?

Interesting
Our hotel room has a cool power saving feature. Our room key cards turn on the power for the lights. When you enter, you insert the card to make the light switches and lamps work. As you exit and remove the keycard, the lights stay on for about 30 seconds like the ones in a car. No one can waste energy. Can you think of any tricky features you could invent to save money on water or power at your home or school?

East/West
I still need to get a picture of this, but Chinese traditional (“Eastern”) bathrooms are very different from U.S. bathrooms.  They do not have toilets/commodes/water closets. They are like a hole in the ground. Stay tuned for a photo!

I need to tell you more about the money and more…perhaps tomorrow. Tomorrow we visit a university where Chinese students study to become teachers and a high school there, as well. What do YOU want to know?

As I prepare to board my flight to China, I read this New York Times article previewing today’s formal announcement of Shanghai’s powerful statement in student achievement scores. There is definitely something going on in China, and we can’t dismiss their education system as inferior in most ways to the U.S. if this test comparison is as balanced and reputable as the Times says it is. The stereotypes many U.S. educators may have about China:

• That Chinese schools do not value creativity
• That Chinese classes and schools operate in lock-step standardization
• That Chinese teachers and students have little freedom of choice
• That all Chinese schools are impoverished

But  things change so rapidly in China that our impressions are probably outdated by more than ten years. Ten years in China at its current rocket-propelled pace is a comparable to half a century of U.S. progress. The challenge for our group of U.S. educators departing today: How do we get a snapshot of a moving rocket of Chinese education (and edtech) with our Instamatic* camera powers of observation?

*For those under age 45, Google it.