Preparing students for the twenty-first century involves more than teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Check out this book by Daniel Pink for some fascinating insights into how education is and needs to be evolving.
Interested in finding out how China is changing? Read one man's journey along China's Route 312, perhaps the equivalent of the USA's Route 66. A fascinating and personal journey, China Road is much more than a simple travelogue.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Photos and Email from Miss Ping
Dear Kathryn,
I have seen the pictures and I can feel their happiness. I'm looking forward to joining them!
Last weekend my friends and I went to Yuyuantan Park. The weather was really nice and there were lots of people playing Taiji, flying kites, walking in the sun and chatting on the grass. Yuyuantan Park is famous for cherry blossoms. they are white, pink or even red. We took lots of pictures. There were also golden, pink and red tulips. At the center of the park there were snacks and we ate much toasted beef and chicken. It was really delicious! I have attached some pictures.
I cannot wait to see you again!
Yours sincerely,
Ping
Pictures and Email from Miss Huini
Dear Kathryn,
I am very happy to have recieved your mails and pictures. It is very important to me because it makes me feel warm and lets me know more about Highlands. It is half past eleven P.M. in Beijing now. Everything is quiet outside. Many people are going to have a good sleep. And sometimes I am wondering what the teachers and children are doing now in Highlands. I miss you very much!
There are pictures of my family in the attachment. One is my parents. My father's name is Zhan Tianzhen, which means naive. It sounds interesting, doesn't it? He is an English teacher in junior middle school. Everytime when I have to make an important decision, I like talking with him and asking for some suggestions. My mother's name is Chen Yumei which means as beautiful as jade. She is a dorm administrator in another middle school in my hometown. They love each other and I love them. If you are interested, I will show the Chinese characters of their names. This picture was taken in Zhongshan park in the local city called Longyan.
The second one is my younger brother. He is called Chen Renlong. Long is dragon. My parents hope that he will grow up to be a real man and as strong as dragon. Now he is an senior middle school student. As you see, this picture is taken in Tian'an Men Square. Last year he came to Beijing and I showed him around.
I still have many uncles and aunts. Each of them has a child. So I have a big family. But we don't live together. We will meet each other in Spring Festivel.
Wish you a nice day!
Huini
I am very happy to have recieved your mails and pictures. It is very important to me because it makes me feel warm and lets me know more about Highlands. It is half past eleven P.M. in Beijing now. Everything is quiet outside. Many people are going to have a good sleep. And sometimes I am wondering what the teachers and children are doing now in Highlands. I miss you very much!
There are pictures of my family in the attachment. One is my parents. My father's name is Zhan Tianzhen, which means naive. It sounds interesting, doesn't it? He is an English teacher in junior middle school. Everytime when I have to make an important decision, I like talking with him and asking for some suggestions. My mother's name is Chen Yumei which means as beautiful as jade. She is a dorm administrator in another middle school in my hometown. They love each other and I love them. If you are interested, I will show the Chinese characters of their names. This picture was taken in Zhongshan park in the local city called Longyan.
The second one is my younger brother. He is called Chen Renlong. Long is dragon. My parents hope that he will grow up to be a real man and as strong as dragon. Now he is an senior middle school student. As you see, this picture is taken in Tian'an Men Square. Last year he came to Beijing and I showed him around.
I still have many uncles and aunts. Each of them has a child. So I have a big family. But we don't live together. We will meet each other in Spring Festivel.
Wish you a nice day!
Huini
Photos From Friday, April 20, 2007
Connie was kind enough to send me a few photos of our fun day. Enjoy!
This photo was taken at the outdoor flea market where we found so many delightful "old" things.
This is the security guard who posed with me after checking to make sure we had paid for all of our children's books and puzzles!
Here we are at the "best sushi place in Beijing." It was the perfect treat after a very busy day!
This photo was taken at the outdoor flea market where we found so many delightful "old" things.
This is the security guard who posed with me after checking to make sure we had paid for all of our children's books and puzzles!
Here we are at the "best sushi place in Beijing." It was the perfect treat after a very busy day!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Time to Play!
On Friday, April 20, I finished the meeting and paperwork for Huini by ten o'clock a.m. I returned to the hotel room to answer school email when I heard a ringing sound announcing someone was calling on my Skype account. I answered the ring to find it was Thomas, my eight-year-old son.
"Hi Mommy! I can't talk long. I have to work on my social studies project."
"What's your social studies project on?"
"Ancient China."
"You know I'm in China right now."
"Oh yeah!"
He was particularly interested in Chinese food and religion, so I told him during my afternoon shopping expedition, I would look for items that might help him.
This was to be my big day out -- work was through! Mission accomplished! Connie was going to pick me up at the hotel. Connie is the colleague of a father at Highlands School, and he was eager for us to meet. Since she was to be in Beijing that same day, she offered to show me around. I had given her my list of things I would like to do...shopping for antiques or just basic "old" stuff, shopping for books for Highlands School's new Chinese program (!), and shopping for a few things to take back to family.
We started our adventures by heading to an "antique mall" and soon found that the items for sale were out of my price range. Connie, fluent in Chinese, asked someone about an outdoor flea market type place. We walked a few blocks and stumbled onto the perfect place for me to find some FUN things and have a great time doing it!
BARGAINING was the word for the day! Vendors were lined up in rows with low, low tables. The wares varied from old plates and pottery to abacuses, jewelry, Buddhas, religious objects, and real tiger paws! Connie, a turtle collector, bargained for a cricket box made of tiny carved wood pieces -- the bars of the cage were the size of toothpicks, and the cage was shaped like a turtle. She also bought a stone figure with a turtle head and a bat body.
I really wanted a box that had an abacus on the lid for my husband, the mathematician. A good strategy, we had heard, is to bargain for a while and then walk away. So, we tried this, but the box seller did not follow us. We were disappointed. We tried to bargain for some glass dolls, sort of flat and about six inches tall, but when we walked away, the tiny woman did not follow us. Frustrated, we continued and found a religious object used by Tibetan monks called a "prayer wheel."
Connie told me all about the prayer wheel, and I immediately thought that this might help Thomas with his report. We bargained, and the price got closer to the range I was willing to pay; The seller knew I was getting ready to walk, and she held up a bracelet I had been admiring and said to Connie in Chinese, "I'll give a bracelet for free." I said to Connie, "Tell her I need two bracelets for my two tall daughters." So the squatting woman handed me the prayer wheel and two bracelets. I opened my money pouch that had been hidden under my shirt. I paid for the the prayer wheel and the "free" bracelets and said "Shi-Shi."
As we began to walk, a man approached us and began a rapid string of Chinese syllables. Connie said, "He's the abacus box man. He says, 'fine.' You can have it for 120 yuen." So we walked back and picked up the big box, paid cash, and continued walking. Suddenly, we were surrounded by an abacus seller and doll sellers, some with delicate faces and one set with faces of rats! They had figured out we had cash and were willing to buy!
We couldn't move because people were pushing against us pointing a variety of objects near our faces. They were yelling, "Lady, lady, good price." Connie interpreted for me, and I bought two more sets of dolls. Somehow the vendors seemed to know exactly what we were looking for.
I said to Connie, "Do they have some sort of wireless network going? How did this happen?"
We headed to her hotel room, dropped off our great deals and washed our hands, arms, and faces. The wind was blowing pollution,sand and dirt that day, plus the items at the flea market were filthy black. We cleaned up and took a taxi to a restaurant famous for Peking Duck. We ate the moist meat between steamed "biscuits" and "pancakes" that were sort of like thin flour tortillas.
After the duck, we headed to a bookstore to find books for Highlands Library and for the Chinese program. We have recently started a global section for the library with books from around the world in a variety of languages.
The bookstore to me was like a candystore to a child! I was in heaven! We quickly found the children's section and found Harry Potter, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Charlotte's Web, some traditional folktales, workbooks to help learn Chinese, flashcards and pictures, posters and puzzles. We had found fantastic resources for our school, and when the four bags of books and other items were added up, the bill was around 40 US dollars. Abolutely amazing!
As we left the store, Connie and I were talking away, and we didn't notice that a security guard was following us. He tapped Connie on the shoulder and said we should come back to the store, that the alarm had sounded, and he needed to check our receipts and bags. He saw all of our children's books, and I am guessing we did not fit the profile for shoplifters. He checked our receipts, counted items, and declared us legal. By this time, he was smiling at all of our learning materials, and he looked like a friendly guy, so I asked Connie to ask him if I could have my picture made with him. Tell him this is my first time to be stopped by a Chinese policeman. She smilingly told him, and he laughed and posed with me for a picture with his hand in one of the bag of books. It was hilarious! I cannot wait to get the picture from Connie.
A few more stops including Starbucks were in order, and then we quickly ran by Connie's hotel room to drop off the motherload!
Then we headed to the silk market for chops (seals), a suitcase to hold all of the books and other purchases, and pearls.
We ordered the chops, chose some tea mugs and tea accessories, ordered chops for my husband, children, and the chair of the board (who has been so encouraging of Highlands' participation in the China Connection and who made a hilarious joke when she heard about some of the candidates' interest in seal cutting. "Won't that be hard for them to do seeing as how the seal population in Birmingham isn't so great?" I couldn't resist having one ordered for her!) I also ordered strands of pearls and pearl earrings, and then we headed to the basement to buy the suitcase. While we were there, the shops began to close, and all of the "up" escalators stopped working. It was 8:45, and the whole building closed at 9:00, but they wanted people to begin leaving at that point! We climbed up the stopped escalators, Connie leading the way with the big, empty suitcase in hand, convincing the security guard at every escalator from the basement to the sixth floor that we had to get back upstairs to pick up items we had already purchased.
