We all got “The American Scene” summer camp T-shirts to wear today at meet the teacher time at the school. It was a challenge for these kids and families to find five different classrooms in four different buildings to meet us all. Elementary school kids here are TRULY not used to changing classrooms, so some amount of chaos reigned but it was good.
Parents brought their kids to the student’s “homeroom” where the teacher met the students and then sometimes ended up conducting an impromptu class for an hour or so. New students were still being enrolled during these sessions, and our Chinese colleagues were also involved in giving out information to the parents. THEN they took the students on a little bit of a tour to the other four classrooms that they will rotate through. Sounds simple enough, eh? Well, put in nearly 400 students, plus at least one parent each, 20 Chinese teachers, 20 US teachers, and various and sundry other Chinese staff people, and the understanding of what was happening got confusing at times. One poor mother asked, “Do I really have to try and meet 16 separate teachers who will be working with my son? How will I find them all?”
Despite the confusion, we all got through it, and met some VERY nice children and parents, with a variety of different level skills of English.
Everyone was very nice and we will really enjoy getting to know them much better over these next three weeks. We finished the day tired, but glad that we got through this meeting time.
By the end of tomorrow, we will all have a lot better sense of what this will be like. Although I didn’t have a “homeroom” class, so I didn’t have a group of students for a long time, I did get a chance to have everyone take a look at my great classroom: I ended up with the dance studio, with wood floor, mirrored walls and AIR CONDITIONING….something that not everybody has. I was also able to find a small drum today that I fill bring into the class tomorrow.
My roommate, Jenny, and I decided to opt out of a more formal supper and walked over to Wal-Mart to buy a few supplies for school tomorrow. Although we were warned about it, this is not your mother’s Wal-Mart.
The bottom of two floors has big tanks and lets of Chinese groceries (or as the sign says Dry Droceries). The tops floor has many sections similar to Wal-Mart back home, and then random additional areas such as the chopstick aisle. We were struck by the numbers of people standing and sitting around in the books section reading in the stores. And, of course, people gathered around the big screen TV’s. How things have changed in this country to go from such an isolated country to one filled with Wal-Mart,
McDonalds, KFC and Starkbucks!
In the midst of all that has been happening and coming at me, I read a good reminder quote today, “That which we bless with our gratitude responds by multiplying.” So I am coming today with a heart filled with gratefulness. I am grateful that I am here in China, that I have such wonderfully capable colleagues, that these Chinese parents are entrusting their children to us believing that we will bring good to them, that we have amazing new food (in plenteous amounts) every day, that I get to teach and tell stories to one hundred young Chinese children five days a week for the next three weeks, that I get to learn from my American and Chinese colleagues and from the children, that I am not alone, that I have done things like this before so I have experience, that if something doesn’t work out we can try something else and learn from the experience.
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