For Ms. Mahoney & 5M at Hawthorne Elementary in Missoula, Montana

Greetings 5M!

How are you all doing?  It's been a while!  After my time in your classroom, I spent the holidays in Ohio with my family, student taught in a second grade class in Browning, MT and I'm currently in my 6th week student teaching at Guiyang No. 4 Experimental Primary School in Guiyang, Guizhou,
China.

Map of China showing Guiyang.  China is huge!

Here's a close-up of our neighborhood.  Notice we are very close to a park.  Qianling Park is famous for its monkeys!  

Monkey monkeying around at Qianling Park

Things are really different here, as you can imagine.  I thought you'd be interested to know what the typical school day is like for a student in a Chinese public school.  I've been teaching 2nd, 3rd and sometimes 6th grade.  The 6th graders are preparing for a standardized test so I am not permitted to teach them every week.  At No. 4, there are over 1,000 students in grades 1-6.  There are four classes of about 50 students in each grade.  That means, in some weeks, I teach over 600 students!

Front of the school, notice the wide open entrance and many of the windows are open

Playground/exercise area

I have to start with the food!  It's so different but very good.  Lucky for me, I love noodles and rice!!!  Breakfast is served between 7:30 - 8:00am and there are three choices...all noodles.  I like the ones on left.  Every morning we can help ourselves to a hardboiled egg and either soy milk or a rice porridge called congee.  I prefer the congee with a little sugar.

Lunch has been different everyday with some dishes overlapping.  We always have rice and a series of vegetables.  Some of the vegetables are native to this province and don't have and English translation!  And, the food is SPICY!  My favorites are a butternut squash soup and a dish with bean sprouts and vegetables.

We typically eat breakfast with chopsticks and lunch with a spoon.

I thought I'd mention the travel time to get to here.  It took about 23 hours to get to Shanghai, China.  I'm fortunate to be traveling with my friend, Lizzy.  She's teaching grades 4 and 5.

We flew from:

Missoula, MT to Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA to Seoul, South Korea - 11 hours and 40 minutes!
Seoul, South Korea to Shanghai, China - we stayed in a nice hotel that night, thank goodness!
Shanghai, China to Guiyang, China - about three hours

The plane from Missoula to Seattle was a Griz Plane!  Go Griz!!!

Some private schools provide housing for their foreign teachers but since I'm in a public school, I'm living in a hotel for eight weeks.  That means someone cleans my room everyday and makes my bed.  I feel very spoiled!  The hotel is brand new and has a lovely outdoor patio with fish and turtles.

Our pets for eight weeks

I have a 20-minute walk to school and enjoy walking through the neighborhood, smiling with the shop keepers and seeing what's in season at the produce stands.  The hotel is next to a high school and there are many shops that sell cute school supplies.

My hotel

I have yet to see another American in my neighborhood.  My friend and I often eat at the restaurants where the high schoolers dine because they speak some English that they learn in school and can help us order.  They have been very nice and helpful.  Two girls even bought Lizzy and me a present:  the special fire-hot spice that is local to the area!

Typical classroom, very small for 50 students!

The school day is VERY different here.  For starters, it begins at 7:30am with breakfast and ends at 5pm!  Fridays are early out at 11:45 am.  I have recently learned that the government only permits days off for holidays.  That means, if a holiday falls during the middle of a week, the school can arrange a three-day holiday BUT school will be in session on Saturday and Sunday if necessary to make up for the days that are not technically a holiday!  I've found this very confusing as I will be teaching next Saturday and Sunday, how weird!!!!!!!

Here is a typical schedule for a fifth grader:

7:30am Breakfast                                                                       

8:15 – 8:55 1^st Period – Reading

9:05 – 9:45 2^nd Period - Math

9:45 – 10:15 Morning Exercises

Morning Exercises Video:

10:15 – 10:55 3^rd Period - Chinese

11:05 – 11:45 4^th Period - Music

11:45 – 2:30 Lunch/Recess - I usually walk back to the hotel for a nap!  

