China: Student Teaching Abroad

Well, today is the day. We are getting on a plane at 4:50pm and heading back to America. When I woke up I just had some last minute things to pack in my bag and then Kelsi and I decided to go to the Longde Mall to get Starbucks and some snacks for the plane.

We walked out of BRS and to the bus stop. We were both a little sleepy and didn’t realize until we were on the bus that we had actually gotten on going the wrong way! We both had only 3 RMB left on our cards and we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough to get back to the mall, but we did. We got off the bus and walked over to the stop going towards the mall. We were finally on our way!

Once we got to the mall we went to Carrefore, the grocery store there. Just outside the grocery store was a Starbucks where we grabbed breakfast and a coffee. Then we walked through the grocery store and picked up some snacks for the plane. About 30 minutes later we headed back to BRS on the bus. We had the perfect amount of money left on our bus card to make it back to BRS!

We hung out in the apartment for about an hour until a van came to pick us up at 12:30pm to take us to the airport. We checked into our flight and went through security (which was very intense) and waited to board our flight.

When we got on the plane, I had a window seat (which I love) and Emma had an aisle seat on the same row as me, and we had nobody in between! Kelsi was sitting in the row in front of me in the window seat also. On the flight there were many Chinese babies with foreign parents. We had found out that about 10 families had just adopted babies from an orphanage in China and were bringing them home to America for the first time. They were adorable!! Just before we took off, a lady came up to Kelsi and asked her if she would be willing to switch seats with her because her daughter was adopting and they bought an extra seat for the baby but the plane didn’t put the extra seat near the parents. So, we offered for Kelsi to sit in the empty seat between me and Emma. She was so sweet for giving up her seat and a trooper for having a middle seat for that long flight! Luckily, we found out that our flight would only be 12 hours rather than the 14 that we had on the way there! Before I knew it, we were off!

12 hours later, we arrived in Detroit, Michigan! Woohoo! We made it to America!! We got off the plane and went through customs, rechecked our bags and found our gate for our next flight to Raleigh! It was about 6:30pm at this point (I’ve been living this day for way too long) so we decided we should probably eat dinner. I was so excited to have found a Chick-fil-A! It was delicious! As good as the food in China was, I missed my American food. After we ate, we headed back to the gate and boarded the plane to Raleigh at 8:45pm. In a short 1.5 hours I would be home!

At about 10:30pm, we arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina! My boyfriend Matt came to pick me up and I was so so happy to finally see him! He helped me grab my bags and we headed to the car. Matt was sweet enough to stop by Cookout on the way home to get me some corn dogs and cheese fries 😊 Once I got home I unpacked some gifts, took a nice hot shower and flopped into my comfy bed! Tomorrow I will head home in the morning to see my family and Matt’s family and to spend some time with them for Easter.

Thank you so much for those of you who took the time out of your day to read my blog and keep up with my adventures in China! I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip! Thank you to my mom and dad for supporting me every step of this experience!! I’m so thankful to have friends and family who would go to the ends of the Earth to make sure I am safe and happy. I don’t know what I would do without you! Thank you to the College of Education for making this trip possible and thank you to Beijing Royal School for hosting us! I have learned so much on this trip and these memories will never be forgotten. Goodbye China, you will be missed!

I know I have said this many times already but I really can’t believe how fast this trip has flown by! Today was my last day in the classroom with the kids and we will be flying back to the USA tomorrow. I am sad to be leaving Beijing. I had an amazing time seeing all of the sights of Beijing, and am so lucky to have been able to travel to Shanghai as well. Before coming on this trip there was no way I would’ve even considered living in another country. Now, I definitely feel like I could see myself living and working in another country. Throughout this trip, I have experienced challenges that have made me way more confident in my abilities!

When I walked into the classroom today I was partially excited about being so close to going home and seeing my family and friends but also sad that I was leaving something that has been so unexpectedly special to me. I walked through the classroom doors and two students ran to me with cards in their hands that said “thank you Miss Jenni, I will miss you!” These were followed by many more cards that had been made in night class the day before. My heart MELTED! At the beginning of this experience I thought there was no way I was going to form a relationship with these students. I mean, I wasn’t teaching them all day and we spoke a completely different language. Boy was I wrong!! Anytime I saw the kids in or out of the classroom, they made sure to say hello to me. Never in a million years would I have dreamed that these kids would be so special to me!

