UN Day & All-Nighter Lock-In

Our school, being an international school, celebrates United Nations Day... though many of us wish for the title of "UN" to be changed to "International Cultures," so that students from places such as Taiwan can be recognized and celebrate the pride they have in their culture and region (Taiwanese are not allowed to proclaim sovereignty from mainland China; Chinese look down upon independently recognizing Taiwan's own flag). PC. But fair to our students who want to celebrate specific cultures, such as Hawaii (which is not a sovereign nation or kingdom of its own anymore).

Friday was our UN Day celebration. We cancelled classes for the day, and festivities ensued...

... a play and musical presentation about diversity:

... a parade of traditional dress/attire (some of the historical and cultural costumes were pretty elaborate and spectacular:

With some of our Chinese staff in their traditional garb

... a community-focused art project, in conjunction with the Sunshine School, which is a local school for students with disabilities. The art project was to create banners with phrases about "global community." The kids were put in groups comprised of mixed ages, grades 1-12, as well as students from Sunshine. After group brainstorming, they creatively designed banners with phrases of what "global community" means to them. Some were pretty poetic and very colorful (mixed media). Our art teacher is pretty ingenious. These banners will be sent away to be made into stickers, which will then go on the stairs of our school. (where the Halloween decoration of the rats are on the steps right now)

Art supplies and painted decorated banner papers in the background

Rats and Halloween decor that is currently on our stair steps

Sample banner that got put up on one of the stairs today

... an international food potluck, which was, of course, the best part of the day!!! Tasty foods from all over the world--Korea (kim chi, desserts), Japan (sushi, yakisoba), China (seafood and a little bit of everything, rice desserts, noodles, etc.), U.S. (baked mac and cheese and Starbursts, haha), Chile (cakes, desserts), Germany (more delicious desserts), Iranian/Persian (meat sauces and bread), Indian (fry breads with mango chutney, ), Thai (peanut sauce salad), and more!

So many international foods!!!

(We had to sample some of nearly everything!)

...followed by ending the school day with age-separated activities (elementary did country presentations, middle school broke up and did grade-level presentations in rotations, and high school listened to guest speakers and wrote pledges discussing the new UN Charter for Day of the Girl).

2nd grade: Korean, Chinese, German, and various other nationalities of children
doing a Hawaiian dance. That's diversity!

As if UN Day was not enough excitement, Friday night was the high school StuCo (Student Council)-sponsored all-nighter lock-in event. First, I took a 20-minute nap Friday in between UN Day and the start of the Lock-In. And then I chaperoned the all-nighter.  They showed a movie, ate dinner, and then we had a murder mystery drama. Yes, I was recruited to be one of the main characters. It was all fun and games, involving lots of AIAN (school) drama between teachers, PTA members, and students. None of the teams really solved the mystery of who the murderer was (it wasn't me though!), but all of them came up with very creative, complicated, and twisted accusations.

Roundabout 2am. 17 of the 29 were zonked.

Then came zombies vs. humans, and I was in for a long night of chaperoning ahead. I only had two zombie casualties to take care of (not too much blood and gore, and no lawsuits, thankfully). The night was anything but boring. Then came sardines, card games, movies, the giddy screaming and running around halls at night, candy, cookies, sugar sprints, etc etc. Only 60% of the teens fell asleep. My "shift" was up at 4am, and I came home just before 5 to get a few hours of sleep before the weekend's pre-Halloween festivities began... (but that's all for another post)

The legendary compost

This, is the story of the neglected compost that spawned the largest breeding of fruit flies known to the history of this apartment #1203. 

The backstory: My plan was to get some urban composting going as soon as I got here. A colleague has a worm compost project going in her classroom with her 3rd graders, and I was just going to nab some of them for my own vermiculture venture. But alas, her worms died (or the ayi threw them out thinking they were a failed, dirty experiment), and my compost was piling up. 

My secondary intention was to collect it in a 5-gallon container, with a tight lid, and then bury it every week or every other day, if I got ambitious. I just didn't want to be throwing all this organic waste in a dumpster when it could be nourishing and enriching the crappy red-clay soil (not the best composition for encouraging the decomposition process).

