Last Day in China

Today, as we said goodbye to China, we visited what is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of the grandeur of this country: the Great Wall. The Wall was first built by Emperor Qin and the current stretch of Wall was completed during the Ming Dynasty. We enjoyed the view from the Wall and ate a delicious picnic lunch!


For this, the final blog post from China, I would like to thank all of the people who made this study tour possible. On behalf of all participants, thank you to EF Education, the Freeman Foundation, and other funders for your generous support. Thank you to the staff at Primary Source who spent hours preparing for all aspects of our trip. Thank you to our families, our schools, and our students for allowing us to be away on this important learning experience. We all agree that this trip has profoundly affected us; we are returning home changed by what we have seen, the people we have met, and all that we have learned.

Saying Goodbye to Dandelion

We said our goodbyes to the students and teachers at the Dandelion School today. Before we departed, however, we spent the morning and early afternoon wrapping up our time at the school. In the morning, we visited the homes of two students. It was a real pleasure to visit with their parents and learn more about their home life. Most students at Dandelion live at the school during the week and return to their families only on weekends. Much of their time at home is spent helping out with household chores or working in the fields, especially during harvest time.

We then returned to the school for a teacher-to-teacher discussion on the teaching methods and strategies we have been using throughout the week. Dandelion teachers have been carefully observing us and were eager to ask questions about our lessons. We were happy to share reflections on our experiences and give further information about why we chose particular methods for our chosen topics. We are hopeful that the strategies we modeled and the activities we shared will inspire Dandelion teachers to expand their own teaching repertoires to include more group work and periodic assessments - important strategies for ensuring students of all abilities are learning.

We concluded the day with a series of student presentations. Each class demonstrated what they learned this week. Students shared art, poetry, science, skits, stories, role play, and much more. It was rewarding to see the students' proud faces as they performed and presented. We also hope that these presentations will help their teachers better understand how the methods we used helped students develop deep understandings.
Today was a challenging day: it was sad to leave the students and teachers we have grown to know and love, but it was uplifting to know that we have shared so much and learned from each other.

Tomorrow we conclude our study tour with a visit to the Great Wall. We are eager to see this magnificent construction and learn more about who built it and why it was made. Stay tuned for the final post from China!

Learning From Each Other

Our time at Dandelion is coming to an end. Today, we taught the last full set of lessons, and tomorrow we will spend time debriefing with teachers and celebrating our accomplishments with students.

The Dandelion School is a unique school; the students who attend the school are the children of migrant workers and many of them live on the campus.
Three meals are served each day, and lunch at school is very different from lunch at school in the United States. Students here in China eat together as a class in their regular classroom. Two students go to the kitchen to pick up big pots of rice and vegetables or meat, and bring the lunch back to their classroom to serve to their classmates. Each student keeps a bowl and spoon in the classroom, and when lunch is over, they clean their own dishes! For the past three days, we have eaten lunch with the students and we all agree that this is a wonderful experience; we love the food, and the conversations are always interesting!

Kate W. and Mark Q. have been teaching students about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. They have introduced challenging vocabulary words like segregation and shared quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.

Students in Ralph W. and Pam L.'s class are learning about the author and artist Eric Carle. Students learned about the author's life and practiced vocabulary words from his books. Then, they created their very own pop-up book using tissue paper in his style.
Jennifer M., Christine S., and Allison W. introduced their students to the study of habitats around the world. Students learned about the rainforest, coral reef, savannah, desert, and polar regions. As a culminating activity, they created a Habitat Mural that included examples of plants, animals, and weather in their assigned habitat.


Tomorrow we will return to Dandelion for our final day of teaching and learning. We have so enjoyed our time with the students and teachers at Dandelion; it will be difficult to leave but we will take away many wonderful memories.