We were out of breath and laughing so hard by the time we got to the sixth floor. At the very top, the security guard did not want to let us through. She spoke to him in Chinese and said, "If you don't believe me, come on with us." He smiled and let us through.
We picked up everything, stuffed my suitcase, and saw the vendors heading to the elevator! Ah-hah! An elevator! Wish we had known!
We climbed in with all of the vendors. Connie told the pearl sellers our story of climbing up the stopped escalators and talking the security guards into letting us return to the top floor. The whole elevator was laughing. What a fun evening. Of course we had to take a few pictures! This is a picture of one of the vendors in the elevator with me!
We topped off the night with sushi from the "best sushi place in all of Beijing" according to Connie. It was delicious, fresh, melting-in-my-mouth-good.
After a trip to Connie's hotel to pick up the other purchases, the taxi dropped me off at my hotel. By this time, it was close to midnight. I settled with the hotel, answered email, packed my suitcases, took a shower, and dressed for my flight. I decided I would take an "afternoon nap" since it was Friday afternoon in Birmingham. Three hours later, I met a car Connie had arranged for me and arrived at the airport by 6:00 a.m.
Thirty hours, two layovers, and three airplanes later, I was hugging my sweet family and trying to tell them a few highlights from the trip.
There's no place like home!
"Hi Mommy! I can't talk long. I have to work on my social studies project."
"What's your social studies project on?"
"Ancient China."
"You know I'm in China right now."
"Oh yeah!"
He was particularly interested in Chinese food and religion, so I told him during my afternoon shopping expedition, I would look for items that might help him.
This was to be my big day out -- work was through! Mission accomplished! Connie was going to pick me up at the hotel. Connie is the colleague of a father at Highlands School, and he was eager for us to meet. Since she was to be in Beijing that same day, she offered to show me around. I had given her my list of things I would like to do...shopping for antiques or just basic "old" stuff, shopping for books for Highlands School's new Chinese program (!), and shopping for a few things to take back to family.
We started our adventures by heading to an "antique mall" and soon found that the items for sale were out of my price range. Connie, fluent in Chinese, asked someone about an outdoor flea market type place. We walked a few blocks and stumbled onto the perfect place for me to find some FUN things and have a great time doing it!
BARGAINING was the word for the day! Vendors were lined up in rows with low, low tables. The wares varied from old plates and pottery to abacuses, jewelry, Buddhas, religious objects, and real tiger paws! Connie, a turtle collector, bargained for a cricket box made of tiny carved wood pieces -- the bars of the cage were the size of toothpicks, and the cage was shaped like a turtle. She also bought a stone figure with a turtle head and a bat body.
I really wanted a box that had an abacus on the lid for my husband, the mathematician. A good strategy, we had heard, is to bargain for a while and then walk away. So, we tried this, but the box seller did not follow us. We were disappointed. We tried to bargain for some glass dolls, sort of flat and about six inches tall, but when we walked away, the tiny woman did not follow us. Frustrated, we continued and found a religious object used by Tibetan monks called a "prayer wheel."
Connie told me all about the prayer wheel, and I immediately thought that this might help Thomas with his report. We bargained, and the price got closer to the range I was willing to pay; The seller knew I was getting ready to walk, and she held up a bracelet I had been admiring and said to Connie in Chinese, "I'll give a bracelet for free." I said to Connie, "Tell her I need two bracelets for my two tall daughters." So the squatting woman handed me the prayer wheel and two bracelets. I opened my money pouch that had been hidden under my shirt. I paid for the the prayer wheel and the "free" bracelets and said "Shi-Shi."
As we began to walk, a man approached us and began a rapid string of Chinese syllables. Connie said, "He's the abacus box man. He says, 'fine.' You can have it for 120 yuen." So we walked back and picked up the big box, paid cash, and continued walking. Suddenly, we were surrounded by an abacus seller and doll sellers, some with delicate faces and one set with faces of rats! They had figured out we had cash and were willing to buy!
We couldn't move because people were pushing against us pointing a variety of objects near our faces. They were yelling, "Lady, lady, good price." Connie interpreted for me, and I bought two more sets of dolls. Somehow the vendors seemed to know exactly what we were looking for.
I said to Connie, "Do they have some sort of wireless network going? How did this happen?"
We headed to her hotel room, dropped off our great deals and washed our hands, arms, and faces. The wind was blowing pollution,sand and dirt that day, plus the items at the flea market were filthy black. We cleaned up and took a taxi to a restaurant famous for Peking Duck. We ate the moist meat between steamed "biscuits" and "pancakes" that were sort of like thin flour tortillas.
After the duck, we headed to a bookstore to find books for Highlands Library and for the Chinese program. We have recently started a global section for the library with books from around the world in a variety of languages.
The bookstore to me was like a candystore to a child! I was in heaven! We quickly found the children's section and found Harry Potter, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Charlotte's Web, some traditional folktales, workbooks to help learn Chinese, flashcards and pictures, posters and puzzles. We had found fantastic resources for our school, and when the four bags of books and other items were added up, the bill was around 40 US dollars. Abolutely amazing!
As we left the store, Connie and I were talking away, and we didn't notice that a security guard was following us. He tapped Connie on the shoulder and said we should come back to the store, that the alarm had sounded, and he needed to check our receipts and bags. He saw all of our children's books, and I am guessing we did not fit the profile for shoplifters. He checked our receipts, counted items, and declared us legal. By this time, he was smiling at all of our learning materials, and he looked like a friendly guy, so I asked Connie to ask him if I could have my picture made with him. Tell him this is my first time to be stopped by a Chinese policeman. She smilingly told him, and he laughed and posed with me for a picture with his hand in one of the bag of books. It was hilarious! I cannot wait to get the picture from Connie.
A few more stops including Starbucks were in order, and then we quickly ran by Connie's hotel room to drop off the motherload!
Then we headed to the silk market for chops (seals), a suitcase to hold all of the books and other purchases, and pearls.
We ordered the chops, chose some tea mugs and tea accessories, ordered chops for my husband, children, and the chair of the board (who has been so encouraging of Highlands' participation in the China Connection and who made a hilarious joke when she heard about some of the candidates' interest in seal cutting. "Won't that be hard for them to do seeing as how the seal population in Birmingham isn't so great?" I couldn't resist having one ordered for her!) I also ordered strands of pearls and pearl earrings, and then we headed to the basement to buy the suitcase. While we were there, the shops began to close, and all of the "up" escalators stopped working. It was 8:45, and the whole building closed at 9:00, but they wanted people to begin leaving at that point! We climbed up the stopped escalators, Connie leading the way with the big, empty suitcase in hand, convincing the security guard at every escalator from the basement to the sixth floor that we had to get back upstairs to pick up items we had already purchased.
We were out of breath and laughing so hard by the time we got to the sixth floor. At the very top, the security guard did not want to let us through. She spoke to him in Chinese and said, "If you don't believe me, come on with us." He smiled and let us through.
We picked up everything, stuffed my suitcase, and saw the vendors heading to the elevator! Ah-hah! An elevator! Wish we had known!
We climbed in with all of the vendors. Connie told the pearl sellers our story of climbing up the stopped escalators and talking the security guards into letting us return to the top floor. The whole elevator was laughing. What a fun evening. Of course we had to take a few pictures! This is a picture of one of the vendors in the elevator with me!
We topped off the night with sushi from the "best sushi place in all of Beijing" according to Connie. It was delicious, fresh, melting-in-my-mouth-good.
After a trip to Connie's hotel to pick up the other purchases, the taxi dropped me off at my hotel. By this time, it was close to midnight. I settled with the hotel, answered email, packed my suitcases, took a shower, and dressed for my flight. I decided I would take an "afternoon nap" since it was Friday afternoon in Birmingham. Three hours later, I met a car Connie had arranged for me and arrived at the airport by 6:00 a.m.
Thirty hours, two layovers, and three airplanes later, I was hugging my sweet family and trying to tell them a few highlights from the trip.
There's no place like home!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
A Letter to the Highlands Community
Dear Highlands Community,
The applicant pool of teachers wanting to teach Chinese in America was outstanding. There were eighty-eight teachers vying for positions in six schools. The first day of interviewing, we split up into teams so that we could interview about seventy candidates. Each team interviewed half of that in one day. The next day we saw the remaining eighteen and began second interviews with a selected twenty-five teachers.
By the end of the interviewing, we were all exhausted but also exhilarated because we knew that all of our schools were going to be able to have excellent Chinese teachers next year. I am thrilled to tell you that I have asked two teachers to join us, each in a slightly different capacity.
The first teacher is Xiang Ping. Ping grew up in a village and was so smart, and her parents wanted her to get a good education. So, they sent her to boarding school at the age of twelve in Hubei Province. (She is very independent!) She received her bachelor's degree in "English Language and Literature" at Beijing Normal University, one of China's top universities. She has been trained this year in a program called "Chinese Language Teaching Overseas." She has some teaching experience and tutoring experience.
Xiang Ping is a kind, graceful, confident, and humorous young woman, twenty-three years old. Her eyes sparkle, and she smiles a lot! Xiang Ping will be teaching Chinese to the students in kindergarten through middle school using an exploratory language model. She will also be working with our other teacher with parent and community education and outreach.
Our second teacher is Zhan Huini. Huini's father was an English teacher in China, so she grew up learning English at home and later studied it at school. She received her bachelor's degree in Preschool Education at Beijing Normal University and has trained this year in the program “Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language."
