I started teaching on Tuesday (I arrived on Saturday and went to the hotel, on Sunday had orientation, on Saturday had more orientation then moved to Qingpu then started teaching Tuesday morning). I was picked up from a bank around the corner from my apartment by a blue, short charter bus. This bus is essentially a school bus for teachers at ChongGu Midde School. It picks me up at 6:55 then drops me off around 5:15 (long days when you only start teaching at 10 some days).
The half-hour bus ride took me out of Qingpu and into a place called ChongGu. While both Qingpu and ChongGu are within Shanghai, they are all distinctly different (like Fall River, Bedford and Halifax). Pudong, the hub of Shanghai, is what you would picture New York to be. Qingpu, while home to a million people is more like a large version of what I picture Kingston, Ontario to be; there are some cool, modern buildings in the middle but the rest is super run down. I don’t understand this as Qingpu is supposed to be fairly new. ChongGu, on the other hand, is what I picture of Sarnia. There are lots of industrial plants and run down farms. Many of my students have little to no English because they grew up on rural farms and their families recently moved to ChongGu to get more work. To me, the “town” seems extremely poor. Most students have parents who are farmers or factory workers. It’s something to see from the bus and puts a new perspective on life in Canada.
The school bus took us through the gated entrance of the school. As we walked towards the school, there were a few students in their uniforms standing on either side of the walkway in a straight line facing each other and as we walked through, they saluted us as said “good morning teacher” in Chinese. We rounded a corner and encountered two more of these greetings. I wonder if this is an honour for these students or a punishment or a duty that they rotate.
I followed the rest of the teachers to the cafeteria (there is one designated for students and one for staff) where I was served breakfast. Everyday, the teachers are served breakfast and lunch and the students are all provided with lunch. Breakfast can be “porridge” (which looks like over inflated rice in murky water), little round rice cakes in murky water or sesame seed rice-buns with something (meat? Fruit? Not really sure; it’s brown) in the middle. At least these are the breakfasts I have seen thus far. I have taken to eating toast or fruit before I come in part because it’s a gamble every time I come in but also in part because I like to eat when I get up rather than a couple hours later. Lunches come as rice, soup (usually a watery broth with seaweed-looking floaties and sometimes tofu), cooked vegetables in a brothy-like “sauce” (sometimes I can even recognize the vegetables) and meat. I am still kicking myself for not having my camera with me on the first day; I was given the choice of fish or meat and I proudly said “fish” in Chinese. What came was most definitely fish! Three little fish, about 4 inches long, were grinning up at me with their toothy little grins. They looks like barracuda babies. They had more teeth than I do, had huge eyes and had scaly looking fins. Not sure how to eat them, I looked around. Everyone was picking them up, chucking them into their mouths and spitting out the bones onto a designated bone-spitting section of their trays. This could be a problem. I have yet to master the art of finding meat on bones. This happens regularity at lunchtime. Regardless, the lunches have been decent and I can proudly say I’ve tried 95% of it so far!
The students themselves are like junior high students from home! Actually, I think my Grade 7s in Wolfville were much easier to teach. In my head, the Chinese students were the best behaved little humans you could ask for. Au contraire! All classrooms management strategies I have picked up to date are running through my head but I’m in a more difficult place here than at home. At home, I know what is acceptable classroom management. Here, I am not sure what I am allowed and not allowed to do. All I know is I am not allowed to kick anyone out. There has been several times already where I really really wanted to! One kid especially is riled at all moments of the day. I asked him in my intro class where he was from. His reply was a confident “earth!” accompanied by a salute. He also proceeded to ask me if I knew of the Nazis and made a Hitler mustache with his finger and hailed the sky. Then he asked if I knew Michael Jackson, grabbed himself and pulled a true MJ move.
The school itself is made up of a few buildings, all with doors facing the outside (no indoor hallways, which is unfortunate when it rains). I am in an older building and there is only one classroom being used in this building. My office is nice enough, though, with a few plants and nice hardwood desks. The main building is four stories high and brand new. The first classes taught in it were on Tuesday! There are four classrooms on each floor. The ground floor is for Grade 6, the next for Grade 7, then 8 then 9. There are four classes for each grade so the first classroom on each floor is for the first class (so 6(1)) for instance until the fourth class( 6(4)). Works for this foreigner! At one end of the building are the teachers offices for each grade and at the other end are the washrooms and taps for filling water bottles. I found out the hard way that these taps pour HOT water, not cold or room temperature. It’s weird to turn on a tap and have steam coming out. The washrooms are squatters with no toilet paper (I believe), but they do have stall doors! I might make it through this whole week without having to go, though. I usually can hold it until I make it home to my western toilet!