Since today was Friday and the schedule was shorter, the day went by fairly quickly. Daniel was to “teach” 6th and 7th period but we spent the time taking a class photo and having the kids sign something I will add to my graduation cap. At 2pm I was to go meet with the other girls and some people from BRS to discuss future job opportunities as well as provide a reflection on the trip. As I was walking out of the classroom, one of the kids ran over and gave me a hug. Before I knew it, half of the class was piled around me and hugging me so tightly. I was so overwhelmed with joy and love! These sweet kids did not want me to leave!

When I finally broke free from the Class 1.2 group hug, I made my way to the meeting. The meeting started by us providing a brief summary of our time at BRS. It was nice to be able to give our perspective and reflection on the trip as well as China as a whole. We also had the opportunity to discuss some ways that we could make the trip better for students in the future. Lastly, Isabel closed the meeting by providing us more information about job openings at BRS.

When we got out of the meeting it was about 3:15pm and we were wanting to go out for dinner and shopping one last time. We got on the bus and then on the subway and headed back to Sanlitun to eat sushi at Hatsune (again). We went back because it was so delicious the first time and we knew it wouldn’t upset our stomachs for the plane ride the next day. The sushi was just as spectacular as the previous time we came. Right after dinner we headed to the silk market to bargain for some more souvenirs. It is always very hot inside of the shops at the silk market and I would tend to get even more flustered due to the culture of bargaining there. I love ended up only buying two things since I had already been once and bought many things before.

The silk market closed at 9pm and it was around 8:50pm when we were finished shopping so we decided to get back on the subway and then bus to head back to BRS. Because of the crowded city, it took us about 1.5 hrs to get home after being smushed onto public transportation. The ride back on the bus and subway were always much more crowded.

Once we made it back to the apartment, it was time to get started on packing. I bought many souvenirs for friends and family so I had to figure out a way to get it all safely inside of my suitcases. Luckily, I am able to check two bags for the flight so I could spread out all of my stuff between two suitcases. Around 1:30am I was all packed and ready to go. I tried to sleep but I still wasn’t tired. At this point I was feeling a little anxious about the flight ahead. Tomorrow Kelsi and I are planning on getting some breakfast and hanging out before we are being taken to the airport at 12:30pm. As excited as I am for home, I am sad to be saying zaijian to China! 😦

Today Daniel and I had 6th and 7th period for POI which means we had the whole day to chat and get some things done for the day. I ended up not going to breakfast this morning so at about 8:30am I went down to the cafe and got a chocolate muffin and a coffee. These chocolate muffins and the cafe in general have been our lifesavers on this trip! Anytime we don’t like the food served in the cafeteria, we stop by the cafe and get a chocolate muffin, danish, or chicken nuggets. They tasted a little more like home 😉

During exercise time, the students were to participate in an Easter Egg Hunt put on by the specialist teachers. Since there weren’t many places to hide the eggs, they placed them under and around cones on the field. Each first grade class had a section of eggs to take, however, there weren’t enough for each kid in our class to find one. So, Daniel kept taking the ones they had already found and hid them again so each kid could have a turn. It was so funny because Daniel would tell all the kids to close their eyes so he could hide them under cones and on the turf in the field. The best part was that the kids didn’t care that he kept hiding the ones that had already been found! They had a great time running around and playing – something that no kids in school get enough of.

Throughout the day I checked emails, worked on some reflections for my study abroad class and chatted with Daniel and Amy. Before I knew it, it was 6th period and we were starting POI class. In class today, students would be making their own flags to represent their class (Class 1.2). To introduce the lesson, Daniel showed a picture of the American flag. He explained the different symbols that are represented on the flag – 50 stars for the 50 states, 13 stripes for the original 13 colonies, and what the colors red, white, and blue meant. The students will be having something called Sports Day in which they will march out on the field to represent their class as well as participate in some sports activities such as throwing a ball or doing the long jump. In class today, students would be planning out their idea for a flag to represent Class 1.2 on Sports Day. The rest of 6th period was spent explaining how we use symbols on a flag to represent things that are meaningful to the country, state, or in our case, class.

In 7th period, the students were given time to work on their flags. Daniel and I walked around and asked the students what their symbols on the flags represented. They had a little bit of trouble understanding that the symbols they drew on their flags (stars, hearts, lines) needed to mean something and not just look pretty. We wanted to explain to them how to make their flags without necessarily giving them the answer in order to make the activity inquiry-based. Toward the end of the period, most students were starting to understand and we showed them how to make a key to show what each symbol on their flag meant.

