3 Months Teaching In Zhuhai China
Teaching at an international school in China has been a life changing experience. Myself, Kara, Bella and Sebastian have finally got into somewhat of a rythem after 3 months in Zhuhai, a city that seems to be emblematic of China's rapid development. There are 30 story office and apartment buildings going up all along the 6 mile commute from our apartment complex and school.
They look a lot like this photo of our building (one on the far right- we are on the 13th floor). Zhuhai is going from a "small" city in China and is developing into a big one as it soon will have a connection with the worlds longest sea crossing bridge to Hong Kong.
So whats it been like for us. A few key juicy words apply: Hot, Sweaty, stimulating, ironic and amazing. Hot and sweaty go together and really frame the first two months here. August-September were hot every day, stepping out of our apartment AC we were hit with a wall of humid heat. Someone from our school sent this picture around which epitomizes the Zhuhai sauna effect
The heat framed the times we worked out, prepped classes before we started school and how often the kids went outside during school. The joke around town was watching men "wear" the Zhuhai Mankini (basically putting their shirts up above their belly buttons to cool off (gratefully I've no pictures of this to share).
Much here has been stimulating: The language, the landscape and of course the teaching. The language is tough and has thousands of characters to memorize. I've got the basics of directions down but thats about it. The kids are learning much more from their classes at school and can now say some basic phrases and count to 100. Learning Mandarin is a commitment and one I'm hoping to make.
Also stimulating has been the landscape. China is farms, cities and rivers around Zhuhai. But if you go just a bit futher out there are terrestrial gems to be seen. One of our favorite places to go is Hong Kong which has hiking trails right in town. Here are a few photos of hiking on the Sunset trail in HK.
We also found Guilin to be amazing, just a four hour train ride from here, filled with surreal Karst limestone mountains.
The Li river outside of Youngshwo was epic as well. If you've ever read the children's book "Ping" about a white duckling that gets separated from its owner-- this is the river it was written about. We spent a day boating by the limestone cliffs surrounding the waterway.
The ironies abound in China, at least what I interpret as ironic, as some of these things may be lost to me in translation. For instance, the way people adopt and use English and western pop culture. For instance, everyone wears t-shirts in english but I rather expect they do not all know what their shirts say. From those depicting simple western sports brands (Adidas/Nike) slogans "just do it" to the the t-shirt inscriptions like the one I saw today "Enter this site for//http: Im a babe here") worn by a rather austere looking older woman. One lost in translation moment I still chuckle about is seeing this picture of "Ted" the R rated movie character postered into a small kids playground at a local mall, beer bottle in hand.
There is so much here that is amazing. For all the quirkiness our school has a fantastic community with dedicated teachers working hard to give students a top experience. Here is Kara's classroom (who by the way is powering through with a very tough class of difficult students and whom the principal often refers visitors to as one of his top teachers).
Another amazing thing about China is the people. I must say I feel, safe and welcome here-- the people are not quiet, they are not falsely apologetic and not shy. They are direct, busy, willing to help, love families, and I think a bit overwhelmed by the fact their grandparents worked in fields and now they are driving Ferraris (for which there are more than a few around here-- a bit not not totally an exaggeration by the way).
Finally, what has been amazing for me has been to get to know and work with my students teaching Science/Math. They are generally hardworking and inquisitive. I've really enjoyed getting to know them and help them meet their learning goals. Tomorrow we head out on our first field experience to the Hong Kong Wetlands Park, it looks to be a good time. A brief note on pedagogy--as I have not been in front of a classroom in a few years I've thought a bit about what I'm learning coming back-- I think my biggest take away is that you really have to be ready to employ all of your teaching skills and react to changing contexts and student needs to be an excellent educator. I'm still working on this type of "plastic" teaching method.
Before I end this blog I have to say something about climate and the environment. I am teaching an A.P Environmental Science class this year and considering events that are impacting us here in Zhuhai and the world-- Its fitting then that I make a plea to please stay aware and active to help solve the climate crisis. Here is a few pictures and video from our second week in Zhuhai when it was struck by Typhoon Hato (the worst Typhoon to hit this area in 53 years). It was expected to be bad but because the oceans have warmed here so much (due to human induced climate change) it became suddenly supercharged by the warm water energy increasing in intensity. People lost their lives in this storm. Many other problems were caused as well including -Half of all trees in Zhuhai were either destroyed or damaged by this ferocious Typhoon. It was a frightening way to experience our first Typhoon! All our best and love to all!
