Shing Ling Kwi Le or Happy New Year!
Ping
expected some official training and paperwork upon arrival, somehow that did
not happen. However, Eddy’s friend, Mary Davis, picked up the ball and has done
a remarkable job preparing him to meet with success. Although Edward’s years of
work with “We the People…” and several “Project Citizen” workshops prepared him
with much of the needed pedagogy, he gives huge kudos to Mary. Also, Travis and
James have been helpful with the facilitation of a smooth transitioning of their
roles as substitute-mentors to Edward’s position as the new full-time Mentor
Teacher in the assigned five schools. Edward is Eddy’s “school name” in China.
Here they call their teacher by their first names; Mr. Edward…sound familiar,
BIH fans?
ALL
of the schools have warmly welcomed us with tea, fruit and kind words. It is
such a pleasure to work with educators who really care about improving the
quality of their students’ performance. Fu Tian’s (school name) Headmaster
asked the substitute mentor, Dan, and Edward to give a presentation to the
entire staff, well over a 100 individuals, about “The State of Civic Education in America and How WE Could Improve
China’s Program”. This presentation was to be given a week from the day we first
met them! This opportunity went over very well. Although Dan chose not to
attend, Edward improvised to cover his section that included a prepared mock
debate. The school was impressed and asked Edward to speak to the staff again. Of
course, he gladly agreed.
The
Nan Hua Primary School asked Edward to give a 30-minute presentation about Project Citizen so the entire staff could
become aware of what the new pilot Civic Education Program will look like for
the fourth grade. Of course, the whole school will be encouraged to become as deeply
involved as possible after February and even more so as we approach the time for
the Showcase in May.
Mei
Lian (school name) went to great lengths to welcome their new Mentor Teacher
with a big red banner above the school gates! It said “Welcome Edward James
Ormond” in English and Chinese! That really warms the soul. These enthusiastic people
inspire us to have a dedicated and persistent optimism for this pilot program.
Through
no fault of our own, we got a late start this semester and have only met with each
of the schools a few times. All of them, including Fu Nan and Nan Yuan, are
very willing to accommodate the program and any suggestions. Most will have
their topic/problem (or as Edward likes to say, “opportunity for responsible citizenship!”) before the Winter
Break.
On our third day in China, December 19, 2012, we
attended a “Cluster Meeting” of the five schools Edward now mentors. Mr. Woo,
from the Education Bureau, spoke very passionately about the civics program and
everyone was really happy to hear about his commitment to the new pilot program
(or “Project Citizen”).
The Fu Tian Primary School hosted Edward’s first “Official”
Cluster Meeting on January 5, 2013. By now, Edward was familiar with the faces,
and all expressed pleasure with his service as Mentor Teacher and the program’s
progress. Once again, the leader of the meeting, Fu Tian’s Headmaster this
time, spoke very highly of the program and what an important step it is in the
progress of Shenzhen’s modernization. He emphasized his hopes that this new
pilot program will soon be a part of the regular curriculum that teaches their
students to become responsible citizens. His comments inspired the teachers to
get involved at the next full-staff meeting at Fu Nan on January 18, 2013 by asking
them to make connections between their class and our Civics Class, because the
principles that make a good student are very much the same virtues that make a
good citizen.
All of the schools seem very dedicated to the program. Some are more
enthusiastic than others, however positive feedback has been received about how
the program and the mentor are melding with the school system. Every Chinese
Civic Education Teacher is performing to a proficient or accomplished rating
level. Each day we spend in these schools with their marvelous teachers makes a difference
in these schools’ educational process. It is an honor to have contributed to
this success. It is hard to believe that in just a few weeks there would be so
many success stories to share, so here are just a few.
Overall, teachers are open-minded about trying
suggestions and successfully implementing them. We make good teams. As one
teacher said, “Edward, you make very good suggestions. You inspire us and cheer
us on. You make us feel like we can do it!” And they can.
First Year Teacher, Spencer (her adopted English
name), has been a joy to work with. She encourages helpful suggestions, is
eager to implement them, and demurely beams with pride at her accomplishments.
“Old” & “Young,” or better yet, “Ying and Yan,” we share the same zest for
teaching.
Fellow
Fu Tian teachers, Marina and Hans, are there to help with whatever may be asked
of them. HANSome Hans (Ping teases him because the good looking English teacher
played Prince Charming in a school performance) even wore silly headgear to
help along the crazy mentor’s “act” as Marina translated Edward’s school-wide
presentation. (PPTs, they call them.)
