Week 9

Week 9: Professional

19/04/12

Week 9 has arrived already and it is safe to say that I am already dreading the day that we have to leave China. I have fallen in love with the people who I have met in China and I am not looking forward to saying my goodbyes.

During this week I went back to my Middle School as my teacher and I were going to have dinner together that night.  I arrived to find that the students had secretly organised individual Chinese gifts for me and I spent the next hour receiving a large amount of presents and well wishes. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of these students and I can only hope that the short time that I had in this school made a positive impact on the teachers and the students. 

                                                        Some of my middle school students J

Two of my middle school students and a few of the presents that I received

I spent my second week in Primary School and I had a range of experiences this week that have developed my confidence in my own teaching ability.  The resources in this primary school are very limited compared to the Primary Schools I have been blessed with in Northern Ireland. One morning this week I was informed 5 minutes before my lesson began that there was no projector or computer in the room. My whole lesson was based on a PowerPoint that I had prepared.  A few years ago this situation would have sent me into despair but instead I felt calm and was able to create a lesson drawing from ideas I have learnt over the previous three years at Stranmillis.  This lesson ended up being a huge success.

One main criticism that I have observed about Education in China is that there is limited and at times no differentiation in teaching.  In the primary classes that I have observed many of the children do not engage with the lesson and there is no variation in the teaching to try and engage these pupils.  If any of the children do not listen in class or get easily distracted then they are commonly referred to as ‘the naughty children’.  This really saddens me because I believe with effective intervention methods these children could easily engage with the classroom teaching as long as their specific needs are realised and met.

I also got to have my first experience of team teaching this week.  One afternoon all four of us where invited to a Foreign Language School in the sub-urban area of Guangzhou.  We taught the class about Northern Ireland and this was one of my favourite lessons I have taught.  It felt like I was teaching with three great friends and we worked well together as a team.  The teacher in charge of this class noted that he enjoyed watching this team teaching as he has never seen this before. The pupil’s in this school spoke excellent English.  I was very impressed.  After this lesson we were taken out for dinner by our lecturer Amy and Teresa to say thank you.  Again I was blown away by the generosity of the Chinese people.  They paid for our dinner and bought us nearly every dish on the menu.  I have really enjoyed this relaxed approach with regards to teacher and student relationship. I now see Amy and Teresa as good friends and it makes my time here at SCNU easier because I feel like I can easily talk to them if I have any problems with my studies.  Amy has even offered me some extra lessons to help improve my mandarin!

Dan, Keith, Dani and myself teaching at the foreign language school