Week One wraps up

Reporting from Xiangzhou.

Week One wrapped up this afternoon at both Doumen and Xiangzhou. From my conversation with Luke and Jumbo, it appears things are going well at Doumen. And from first-hand experience, they are going well at Xiangzhou as well.

Yesterday (Thursday), Jana Hoobler came down from Doumen to talk about teaching English in large classes (Chinese classrooms often have 50-60 students!) and teaching English for the test (Chinese students take a comprehensive test that determines whether they will get into the best high schools and later into the best colleges. A child's destiny is often determined by a test he takes at about 8th grade - so THE TEST is the focus of everything. ISTEP and achievment tests? - child's play compared to this test.) Anyway, Jana shared how language activities that build speaking ability can also prepare for the test. Jana was popular.

Today (Friday), Susie Burson came from Doumen to talk about brain research, Highly Effective Teaching (HET) and learning styles. Some of the teachers were overwhelmed by the amount of material Susie had to presents - like drinking from a fire hose - but I think they appreciated the quality of the material she presented.

Our Important Things discussions have been well-attended - about 30 people each day. We had a really good discussion today about Chinese and American attitudes toward family responsibility. It was quite an animated discussion. Not only do I think people were interested in the topic; I think they are also feeling free to express deep feelings about things. So we are very interested in continuing to take these conversations to new places.

Tomorrow Luke and I head over to Hong Kong to meet the rest of the NESTers and bring them to Zhuhai. Unfortunately, I just learned that the plane is delayed by two hours - so it will be a tired team that starts on Monday morning. Your thoughts for them and all of us are appreciated.

Pictures later.