The Classroom

(Lindsay)

Rows of perfectly behaved, thoroughly attentive students ready to soak up anything you teach? That is a myth. As in many classes at DS, here at Hangzhou there are some students who are true scholars, many who want to learn and therefore apply themselves and one or two who cannot wait for the period to end. The classes are large—each numbers about 50 students—and it takes some time for everyone to settle down. One class took a little longer to start today, because at the beginning of this particular period, the school piped music into the classrooms to signal a time for the students to rest their eyes. I heard the music in classrooms down the hall, and as soon as it began, a girl in the class I was to teach jumped up to switch the music on in our classroom as well. Students took off their glasses and massaged their eyes in a uniform manner that clearly had been taught to them. I could tell that the music was about to end when they all opened their eyes, put their glasses back on and straightened in their seats. Some things in Hangzhou High School are still lockstep, but I am told that discipline is much more relaxed here now than it once was, and I believe it.

Keeping students focused and interested is the same challenge here as in the U.S. Each class I teach is new; I never see the same class twice. With no other teacher in the classroom, this would seem to leave me with little leverage, but once we get underway, the same strategies apply. It’s never very difficult to find the students whose participation draws in others. And, of course, anyone who indulges in distracting his/her neighbor is likely to draw a number of questions to clarify various points of the lesson, much to the delight of the rest of the class. Tapping into the students’ sense of humor goes a long way in keeping everyone focused. While most of the students in these English classes have some basic English vocabulary, most are not conversant, but pantomiming works well in getting us around the language barrier.

Approaching my theme—how fundamentally alike we are—with the different tools at my disposal works well for engaging the students’ varying abilities. As with classes at DS, often, if students think they won’t be tested on what’s being taught, they sometimes try to get the homework of another class done on the sly. At the beginning of each class, students have their math or science homework sheets out on their desks; therefore, I’ve included in my opening a polite request that students clear their desks and take out paper for notes. Inevitably they are somewhat surprised at a guest teacher’s being so bold, but they comply, and I make it worth their time by writing thorough notes and drawing stick figures (much to their amusement) to illustrate points on the board. While the classrooms have blackboards rather than whiteboards, the boards have erasers that are attached to vacuums, which go on as soon as you take the erasers out of their cradles, which are located beneath the boards. What’s really fun to use, however, are the smart-boards. It’s nice to be able to simply tap the board to advance to the next slide. I’ve been employing a combination of hard copy of a poem, slide shows, using their LED projectors, which appear to be the same make and model as those in DS, and writing and drawing on the board, erasing with the vacuums. Each class is a multi-media event.

The Weather and The Lake

After one muggy day shortly after we arrived in Hangzhou, we had a lot of rain and daytime temperatures hovering in the low to mid-fifties last week, but this week the daytime temps have risen to the low sixties and we’ve had some gorgeous days. Today especially was perfect. William and I rode our bikes around West Lake, and I was amazed at how quickly we got away from the frazzle of the city once we reached the rim of the lake. To ride around the lake takes a couple of hours, but today we took our time to appreciate the views. At one point, as we rode up over an arched bridge, a kayaker passed beneath, in the distance on one side were the sails of several windsurfers and off in the other direction were a number of scullers out rowing. All of this was framed by newly green Weeping Willows and blossoming plum, peach and cherry trees. As I rode back through the silk market, the trees shading the streets were shedding casings and leafing out. William had said that in Hangzhou any day’s temperatures can spike dramatically; so can its seasons. Tomorrow is forecast to be equally as nice as it was today, and next week the temperatures are projected to reach into the 80’s.

News Flash

Selfie sticks, aka “the wands of Narcissism,” have just been forbidden in the Forbidden City.