Talent at Guiyang No. 4 Experimental Primary School

As our time at Guiyang No. 4 Exp. Primary School is winding down, I found myself getting a little sentimental.  The students here are lovely and talented and I wanted to share more about them.  And, today was one of my favorite days.  My students and I shared a lot of laughs and I was treated to a private impromptu piano recital by one of the fifth graders.

These third graders are the best!!!  

Today, my lesson for third grade was on toys and one of our vocabulary words was robot.  Of course, I had the students show me how robots move.  The students LOVE performing and are great at it.  One student even mimicked the morning exercises in a robotic way, eliciting a roomful of laughter from his classmates.  We had a great time.

My little robots

One of my favorite things about having to walk up and down five flights of stairs repeatedly throughout the school day is that the walls are lined with student artwork.  A variety of pastels, paintings, calligraphy, embroidery and batik are on display for all to enjoy.  I am impressed with the quality of the work and hope to observe an art class before I'm finished student teaching here.

Here are collages of some of the work in the halls.  The photos are at weird angles because of the glare.  I will try to get better photos if the opportunity presents itself.




The playground is also decorated with vibrant murals.  


During our first week we were treated to an exhibition highlighting the students musical abilities.  The sounds of the children singing in music class frequently resonates through the halls.  Students also practice various musical instruments, many play piano.

Today, as I walked into the auditorium to set up for my lesson, I heard a boy practicing a song on the piano at the back of the room.  I set up quickly and had 10 minutes to spare so I sat with the boy and listened to him play a song so beautiful my eyes welled up with tears.  He seemed pleased that I was sitting with him but was nervous to speak to me when he finished practicing.  I think he could sense that I could have listened to him play this song forever.  Fortunately, I was able to say, "Hěn piàoliang" which translates to "Very Beautiful." 

Please enjoy.  The title of the song translates to "The Wedding in the Dream."

I have to remind myself constantly that we only have one full week left in the school.  The students have finally warmed up to us.  They make a point to sit with us during meals and two of Lizzy's students, twin brothers who insist on being called Tony 1 and Tony 2, walk us most of the way home after school.  

Tony 2 and Tony 1

My goal for our last week is to spend as much time with the kids as possible and take more photos. Whether it's in the lunchroom or on the playground, I want to make myself available for the students to practice their English outside of the classroom.  

Natalie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sweet Shanghai

Image
Things always seem to come full circle and that was certainly the case in this latest adventure in China. It seemed like ages ago that we were in a taxi with Professor Rhea headed from the Shanghai Pudong Airport over to Hongqiao Airport to catch our flight to Guiyang and it was decided that the driver would cruise through downtown to show us the Bund. First glimpse of The Bund A little taste of Shanghai and a glimpse of what was yet to come, I was hooked and looked forward to our last days in China simply because they involved exploring one of the world's largest cities that I knew was full of art and wonder. Shanghai's famous skyline  Lizzy's friend, Melissa, graciously invited us to stay in her apartment and I looked forward to reuniting to rehash our weekend at the Miao Village as well as commiserate with teaching stories as Melissa was an English Teacher at a private school.   We landed in Shanghai and had no trouble finding a taxi to Melissa...
Read more

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

Image
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 cl...
Read more

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Image
Lizzy and I had many things to celebrate today, our first day completely on our own and we did awesome!!! First, we had a leisurely morning at our hotel.  I made us coffee and we spent some time updating our blog and making a game plan for the day.  Our main goal was to find the grocery store nearest to our hotel.  We had lunch on the way at a spot where we will become regulars.  The menu was in Chinese and we started to panic.  How on earth would we order?  There was only one other couple in the restaurant and the gal happened to be an English teacher at the High School.  Boy, were we lucky.  Her  English name was Elaine and we told her to order what was best at this particular restaurant.  We had sweet fish, rice, cucumber soup and a vegetable that translates to "good bitter."  It was no corned beef and cabbage but it was one of the best we've had yet! As we strolled around, we noticed another cozy coffee shop and finally ...
Read more