Zhan Huini is a bubbly, energetic, confident young woman of twenty-two, full of good ideas about working with young children. She has worked in camps with young children teaching them English during their spring and summer vacations. Huini will be teaching Chinese to the preschoolers and will visit with the children in the Family Center to expose them to some Chinese greetings and songs. In addition, she will work as a preschool associate teacher and work in the Extended Day Program with the preschoolers in the "Lunch Bunch" leading them in some Chinese related activities such as games, songs, and crafts two to three times a week. She will also help with parent and community education and outreach.
My American friends and I visited the American Embassy today to ask them to help with the visa process when these teachers apply. That is the next hurdle for these teachers, but we expect that everything will go smoothly.
Before arriving in Birmingham in early August, our two China Connection teachers will receive acculturation training in Beijing and in San Francisco.
Many thanks for all of the parent support as we extend our knowledge of the world and help our children learn about China with two fabulous teachers!
Kathryn
The applicant pool of teachers wanting to teach Chinese in America was outstanding. There were eighty-eight teachers vying for positions in six schools. The first day of interviewing, we split up into teams so that we could interview about seventy candidates. Each team interviewed half of that in one day. The next day we saw the remaining eighteen and began second interviews with a selected twenty-five teachers.
By the end of the interviewing, we were all exhausted but also exhilarated because we knew that all of our schools were going to be able to have excellent Chinese teachers next year. I am thrilled to tell you that I have asked two teachers to join us, each in a slightly different capacity.
The first teacher is Xiang Ping. Ping grew up in a village and was so smart, and her parents wanted her to get a good education. So, they sent her to boarding school at the age of twelve in Hubei Province. (She is very independent!) She received her bachelor's degree in "English Language and Literature" at Beijing Normal University, one of China's top universities. She has been trained this year in a program called "Chinese Language Teaching Overseas." She has some teaching experience and tutoring experience.
Xiang Ping is a kind, graceful, confident, and humorous young woman, twenty-three years old. Her eyes sparkle, and she smiles a lot! Xiang Ping will be teaching Chinese to the students in kindergarten through middle school using an exploratory language model. She will also be working with our other teacher with parent and community education and outreach.
Our second teacher is Zhan Huini. Huini's father was an English teacher in China, so she grew up learning English at home and later studied it at school. She received her bachelor's degree in Preschool Education at Beijing Normal University and has trained this year in the program “Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language."
Zhan Huini is a bubbly, energetic, confident young woman of twenty-two, full of good ideas about working with young children. She has worked in camps with young children teaching them English during their spring and summer vacations. Huini will be teaching Chinese to the preschoolers and will visit with the children in the Family Center to expose them to some Chinese greetings and songs. In addition, she will work as a preschool associate teacher and work in the Extended Day Program with the preschoolers in the "Lunch Bunch" leading them in some Chinese related activities such as games, songs, and crafts two to three times a week. She will also help with parent and community education and outreach.
My American friends and I visited the American Embassy today to ask them to help with the visa process when these teachers apply. That is the next hurdle for these teachers, but we expect that everything will go smoothly.
Before arriving in Birmingham in early August, our two China Connection teachers will receive acculturation training in Beijing and in San Francisco.
Many thanks for all of the parent support as we extend our knowledge of the world and help our children learn about China with two fabulous teachers!
Kathryn
Friday Morning with Huini
I arrived in the hotel lobby at a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. eagerly awaiting my meeting with Huini. Shiffong had told me that she was very excited and loved the idea of working with young children teaching them Chinese language and culture. When I arrived, she was already there smiling and with her purse on her arm filled with her camera and cellphone. I reviewed the job with her, and we were both just so thrilled that it had all worked out. She signed papers, and she asked a person walking by to take pictures for us from her camera and from mine.
It was now completely official, and that meant that MY official business in China was over! Less than twenty-four hours were left for me before I would be leaving on a jetplane back to America. Of course, if you say the Mandarin word for airplane with the wrong tone, it becomes fat chicken. Leaving on a Fat Chicken just doesn't have the same ring! What sorts of things could I accomplish with less than twenty-four hours to go? Hmmm...
It was now completely official, and that meant that MY official business in China was over! Less than twenty-four hours were left for me before I would be leaving on a jetplane back to America. Of course, if you say the Mandarin word for airplane with the wrong tone, it becomes fat chicken. Leaving on a Fat Chicken just doesn't have the same ring! What sorts of things could I accomplish with less than twenty-four hours to go? Hmmm...
Thursday Afternoon with the Guys
After the embassy visit, several of us asked Shiffong if we could take her to lunch. She suggested a "hot pot" restaurant. We had not experienced this yet. The waitress put a big bowl in the middle of the table with a chimney looking thing in the middle. The chimney was filled with burning wood, and the rest of the big bowl or pot was filled with water. Shiffong helped us order raw meat and vegetables, and we cooked them in the water. The dishes were accompanied by a delicious peanut sauce.
Two of the other heads and I decided we would spend the afternoon touring a hutong. A hutong is a neighborhood in China with small alleyways. Many of the hutongs have been bulldozed to make room for highrise buildings. A few are left where people live, and some of these have become available for tourists to see how the Chinese people live. The three of us met with a tour guide that Shiffong had contacted, and she accompanied us on a van to the hutong area.
We jumped on the back of a pedicab that looks like tricycle type thing with a seat in the back. A very strong man pedaled two of us on each vehicle, and we got to see a variety of streets and houses. We stopped at one house where a man has opened a bed and breakfast type place. He also opens his home to tourists so that they can see how a family has lived for many years. The home area we saw was comprised of four houses with a courtyard in the middle. The neighborhood shares a bathroom down the street. There is running water in the kitchen, and there are two bedrooms for guests. The man met with the three of us, and with the help of the guide, told us about his home and his life. I asked him what he enjoyed doing for fun when he was a boy of eight or nine. Having a son who is eight, myself, I enjoy hearing about others' activities from that age. He said he used to play with small glass balls and push them at one another. I asked if he meant "marbles," but he said no. I think that the word marble must not translate the right way in Chinese. Perhaps it only has one meaning. He left our small group of three and continued talking to another much larger group in the courtyard.
We continued our hutong tour and ended up at some beautiful gardens. The tourists were out in full force there, but still we were the only western looking folks! We stopped in a teahouse and participated in a Chinese tea ceremony. Then we learned about several different kinds of tea. We all felt so peaceful, and we didn't want to leave!
After the tour of the park, it was time for us to go to a "Kung Fu Show." The show was the story of Kung Fu and included interesting singing, dancing, acrobatics, and certainly Kung-Fu.
Thursday at the Embassy
On Thursday, April 19, the group met in the hotel lobby at 7:30 a.m. We gathered around Shiffong, and I told her that Highlands School wanted an additional teacher. Shiffong was thrilled and began using her cellphone trying to call Huini. We decided that I would meet with Huini at 8:00 on Friday morning to clarify the job description, and if she agreed to come to Birmingham, she could sign papers at that time.
The group gathered on the bus for one last group outing before we began going our separate ways. Shiffong had important business to take care of at Hanban, so she gave us the directions to get to the USA Embassy, and we went on our way with our bus driver.
We arrived at the embassy around 8:30 a.m. with our passports in hand. No cameras or cellphones were allowed. After we showed our passports to the first soldier, we saw a tall, beautiful African American woman in a suit walking toward us. She yelled to us, "You must be from NAIS!" We smiled and affirmed her suspicions! How could she tell? I said to her, "As my students would say, 'You speak American'" How odd to hear an American accent from someone other than one of our group members!
We went through another security door and this time relinquished our passports. We went through metal detectors and were finally walking down a long hall. The woman who met with us was the consulate, and she wanted to hear about the teachers we had hired. It was important for the US government to have information about the teachers prior to their asking for visas. We went through that process, and the consulate was helpful in giving suggestions for ways to make the visa application as smooth as possible for the teachers.
After our visit to the embassy, we returned back to the bus. It was the last time our group was completely together. We would be trickling out of Beijing one by one over the next couple of days.
The group gathered on the bus for one last group outing before we began going our separate ways. Shiffong had important business to take care of at Hanban, so she gave us the directions to get to the USA Embassy, and we went on our way with our bus driver.
We arrived at the embassy around 8:30 a.m. with our passports in hand. No cameras or cellphones were allowed. After we showed our passports to the first soldier, we saw a tall, beautiful African American woman in a suit walking toward us. She yelled to us, "You must be from NAIS!" We smiled and affirmed her suspicions! How could she tell? I said to her, "As my students would say, 'You speak American'" How odd to hear an American accent from someone other than one of our group members!
We went through another security door and this time relinquished our passports. We went through metal detectors and were finally walking down a long hall. The woman who met with us was the consulate, and she wanted to hear about the teachers we had hired. It was important for the US government to have information about the teachers prior to their asking for visas. We went through that process, and the consulate was helpful in giving suggestions for ways to make the visa application as smooth as possible for the teachers.
After our visit to the embassy, we returned back to the bus. It was the last time our group was completely together. We would be trickling out of Beijing one by one over the next couple of days.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Our First Cultural Faux Pas
It was Wednesday evening, and after two days of interviewing and deliberating, most of the teachers were still in a huge meeting room in a different part of the hotel waiting for word on who would come to America to teach in these six independent schools. Some had been waiting since early that day. Some had spent two days wondering and waiting. Paul Miller delivered the news, and the six of us gathered our wits, excited for those coming to America, but never forgetting those who would not get this opportunity this time around.
The teachers, tired and a little shy, entered the rooms and hugged their new bosses. After a "get to know you" conversation and some signing of paperwork, we suggested a group picture. Several of the men set up chairs in a curved line. The room did not have enough chairs for all of the teachers, but these teachers are smaller than the average American, so we thought they would fit fine on 2/3 of a chair or however it was turning out.