After 7th period, we went straight to the English meeting. We were excited to be given time in the meeting to present about Letterland and Words Their Way, two programs that we learned about and have had experience with in the U.S. Danielle, Kelsi, and I presented on Letterland while Emma and Amber presented on Words Their Way. The presentation went really well! I personally love using Letterland in the classroom so I had a great time sharing my experience with it. The other teachers had a lot of questions about it and I think we all did a pretty great job at answering them. Emma and Amber’s presentation was phenomenal as well! I am so proud of us for having the confidence to stand up in front of the other teachers and PYP Coordinator to share what we have learned so much about in our past 4 years at NC State. Our professors (shoutout to Dr. Harrington) have prepared us so well!!

After school, our mentors and the PYP Coordinator took us out to dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant. We had tried a hot pot meal before but we did it when it was just us and Dr. Wiseman and it did not go so well. We didn’t know what we were doing! So this time we felt much more comfortable going to eat hot pot since we had Chinese people with us who could help order and show us how to cook the food. Once we got to the restaurant, we ordered our food and two types of broth flavors that we would cook it in (one spicy and one not spicy). I stuck with the not spicy one! We also went up to the front and created our own sauce to dip our food in. I put soy sauce, oyster sauce, peanut sauce, green onion, sesame seeds, and cilantro into my bowl and mixed it all together. I liked all of those things separately so I thought maybe it would taste good all together. I was right! This sauce made the meal so much better. We ordered lamb meat, tofu, noodles, and vegetables to cook in the hot pot. I was starving at this point so I was very excited to eat. One of the best things about Chinese food is that it cooks VERY quickly so you don’t have to wait long at all to start eating. My favorite thing in the hot pot was the tofu! I have never really had tofu before this trip and I have eaten so much of it since I have been here. It is so good! It wasn’t spongy like tofu I have had before which is why I think I liked it so much. This hot pot experience was definitely much better than last time!

Tomorrow is my last day in the school and probably the last day we will go out to dinner/explore before traveling home on Saturday. It is so bittersweet that this experience is coming to an end. I have had an extraordinary experience here in China but I am also looking forward to returning home for graduation. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for all of the people who helped make it possible for me to come on this trip! Here’s to our last day in Beijing, China!!

Today was Wednesday which means Daniel and I had circle time. Daniel asked me if I wanted to have another go at circle time and I was a little nervous but I said yes. I am so glad that I did because this circle time went so much better! I started the morning circle by asking students if they remember high five from yesterday’s English lesson. They said yes, so I told them to turn to a friend and give them a high five and say good morning. This worked a lot better than my greeting from last week because the students were all sitting down and it was much more controlled. I also kept it short so that students couldn’t get too crazy with it. Then, I asked students to share how they were feeling today. This helped connect our previous unit on expressing our feelings. Then, I read a book called Knight Fight. This book focused on the long i sound and I encouraged students to listen for words with the long i as I read. They did a great job with this and were all very respectful by raising their hand instead of shouting out. I am glad that I gave morning circle another chance!

In POI class one, Daniel spent a lot of time talking about their homework from the previous night. At BRS, most of the students attend night classes from 6-8pm and that is when their teachers instruct them to do their homework. Something happened the previous night where the students were not given enough time to do their English homework so most students rushed through and did not do it correctly. So, Daniel spent time explaining what they were supposed to do and figuring out why they did not complete the homework like they were supposed to. Once he was finished, the students viewed a video about U.S. Symbols and learned about the bald eagle, the American flag, and the liberty bell. We also showed the students American money which we explained that there were many symbols represented on it. We gave students a chance to see if they could explain what each symbol meant on the money.

In POI class two, the students were given a worksheet in which they would create their own symbol and then describe what it represents, and what colors and shapes they used. There was a lot of student choice in this lesson in that the students could choose to draw anything they wanted to use as their symbol, as long as they could describe its meaning. I could really see the inquiry process of PYP being applied in this lesson specifically.