So, the compost was molding in the bin under my kitchen sink. Excuse me. OUR kitchen sink. Kari was affected. She couldn't understand why there was such an overabundance of fruit flies... especially within the last week. 

Compost bin under kitchen sink

After coming back from Shanghai with Clara, there were more flies than ever. It was time to take care of this situation once and for all. Just after dusk, with trowels in hand, we took to the ground, scavenging a nice plot that needed nourishment, longing for our fly-filled compost. We found a toad, some hard ground, some bushes, and finally, a soft spot where the grass was bald from this last typhoon season. Perfect. 

Crouching, we dug with the trowels for a while, until I decided it was more efficient just to dig like a dog and excavate more significant amounts of dirt. I was digging like a crazy woman. Was the hole deep enough to fit all my compost? Nope... gotta keep going. Clara gave up and just watched me. I was digging my way to... oh wait, I'm already in China. Back to the other side of the planet then? 

Measly hand shovels

We elevatored upstairs and grabbed the compost bin, which was emanating flies. Literally. We're afraid the elevator security camera caught them seeping out of the bin, and will eventually peg us as culprits. We hurried outside to our hole, dumping the contents of the 5-gallon tub into the ground, and buried it with the freshly-dug earth. Yes, people stopped to watch throughout the process. A grandma doing her nightly calisthenics talked at us as she walked by. Whatever, grandma. We're saving the earth. As we covered the goods, we thought of all the activities that could have been assumed we were working on (nefarious or wholesome): we could be planting a tree, burying a dead animal, hiding incriminating evidence... which was sort of what we were doing. We were the gnat-culprits that polluted the elevator. (though better than people who smoke in the elevator! Talk about polluting the air in a confined space!) 

You know that whole saying about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar? Yeah, about that... we set out honey and sugar water all over the kitchen, turned all the lights on, and shut the doors. No flies caught. Turned all the lights off. Still only a couple gnats. I think they just fell in by accident. They weren't attracted to the honey (in that spoon in the photo below and only a few gnats in the honey/sugar water and juice cups). 

Clara and I thought we'd had our workout at our hour and a half long dance aerobics class that fated afternoon. But we were in for the jumping, smacking, clapping, whipping, pounding workout of our lives. Never had our eye-hand-fruitfly coordination been so good. We were on a roll, nabbing those bitches. Oh wait. This is a family blog. Sorry. We were just so mad at the darn punk fruit flies. We were mean, fly-catching machines. Our floors and countertops were peppered with the carnage of hundreds, wait no, thousands of fruit fly bodies. Expert fly-killers. Clara started losing her mind, seeing fruit flies that were no longer there.

Fly swatting and smacking extravaganza.

Never again will I neglect to dump the compost.

I will be starting an eco "green" club after school activity at school, and aspire to initiate a compost system for a new garden plot that I've been eyeing with high hopes. Then I can bring all my leftovers there and not worry about having to clandestinely excavate compost graves!

I am happy to report that now, three days later, the apartment is essentially fruit fly free.

Space Cadet Elf

I have got to come up with a title for my series of school stories that I publish on my blog.

Today, the 6^th grade elf (ELL student) I affectionately refer to as my “space cadet,” bless his heart, seriously had his thoughts in outer space. This kid is so ADD and all over the place. He usually forgets his homework, doesn’t complete assignments, and when he does bring his hw, the packet is likely to be snarfed and torn, or half-missing because of the black hole that is his backpack, and oftentimes he completely misses instructions because he is off in his own world, humming la la tunes, playing with his translator, pens, eraser, or his own clothing. As annoying as he can be with all his distractions and forgetfulness, I do love him for livening up the classroom.