When we suggested that they sit, and we would stand behind them, there was a great outpouring of "No, we can't do that!" We asked why not. Was this the first sign of rebellion with papers signed only minutes earlier? Was it "Mutiny in the Nikko"? Who was in charge here?
The teachers explained that in China it would be very disrespectful for them to sit while their bosses, the "higher in rank" were standing. We tried to convince them that they were coming to America and that it would be okay. They insisted, though, and one of us said, "You know, guys, we're still in China. Maybe we need to follow Chinese customs. There's plenty of time to do things the 'American Way' next year."
So the Americans squeezed into the less than one chair per person, and you might as well know that even though none of us is bigger than the average person in America, we did not fit well, so the picture you will see is less than perfect! But, oh what a great time it was, and how proud we were that we had chosen our teachers well, that we had come through a cultural faux pas with a little bit of dignity (not a lot, you'll see, when you see our crowded picture), and we had completed the hiring job with respect and admiration for each candidate.
So take a look at our group picture.
The teachers, tired and a little shy, entered the rooms and hugged their new bosses. After a "get to know you" conversation and some signing of paperwork, we suggested a group picture. Several of the men set up chairs in a curved line. The room did not have enough chairs for all of the teachers, but these teachers are smaller than the average American, so we thought they would fit fine on 2/3 of a chair or however it was turning out.
When we suggested that they sit, and we would stand behind them, there was a great outpouring of "No, we can't do that!" We asked why not. Was this the first sign of rebellion with papers signed only minutes earlier? Was it "Mutiny in the Nikko"? Who was in charge here?
The teachers explained that in China it would be very disrespectful for them to sit while their bosses, the "higher in rank" were standing. We tried to convince them that they were coming to America and that it would be okay. They insisted, though, and one of us said, "You know, guys, we're still in China. Maybe we need to follow Chinese customs. There's plenty of time to do things the 'American Way' next year."
So the Americans squeezed into the less than one chair per person, and you might as well know that even though none of us is bigger than the average person in America, we did not fit well, so the picture you will see is less than perfect! But, oh what a great time it was, and how proud we were that we had chosen our teachers well, that we had come through a cultural faux pas with a little bit of dignity (not a lot, you'll see, when you see our crowded picture), and we had completed the hiring job with respect and admiration for each candidate.
So take a look at our group picture.
Choosing the Perfect Candidate
When I was considering applying to be a head of school, I read an article that said that search committees and schools were looking for "God on a good day." Somehow every school I know of has settled for at least a little less than that. As the six of us sat and discussed what we wanted in the Chinese teachers, I found myself thinking of that very phrase. Yes, we wanted "God on a good day."
Each of us wanted someone a little different. Some of us were wanting to start programs from scratch. Another was looking for an A.P. Chinese teacher. Some of us spoke no Chinese while one of us was fluent. I wanted a teacher who could deal with three year olds to ninety three year olds. Others wanted middle school or high school specialists. Each of us considered carefully any other tasks that these teachers would have. Carpool duty? Dorm duty? Community classes? We also considered whether the teacher would have a co-teacher or be the lone Chinese speaker on campus. We were from different parts of the country in different schools, yet each of us wanted the perfect teacher.
After interviewing eighty-eight candidates and narrowing down to twenty-five candidates, the hiring heads met in a room to share our first choices with the others. Somehow, a miracle occurred, and each of us chose a different candidate. We paused and reflected on those who were not chosen. Some of us were sad thinking of those candidates who were so talented and so driven but who were not chosen. One of the heads decided within minutes of choosing a first candidate that he wanted to have two teachers.
I had chosen Xian Ping for my teacher. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature and is in the program, "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." She is kind and gentle, and her smile will melt any of us. When I asked her if she could sing traditional songs with our young children, she said, "Yes, may I sing one for you now?"
This lovely young soprano voice sang a traditional Chinese song to me with amazing intervals and smooth rhythms that spoke "peace" to me. The only word I recognized in the song was "shui" (/shway/) since I had ordered a LOT of "bing shui" in restaurants. Shui means water as in feng shui.
(As a sidenote, when ordering water in China, it is a good idea to include bing which means cold or iced. One night I just ordered shui, and I got steaming hot water. While I have moved beyond having a lot of ice in my water, I do enjoy my water room temperature to cold!)
I knew that we had to have this teacher for Highlands School. She is independent and strong but sweet, kind, and capable!
I had a knot in my stomach, though, for a young teacher whose real specialty is young children. Her undergraduate degree is in preschool education, and she is also in the program in Beijing, "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." I began to think about our Chinese program and the difficulty of teaching, even in an exploratory program, the various ages. I also thought about the position we had available in the preschool as a preschool associate, and I began to put two and two together, realizing that Xuan Huini could teach Chinese to the preschoolers and the youngsters in the Family Center, lead crafts and Chinese songs and Tai Chi in the afternoon to the preschoolers who stay, and she could be a great associate teacher with one of our dear preschool teachers. Imagine how much they could learn from each other.
I quickly emailed the chair of the board and the division head to ask for their advice, and we all agreed within a few hours that this was the perfect solution.
On Wednesday evening, I let Paul Miller know that it was a "GO!" and Highlands School wanted not one, but two teachers!
Each of us wanted someone a little different. Some of us were wanting to start programs from scratch. Another was looking for an A.P. Chinese teacher. Some of us spoke no Chinese while one of us was fluent. I wanted a teacher who could deal with three year olds to ninety three year olds. Others wanted middle school or high school specialists. Each of us considered carefully any other tasks that these teachers would have. Carpool duty? Dorm duty? Community classes? We also considered whether the teacher would have a co-teacher or be the lone Chinese speaker on campus. We were from different parts of the country in different schools, yet each of us wanted the perfect teacher.
After interviewing eighty-eight candidates and narrowing down to twenty-five candidates, the hiring heads met in a room to share our first choices with the others. Somehow, a miracle occurred, and each of us chose a different candidate. We paused and reflected on those who were not chosen. Some of us were sad thinking of those candidates who were so talented and so driven but who were not chosen. One of the heads decided within minutes of choosing a first candidate that he wanted to have two teachers.
I had chosen Xian Ping for my teacher. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature and is in the program, "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." She is kind and gentle, and her smile will melt any of us. When I asked her if she could sing traditional songs with our young children, she said, "Yes, may I sing one for you now?"
This lovely young soprano voice sang a traditional Chinese song to me with amazing intervals and smooth rhythms that spoke "peace" to me. The only word I recognized in the song was "shui" (/shway/) since I had ordered a LOT of "bing shui" in restaurants. Shui means water as in feng shui.
(As a sidenote, when ordering water in China, it is a good idea to include bing which means cold or iced. One night I just ordered shui, and I got steaming hot water. While I have moved beyond having a lot of ice in my water, I do enjoy my water room temperature to cold!)
I knew that we had to have this teacher for Highlands School. She is independent and strong but sweet, kind, and capable!
I had a knot in my stomach, though, for a young teacher whose real specialty is young children. Her undergraduate degree is in preschool education, and she is also in the program in Beijing, "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." I began to think about our Chinese program and the difficulty of teaching, even in an exploratory program, the various ages. I also thought about the position we had available in the preschool as a preschool associate, and I began to put two and two together, realizing that Xuan Huini could teach Chinese to the preschoolers and the youngsters in the Family Center, lead crafts and Chinese songs and Tai Chi in the afternoon to the preschoolers who stay, and she could be a great associate teacher with one of our dear preschool teachers. Imagine how much they could learn from each other.
I quickly emailed the chair of the board and the division head to ask for their advice, and we all agreed within a few hours that this was the perfect solution.
On Wednesday evening, I let Paul Miller know that it was a "GO!" and Highlands School wanted not one, but two teachers!
A Visit to Hanban
On the afternoon of April 16, the China Connection Delegation was treated to a presentation at the office of Hanban. Ren Shaifong, in the Division of New Initiatives, had been with us since the first day we arrived. In fact, she is the person who picked me up at the airport the first night in Beijing. Shifong accompanied us to the Hanban offices which are located close to the Nikko Hotel where we were staying. We were to meet with Madame Shu, the Director of Hanban, but she was unexpectedly called away. We had heard Shifong speak highly of Madame Shu, and we had looked forward to meeting her. In her place, Mr. Wang Luxin, Division of New Initiatives Director, told us more about Hanban and their interest in promoting the Chinese language throughout the world. After a PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Wang representing Hanban and Paul Miller representing NAIS signed the Memorandum of Understanding making the China Connection 2007 official. Following the signing, we exchanged presents. Hanban gave each of us a book that, with the help of a "magic pen" will pronounce Chinese sentences for us.
Hanban hosted a banquet that evening in the hotel where we were introduced to Madame Lee, the woman who had organized the teacher candidates. I enjoyed sitting next to her during the evening and hearing from her what I should look for when looking for an excellent teacher for Highlands School.
Following dinner, the China Connection delegates met to discuss the interviewing process that would begin Tuesday morning. Eighty-eight candidates were vying for what we thought would be six positions, and we wanted to make sure that each candidate was treated fairly and respectfully. We wanted time with each candidate. We devised a system where we would have two teams; each team consisted of two pairs. With the interviewing help of Susan, Mark Segar's wife, and Paul Miller from NAIS, this was possible. Each team (in two pairs) would interview half of the candidates so that each candidate was able to interview two times during the first round. From those interviews we would be able to recommend candidates to the other team and decide on who would be interviewed for the final round.
Everything seemed to be falling into place, and the next two days would prove to be successful with excellent candidates and difficult decisions abounding.