Next was English class which I would be teaching. I am so thankful that Daniel has given me an opportunity to teach a lot in the past week and a half. I was a little frustrated at the beginning because I had missed teaching all day long like I would in the U.S. but it took a little while to observe and see what teaching is like here in China before actually doing it myself. In my English lesson I started by reviewing the two long vowels they have already worked with (long a and long e) and writing the patterns of how the long vowels could be spelled in words, and then I told students that today they would be exploring with the different patterns of long i. This is where I tried to implement the inquiry model by giving students a set of words and allowing them to place them in groups depending on the pattern of spelling (i_e, ie, y, igh). Each table group had a set of words and spent about 5-10 minutes sorting the words depending on their spelling. Then we came back together whole class and discussed the various patterns that could be seen in words with the long i. Then, students did the think-pair-share model where they worked in partners to choose a word from the list that they were not familiar with. They would first think about what the meaning of the word is, then they would talk with their partner to see if they agreed and used the word in a sentence, and then we went around the room and shared out to the whole class. I thought that the students did really well with this activity!

After lunch we had a meeting with the 1st Grade team to discuss plans for next week. I mostly just listened and offered suggestions since I won’t be here. After this meeting, we were scheduled to have an English meeting but the PYP Coordinator was not feeling well so the meeting got moved to tomorrow. This is the meeting where we will present about Letterland to all of the teachers. Instead of having the English meeting, we had a meeting to plan a Professional Development on Assessment. On Friday, all of the teachers will come together to learn more about assessment. Unfortunately, the other girls and I will not be attending because we will be going to a different meeting where we will discuss our reflections on the trip with the Foreign Teacher Affairs Office.

After school was over, Daniel and Vee invited us over to their apartment to have dinner! Their apartment was actually pretty close to the school by bus and subway. It was cool to see their apartment and how people who are not Chinese live in China. Their apartment was really nice and they were such great hosts! For dinner they made us vegan chili and empanadas. They were DELICIOUS. Vee made the chili the night before and sent us the recipe so that we could make it when we return home. It was spicy and sweet at the same time and really good even without having meat like normal chili. Daniel made empanadas with hummus and kale inside. We watched Vee make the hummus by blending chickpeas, oil, lemon juice, tahini, and taco seasoning. Daniel mixed the masa flour with water and made the dough and then flattened it out and filled it with hummus and kale. A few minutes later we all sat down to eat and it was so yummy. We sat around and chatted for a while before heading back to our apartments at BRS. I’m so thankful that we got to meet Daniel and Vee! They have been so welcoming and honest to us. I feel so lucky to have been placed with Daniel as my mentor at BRS!

Tomorrow our class schedule is a lot more relaxed so I won’t be doing as much teaching as I did today. Tomorrow evening we were also invited by the PYP Coordinator to attend a dinner to celebrate having us as interns at BRS. The people here have been so kind to us and I have learned so so much. I am looking forward to finishing up these last two days of this awesome experience!

Today I was feeling so much better! I got a really good nights sleep and was ready for the day. Today is Tuesday so we taught the first 3 periods of the day. It is so nice to have all of our periods backed up to one another because we have much more time to keep the flow of the lesson going.

To start the day, we had 2 POI class periods. Since the whole 1st grade team splits up lesson plans, Daniel just needed to read over the lesson plan that was written and implement it. However, the person who wrote the plan didn’t send the correct worksheets in time for the lesson so, Daniel had to adapt. He talked to the kids about the central idea: signs and symbols are used to communicate. He reviewed what signs and symbols are and gave them a brief definition of each. In the 2nd POI class period, the students worked in groups to look at signs and symbols and place them into groups. Some students grouped them by signs and symbols, colors, or shape. It was interesting to see how they grouped them differently. The students then had the opportunity to come to the front and explain their sort.

After POI was over, students went outside for exercise time. When they came back in it was time for English class. Daniel asked me if I wanted to teach this class period and I said YES! I have missed being up in the front all day teaching.

In English students were learning about the long i sound in words, specifically the pattern of i_e (line, time). For their homework the night before, students were given a word search in which they had to find as many words as they could that fit the long i pattern. The students found many words but when I asked them what they said or meant, they are unable to tell me. So, I created a bubble map on the board and got the students involved. I wrote the pattern in the middle (i_e) and then drew lines coming out. I called on one student to write one of the words they found in the word search. Then, I called on another student to say the word out loud and the rest of the class repeated. Then, I had one student tell me the meaning of the word and use it in a sentence. This last step took lots of scaffolding and it was a nice formative assessment to see where students were at in their vocabulary. It is really awesome because these kids have spectacular memories. They remember every detail you tell them! I was really proud of the lesson that I did in English today, especially because I planned it on the spot. The kids seemed very engaged in the lesson and were willing to speak in English the whole time. I was so proud of how hard they worked!!

