Inspiration

Lizzy and I finished up our official first week of teaching at Guiyang No. 4 Experimental Primary School.  Since we are using the curriculum already in place, we are supplementing and enhancing with custom PowerPoint Presentations, read-alouds and props.  We have an English teacher in the room with us at all times and rely heavily on gestures and acting out words.  

Look!  I'm teaching :)

Today, I played a fun game with one of my second grade classes.  We were learning "-ing" words such as listening, watching, looking, reading and playing.  I asked Sally, the classroom teacher, to give the students the words in Mandarin to act out and then I would guess the word.  We had a blast.  They were so excited that I figured out every word.  

The students also LOVE competing against one another.  With roughly 50 students per class, I usually break them up into four teams of 10-12 and we see which team is the best.  It's usually the team that's the loudest and proudest but I upped the ante by telling them that the best means they are using their "tracking finger" to follow along with what we are reading in the text.  That way, I know they are looking at the words as they speak them and simply not repeating.  It's no secret that the students are fascinated by Lizzy and me but if they gaze at us while we teach and merely repeat what we say, our time here will not be as valuable.  

And now on to the inspiration part.

Entering Yangming Temple

Today, we visited Yangming Temple.  Wang Yangming (1472–1529) was an educator and philosopher during the Ming Dynasty.  He is famous for being a Neo-Confucian idealist who developed the idea of Innate Knowing or the belief that everyone is born knowing the difference between good and evil and distinguishing between the two is instinctive, no rational thought required. 

The temple was built much later to honor Yangming and the grounds are unbelievable.  A sprawling campus of buildings housing ancient calligraphy, paintings, texts and statues; we explored every nook and cranny.

Since I am unable to read most things in Guiyang, I asked for translations on a few major pieces and then focused on taking in the exquisite architecture.  The balance between the intricate and simple was yet another inspiring paradox. I took many photos of the lines and details in the windows and the walls.  The ends of the roofs were reminiscent of the stamps I use to texture metal.  

Nothing was more breathtaking than the sights of these statues.  The photos do not do them justice.

I have also been collecting photographs of doors and windows.  So far, this one is my favorite.

All in all it was another inspiring day in Guiyang filled with hard work, beauty and mystery.