Teaching in China (part 1)

We "hit the ground running!"  On the first day of school here at Chongqing No. 8 Middle School, we were requested to give a speech to an assembly of all staff and students.  We told them a bit about ourselves and our  plan to teach here for one year to help

"MAKE  THE  WORLD  A  BETTER  PLACE."

Our school is made up of around 6,000 students in 5 grades of Junior and Senior High School.  The students live in dormitories surrounding the urban school in the Shapingba District of Chongqing, CHINA.

We teach the Senior 1 classes, students who would be high school freshmen in the U.S.  The kids are wonderful, motivated, and well-behaved, though our classes have from 56-68 students in each group!!!

The students appreciate hands-on learning.  For this lesson, I had a dozen soccer balls for them to pass, spin, and then create English sentences containing the phrases upon which their thumbs landed. 

These students enjoyed the Jeopardy Game where they had to answer science questions....for the money!

These students are excited about "People Bingo."  The have to find classmates with certain attributes and have them sign their bingo card.

These girls like to wear the SPEAK ENGLISH  hat.

These are all the other Senior 1 English teachers at our school.  They're young and enthusiastic!  Qing (in blue) spent one year teaching Chinese Culture and Language classes at Battle Ground High School, from 2004-2005.

I was asked to teach a "Methods" class to all the English teachers at our school.

We not only teach, but also take Chinese Language and Calligraphy classes at our school.

Mr. Zhou is a wonderful teacher. 

Other students in our Chinese classes are AFS exchange students:  Max from Germany, Felipe from Italy, and Caroline from Chile.  AWESOME kids!

The school cafeteria where most students eat three meals per day, since they live at the school.

Most students do go home for Saturdays, unless they live very far away.  On Saturdays, the cafeteria is not so  crowded.....and the dormitory (in which we live on the 11th floor)  is quiet.