Long i bubble map

Tomorrow Daniel offered for me to teach English again so I have been starting to plan what I want to do with long i tomorrow. It is so different to see the way they teach long vowels compared to the schools I have been at in North Carolina. I am definitely having to adjust and experiment with other teaching strategies!

After English I went to observe a high school class (Maria’s class). It was a small class – 6 kids and very laid back. It was interesting to see how the students interacted much more openly with the teacher since it was a small group. The students were reading The Great Gatsby and learning about life in the 1920s. Their goal in the class period was to plan a party as if they were in the 1920s. The students didn’t seem to take the class seriously and there was lots of laughing and joking going on. It was hard for me to tell if they learned anything about life in the 1920s during this class period. The bell rang at 11:30am and I was off to lunch.

After lunch I went with Daniel to observe Veronica’s class. She was subbing in a 4th grade class for a teacher who is out on paternity leave. In the class, the students were working on their research skills. They started the class by passing out a set of books to each group and allowing them to group them together by topic. Some examples of the topics were animals, foods, or inventors. Then, the whole class came back together and shared the topics they came up with. After the sharing was over, the students were instructed to go to different stations for the remainder of the period. There were 4 stations: searching the Internet for information on a topic, reading group about deserts, searching books for information on a topic, and completing reflections for their portfolios. I really liked this lesson and appreciated that students were practicing skills that they would be using later on in their education. I also really appreciated how Vee led the reading group on deserts because she knew students would need support to fully understand the content. I saw some really great things in this class period!

The day was pretty much over at this point, so I headed back to the classroom to grab my things and talk to Daniel about my ideas for tomorrow’s English lesson. I headed to dinner and chatted with the other girls for a little while. We went back to the apartment and got to FaceTime Dr. Wiseman for a little bit to debrief on our experience as well as review some closing assignments for our class. Tomorrow Daniel and Vee invited us over to their apartment for dinner! I am excited to see what their apartment is like and hang out with them. As I get ready to go to sleep, I can’t help but think about how grateful I am for all of the experiences that this trip has brought me 😊 I’m so thankful!

Wow! It’s already the last week in Beijing. Today was a very relaxed day as we only had one period in class so this will be a short post. I also wasn’t feeling too well today so I mostly just sat the whole day.

Lunch was probably the best part of the day – I got to try a new pizza in the cafeteria and also bought some pineapple from the snack bar. I have been missing having fruit handy to snack on so it was refreshing to eat some pineapple and grab a banana.

Today we taught handwriting (right before 6th) and then 6th period English. In handwriting, the students learned a little about how to write a thank you card. Daniel showed some examples of thank you cards and wrote an example on the board. For the rest of handwriting, the students copied the example on the board and wrote them neatly in their handwriting books.

Since English was 6th period – right after handwriting, the students continued to work a little longer on their cards and then put them away. There wasn’t much time left in the class so Daniel took care of choosing new jobs for the week and reflecting on their week last week.

Before I knew it, it was 4pm which is when the students go to their interest classes. My throat was hurting and I had a headache from listening to Mandarin all day long so I left early and went to the Cafe to grab a tea and a muffin. I worked on the presentation we will give about Letterland (on Wednesday) until the other girls came for dinner. We all ate dinner and then headed back to our apartments.

I was able to chat with a few of my friends and family as well as catch up on some emails, took some NyQuil, and then went to bed.

Sorry to disappoint with the short post!! Here’s to hoping I feel a little better tomorrow.

Hand-pulled noodles!!!! I learned how to make hand-pulled noodles! Today we took a cooking class with the Hutong, the same company we did the tea tasting with. The class started at 10:30am and we spent 2.5 hours making and eating our delicious noodles!

Our guide’s name was Michelle and she was raised in New Zealand but she was also Chinese. It was very cool because she could speak Chinese and English both very well. In our class there were about 10 other people – all from different places. Some were from Switzerland, Sweden, England, and Germany. At one point, each group of people at the table were speaking a different language. It was amazing. To start the class, we each put on our aprons and set up at a station. Unfortunately, since there were so many people, I got pushed to the end of the table and had to keep moving so they could cook at the end. However, it was really awesome to see all of the delicious ingredients laid out all over the table. I was excited to get started!