While doing an assessment about learning styles in class today, Space Cadet Elf randomly started talking about how small the earth was. Something to the effect of, “Gee EAR-sch so smarl. Tiny. Gees biiick” (motioning a small increment with pinched fingers). The thing is, I barely understand Space Cadet Elf most of the time, especially without context since he is prone to speak about random topics, because his accent is so strong and he slurs his words and has a bit of a speech impediment. His verbal skills are always teeming with extensive and seemingly random stories, writing profuse and expressive, but grammatically hard to follow stories. And his oral speech is oftentimes hard to follow. So, I had to have him repeat his random interjection multiple times before I finally caught on to what he was saying, realizing it had nothing to do with our current learning styles assessment. Ooooooh, “The Earth is so small. Tiny. This big” (motioning).

Laughing, I attempted to sternly tell the Elf that his head was in outer space, and I needed him to come back down to earth—as small as it may be indeed—and complete the assessment we were working on. The other little female elves giggled and agreed that their classmate Elf was too creative and should learn to focus better in class. Learning styles identified: Linguistic/Verbal-Spatial. (Caution, learning styles do not account for random behaviors or creative outbursts.)

Yes, this is the same student who wrote about hating pets.

Clara Arrives! (Shanghai weekend trip)

On Thursday, I coordinated with an English-speaking taxi driver (well, his english is really only so-so) in our international community to get one of our drivers to purchase a bus ticket for me to travel from Beilun to Shanghai on Saturday, to meet Clara at the Pudong airport. (She will be visiting for a few weeks! Yay sister time!)

Leaving my apartment a 11am, the taxi driver and I had a nice Chinglish conversation about Chevy vehicles and how his car gets really good mileage (that's right, Blade fam!). Or rather, Kilometraje. How do you say that in Chinese? 

Bus ticket, Ningbo to Shanghai

I sat at the bus station for a few minutes before boarding the 11:35am bus, all the while subject to the stares of dozens of Chinese. The usual. No surprise that I was the only laowai in the 
terminal. I politely refused the badgering of taxi drivers who wanted to persuade me that it was cheaper for them to drive me, for 100 kaui (~$16USD, when I already had a bus ticket in hand that had been purchased for 115 kuai. Maybe that's something to look into arranging for another trip, maybe with more people. But I think the bus ride went more smoothly than driving in a car with a crazy driver would have been. And I wasn't looking to get ripped off and stranded in the middle of Shanghai when I really just wanted to get to the airport and pick up Clara. Perhaps such an adventure will be left for another opportunity.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge

The ride was not unpleasant, aside from the dude next to me who kept falling over onto me in his nodding sleep (I definitely nudged his head and body away from me the first couple times, but to no avail, and eventually just gave in and let it happen. Hah.). Also, the undulating, bumping rhythm of the bus going over China's many uneven bridges and not-level roads wasn't the best for grading paper (I quickly gave up that endeavor and employed my observational skills instead, which was much more interesting anyway). Chinese bus movies, while still quite violent, but in a more understated fashion, are thankfully much quieter than those shown on TicaBus (A big Central American bus line). 

Mudflats leading out to Hangzhou Bay

This is the service centre of Hangzhou Bay Bridge;
A 10,000 square metre service centre called
Land between the Sea and the Sky

Oh, window seat. Ever my saving grace on road trips. In all my travels, I never tire of looking out the widow and observing... This time I was taking in the scenery of: vineyards, rice paddies, fields of other crops and smaller vegetable patches in rural areas, tall bamboo and other reed-like brush in the swampy marshland areas along the side of the highway, polluted canals, green mountains off in the distance, trees and pretty flowers and landscaping planted around larger, more urban areas, urban sprawl and apparently rapid development of roads and overpasses and sky-scraping buildings, a life-sized cardboard cutout of the back end of a police vehicle propped up on the shoulder of the highway that was placed where I'm assuming was a strategic point before a series of tunnels, and eventually the sights along the world's longest sea-spanning bridge, across Hangzhou Bay and connecting the northern Ningbo area to Shanghai. Oil rigs and refineries could be spotted in the hazy distance, with the occasional line of round hills that appeared to be islands.

(The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the red line.)