School Visit and A Letter to the Highlands Community on April 16, 2007
I am writing this 4:30 a.m. central time in Alabama On Monday, April 23, 2007. I am home safely after hiring, not one, but two teachers for the 2007-2008 school year. I will attempt to catch up the blog this week -- fill in the missing pieces. Between the internet connection difficulties and our busy schedule during the last few days, my blogging was neglected.
The picture above was taken at "The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University." During our visit, principal assistant, Guangzhong He and Li youngkang, the deputy principal hosted us as we heard about the school's excellent programs, exchanged presents, observed the student exercises that start each day, and toured the beautiful facilities.
Over a thousand high school students gather each morning for excercises. These physical exercises follow eye exercises to strengthen the eye muscles.
During our visit to "Second High School" we had a meeting with Hope Kuo Staab, who is spending a year with the School Year Abroad program housed in Beijing. She has taken a year's leave of absence from the Punahou school in Honolulu, Hawaii where she is the director of the Wo International Center. During our meeting, Ms. Staab discussed what it has been like for her to be in a foreign country for a year and gave us suggestions of how we can be the best hosts possible for our teachers. She also discussed the School Year Abroad program encouraging those of us with high school students to consider it.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The following letter was included in the Highnotes newsletter sent to the Highlands Community:
Dear Parents,
I am writing this letter to you from a hotel room in Beijing, China! Highlands School's participation in the NAIS program called "China Connection" is what has brought me here. My goals during this trip are to gain a better understanding of Chinese education and culture, to meet educators who may wish to partner with Highlands via the internet or for visits in the future, to practice my few words of Mandarin, and most importantly to hire an excellent teacher to lead Highlands' exploratory program in Chinese language and culture next year. Our delegation from the United States consists of six heads or principals coming from various parts of the United States including Maine, California, Colorado, and Alabama! Highlands is the only school in the South to be participating this year, and I am the only female head participating this year as well. I did meet a man today who is teaching math to American students while they are having a year abroad. His grandfather was Edmund Pettis, the man whose name is shared by the bridge in Alabama.
I have been in China one week now and have visited with middle schools, high schools, and a university, not to mention many cultural and historical sites. Today, we met with Hanban, the non-government organization that is funded by the Chinese government with the mission of teaching the Chinese language to others in the world. Tomorrow, we will begin the interviewing. There are eighty-eight teachers who are interested in teaching in the USA. By the end of Thursday, we will know which teacher is coming to Highlands!
I am honored to be here, and I am thankful to those people who have made it possible for me to participate in this fantastic program. I know that you are in good hands with Amy and Kage as your leaders this week.
I look forward to sharing more with you when I return. Please continue to read the blog, but I must warn you that my internet connections have been less than reliable, so my blogging has not been as regular as I had hoped.
I will return Saturday night, and I look forward to saying "Ni-hao" to you on Sunday at the Spring Fling!
Kathryn Woodson Barr
The picture above was taken at "The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University." During our visit, principal assistant, Guangzhong He and Li youngkang, the deputy principal hosted us as we heard about the school's excellent programs, exchanged presents, observed the student exercises that start each day, and toured the beautiful facilities.
Over a thousand high school students gather each morning for excercises. These physical exercises follow eye exercises to strengthen the eye muscles.
During our visit to "Second High School" we had a meeting with Hope Kuo Staab, who is spending a year with the School Year Abroad program housed in Beijing. She has taken a year's leave of absence from the Punahou school in Honolulu, Hawaii where she is the director of the Wo International Center. During our meeting, Ms. Staab discussed what it has been like for her to be in a foreign country for a year and gave us suggestions of how we can be the best hosts possible for our teachers. She also discussed the School Year Abroad program encouraging those of us with high school students to consider it.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The following letter was included in the Highnotes newsletter sent to the Highlands Community:
Dear Parents,
I am writing this letter to you from a hotel room in Beijing, China! Highlands School's participation in the NAIS program called "China Connection" is what has brought me here. My goals during this trip are to gain a better understanding of Chinese education and culture, to meet educators who may wish to partner with Highlands via the internet or for visits in the future, to practice my few words of Mandarin, and most importantly to hire an excellent teacher to lead Highlands' exploratory program in Chinese language and culture next year. Our delegation from the United States consists of six heads or principals coming from various parts of the United States including Maine, California, Colorado, and Alabama! Highlands is the only school in the South to be participating this year, and I am the only female head participating this year as well. I did meet a man today who is teaching math to American students while they are having a year abroad. His grandfather was Edmund Pettis, the man whose name is shared by the bridge in Alabama.
I have been in China one week now and have visited with middle schools, high schools, and a university, not to mention many cultural and historical sites. Today, we met with Hanban, the non-government organization that is funded by the Chinese government with the mission of teaching the Chinese language to others in the world. Tomorrow, we will begin the interviewing. There are eighty-eight teachers who are interested in teaching in the USA. By the end of Thursday, we will know which teacher is coming to Highlands!
I am honored to be here, and I am thankful to those people who have made it possible for me to participate in this fantastic program. I know that you are in good hands with Amy and Kage as your leaders this week.
I look forward to sharing more with you when I return. Please continue to read the blog, but I must warn you that my internet connections have been less than reliable, so my blogging has not been as regular as I had hoped.
I will return Saturday night, and I look forward to saying "Ni-hao" to you on Sunday at the Spring Fling!
Kathryn Woodson Barr
Monday, April 16, 2007
The Temple of Heaven
Here is a picture of the Temple of Heaven. Would you like to have a hat that looked like that roof?
Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and The Temple of Heaven
+of+IMG_0152.JPG)
Sunday, April 15, was reserved for more "Cultural Education." That included Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven.
We began the day at 8:30 a.m. by heading to Tiananmen Square (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/tianan.htm).
Tian means heaven. It is the Square of the Gate of Heaven. My strongest memory of this vast concrete park is from 1989. You can look up those events on the internet or in history books. The square acts as a huge park with people of all ages walking around, and of course there are sellers of souvenirs following tourists and wanting to make a sale. Soldiers in green uniforms practiced marching in formation, and we are told that many of these men come from the countryside. I saw no women soldiers on Sunday. I must ask if they have them, or perhaps you can look it up for me! They come to the city and become soldiers with the hope of having a better life for themselves and their families. Many of them work for the government after serving in the military.
Mao Zedong's huge portrait is visible from far, far away. His body lies on a slab of black granite from Taishan, one of the five sacred Taoist mountains. We did not go to see his body, but evidently many people continue to walk by to view his body every year.
Many things in this area include the phrase "The People's" (e.g.Monument to the People's Heroes and Great Hall of the People). The Museum of the Chinese Revolution and the Chinese History Museum are on this square, but they are being renovated for the 2008 Olympics, so we did not go in them.
To reach the Forbidden City, (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/forbidden.htm)
we walked through an underground tunnel from the square. The Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was a beautiful series of buildings with ornate rooftops. Until 1911, the Forbidden City was only available to the those with imperial permission. Now, visitors by the hundreds from all over the world are visiting every day!
After lunch, we visited the Temple of Heaven, an example of architecture during the Ming Dynasty. Set in a huge park, this was where the emperor performed his most important rituals. The building I enjoyed most was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It was built in 1420 – so, to put it in perspective, it was built about 70 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue! The emperor’s special advisors called geomancers were feng shui experts, and they determined that this exact point was where heaven and earth met! The roof of the building looks like a giant hat, and the ceiling inside has a circular design that is based on cosmological principals. The building was constructed without a single nail!
Many tourists in both small groups and large groups made viewing somewhat difficult. One group of tourists in red baseball caps were given directions from a bullhorn, and then they all seemed to gather around me smushing me into a plexiglass covering to a door where I was viewing a room. After being pushed around a bit, I finally pushed my way out not worrying with the usual niceties that I have grown up to believe are expected! I hope that those red-hatted people have forgiven me by now for pushing them out of the way!
Sunday was definitely a day of walking! I wish I had worn a pedometer for the day!
Old Business to Report
As I write this, it is Sunday evening, April 15 (taxes!) for the folks back in the states, but it is Monday morning for me. While I was in Shanghai, I wrote several times, but they did not appear to you because I must have clicked on the "draft" button instead of "publish" button. Reading Chinese characters is definitely not one of my strengths! My husband is now able to check my blog and get to the "insides" of it so that he can make sure what I write is actuallly published!
One of the questions I posed is, "Are there more English majors in China than in the United States?"
A friend of mine in Birmingham sent me the information below, and for her research, I will bring her a prize from China!
"To answer your questions about numbers of English majors, I found that there were 53,162 B.A.'s in English awarded in 2001-2002 (4.1% of total graduates). That data came from the U.S. Department of Education. The best statistic I could find for China was 155,771 graduates in Foreign Language (6.5% of total graduates). Presumably, that includes more than just English. I found the China data on the National Bureau of Statistics of China site. It is for 2004. So, not a perfect answer, but there it is."
So, the information is somewhat inconclusive but sheds some light on the sheer magnitude of the population. When we were on the university campus in Shanghai, we heard a lot about how difficult it is to get into college. In the USA, it is a goal of many, many of our students to continue education, and many attend college who are perhaps not the best students. Americans pride themselves with this available opportunity. Not all countries operate this way, and students must work really hard in school and then take tests along the way to get them to the point where they can attend college.
On a sidenote, I have also heard (again, someone please feel free to verify!) that there are more gifted children in China than there are total children in the USA. Another staggering one to ponder.
One of the questions I posed is, "Are there more English majors in China than in the United States?"
A friend of mine in Birmingham sent me the information below, and for her research, I will bring her a prize from China!