One work station

To begin cooking, we started with the dough for the noodles by adding two parts flour (wheat or all-purpose) and one part water. After adding the water, we were instructed to gather all of the extra flour into the “dough baby” as Michelle called it. The goal was not to add too much water – it is drier than dough for breads. After our dough baby was made, we began kneading the dough. This took about 10 minutes and definitely made my arm tired. By the end, the dough baby was supposed to be soft and smooth in the middle after cutting it in half. After kneading the dough, we flattened it out in soy bean oil and cut strips to roll to look like little worms. Then, we placed the dough onto a plate in a spiral and doused it with oil. There was ALOT of oil that went into making this dish. While we let our dough rest, we started making the sauce. The first thing we did was heat the oil in the wok and then add in the spices to make the oil flavorful. We then removed the spices and poured cherry tomatoes into the oil. We cooked them until the tomatoes were mashed down into a sauce.

While the sauce continued cooking, we chopped vegetables. In Chinese cuisine, you chop the vegetables to match the length of the main course. So since the noodles were long and thin, the vegetables were to be chopped long and thin. This also allowed them to cook faster – in China, the food at restaurants comes out extremely fast (and now I know why). We used a giant knife and Michelle taught us how to slice the vegetables very carefully so we didn’t chop our fingers off. Once we finished chopping the vegetables, we put them into a wok with the marinated chicken. The chicken was just marinated in soy sauce, salt, and white pepper. Chinese cuisine does not use black pepper because they like to taste it in their food but not see it. After the chicken and vegetables were done cooking, we added in our tomato sauce.

Now for the fun part!! It was finally time to pull our noodles! To do this, you take one strand at a time and then place four fingers under the noodle at one end and your thumb on top and do the same thing with the other hand on the other end of the noodle. Then you swing the noodle up and down which allows the noodle to smack on the cutting board. You fold the noodle over to make more strands and repeat the process. This part was the most fun because this is where you could really see the noodles come to life. The best part pulling the noodles is that you can break the noodles and it is okay because they still turn out fine. Its also very fun to do. Michelle turned on some fun music while we worked on pulling the noodles and then they went into a pot of water to cook! Once the noodles were done cooking, we cleaned up and sat down at the table to enjoy our finished product. It was DELICIOUS!! All of the noodles were different sizes but it was cool to see how everything we made came together.

I absolutely loved this cooking class and the people in the class made it so fun! We were full by this time and were finished with the class so we decided to head over to the 798 Art District. This area consisted of a few blocks of shops, restaurants, and galleries with random pieces of art on the street. We spent most of our time chatting and relaxing at Voyage Coffee. It was nice outside so we were enjoying the sunshine and reflecting on our last 4 years at NC State. After we finished at the coffee shop, we walked around a bit and took photos of and with the art.

Emma, Amber, and Danielle were getting tired at this point (they had stayed out later than Kelsi and I last night) so they decided to head back to BRS while Kelsi and I stayed and explored a little more. We ended up finding a restaurant called Timezone 8 that had a lot of Western food. We both got burgers and they were also delicious! After dinner I had spotted a Haagen Daz, so I decided to pop in and get a scoop of ice cream while Kelsi got a drink from Starbucks.

The chocolate ice cream was so refreshing..I hadn’t had real chocolate ice cream since I left the States – which is a long time for me! It was about 8pm at this point and new we should start heading back to the apartment in order to miss rush hour (10pm). People here actually don’t eat dinner until very late because their workdays are longer than ours. For example, the students at BRS have class from 8am-5pm and then go back for night classes until 8pm. It’s a very long day for such little people.

We had a great last weekend exploring in Beijing and will be starting our final week in the classrooms. I can’t believe we are already flying home in 5 days!!! This trip has really flown by and I am looking forward to sharing all that I have learned with everyone when I get home 😊

Today was a high pollution day. We woke up in the morning and headed to Summer Palace. The weather was perfect but the air was extremely hazy.

We took the subway about an hour and arrived at Summer Palace. Luckily, I brought my NC State Student ID and received a discount! It is pleasantly surprising how many places have given us discounts for our student ID. Summer Palace is an Imperial Garden in Beijing. It was really cool to see the buildings all around the water in the middle. There were no bars or poles to keep you from falling in so you really had to watch your step. We walked around the first part and then climbed up some rocks and stairs that led us up and over to the Kunming lake. While there, we saw the famous marble boat. It was really cool! In the distance we could see the Seventeen-Arch Bridge. It was hard to see because of the pollution so we walked closer to get to it. On our way there, some Chinese people wanted to take pictures with us and even with her kid! It’s so funny because it is common to eat these hot dogs on a stick as snacks, so this little girl was posed in the picture with a hot dog in one hand and a peace sign in the other.