After driving along the bridge for about a half hour, we came onto land again had a 15-minute pit stop around 1:30. Other than a tour group of about 20 Spanish-speakers, I was still the only laowai. The sun was shining and I connected with my friends Matt and Julie, who just had their twin boys up in Shanghai on Friday. Matt and I coordinated meeting up to buy train tickets together for our return trip to Beilun on Sunday. 

I arrived in Shanghai around 2:45pm, walked through the underground passageways and got an awesome cream puff pastry. There was a Starbucks and of course a McDs and even a Cold Stone in this Shanghai South railway station. I got a map and did some research on return ticket options for Sunday then waited for Matt to arrive at the ticketing booth at the station. I also got some grading done, in between rounds of people watching. I even had my photo taken a couple times.

After all that waiting, it turned out that Matt and I ended up at two different stations. I went on 
my way, headed towards the airport cuz Clara's plane would be arriving in an hour. Matt was able to buy our return train tickets for Sunday night. So we had all day to hang in Shanghai tomorrow!

I loved the signs at the station:
Sign #1 in the background: "Ttickets"
Sign #2 in the foreground:
what the heck are "artificial tickets"?!
(I'm thinkin' maybe disposable, one-use passes?)

I rushed through the easily navigable subway metro station and switched lines. On the subway, I observed the usual crying babies, dozing passengers, crammed cattle car rush hour style packed cars, plus typical Chinese behavior of spitting and not covering their mouths when sneezing or coughing, but nothing too much out of the ordinary. Glad someone told me about the mid-line interchange of trains. Same line, but there is a split in the track. 

Thus far, I noticed a lot more people speak English around Shanghai not as many just blatantly stare at me, the foreigner. I was even pleasantly helped by a few people! 

I arrived at the airport around 6:20pm, 45 minutes after Clara's plane landed. It was perfect timing, because I waited 5-10 minutes, and her flight was coming out. I was the first person she saw, because, as she says, my sandy brown hair is not hard to pick out in a sea of Chinese. We caught the shuttle to the hotel, and were checked in at the Ramada airport hotel by 7pm. 

Ramada Pudong Airport Hotel in Shanghai

Rested and freshened up, around 9:30pm, we shuttled back to the airport to catch the metro into the shanghai town center, on the 10pm last train. A lot of people were rushing to queue up and purchase their tickets/passes for the last train. There were probably about 30 people, and only 2 operating machines, in a row of at least 10. I bypassed the automated machines and purchased two 24-hour passes from the lady at the booth. The second we went to enter the turnstile, it must have turned 10pm, because none of the turnstiles would accept tickets. So we crawled under the bars and made a run for it to catch that last train that we had purchased passes for! Subsequently, we had to crawl under the turnstiles when exiting the metro system an hour later, because our tickets were not recognized as having been used in the system! Less than 5 hours in China, and Clara (and I) had already committed criminal acts!

Clara and I reunited in Shanghai

The great thing about China is that it's not uncommon or uncomfortable to
take photos of yourselves in public places, such as the subway.
(I mean, my students take photos of themselves in class, for Pete's sake!)

At 11pm, we arrived in People's Square and the metro subway system closed. So we took a taxi to a neighborhood full of pubs and had dinner around 11:30. The neighborhood reminded me of an urban Portland-area neighborhood atmosphere, with houses, businesses, pubs and breweries and music playing on the streets, in a well-greened space with many trees and much foliage all around the paved streets.

Dinner in Shanghai at a brewery. Clara had to wait until
the following day in China to actually eat Chinese food.

After our late night out on the town, we had a relaxing Sunday morning, repacked Clara's bags (with my stuff as well), and headed back into Shanghai via the metro system. It took about and hour and a half, a straight shot on one line to the hospital where Julie is at, where we dropped off our bags. We arrived around 2:30pm and headed out without all the luggage to explore the area. We found an international mall complex, where we ate Chinese traditional food (dumplings galore, sipped on a really yummy milk tea ad a iced mocha, dumplings, and mango cream mochi) all for under $12. Then we wandered around the malls department stores and markets, looking at and trying on clothing. Walking along the streets back to the hospital, we impulsively decided to get hour-long manicures, for 40 kuai each (less than $6). 