The half-hour bus ride took me out of Qingpu and into a place called ChongGu. While both Qingpu and ChongGu are within Shanghai, they are all distinctly different (like Fall River, Bedford and Halifax). Pudong, the hub of Shanghai, is what you would picture New York to be. Qingpu, while home to a million people is more like a large version of what I picture Kingston, Ontario to be; there are some cool, modern buildings in the middle but the rest is super run down. I don’t understand this as Qingpu is supposed to be fairly new. ChongGu, on the other hand, is what I picture of Sarnia. There are lots of industrial plants and run down farms. Many of my students have little to no English because they grew up on rural farms and their families recently moved to ChongGu to get more work. To me, the “town” seems extremely poor. Most students have parents who are farmers or factory workers. It’s something to see from the bus and puts a new perspective on life in Canada.
The school bus took us through the gated entrance of the school. As we walked towards the school, there were a few students in their uniforms standing on either side of the walkway in a straight line facing each other and as we walked through, they saluted us as said “good morning teacher” in Chinese. We rounded a corner and encountered two more of these greetings. I wonder if this is an honour for these students or a punishment or a duty that they rotate.
I followed the rest of the teachers to the cafeteria (there is one designated for students and one for staff) where I was served breakfast. Everyday, the teachers are served breakfast and lunch and the students are all provided with lunch. Breakfast can be “porridge” (which looks like over inflated rice in murky water), little round rice cakes in murky water or sesame seed rice-buns with something (meat? Fruit? Not really sure; it’s brown) in the middle. At least these are the breakfasts I have seen thus far. I have taken to eating toast or fruit before I come in part because it’s a gamble every time I come in but also in part because I like to eat when I get up rather than a couple hours later. Lunches come as rice, soup (usually a watery broth with seaweed-looking floaties and sometimes tofu), cooked vegetables in a brothy-like “sauce” (sometimes I can even recognize the vegetables) and meat. I am still kicking myself for not having my camera with me on the first day; I was given the choice of fish or meat and I proudly said “fish” in Chinese. What came was most definitely fish! Three little fish, about 4 inches long, were grinning up at me with their toothy little grins. They looks like barracuda babies. They had more teeth than I do, had huge eyes and had scaly looking fins. Not sure how to eat them, I looked around. Everyone was picking them up, chucking them into their mouths and spitting out the bones onto a designated bone-spitting section of their trays. This could be a problem. I have yet to master the art of finding meat on bones. This happens regularity at lunchtime. Regardless, the lunches have been decent and I can proudly say I’ve tried 95% of it so far!
The students themselves are like junior high students from home! Actually, I think my Grade 7s in Wolfville were much easier to teach. In my head, the Chinese students were the best behaved little humans you could ask for. Au contraire! All classrooms management strategies I have picked up to date are running through my head but I’m in a more difficult place here than at home. At home, I know what is acceptable classroom management. Here, I am not sure what I am allowed and not allowed to do. All I know is I am not allowed to kick anyone out. There has been several times already where I really really wanted to! One kid especially is riled at all moments of the day. I asked him in my intro class where he was from. His reply was a confident “earth!” accompanied by a salute. He also proceeded to ask me if I knew of the Nazis and made a Hitler mustache with his finger and hailed the sky. Then he asked if I knew Michael Jackson, grabbed himself and pulled a true MJ move.
The school itself is made up of a few buildings, all with doors facing the outside (no indoor hallways, which is unfortunate when it rains). I am in an older building and there is only one classroom being used in this building. My office is nice enough, though, with a few plants and nice hardwood desks. The main building is four stories high and brand new. The first classes taught in it were on Tuesday! There are four classrooms on each floor. The ground floor is for Grade 6, the next for Grade 7, then 8 then 9. There are four classes for each grade so the first classroom on each floor is for the first class (so 6(1)) for instance until the fourth class( 6(4)). Works for this foreigner! At one end of the building are the teachers offices for each grade and at the other end are the washrooms and taps for filling water bottles. I found out the hard way that these taps pour HOT water, not cold or room temperature. It’s weird to turn on a tap and have steam coming out. The washrooms are squatters with no toilet paper (I believe), but they do have stall doors! I might make it through this whole week without having to go, though. I usually can hold it until I make it home to my western toilet!