Teaching and Learning at Dandelion

Today we returned to the Dandelion School for our second day of teaching. Before our lessons began, we joined the students out on the playground for a brief assembly and introductions. Ralph W. delivered a brief message to the students:

"On behalf of the teachers from America, I would like to thank you for inviting us into your school community. Some of the teachers from America, including me, teach students in the same grades as you. When I look and see your faces, your joy in learning, I see the faces of my students. I have learned that the world is not so big and we are all the same in many ways. Thank you to your principal for opening your school to us. Thank you to your teachers for opening your classrooms to us and most important, thank you to the students for letting us teach you. We have traveled to Dandelion to share some of the ways we teach in our schools and to learn about many of the wonderful things you do here at Dandelion. All of us teach our students about China. Being here, seeing your beautiful country, and talking and learning from you will make us better teachers. When I return to my school, I will share pictures and information with my students and they will learn about the Dandelion School. Our deepest hope for each of you is a long life filled with good health, a desire to always learn, and deep happiness."

The day continued with learning activities designed to teach the students at Dandelion about new topics and demonstrate new pedagogical methods for their teachers.

Jonathan T. and Cailleen B. are teaching about the Columbian Exchange. Today, they engaged the students in a lively activity designed to help them remember which goods came from the New World and which from the Old World.
Wallis R. and Juli K. reviewed vocabulary with students to help them learn about and compare landmarks in China and the United States.
Joel G. and Cheryl K. guided students through an investigation of convex and concave lenses. Students were so engaged in their work that they did not even want to take their scheduled break!
Check back tomorrow for more photos and stories from our time at Dandelion. We are looking forward to another day of teaching!

Dandelion School

Today we transitioned from tourists to teachers as we spent a full day at the Dandelion School (a middle school for the children of migrant workers) in Beijing. Participants (10 teachers and 3 administrators) worked in pairs to teach 3 lessons on various topics such as seeing and perception, Eric Carle, habitats, the Civil Rights Movement, monuments, and global trade.


The eighth grade students learned new vocabulary, practiced working in small groups, and were introduced to new information. Dandelion School teachers generously opened their doors to us and we are so pleased to participate in a dynamic exchange of ideas and methods.


This was the first of four days that we will spend at the Dandelion School. Prior to arriving in China, participants on this study tour developed lesson plans that would engage the students at Dandelion in learning about a topic. These plans feature hands-on activities, vocabulary lessons, and opportunities for students to develop their own questions. Today's lessons were a great success, and we look forward to returning tomorrow morning!

Friday Recap

On Friday, we visited the Pangliu Village School. Juli K. and Wallis R. said: "The best part of the experience was seeing how excited the students were to use magnifying glasses. The most challenging part was communicating with the teacher who did not speak English. [We were able to communicate through translators and pre-translated vocabulary words and lesson plans.] The most surprising part was that the students repeated everything we (the teachers) said!" Here are some images of our experiences teaching a science lesson to children of all ages at the school.

Today, our first day in Beijing, we visited the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. I'm still catching up on images and stories from the last few days, so tomorrow's post will include a fuller update on this exciting day!

Tomorrow, we will begin our week of teaching and learning at the Dandelion School here in Beijing. Pairs of participants will teach a series of lessons to eighth graders at the school, demonstrating pedagogical techniques for the teachers and introducing new content to their students. We are sure that we will learn as much from the teachers and students at Dandelion as they learn from us!

Teaching at Pangliu Village School

Today we visited the students at the Pangliu Village School. It was a great experience as we were able to spend time with the students teaching them a science lesson prepared by a participant, Cheryl. We also enjoyed a delicious home-cooked lunch prepared by hosts in the village.

This post will be brief because I don't have much time and limited Internet access, but I wanted to let everyone know that we had a great day today and tomorrow we will ride bikes on the City Wall and visit the Shaanxi Provincial Museum before we ride an overnight train to Beijing, the final destination of our trip! I won't be able to update until Sunday morning (China time), so stay tuned until then for more pictures and stories from the last few days in Xi'an!

Terracotta Warriors!

Our first full day in Xi'an! We began with a visit to the site of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, China's first emperor. Born in 259 BC, Emperor Qin began planning a grand tomb at age 13. The construction of his tomb was carried out by thousands of workers over 4 decades.

The Terracotta Warriors are Emperor Qin's army for the afterlife. We saw the museum that was constructed to allow visitors to view this Eight Wonder of the World.

The museum is actually an active archaeological site! This picture shows the in-process reconstruction of several Warriors.