After we reached the bridge we took some cool photos and planned out our next event for the day. There were these lion head statues that were really cool so we took some photos with those too. There was a lot more of the Palace to see but we were getting hungry at this point so we decided to leave and go get food at a place called Bridge Cafe.

We got outside of the gate and decided to order a DiDi to take us to the Bridge Cafe. Emma, Amber, and Danielle ordered a car and it came fairly quickly. Unfortunately, Kelsi and I didn’t have the same luck. We ordered three cars and all of them cancelled every time. We were getting so frustrated and tired at this point (not to mention Kelsi is sick) so we thought maybe we should cross the street and try again. About 30 minutes later, we finally got a DiDi. Kelsi and I both closed our eyes and relaxed in the car while the warm breeze flew through the window. We finally arrived at the Bridge Cafe and it was beautiful. It was a small place hidden on a rooftop. We ordered some coffee and food while we sat down and chatted for a while. This was really enjoyable and recharged us for our next adventure of the day.

After we finished eating, Kelsi and I decided to go to the Beijing Zoo while Amber, Danielle, and Emma decided to go to the Olympic Park. We were originally going to go to the 798 Art District but it was very far from where we were. So, Kelsi and I took a quick subway ride to the Beijing Zoo!

We went at the perfect time because as we were entering, all of the little kids were beginning to leave so the zoo wasn’t too busy. We were able to get another student discount which was really nice! We headed in and went straight to the panda exhibit. We came to the zoo mainly to see the pandas because they are so unique to China but also enjoyed seeing the other animals. We first saw the Giant Panda. It was HUGE!! It was fascinating to watch it sit on the ground munching on bamboo.

We walked around the zoo for a little while longer watching the monkeys jump and play, seeing lemurs, llamas (my favorite), and zebras. We also got to see a red panda!! It was so cute and looked so soft. I wanted to pet it!

It was starting to get dark and we were a little hungry so we got on the subway and headed back to the Longde Mall which is close to where BRS is. When we got to the mall we walked around for a bit and then ate dinner at Papa Johns! We were hungry for pizza and had been there once before so we knew it was good. I have found on this trip that it is important to take advantage of any time you can sit. So, we sat down and ate for a while and then headed back to BRS for the night. Today we definitely faced some challenges that we haven’t encountered yet on the trip which was very frustrating, but in the end it proved to be worth it. Tomorrow we will be taking a cooking class to learn how to make Chinese Hand-Pulled Noodles! And then we will be exploring the 798 Art District!

Happy Friday! Today was a full day and a lot of fun! We had 4 periods of teaching today because we switched a period with math yesterday. So, we got a lot of face time with the kids which was nice.

The morning started out rough. Daniel let me lead circle time this morning so I planned out what I wanted to do in my head. I only had about 10 minutes to do what I wanted to do so I planned to have the students do a train greeting where they get in a circle and one person starts by stepping into the circle and greeting, then that person that was just greeted would join the train. The train would go around the circle until there was nobody left to join the train. I thought that this would be a little difficult to explain so I planned to spend more time modeling and using body language so show them how to do it. After the greeting, I had planned to play a game with sight words where the kids would be split up into two teams. I would hold up a sight word and the first team to say the word would get the sight word. The team with the most at the end of the game would win. Prior to starting, I sorted out the sight word cards and put them on the table behind me.

I definitely thought I would be able to get through both of those things in the short time I had for circle time. Needless to say, I was wrong. Circle time did NOT go as I had planned at all. I began to explain the train greeting and all the students were talking, jumping around, and playing. I attempted to get their attention but they still could not understand me. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were doing something fun and different that made them act crazy but it was very frustrating. In America, I pride myself on having good classroom management and to feel that skill instantly fail in China felt frustrating and embarrassing. While I was attempting to lead students through the activity, some students were coming into class late. I didn’t notice it but behind me, the students who were coming in late went to the sorted sight word cards and mixed them up all over the table. They made a huge mess. I turned around and saw it and was immediately angry. “Why?” I said. “Why did you do that?” I felt a little ashamed to have been so angry at them for that but I felt embarrassed that the morning circle was a disaster after I pleaded to lead it.