Tourists in Shanghai

E-bike with bunnies and birds and turtles.
TIC. (This is China.)

Manicure time!

Manicure time!

Japanese mochi at the international mall

Munching on mochi

Train seats have more room than plane or bus!

That evening, around 7 pm, Matt, Clara, and I headed to the metro and boarded our bullet train around 8:00pm. We were moving by 8:14, only 5 min after the declared departure time. Very good, by Chinese standards! On the bullet train back to ningbo from shanghai, traveling at speeds of 200km/hr (120+ mph), we had a nice and smooth ride, bathrooms on board and with only a few stops at other main stations along the southbound route. In comparison to my bus ride from Beilun to Shanghai the day before, I wouldn't have cared if Clara had infringed on my personal space and had fallen asleep on my shoulder. (She had slept in my lap on the taxi ride home the night before.) It's so nice to have a little sister visiting :)

We arrived in Ningbo at around 11:00 pm and our private driver, Mr. Fan, picked us up at the station, driving us the 40 minutes back to Ningbo. We were home and unpacking in the Li Ren apt by 11:45 pm. Late night before starting the school week! But a good weekend excursion!

Culture.

I know this post looks long, but it's a lot of video, with a little writing to explain.
You'll enjoy it --you know who you are  ;)

Chinese Fireworks.

The #1 sound you get used to in China (in addition to honking, screeching breaks, and random music blaring)... at all hours of the day and night. Weddings, birthdays, parties, holidays, and any other occasion that provides an excuse to make some noise, whether or not you can see the colorful sparks. Case in point: I woke up to fireworks every day for 4 days. At least it was a nice, consistent alarm! Then, the other afternoon, Kari and I were having a conversation in my room, when fireworks started going off. Neither of us flinched a pinch. Fireworks are normal. Until... sparks and pieces of the fireworks started hitting our windows, from all the way 12 floors below us in the parking lot of our building, hitting windows. I tried to get video of it, but as soon as it started rolling, the fireworks ended. Of course. Later in the day, I found firecracker remnants in our laundry room. The window had been open during the explosions.

International Culture.

The PTA (Parent-Teacher-Association) at AIAN, our international school, hosted a Family Fun Day picnic and activities last weekend at school. Organized and recreational games in the warm fall rays, potluck style international foods, and many languages. Great atmosphere.

Volleyball & soccer & relay races @ Family Fun Day;
our school buildings are in the background.

Families compete in relays on our back field/track.

International Festival Stadium Opening
On Tuesday night, we teachers at AIAN were invited to an opening ceremony/inaugural event for Ningbo's Third International Festival at a new stadium here in Beilun. It was insisted that we sit front and center in the middle of the crowd, presenting the "foreign faces" of Ningbo. The show was entertaining. Enjoy some images and video clips of some of the highlights of the three-hour presentation (captions/explanations for each image are below each video or picture)

Dance... this video is just a sample of one of the many dance presentations we saw. Other styles included Riverdance, African Congo, and Asian dance routines. (Check out the prima dancer's killer ponché and nice extension at right around 25 seconds.)

The famous singer Yang Kun, who I gathered was a pop sensation by the male dancers flocking all around her, sang a few songs (it was hard to tell, but I think one of them was in English... "Cinderella"?

Another musical performance was delivered by Chinese celeb, Sprite, who was one of the semi-final singers and now judges on the American Idol-esque "Yang Kun's Team of the Voice of China" (SUCH A BIG DEAL HERE!), to the audience's great pleasure. As you'll see in the videos, security guards had to restrain and warn fans and paparazzi (@ around 31 seconds into the video clip). Also, you'll observe some outrageously up-close and personal camera work. The first performer of the night actually pushed the cameraman away because he got too close. Ummm... I think that's what they created "zoom" for?? But I could be mistaken...