Spencer
(English nickname) let her mentor rearrange the desks in her room to offer four
different types of cooperative grouping arrangements for the visitors on the day
of the Cluster Meeting. Following that, she insisted he “rest” (as they take
one hour naps after their one hour lunch break!). Then she (Spencer) allowed me
to surprise her class with a brand new grouping style re-arranging all the
kid’s desks. “The rearranged chairs surprised the kids and make a big
difference,” she texted. Now she is able to fit 54 students into that tiny
space and still be able to walk around to keep an eye on each and every
student. In the states we call that “Teacher Proximity.” She was very pleased. The
“First Year of Teaching” album is being scanned at home and sent to China
because Spencer has expressed an interest in seeing Edward’s “style” in
pictures. We predict she will continue to make amazing progress this year and
develop her own “new” style of teaching in China.
Ms. Li (quoted above) and Mr. Han are a pair of seasoned
and eager participants in this program and are exhilarating to work with. Each
week begins and ends with these enthusiastic schools and teachers. Edward said at
one of the debriefing sessions at Nan Yuan, “I can tell that Ms. Li is very excited about the students’ progress and
Mr. Han really cares about their
learning in this program.” That alone is a success.
But, what really is a success story is, in the
beginning, how hesitant they were to take the suggestion that they “give the reins”
over to their students for a class period. They were to let the learners choose
an issue, create, and present a PowerPoint about a community problem (the crux
of the program) to the class and entertain questions, etc. - all while keeping
a formal approach. These caring teachers expressed concerns about students’
ability to successfully handle the workload. Edward advised them to have, like
he did, high expectations for their students. “Shoot for the moon and you may hit
a star!” he exclaimed. Besides his charades, the translator, Helen, is
excellent, too.
Well,
the sky was twinkling during the next class period because the star students
did a stellar job! Sure, it was not perfect, and the teachers voiced concerns
over that, the simple fact that they and
their students took risks made for a successful lesson. The students even
took their own lunchtime to edit their work after the teacher gave them
suggestions earlier that morning! “Look how much learning was going on!” Edward
told them excitedly. The class got involved with not only asking questions of
the panel of presenters, but surprisingly, critiqued the style and content of
their presentations, too. One opinionated boy, Leedochen, (and Ping’s favorite)
even got into the beginnings of a debate! Debates for this dynamic duo were
certainly in the future for their classes.
Bonus: Fu Tian (school) invited us to attend their
Fairytale Festival last Saturday. Mary really
enjoyed Hans hosting and everyone
adored his role as the Prince. It was some
production! Edward wrote and directed musicals for the end of the school year at
Tracey’s Elementary School (back in the good ole USA) that were very good, but
these Fu Tian kids were awesome! Even the parents performed! We’ve got to
network with them for some showcase help, later.
As we all continue to work together our teaching styles merge and
communication improves. In case you can’t tell, we are very happy with the
positive results.
Have a great Winter Break!
Posted by EddyTour-In-Chief: Doug
"Anyone who stops
learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays
young." – Henry Ford
Ping’s companion, Mary, suggested hiking instead of yoga today
for their exercise. So, an on-line search found http://www.everytrail.com/guide/hiking-tang-lang-hill-country-park-shenzhen-prchina-?1356933370
and the adventure began! Off on a gentle hike up the “hill” as the hotel
concierge called it. Man, oh China Man, was she wrong! The taxi ride was much
more expensive on the way to the destination (Sorry, Mary- she paid that part) than
upon returning. (Ping’s part:) We could see the mountain looming above as we departed our taxi and began climbing the
fifty or so stone steps to the entry of the park. The area was covered in Bougainvillea
(the flower of Shenzhen) and there were warning signs placed all around putting
us on notice about pythons and stinging insects. And you can believe Mary did
not want to stand in the groundcover near the sign so Ping could shoot her
picture!
And so began the “little trail-hike up a hill.” Hah! Turns
out that the preconceived notion of a pleasantly sloping dirt path winding up
the rolling hill was in reality very bumpy stairs made of stone steps cut straight
up the mountain’s side! Some clever soul even marked the Arabic numbers on each
rock step. Getting to step 143 was pretty easy, 400 required some pacing and
step 1000 needed superhuman strength!!! 
“As Ping saw there was an 80 year old woman coming down from
this mountain Ping decided he was pushing on!” There were little doggies on the
stairs, youngsters and even men in business suits tackling this trek. What we presumed
was a fairly secluded spot was actually a very active place for the Chinese. Later
we found out that hiking is one of the citizen’s favorite activities. At one
point the steps became only rocks and poor Ping lost his webbed footing.
Almost magically a sketchpad appeared, and quickly, a
representation of the event was drawn. “Oh dear, Ping, it’s getting dark!” Mary
warned. It was a long way down and walking in the dark seemed a bit malevolent and
to be avoided. Cellphones to the rescue! The Cell’s light the path sporadically
and by the time we were 3/4th of the way down we were feeling much
safer. Amazingly, people were still coming up, wow! What in the world? What a
great hike…