"To answer your questions about numbers of English majors, I found that there were 53,162 B.A.'s in English awarded in 2001-2002 (4.1% of total graduates). That data came from the U.S. Department of Education. The best statistic I could find for China was 155,771 graduates in Foreign Language (6.5% of total graduates). Presumably, that includes more than just English. I found the China data on the National Bureau of Statistics of China site. It is for 2004. So, not a perfect answer, but there it is."
So, the information is somewhat inconclusive but sheds some light on the sheer magnitude of the population. When we were on the university campus in Shanghai, we heard a lot about how difficult it is to get into college. In the USA, it is a goal of many, many of our students to continue education, and many attend college who are perhaps not the best students. Americans pride themselves with this available opportunity. Not all countries operate this way, and students must work really hard in school and then take tests along the way to get them to the point where they can attend college.
On a sidenote, I have also heard (again, someone please feel free to verify!) that there are more gifted children in China than there are total children in the USA. Another staggering one to ponder.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The Great Wall of China & The Imperial Tombs
We said goodbye to Mr. Wang and to Shanghai and arrived in Beijing Friday evening, April 13. One of the delegates remarked that we were flying on Friday the thirteenth, and he was sitting in the thirteenth row of the plane! All went well, though, and we checked into the Nikko New Century Hotel in Beijing late that evening. The picture here shows the NAIS delegation in Tiananmen Square.
We left the hotel Saturday morning at 8:30 to begin our weekend of "Chinese Culture Education." We were joined by Zoe, our tour guide, and Joe, our representative from Hanban. Both of these women were more than helpful during our many adventures that day. We drove to the Great Wall of China, and surprise, surprise, we were not the only ones who had that very same plan for the morning! We were joined by thousands and thousands of other people.
The Great Wall of China is actually not one wall, but many walls built over a long period of time. Begun as early as the seventh century B.C., much of the work was completed during the Qin (we would pronounce it "chin") Dynasty under its first emperor around 221 - 210 B.C. This emperor, Qinshi Huangdi is the same one who is remembered for the terra-cotta warriors near Xi-an. That is a place I must visit the next time I am in China!
The wall continued being built during the Han dynasty as well as the Jin and Ming dynasties.
The wall is impressive for its sheer magnitude. The part we visited is the Badaling which is about 43 miles northwest of Beijing. Zoe told us that it is important to have "connections" when in China, and since she does have connections, we were able to be dropped off very close to the ticket area. Others climbed for forty minutes from a parking lot down the hill.
We had a choice between climbing to the right of the entrance -- a part of the wall that is easier to climb but more crowded or climbing to the left -- a part of the wall that is harder and steeper to climb but less crowded. Can you guess which path all of us head-strong heads chose? Yes, we all went the "hard" way. While the wall was steep and uneven, people of all ages from the toddlers wobbling their ways up to the elderly with canes and a look of determination. One of our delegates missed a step and tore the knee of his pants, and on the way down on an area that was slick,steep and without steps (more like a slide!), I slid down and landed half on the rock wall and half on a nice Australian woman's running shoe. She was talking on her cellphone at the time, and I heard her scream and then say, "I'm fine. Some woman just fell and landed on my foot! Yes, she's okay."
The atmosphere on the steps could have been viewed as comical at times, as peddlers called out to tourists for attention -- pashminas, hats, toys, t-shirts, and postcards could all be ours for a "good price." To appreciate the scenery and the experience, several of us later said that we had to put bubbles around ourselves. At one point, I stopped and traced the Chinese graffiti with my finger, rubbed the wall, took in the view from every direction, listened to all of the different languages spoken by the climbers, and smelled the fresh air (a change from the big cities). Yes, it was a feast for the senses. I enjoyed being in the "present" trying not to think, "I hope I get to come back" but instead thinking "I am so glad I am here."
Our lunch was in a restaurant above a cloisonné factory and store. We enjoyed learning about how cloisonné is made and watching the young women work with the intricate designs. We continue to be treated with an excellent variety of food. We are definitely getting well fed.
After a lunch featuring Beijing food, we visited the Imperial Tombs. Three tombs, Changling, Dingling, and Zhaoling, are open to the public. Visitors reach the tombs by passing through (or around) a five-arched gateway, through a three-arched gateway, and along Spirit Avenue, which long and lined with statues of animals, both real and mythological. Two of the delegates have previously traveled to Egypt, and they said that the animals reminded them of statues that they had seen there. I told them that the reminded me of the animal statues in front of the Memphis Zoo!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Shanghai Museum
Today's main activity was to visit the Shanghai Museum. Located in the heart of Shanghai in Renmin Square, the Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Bowuguan) has much beauty to offer, both in terms of its architecture as well as the treasures inside. The museum has four exhibition floors subdivided into two to four separate areas, each focusing on a different kind of artifact. While looking back at the maps of the different floors, I was struck by the way the fourth floor looks like some Chinese coins -- round with a square hole in the middle. I cannot find anything in writing to back up my interpretation of this design, but it is worth noting that the Chinese Coin Gallery is on this floor!
The other areas of interest were Chinese Ceramics, Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese Ming and Qing Furniture, Chinese Painting, Chinese Ethnic Minorities' Arts and Crafts, Ancient Chinese Jade, Chinese Bronzes and Ancient Chinese Sculpture. My favorite area, if I had to pick one, would probably be the Ancient Chinese Sculpture.
This area contained two lovely pottery female figures from the Western Han dynasty (206 BC - AD24). The carving is simple with elongated lines, long dresses, and elegant postures. I was struck by the age and beauty of these two ladies.
I was particularly interested in several sculptures of Bodhisattva. The pamphlet in English states, "Bodisattva is considered to be the closest follower of Buddha, who disseminates Buddhism and saves all beings. He was male in ancient Indian Buddhism, but turned into femal in China since he was regarded as the God of mercy. Most of the statues of Bodhisattva are in the image of a luxuriously dressed figure."
Two female sculptures with rounded faces and rounded bodies caught my eye, and as I feasted on their beauty, an elderly Italian woman walked up to me, looked the statues in the eye and then right at me. Her Italian words floated out of her lips, and although I did not understand a word she said, I can tell you without a doubt, that I agreed with her. So in my English, I said, "Yes, they are beautiful. I love their smiles." She did not understand what I said, but she nodded in agreement. Here we were -- women of two generations, of two different continents agreeing in two different languages about two beautiful female statues in a country far, far away from our two homes. A special moment....
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Shanghai
It is Thursday afternoon in Shanghai as I write this, but I am well aware that folks in Birmingham and in most places in the USA are fast asleep. The time difference became more real as I sat in my pajamas last night talking to the fourth graders in Ashley Kizer's class. With the technology of Skype and Mr. Kizer's technology skills, I was able to watch the fourth graders as they talked to me, asked questions, and continued with their work. Fortunately, they could not see me! I also had the pleasure of talking to my family this morning before my breakfast. They had returned from school and music lessons and were preparing dinner together.
I am going to back up a little bit and share some more details about our visit in Shanghai.
During yesterday's visit to Chengfeng Middle School (affiliated to East China Normal University), we learned many interesting facts about education at that school. During our visit with the principal, Mr. Tang Minyue, several of the English teachers sat with us and helped us with the translations. Students in China generally start their English classes in first grade. It is expected that English is their second language, but some choose a third language during high school. What we call middle school is their "lower middle school," and our high school is called "upper middle school." Their school day begins at 8:00 with morning exercises and ends at about 5:00. Twice during the day, the students stop their regular work and practice eye exercises that involve massaging or pressing gently around the eye area. This is a very old tradition, and they thought it was strange that we asked questions about it. They believe that these eye exercises help keep the eyes healthy and rested.
Each school's curriculum is chosen half by the state or government and half by the school itself. The principal at Chengfeng Middle School is particularly proud of the special curriculum, which includes an excellent band, paper making, and canoeing. Through participation in band, students gain exposure to western culture and music, while the paper making provides experience in an old traditional art in China. A river runs quite close to the school and right through ECNU's campus, so the canoeing is quite convenient.
We went into a middle school classroom at the end of their day -- around 4:00 or so. The students were to ask us questions. One of the questions was, "Do children in America chew gum, and is it considered disrespectful to their teachers if they do?" We answered that yes, children chew gum but not at school, and yes, it is considered disrespectful to chew it at school. Interesting that the Chinese students want to chew gum too!! They also wanted to know what we thought of their principal. Now, remember they asked us that in English right in front of their principal who didn't speak English! Of course, we answered that we really enjoyed him and thought a lot of him. And that is the truth. Had it not been, do you think we would have been tempted to answer differently? What would you have done?
Today we enjoyed a PowerPoint presentation about the university by Mr. Wang. I had told you earlier that he is from IIE, but he is actually from the international exchange office of East China Normal University. The university is very interested in attracting students from all over the world. One of their most popular majors is "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign or Second Language." Perhaps some Highlands students will want to attend a semester when they are in high school or college!
I have heard the statistic that there are more English majors in Chinese universities than in American universities and colleges. If any of you can prove or disprove that statistic, I would appreciate it.
We continued with a tour around the university campus and then went to an old part of Shanghai by way of a zig-zagged bridge. Because it is zig-zagged, it is said that the evil spirits cannot cross it. It was a beautiful way to cross the Huangpu River.
We visited the Yu Gardens (Yuyuan) [see the picture at the top of this posting] which were designed by a rich Ming dynast family of officials. The gardens have been destroyed and rebuilt three times, and they are now restored, incorporating peaceful and beautiful winding paths. We also visited the Yuyuan Bazaar, a forest of little shops where street vendors are eager to sell to tourists. Oddly enough, although there were obviously many tourists in this area, there were very few American or European looking faces. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Shanghai Lu Bo Lang Restaurant. Mr. Wang made reservations for us a week ago and ordered excellent food, including jellyfish, rice, fish, pork, and steamed dumplings (xialong bao). This area is the place to buy these wonderful dumplings. President Clinton visited this restaurant a few years ago.