Some of our teachers were even featured in a 'welcome to Beilun' video short, by a Frenchman who is married to one of our Mandarin teachers. Faces on the big screen in front of thousands of Chinese business people at the international festival! Exciting! Kari was even featured! (She has a video of that, but is quite displeased, since they had told her what to say, and it was pretty slow and elementary.)

There was some pretty spectacular Acro (Chinese acrobats acted out a story, about cavalry, I gathered)

These were just some of the tricks they presented, jumping on flexible boards as if they were trampolines, about 8-inches wide, would be my guesstimation. This should be a new Olympic sport, to complement gymnastic events such as balance beam, vault, rhythmic gymnastics, and trampoline!

Aaaand, insert random fashion show?? 

Now let's add some crazy tropical beach men?

Some fantastic opera was sung towards the end of the night.

Closing to Ningbo's Third International Port Festival

Abby, Kari, (ME!), Shelley, and Alice

International Festival, cont'd: Fair Foods
Last night (Friday), some of our Chinese friends took us to the International Festival in downtown Beilun. Our friends are Shelley, Abby, and Alice (who are TAs at AIAN), Alice's boyfriend Meow Meow (not sure how to spell that, but yes, the pronunciation sounds like the noise a cat makes), and some other friends of theirs. We walked around, enjoying the music and the sights of the festival. Or should I say, the Asian faces stared at the sight of me and Kari. Per usual, we caucasian foreigners (laowai) had camera barrels pointed at us and clicking from all directions. Well, mostly Kari. Because she's taller and is redheaded, and my hair was pulled back, and therefore less conspicuous (maybe?).

Nutritious dinner: strawberry ice cream,

fried banana, and almonds.

We sampled various types of international cuisine--though mostly Asian--a smorgasbord of fried foods and sweets such as cotton candy, ice cream, and sugar-coated/hard-glazed fruits, and some Indian nan bread and crepe-like pastries with bananas enveloped in its thin layers. Being vegetarian, I of course, only partook in the healthiest of choices: ice cream, bread, a fried banana with a tomato paste squirted on it (mmmm, sounds revolting, right? a new combo of strange ingredients, even for my eclectic and creative tastes), and a sampling of other nuts and sweets. I abstained from partaking in the meat extravaganza.

Delectable-looking sugar-glazed fruit.

Kari contemplates the hard-coated/glazed persimmons
(think Chinese version of caramel apples)
as Abby looks on in disbelief... 
Kari contemplates getting adventurous!

Fried banana

I sorta tower above Alice and Shelley.
I'm tall in China. (?) Weird.

Also, check out Kari's blog about the Port Culture International Festival: http://thetravellingstrawberry.blogspot.com/2012/10/port-festival-by-video.html

On another random note, let me just say... it is really amazing how fast the two of us (Kari and I) can chow down on brownies. A pan a week (however, finished in 2-3 days!). Pretty impressive. It's amazing we don't weight 2,000 kilos. Each. We should be breaking the elevator. Good thing I take the stairs a lot. 12 floors cancel out the calories, right?

School Highlights

Some stories...

• While playing Simon Says with my 10th and 7th graders (convincing them that this could actually be a fun game, if they would just loosen up and use their creativity was pretty difficult), one of my ELLs (a.k.a. "elves") commanded in the imperative mood, "Simon says, turn on (and off) the light switches." Whereupon all 8 students in the class took turns running back and forth flipping the switches on and off. Giggling. That was the first time I had the classroom lights turned on; it's been so sunny that there hasn't been a need for artificial, electric light! The next one was, "Simon says, throw your pencil." Pencils flew all over the room. We narrowly escaped poked eyes. Well, at least they weren't just repeating commands like, "Simon says, stand up," "Push in your chair," and, "Pick up your pencil pouch." 
• Also while practicing imperative commands, one exercise had my students write commands that I might say to them. I had each one of them stand in front of the class and pretend to be me. They enjoyed bossing me around this time with commands like... "Go get your journal." "Write your entry." "Pull out your homework." "Students, put your pencils down." "Complete this worksheet for homework."
• Right before conducting a listening exercise with various pop songs, I had students exercise their writing skills with a journal prompt that directed them to share what their fave song is, who the artist is, and to detail a bit of the lyrics (identifying the all verbs in the song, and what tense those verbs were in). Many of my students, Korean or not, wrote about the (infamous?) Gangnam Style. I made them research the lyrics and we talked about what parody is and the power of social media. Yeah, taking all the fun out of a pop thrill (seriously, it's played regularly at bars and clubs, and people break down those moves on the dance floor!). 
• But my favorite entry was by a Korean ELL who barely understands or performs in English. As soon as we clarified the writing prompt, he began singing (in comprehensible English) "Baby, baby, baby, oh... Like baby, baby, baby, NO!" (Emily Golan, this one is for you.) He even knew the lyrics to the verses. Bieber Fever is still alive... even in the hearts of 12-year-old Korean boys!