Although my plan for morning circle didn’t work out like I wanted it to, I learned a lot from it. I learned that when you bring a new activity to do you have to give plenty of time to just explaining that and I needed to be more aware that it would take longer due to language barriers. I also learned that next time we need to start off by reviewing how to be respectful and listen when learning new directions. Lastly, I learned that it won’t be easy trying something new, but that I needed to breathe and figure out how to help them learn rather than getting frustrated.

After we got through morning circle, the kids got ready for their Mandarin class. As the kids were getting ready, two kids were filling out reflection forms for mixing up the sight word cards. About 5 mins into class, a kid threw up. Wow. Could this morning be any less crazy?! Daniel and Amy helped clean up and took the kid to the clinic. All of the kids moved to the back of the classroom to finish their Mandarin class.

Before I knew it, it was time for POI class. After students finish a unit in POI, they create a cover page, add in work samples, their assessments, and reflection all into a binder. These binders are used for student-led conferences and also get turned in for accreditation in the PYP Program. So today in class the students worked on creating their cover pages and choosing work for their portfolios. I think this is a really cool idea and something that we could use in America by making it digital. Creating a digital portfolio in American classrooms would be beneficial for students when applying for new schools or apprenticeships.

It was finally time for lunch which was a nice break, but it was a lot shorter than normal due to the short Friday schedule. By the time I got to lunch there was barely any food left because the high schoolers were already done eating. So, I grabbed a muffin from the cafe and relaxed for a bit.

When we returned to class, we tested all of the kids on their sight words. It was nice to do something I was familiar with, since we do sight word testing in the States. It was still a little different because the students are given a list of 100 words and they go until they miss reading 10, then those are the 10 they work intensively on. After sight word testing, Daniel presented the awards to the winners of the handwriting contest. It was so cute to see the kids cheer for each other and be so excited. After this, we did Class Dojo prizes. Class Dojo is an application where teachers can reward kids for good behavior. Each time a student does something well, Daniel rewards them with Class Dojo points. At the end of the week, he gives them the opportunity to use their points to buy small toys from the Class Dojo Store. The kids loved this and enjoyed getting to pick out erasers, puzzles, stickers, and little Pokémon figurines from the Class Dojo Store.

Class Dojo Store

As we were finishing up Class Dojo shopping, the children’s parents starting arriving in the room to pick them up. All of the teachers were headed to attend a staff meeting. Once we got into the auditorium, we were given a small device that would translate the meeting for us since the people leading the meeting would be speaking in Mandarin. The meeting was very interesting and included a classical song and dance performance, speeches from principals, information on upcoming events, and celebration of April birthdays.

We finally made it to the end of the school day! After school, Daniel and Veronica (Emma’s mentor) offered to take us to Sanlitun to eat sushi and hang out. I was SO excited because I absolutely love sushi and Daniel had told me previously about how amazing this sushi is. So, we got on the subway together and headed to Sanlitun. When we arrived, we saw a shopping mall and restaurants. It was really cool to see how this more Western style could be held inside of Beijing. We walked to a sushi restaurant called Hatsune.

The inside of the restaurant was really cool looking with model fish hanging from the ceiling. We sat down and looked at the menu – it was in English!! We ordered about 10 rolls. And these are not small rolls. Each of these rolls had about 10 pieces in them. They were DELICIOUS. My favorite was the butterfly roll. I also loved the Caterpillar roll. I don’t really remember what was in all of them but they were all presented so beautifully.

After our bellies were full and happy, we decided to go to an archery bar across the street. I was really excited for this because I have never shot archery. It was such an awesome experience! We got in and paid for a lane to shoot in, got some Chinese local brews, and the man that worked there showed us how to shoot. We paid for the lane for an hour and took turns shooting and hanging out at the bar. I wasn’t the best at shooting but I got my arrow inside the yellow target once! I was so proud of myself! We had a really great time chatting about school and just our lives in general.

I’m so thankful for all of the relationships and connections we have made in our time here that have led us to fun and amazing opportunities. We are so thankful for Vee and Daniel for taking us out! Tomorrow we will be going to the Summer Palace and either the 798 Art District or the Beijing Zoo. I’m looking forward to a fun-filled weekend!!