We were impressed by the vastness of this undertaking and the lifelike appearence of the Warriors. We wondered what it would have been like to see all 8,000 Warriors standing tall, in full color, as they were originally made.

We also visited the Great Mosque is Xi'an. Still in use for Muslim worship, the Great Mosque was constructed in 742 AD during the Tang Dynasty.

Today we will visit a rural village and school for some teaching and lunch. There's still so much to see and do!

Arrival: Xi'an

After a long, long (7 hour!!) wait in the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, we flew to Xi'an, China. Xi'an, formerly Chang'an, has a population of just over 8 million. It was the capital of China for thousands of years, until it was moved during the Ming dynasty to Beijing.

Our local guide, Rocky, gave us a tour of the Hanyang Tomb Museum, where we saw fantastic excavations of an emporer's tomb. After a delicious dinner of dumplings, we crawled into bed, exhausted after our long day of travel.

Today we will see the Terracotta Warriors, the Big Goose Pagoda, and the Banpo Neolithic Village. Unfortunately, there is no Internet service in the hotel, so I'm updating from the Golden Ant Internet cafe around the corner from our hotel. I hope to figure out how to upload a few pictures from our final night in Shanghai and our first days in Xi'an, so stay tuned!

Visit to a Shanghai High School

This morning we woke early to head to the Xiang Ming High School in Shanghai. The school is more than 100 years old, and has a focus on creative arts and sciences. Our visit to the school began with a tour of the grounds and an introduction from school principal, Mr. Rui Renjie. The teachers and principals in our group were eager to ask questions in order to further understand schools in China.

Next, our group split up to observe classes of various subjects: Chinese, history, and chemistry. In the Chinese class, we noticed that the teacher was very friendly and enjoyed interacting with her students. The students were studying poetry and the class included lecture, small group discussion, and all-class recitation - not that different from a high school class in the United States!

Our visit continued with a tour of the Exploration Center of Science and Arts - an area of the school dedicated to inventions, science, graphic arts, and robots. One teacher explained student inventions that have won prizes in competitions, and another teacher showed us the digital graphics computer and student-created robots. This robot played the drums in a four-piece band [click on the photo to see a larger version]: and this one painted a picture:
Our visit to the Xiang Ming High School was eye-opening. We concluded our visit with lunch in the company of several teachers from the school. We all enjoyed the opportunity to exchange our knowledge of teaching and schools with our counterparts in China and we certainly learned a great deal.

Special Report:
One of our participants was asked a few questions in the comments section - here is her response!

"Hi Grade 3 Ms. Davison and Mrs. Churchill,

Some similarities between Arlington and Shanghai are that there are many bicycle riders on the streets and lots of traffic at rush hour! There are also many restaurants in both cities - the 'Peking Ravioli' taste much the same but they call them 'dumplings.'

Shanghai is different also - there are many modern high rise buildings - also the food has a very different flavor, not as strong as Chinese food is in the U.S. Food is less expensive, too. My dinner tonight only cost $5.00, including my drink! In the old city areas, people hand their wash out to dry outside their windows. There are 17 million people living in Shanghai. How many people live in Boston?

I am doing 'fine' eating with chopsticks, even eating rice and noodles!"
- Dr. Raemer

Shanghai Museum and Cultural Exchange

We began the day at the Shanghai Museum - a comprehensive museum of Chinese art, currency, sculpture, and furniture. At the Museum, we learned that throughout history, Chinese calligraphy has taken many forms: Oracle bone inscription, Official script, and Cursive script.

After lunch, we visited EF's English Language School where we met a remarkable group of young adults eager to exchange with us their thoughts and ideas on education, daily life, and more!

Juli K. met with an 18-year old named Jesse. "Kids in China like to rollerblade in their free time," he said. He asked Juli if people in the U.S. use chopsticks - what do you think she said?

Caileen B. reported: "The girls I met at EF thought it was great that American students spend time after school in sports and activities as Chinese students spend most of their time alone. After school, Chinese students complete their homework and often then have lessons in piano or violin. They said the government is beginning to realize that a society of only-children is not healthy."