After the tour of the Yu Gardens and lunch, Mr. Wang helped us shop for a while. The most fascinating place was a silk museum and shop where the silk was actually being taken from the silkworms. I would like for all of you to actually see this. The silkworms are in water, and the machine somehow has connected to the silk fibers wrapped around the worms. The fibers are pulled up from the silkworms, several at a time, and they connect in the machine to make a thread. Imagine the separate strands of yarn being connected to make the yarn but on a much, much smaller scale.
We visited the Pudong District and saw the Oriental Pearl Tower. I will post pictures of it when I return to the States, but this area, and this building in particular, made me feel as if I had entered a science fiction novel. One of the men in my group said it reminded him of some scenes in the movie, Bladerunner.
I cannot imagine what an architect would feel upon seeing the architecture here...such variety, such unique and imaginative designs.
It is now time for me to meet the others for dinner. I hope that you are all fast asleep dreaming wonderful dreams that include traveling to the far corners of the earth. What an incredible experience this is!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Evening in Shanghai
After returning from the middle school, we gathered for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Again, the feast began appearing dish by dish, each one placed on the lazy susan. I could not tell if there were distinct courses to the meal or not. Our dishes included tiny shrimp eaten whole with the shells and heads on, chicken feet, duck, fish, mushroom soup, lemon chicken, and a sweet and sour style pork. Everything I tried was delicious, but only one of us tried the chicken feet. I had planned on trying every food while here, and perhaps by tomorrow, I will be able to do that too.
After dinner, three of us were driven downtown to the shopping area where one of the delegates could purchase a computer cord. We found it in a huge, brightly lighted electronics area where every electronic gadget ever made seemed to be displayed. We also saw KFC and Dairy Queen!
I continue to hope that this blog is working! Perhaps one of you who reads it will email me and let me know if it is actually appearing.
In China, In Chinese
I have tried a couple of times to get on this blog to update it only to find that the website could not be accessed. I decided to try a backdoor approach, and it looks as though I will be able to update it. The only problem is that all of my directions to update it are in Chinese! We'll see how much I remember about where the directions were placed!
I arrived in Beijing last night at about 9:30 p.m. local time after a 25 hour journey. I felt quite confident that everything would work out, but as I was walking through the Beijing airport, it did occur to me that I didn't have a really good Plan B if there was no one there to pick me up. Of course, there was a wonderful person named "Shiffong" with an NAIS sign. She is tall and pretty, and her smile made me feel at ease at once. She apologized to me for breaking the news that we would be leaving for Shanghai the next morning at 7:30. I wasn't bothered by that, but I did look forward to a real bed.
This morning, we met in the lobby of the Sino-Swiss Hotel and then left for the Beijing Airport where we grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin and proceeded through security. When we got to the gate, we realized the gate had been changed. By this point, it was about 8:30, the time our plane was to take off. Shiffond assured us with her comforting smile that "important people are the ones who board late." We got to the right gate and then got on a bus that drove us out to the plane. The snack on the plane was seaweed coated peanuts. They were delicious!
It was a short plane ride compared to the ones the previous day. In Shanghai, we were met by a man who is from IIE. His office is on East China Normal University as is our hotel. We checked into the hotel and then ate lunch in the hotel restaurant. The food was served on a lazy susan and included many different dishes from pig stomach and dried fish to spring rolls and mushrooms with tofu. I must admit I was not as adventurous an eater as I often am in other countries, but I enjoyed everything I did try!
By the way, the photo shown here is of me in front of a statue of Chairman Mao. I took it myself while at the university.
This afternoon we visited Chengfeng Middle School. When the principal was asked his greatest challenge, he said that it is trying to help the students be happy, healthy, and well educated. Of course many differences between American schools and Chinese schools were talked about, but this one statement stuck in my mind as so telling. We can go halfway around the world on a twenty-five hour trip, and the thing that stays on this principal's mind is the very thing that is on American principals' and heads of schools' minds as well. How do we give students a fabulous academic education as well as a health and happiness?
I arrived in Beijing last night at about 9:30 p.m. local time after a 25 hour journey. I felt quite confident that everything would work out, but as I was walking through the Beijing airport, it did occur to me that I didn't have a really good Plan B if there was no one there to pick me up. Of course, there was a wonderful person named "Shiffong" with an NAIS sign. She is tall and pretty, and her smile made me feel at ease at once. She apologized to me for breaking the news that we would be leaving for Shanghai the next morning at 7:30. I wasn't bothered by that, but I did look forward to a real bed.
This morning, we met in the lobby of the Sino-Swiss Hotel and then left for the Beijing Airport where we grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin and proceeded through security. When we got to the gate, we realized the gate had been changed. By this point, it was about 8:30, the time our plane was to take off. Shiffond assured us with her comforting smile that "important people are the ones who board late." We got to the right gate and then got on a bus that drove us out to the plane. The snack on the plane was seaweed coated peanuts. They were delicious!
It was a short plane ride compared to the ones the previous day. In Shanghai, we were met by a man who is from IIE. His office is on East China Normal University as is our hotel. We checked into the hotel and then ate lunch in the hotel restaurant. The food was served on a lazy susan and included many different dishes from pig stomach and dried fish to spring rolls and mushrooms with tofu. I must admit I was not as adventurous an eater as I often am in other countries, but I enjoyed everything I did try!
By the way, the photo shown here is of me in front of a statue of Chairman Mao. I took it myself while at the university.
This afternoon we visited Chengfeng Middle School. When the principal was asked his greatest challenge, he said that it is trying to help the students be happy, healthy, and well educated. Of course many differences between American schools and Chinese schools were talked about, but this one statement stuck in my mind as so telling. We can go halfway around the world on a twenty-five hour trip, and the thing that stays on this principal's mind is the very thing that is on American principals' and heads of schools' minds as well. How do we give students a fabulous academic education as well as a health and happiness?
Saturday, April 7, 2007
My bags are packed, and I'm ready to go
If you are old enough to remember the song "Leaving on a Jetplane," you will be familiar with the title of this post.
I bought a digital camera today so that I can post pictures to this blog while in China. Today is my day to work out any bugs, so I am going to attempt to post a picture of my packed bags -- a garment bag and a carry-on bag. My passport and money will be in the beige pouch that you see in the picture. I am determined to pack lightly going over there, but I bet I have to buy an extra suitcase to get back home!
Don't worry! The pictures should get more exciting in a few days!
Only Two More Days!
The details of the trip have been trickling in this week. I now know hotel names and teaching candidate names. I have been looking over the list of 88 candidates who are interested in teaching at an independent school in the USA. Included in the information are the teachers' hobbies, educational and work experience, year of birth and more. This information takes up 25 pages! While there are plenty of black letters on white pages, this is no replacement for meeting a person face-to-face. That will be the fun part.
While researching seal cutting, a hobby of several of the candidates, I found another great website about China. This website has everything from Chinese art and culture to maps and language help. What a great resource for students, teachers, and those just curious about China! I hope you will enjoy it.
Students, As you begin to read this blog next week, please send me questions. I really look forward to being your eyes and ears in China until you are able to travel there yourselves!
While researching seal cutting, a hobby of several of the candidates, I found another great website about China. This website has everything from Chinese art and culture to maps and language help. What a great resource for students, teachers, and those just curious about China! I hope you will enjoy it.
Students, As you begin to read this blog next week, please send me questions. I really look forward to being your eyes and ears in China until you are able to travel there yourselves!
Monday, April 2, 2007
Resources Available and Questions Answered
As word has gotten out about Highlands' involvement in the China Connection, folks have been wonderful to ask questions, express congratulations, and offer resources. A website that came to my attention today is entitled Life in New China. It has something for everyone -- information for students to learn more about a school in Beijing and information for educators who would like more teaching resources about Asia.
"Is this a permanent teaching position for Highlands, or is this a one-year position?"
Highlands School will hire a teacher for one year. Hanban helps us in several ways including by providing acculturation training and by partially funding the teacher for one year. Highlands School will provide housing, transportation, and a stipend. If the teacher and Highlands School both wish to continue the teaching relationship, the teacher may stay up to two additional years.
The students are excited about finding out who their new Chinese teacher will be. Some of them who know some Mandarin have been coaching me. One student who knows Cantonese has been trying to teach me to say, "I would like some lemon tea" because she says she got very hot and thirsty when she was in Hong Kong, and she wants to help me out!
"Is this a permanent teaching position for Highlands, or is this a one-year position?"
Highlands School will hire a teacher for one year. Hanban helps us in several ways including by providing acculturation training and by partially funding the teacher for one year. Highlands School will provide housing, transportation, and a stipend. If the teacher and Highlands School both wish to continue the teaching relationship, the teacher may stay up to two additional years.
The students are excited about finding out who their new Chinese teacher will be. Some of them who know some Mandarin have been coaching me. One student who knows Cantonese has been trying to teach me to say, "I would like some lemon tea" because she says she got very hot and thirsty when she was in Hong Kong, and she wants to help me out!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Eight More Days Until Takeoff!
I will leave for Beijing in eight days following a path from Birmingham to Detroit to Tokyo and finally to Beijing. The total amount of time of the trip is 25 hours! It is hard to imagine being en route for that long, but with the adrenaline, some good books and movies, and sleep, the trip will pass quickly, I predict. Highlands School is one of eight to have this opportunity this year. The others come from as close as Nashville, Tennessee and as far away as Maine. I look forward to getting to know the other heads of school as well as Paul Miller from NAIS.