I thought all kids wanted pets?! This is just one of the three entertaining answers

I received from my "Elves" on a recent homework assignment.

Do not be fooled, this creation is with the help of the young elf’s dictionary-translator. 

(I think it makes their vocab sound more sophisticated.) Using the resources he has available. Attaboy!

Other than those teaching highlights, I've been attending staff and committee meetings, grading, writing first quarter narratives, creating and modifying lesson plans, and getting creative with my strategies of differentiation to try to make connections and educate my Elves. Also, after school, I have been participating in a dance aerobics fitness class and Tai Ch'i, with other faculty members and other people from the international community. 

The next post will be about stuff that's outside of school. There are some videos that'll be entertaining to share.

The School Sitch...

Dad really wants to know about this sort of stuff, so I'm dedicated this school post to him. (He wants updates on the classroom, my schedule, my students, etc.)

Woot! I have my own classroom!

View walking in the door,
towards the back of the room

Though many people were frustrated that it took the administration so long to figure out my room situation, I really appreciate the way the timeline has played out since my arrival here in China.

Welcome to Room A310...

 Since I was a late-hire for the school, getting started and settled looks a lot different now from how it might've been if I had come in the summer, before the school year had begun.

• Week one: arrive, do paperwork and get logistical things set up (i.e. bank account, medical, insurance, cell phone, etc.)
• Week two: settle into apartment, nesting, exploring Beilun/Ningbo area, and adjusting to the culture
• Week three: begin teaching, get to know students, lesson plan, feel things out academically.
• Week four: move in a new classroom, settle in and organize, work out kinks in the my teaching system, make the place my own. It was sort of nice to take time to see how other

View from the back, looking towards the front
(my desk is to the left from where
this photo is being taken)

Doing these things in stages really has helped me manage my stress and take everything step by step.

I've been in my own classroom four full school days now. I'll put up more photos later, when I'm a little more settled in (i.e. posters are up on the wall, tables rearranged, desk tidied, etc.). The classroom isn't really my own yet. But here are some photos for now.

I have 12 students in total: three 6th graders, five 7th graders, one 8th grader, and three 10th graders. Which doesn't sound like many. But when you take into consideration that these students are from all over (though mine this semester are predominantly Asian--Korean, Chinese, Japan), the differentiated learning that needs to be planned in the classroom to cater to all the different levels is quite complex. That makes for a lot of planning time.

I teach in the mornings, and have the afternoons to lesson plan and get other school stuff done. Which makes setting goals and getting things done during the school day very manageable. If not everything gets finished, oh well. I leave my school stuff at school. (I'm quite proud of myself and not bringing work home. Setting boundaries between work and personal life! Yeah!)

Messy panoramic of my room, windows to my back. Hopefully you'll get the idea.

Anecdotal school story to end this post:

Last week Wednesday was Mustache Day for AIAN’s Spirit Week. When I asked my class of 7^th grade “Elves” (English Language Learners (ELL) students) why they weren’t wearing mustaches, two of the boys pointed to their upper lips, protesting, “We DO have mustaches!” Alright, alright. I looked to the only girl in the class and asked, “What’s your excuse?” To which she replied, “They’re gross.” Amen, sister.