!
They look a lot like this photo of our building (one on the far right- we are on the 13th floor). Zhuhai is going from a "small" city in China and is developing into a big one as it soon will have a connection with the worlds longest sea crossing bridge to Hong Kong.
So whats it been like for us. A few key juicy words apply: Hot, Sweaty, stimulating, ironic and amazing. Hot and sweaty go together and really frame the first two months here. August-September were hot every day, stepping out of our apartment AC we were hit with a wall of humid heat. Someone from our school sent this picture around which epitomizes the Zhuhai sauna effect
The heat framed the times we worked out, prepped classes before we started school and how often the kids went outside during school. The joke around town was watching men "wear" the Zhuhai Mankini (basically putting their shirts up above their belly buttons to cool off (gratefully I've no pictures of this to share).
Much here has been stimulating: The language, the landscape and of course the teaching. The language is tough and has thousands of characters to memorize. I've got the basics of directions down but thats about it. The kids are learning much more from their classes at school and can now say some basic phrases and count to 100. Learning Mandarin is a commitment and one I'm hoping to make.
Also stimulating has been the landscape. China is farms, cities and rivers around Zhuhai. But if you go just a bit futher out there are terrestrial gems to be seen. One of our favorite places to go is Hong Kong which has hiking trails right in town. Here are a few photos of hiking on the Sunset trail in HK.
We also found Guilin to be amazing, just a four hour train ride from here, filled with surreal Karst limestone mountains.
The Li river outside of Youngshwo was epic as well. If you've ever read the children's book "Ping" about a white duckling that gets separated from its owner-- this is the river it was written about. We spent a day boating by the limestone cliffs surrounding the waterway.
The ironies abound in China, at least what I interpret as ironic, as some of these things may be lost to me in translation. For instance, the way people adopt and use English and western pop culture. For instance, everyone wears t-shirts in english but I rather expect they do not all know what their shirts say. From those depicting simple western sports brands (Adidas/Nike) slogans "just do it" to the the t-shirt inscriptions like the one I saw today "Enter this site for//http: Im a babe here") worn by a rather austere looking older woman. One lost in translation moment I still chuckle about is seeing this picture of "Ted" the R rated movie character postered into a small kids playground at a local mall, beer bottle in hand.
There is so much here that is amazing. For all the quirkiness our school has a fantastic community with dedicated teachers working hard to give students a top experience. Here is Kara's classroom (who by the way is powering through with a very tough class of difficult students and whom the principal often refers visitors to as one of his top teachers).
Another amazing thing about China is the people. I must say I feel, safe and welcome here-- the people are not quiet, they are not falsely apologetic and not shy. They are direct, busy, willing to help, love families, and I think a bit overwhelmed by the fact their grandparents worked in fields and now they are driving Ferraris (for which there are more than a few around here-- a bit not not totally an exaggeration by the way).
Finally, what has been amazing for me has been to get to know and work with my students teaching Science/Math. They are generally hardworking and inquisitive. I've really enjoyed getting to know them and help them meet their learning goals. Tomorrow we head out on our first field experience to the Hong Kong Wetlands Park, it looks to be a good time. A brief note on pedagogy--as I have not been in front of a classroom in a few years I've thought a bit about what I'm learning coming back-- I think my biggest take away is that you really have to be ready to employ all of your teaching skills and react to changing contexts and student needs to be an excellent educator. I'm still working on this type of "plastic" teaching method.
Before I end this blog I have to say something about climate and the environment. I am teaching an A.P Environmental Science class this year and considering events that are impacting us here in Zhuhai and the world-- Its fitting then that I make a plea to please stay aware and active to help solve the climate crisis. Here is a few pictures and video from our second week in Zhuhai when it was struck by Typhoon Hato (the worst Typhoon to hit this area in 53 years). It was expected to be bad but because the oceans have warmed here so much (due to human induced climate change) it became suddenly supercharged by the warm water energy increasing in intensity. People lost their lives in this storm. Many other problems were caused as well including -Half of all trees in Zhuhai were either destroyed or damaged by this ferocious Typhoon. It was a frightening way to experience our first Typhoon! All our best and love to all!
!
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