I finished some tasks yesterday -- getting cash (I have heard the ATM machines sometimes work, and sometimes they don't), buying gifts (children's books with painted pictures of Alabama sites and books geared toward adults filled with beautiful pictures from Alabama; magnets of Elvis, hamburgers, and hot dogs), and the appropriate sized zip loc bags. I have one quart size bag for liquid toiletries and several two-gallon bags for clothes. I have packed some of my non-wrinkly clothes into these bags with dryer sheets. I have packed everything into a garment bag and will have a mostly empty carry-on bag with books, magazines, protein bars, a change of clothes (just in case my luggage gets lost) and toiletries. My purse will hold my laptop. I like to pack lightly, and I hope I have accomplished this!
Our two destinations will be Beijing and Shanghai. We will visit schools as well as cultural sites. I look forward to meeting people in Hanban as well as people who work in the educational system in China.
I plan on keeping this blog up to date as best I can over the next three weeks! I look forward to sharing pictures of China!
I finished some tasks yesterday -- getting cash (I have heard the ATM machines sometimes work, and sometimes they don't), buying gifts (children's books with painted pictures of Alabama sites and books geared toward adults filled with beautiful pictures from Alabama; magnets of Elvis, hamburgers, and hot dogs), and the appropriate sized zip loc bags. I have one quart size bag for liquid toiletries and several two-gallon bags for clothes. I have packed some of my non-wrinkly clothes into these bags with dryer sheets. I have packed everything into a garment bag and will have a mostly empty carry-on bag with books, magazines, protein bars, a change of clothes (just in case my luggage gets lost) and toiletries. My purse will hold my laptop. I like to pack lightly, and I hope I have accomplished this!
Our two destinations will be Beijing and Shanghai. We will visit schools as well as cultural sites. I look forward to meeting people in Hanban as well as people who work in the educational system in China.
I plan on keeping this blog up to date as best I can over the next three weeks! I look forward to sharing pictures of China!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Preparing for China!
Several other heads of schools and I will leave for China in less than two weeks! My plane reservations are complete -- I will leave on April 9 early in the morning and arrive in Beijing the evening of April 10. I decided to stay a day longer than the official NAIS China Connection program. I don't know when I will be back in China, so I thought I should take advantage of already being there by seeing one more day's worth of sites! I will return to Birmingham, Alabama on April 21. I am appreciative of Scott Wilson at Altec who travels to China frequently. He is helping me figure out what I might be able to do with a "free day" in Beijing.
Although this week was officially spring break, I completed my "to do list" to get ready for China. I completed paperwork for my visa application, got extra passport pictures to send with the application, and put the finishing touches on the job description for the Highlands teacher. I mailed all the paperwork along with my passport to NAIS so that the visa can be given.
I read on the internet about health issues for travelers to China, but I do not feel that I am at risk for malaria or typhoid or any of the other scary diseases that one might be more likely to encounter in other areas of Asia. I did undergo one preventive step -- a B12 shot! I have found that having a B12 shot helps me handle jetlag with ease. i don't have any scientific evidence to back up my claim, though. We will see how all of us react to having our bodies forwarded 13 hours in time.
I continue to listen to Mandarin CDs and read my National Geographic book about traveling to China. I have also subscribed to podcasts to help with my knowledge of China and the Mandarin language.
There are still more tasks to be completed -- I must figure out and buy gifts to take with me to give while in China, and I must figure out what to pack for a ten day trip to China in April.
Although this week was officially spring break, I completed my "to do list" to get ready for China. I completed paperwork for my visa application, got extra passport pictures to send with the application, and put the finishing touches on the job description for the Highlands teacher. I mailed all the paperwork along with my passport to NAIS so that the visa can be given.
I read on the internet about health issues for travelers to China, but I do not feel that I am at risk for malaria or typhoid or any of the other scary diseases that one might be more likely to encounter in other areas of Asia. I did undergo one preventive step -- a B12 shot! I have found that having a B12 shot helps me handle jetlag with ease. i don't have any scientific evidence to back up my claim, though. We will see how all of us react to having our bodies forwarded 13 hours in time.
I continue to listen to Mandarin CDs and read my National Geographic book about traveling to China. I have also subscribed to podcasts to help with my knowledge of China and the Mandarin language.
There are still more tasks to be completed -- I must figure out and buy gifts to take with me to give while in China, and I must figure out what to pack for a ten day trip to China in April.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Lost in Translation
In my closet hang two Asian styled jackets with letters and characters as part of the design. When I traveled to Japan a year and a half ago, I left both jackets behind because I was not sure what they might say. Did they say, "I am an American tourist. Please kick me"?
When visiting an elementary school in Japan, some of the students wore shirts and pants with English words suggesting they were in their teens or twenties looking for a date! I wondered if their parents knew what those messages were saying!
Just in case my jackets suggest I am looking for a date or a kick, I will be leaving them in my closet when I travel to China in April.
Here is an article that writes about how we can get mixed up in our translations and how China is trying to eliminate some strange messages.
Enjoy!
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB117063961235897853-lMyQjAxMDE3NzAwNTYwMzU5Wj.html
When visiting an elementary school in Japan, some of the students wore shirts and pants with English words suggesting they were in their teens or twenties looking for a date! I wondered if their parents knew what those messages were saying!
Just in case my jackets suggest I am looking for a date or a kick, I will be leaving them in my closet when I travel to China in April.
Here is an article that writes about how we can get mixed up in our translations and how China is trying to eliminate some strange messages.
Enjoy!
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB117063961235897853-lMyQjAxMDE3NzAwNTYwMzU5Wj.html
Monday, January 29, 2007
Where Do I Start?
Are any of you in the middle of several good books?
My bedside table is overflowing with books, and now I have taken over a counter in the kitchen with my "library." Perhaps, you have read some of them or would be interested in reading them. The simple ownership of each book tells me a story. Several are from my new email friend from Connecticut who shares my love of Asia. One is from a teacher I met while in Japan in 2005. Several are from a Highlands parent/trustee who shares my interest in the changing world. One is from the bookstore where my grandfather worked until its closing in 1969.
Here are some of the books:
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
China Coast Family by John C. Caldwell (1953)
Lipo, The Chinese Poet "done into English verse by Shigeyoshi Obata" (1935)
Questions of Heaven, The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist by Gretel Ehrlich
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang (1937)
Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler
Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States by Joseph J. Tobin et al
This is not an exhaustive list of books related to Asia!
You may be interested in reading more about Asia, but you wonder, "Where do I start?" I recommend you start with some children's books. If you are interested in seeing an excellent selection, check out the website http://www.asiastore.org/books-children-s.html . They have three of my favorites: 1 Grain of Rice, Sushi for Kids, and Zen Shorts.
Enjoy!!
My bedside table is overflowing with books, and now I have taken over a counter in the kitchen with my "library." Perhaps, you have read some of them or would be interested in reading them. The simple ownership of each book tells me a story. Several are from my new email friend from Connecticut who shares my love of Asia. One is from a teacher I met while in Japan in 2005. Several are from a Highlands parent/trustee who shares my interest in the changing world. One is from the bookstore where my grandfather worked until its closing in 1969.
Here are some of the books:
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
China Coast Family by John C. Caldwell (1953)
Lipo, The Chinese Poet "done into English verse by Shigeyoshi Obata" (1935)
Questions of Heaven, The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist by Gretel Ehrlich
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang (1937)
Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler
Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States by Joseph J. Tobin et al
This is not an exhaustive list of books related to Asia!
You may be interested in reading more about Asia, but you wonder, "Where do I start?" I recommend you start with some children's books. If you are interested in seeing an excellent selection, check out the website http://www.asiastore.org/books-children-s.html . They have three of my favorites: 1 Grain of Rice, Sushi for Kids, and Zen Shorts.
Enjoy!!
Monday, January 22, 2007
Highlands School Joins the China Connection
Highlands School in Birmingham, Alabama (http://www.highlandsschool.org) recently decided to take part in the "China Connection" program through the National Association of Independent Schools (http://www.nais.org) . This program will allow Highlands School to interview and choose a Chinese teacher who will introduce the Chinese culture and Mandarin language to the students, preschool through eighth grade.
I am Kathryn Barr, the head of Highlands School. I am creating this blog to share this experience with you. I will be heading to China during April to learn more about the educational system in China and to interview teachers who are eager to come to the United States. I look forward to sharing the preparation for the trip, the actual trip, the selection of the teacher, and the year with Highlands' first Chinese teacher.
I have begun listening to Mandarin C.D.s trying to learn a little bit before the trip. I actually had an opportunity to say "good morning" and "thank you" in Mandarin this morning with a prospective family. I have been studying a map of China and a book about China published by National Geographic.
I believe that if our students are going to "make a difference" in the world, they must be familiar with different languages and cultures. I am proud that Highlands School is taking this step!
I am Kathryn Barr, the head of Highlands School. I am creating this blog to share this experience with you. I will be heading to China during April to learn more about the educational system in China and to interview teachers who are eager to come to the United States. I look forward to sharing the preparation for the trip, the actual trip, the selection of the teacher, and the year with Highlands' first Chinese teacher.
I have begun listening to Mandarin C.D.s trying to learn a little bit before the trip. I actually had an opportunity to say "good morning" and "thank you" in Mandarin this morning with a prospective family. I have been studying a map of China and a book about China published by National Geographic.
I believe that if our students are going to "make a difference" in the world, they must be familiar with different languages and cultures. I am proud that Highlands School is taking this step!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)