2:30 – 3:10 5^th Period - Science
3:10 - 3:20 - Eye strain exercises

3:20 – 4:00 6^th Period - Sports (In-line skating, running, football, basketball)

4:10 – 4:50 7^th Period - Art

Eye Strain Relief Exercises Video:

Each period lasts 40 minutes and students have 10 minutes between classes for free time. No student has EVER asked to use the restroom during class.  Students are assigned to be hall monitors during breaks and they also rotate mopping the entire school at the end of the day.  Sometimes, they kindly mop our office which is the teachers' duty.  Things get dusty because the building is always open.

 Photos of me teaching a lesson on "-ing" words to second graders.  I teach in an auditorium so I can use a projector for my lessons.

Students stand up when they participate in class.  The teachers do not normally address the students by name.  Some students have a Chinese name and an English name.  I have had the honor of giving  students English names.  I try to give names that sound similar to the Chinese name.

"Jessie" 3rd grade

A student standing to answer a question 

Different music signals the time to be in your class andready to learn.  For example, "Yankee Doodle" plays over the loud speaker giving students time to hustle to the next class.

Students hurrying up the stairs 

If students are late for class they stand at the door and raise their right arm (sort of a signal for hello) and wait for the teacher toallow them to take their seat.

I'll bet you're wondering how all these students get to school. There are no school busses at No. 4 but some students do arrive by city bus.  Others come to school "on foot" as they said, or they walk to school, as we would say.  Some arrive by car or taxi.  At the end of the day, many of the parents and grandparents are waiting at the gate for the kids to be dismissed.

 A view from the 5th floor balcony, you can see some families in the street waiting for the kids.

Students here enjoy many activities after school.  Students play games such as Mahjong, a traditional Chinese tile game, badminton, and ping-pong.  They also play piano, read, write and do their homework.  Just like American students, No. 4 students enjoy computer and video games.  

Here I am with some 6th graders

Here's me signing autographs for the 6th graders following a lesson

My friend Lizzy and I are the first two Americans to EVER teach in this school so we are very famous!

In other fun news, our first week here we were treated to an Exhibition (Assembly) at one of the government buildings.  Government officials gave speeches and the students performed songs and dances to the theme of the history of education in Guiyang. It was beautiful.  Here are some photos:

We also lucked out in being able to attend the Spring Field Trip!  Instead of taking a class trip or a trip for a whole grade, this school sticks together and all 1000 students and faculty go on two field trips a year; one in Spring and one in the Fall.  The field trips are organized through a touring company.  Last Friday, we boarded over 30 busses and headed to a Confucian Temple and had a picnic on the bank of a river in a very beautiful park.  The students packed their own lunches and we were surprised to learn that the children give their favorite teachers food to show their appreciation and admiration.  The students must really like my friend Lizzy and me because we ended up with 5 bags of food!!!!  WOW!!!  

Here's a video with field trip highlights:

This is a photo from the Confucian temple, it's the characters for the Golden Rule which is the best rule to live by.  I'll bet you learned it in kindergarten.  

The Golden Rule:  What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.

Lastly, do you remember when I made videos of some students reading stories?  Due to time constraints and technical difficulties, I was only able to show Anika's video to one of my 3rd grade classes.  However, the students here loved hearing an American student read with good fluency and expression.  

Thank you again for participating in this project.

Anika reading a story for Chinese third graders

Anika, a 5th Grader at Hawthorne Elementary in Missoula, MT reading to students in Guiyang, China

I hope you enjoyed learning about life at a Chinese school.

I'd love to hear about what you are learning this spring, field trips you've taken, special projects you are working on and how much you enjoyed learning from Mrs. Karlin!

If you have any questions, please ask Ms. Mahoney to send me an email.

Please keep in touch.  I miss you, 5M!!!

Ms. Rich


P.S.  I apologize for not mailing any postcards, I have not noticed any for sale or located a Post Office!