Tour leader Carolyn learned that Yan, a young woman in her twenties, lives in the Pudong region of Shanghai - a region that did not exist twenty years ago. Cheryl spoke with Sara, an 18-year old finishing high school this year. "She said I should make sure to see the Jing Mao Tower and Wai Bai Du Bridge while in Shanghai," Cheryl said.

Overall, participants had an excellent experience speaking with young Chinese students. The sharing of ideas and questions was a valuable learning experience for all. Wallis R. spoke with two young women eager to engage her in conversation. Wallis reflected, "We agreed when we parted that the world will be a better place with more contact between cultures."

Shanghai: Day 2

We began our first full day in Shanghai at the Yuyuan Garden and Market. Our tour guide, Mico, helped us understand what we were seeing by explaining the history of the garden (it is a private garden built by Pan Yunduan in 1557 to please his parents) and the significance of many of its rooms and features.
Later, on the way to lunch, Mico also told us about daily life in Shanghai - we were eager to learn more about how the people of Shanghai live.

After the visit to the Garden, many of us attended a tea tasting. We enjoyed hearing about the different varieties of tea (green, black, oolong, and herbal), and we eagerly tasted the samples that were prepared for us. Perhaps the most exciting variety of tea was the Jasmine blooming flower tea. We sampled two varieties: Romeo and Juliet. We all enjoyed watching the flower inside the tea "bloom" right before our eyes!

Before:

After:

In the Yuyuan Market adjacent to the Garden, we also learned that we have arrived in China at the beginning of the harvest season for the most popular tea in China: Dragonwell. The Market was crowded with locals and visitors sampling tea and celebrating.

After lunch, we traveled to the Lu Xun Museum for a talk by Ma Yuanxi on the famous Chinese writer, Lu Xun (1881-1936), author of The True Story of Ah Q and Call to Arms. We learned that among other things, Lu Xun supported the art of woodcutting among the youth. During a tour of Lu Xun's last residence, we learned that he had one son, Haiying.

Tomorrow we will visit the Shanghai Museum - the forecast is calling for rain, so it's a good thing we'll be inside for most of the day!

Arrival: Shanghai

At 2:00 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, April 11th our group landed in Shanghai, China, for the start of a two-week study tour. After first flying from Boston to Chicago, we braved the 14 hour trip to Shanghai - with the help of movies, magazines, and plenty of water. Here's Ralph just before we board the plane:

On the bus to our hotel, we reviewed Chinese numbers with trip leader Aloe and learned a bit about the history of Shanghai from our guide John.

Tomorrow we will wake up refreshed and ready for a full day: one particularly exciting part of tomorrow will be a visit to the Lu Xun Park with a special lecture from Ma Yuanxi on the Chinese writer for whom the park is named.

Preparing and packing!

In just 11 days, a group of 13 educators will be traveling to China as part of a 2-week Primary Source educational study tour. The group of educators will be accompanied by tour leaders Carolyn Platt and Aloe Rioux, and me. My name is Maggie Kaiser and I am a Program Coordinator at Primary Source. Throughout our trip, I will be updating this blog with pictures and stories on behalf of all trip participants to update family, friends, colleagues, and students about the places we see and the people we meet. On several occasions, tour participants will be asked to contribute their own thoughts, impressions, and discoveries as guest bloggers - stay tuned!

All educators traveling to China have completed a five-day seminar series or summer institute on the history, culture, and peoples of China. Tour participants Jonathan T. and Mark Q. (left) enjoyed a lunch of Chinese food on the last day of the course.

Our group will depart from Boston very early on Friday, April 10. We will begin our journey in Shanghai where we will visit the Xi’angming High School, the Lu Xun Park, and the Shanghai Museum. Next, we will fly to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, visit an art school, and take an excursion to rural Pangliu Village. We will conclude our trip with a week in Beijing. Much of our time there will be spent teaching and learning at the Dandelion School, a school for the children of migrant workers. Tour participants have been busily preparing lessons that they will teach to 8th grade students at the school. When we depart from China on Saturday, April 25, we will have seen, heard, and learned a great deal. We look forward to sharing our adventure with you!