Chalk dust in
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-02 06:34
The high school affiliated
with the Renmin University of China (Renda) is one of the most prestigious schools of its kind
in
Two years ago, it started a
new "A" level course under the auspices of the "Cambridge
International Exam" board, to train good students for entrance to top
universities in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. My mathematics-teaching
career in
As a new foreign teacher in
the school, the first noticeable culture difference is that all the students
wear white tracksuits with red horizontal strips along the arms. This is a big
contrast to
It soon became apparent
that there is a good reason why a tracksuit is the chosen outfit at the Chinese
school. On my first day there, I was amazed to watch all 4,000 students doing
morning group aerobics to the sound of Chinese marching music for 20 minutes on
the school sports field.
Such a large-scale group
activity is unheard of at home. Watching them, I tried to imagine my former
Standing in the
vice-principal's office, I looked through the window and watched Chinese
students running from their classrooms to take their positions on the field and
knew I really was in a different world.
Originally from
I will never do this again,
I told myself as I left my final placement school.
Badly behaved students were
just too stressful to cope with. The job in
What would teaching in
Would the students be
willing to work or simply stare blankly at the blackboard, send SMS messages in
class and "forget" to do their homework?
As I walked past the tall,
beige pillar that marks the entrance to the school on my first day and walked
along the elm tree lined avenue into its centre, I did not know that I was
entering into what appeared to be an education wonderland - a secret world that
select foreigners get to see.
After a few days of
teaching there, it quickly became apparent that I could not have found a better
school to teach at anywhere. The students were polite, courteous and diligent.
They listened intently in class, took notes, asked intelligent questions and
(wonder of wonders for me) regularly submitted their homework.
I was amazed to see that
the classroom monitor would even collect exercises before the beginning of each
lesson and leave them in a neat pile on the corner of my desk. The days of
collecting books by myself and listening to excuses
about unfinished homework were gone.
All the classrooms not only
had the standard blackboard and chalk, they also contained an overhead
projector that could hook up to the Internet and display pictures on a
retractable white screen. The Internet was instantly available to both teachers
and students at the click of a button. One day, in physics class, I displayed a
website about the famous Irish physicist Robert Boyle. I asked if they know
that he was part of a family that had 12 children. The students' blank faces
spoke for themselves.
Perhaps this was not a good
time to mention
In the past, I had been
known for making my students laugh in class with silly stories about maths and physics. After a few weeks teaching in Renda, I realized the best method to get my students to
laugh was simply by trying to speak in Chinese.
Apparently, the accuracy of
my tones left a lot to be desired. In comparison with my poor Chinese-speaking
skills, most of the students were light years ahead of me in their mastery of
English. One girl even appeared to speak English better than me, often
suggesting a word or phrase when the word or phrase I was looking for eluded
me. Another student used to worry me with the intelligence and insight of his
questions. He always understood everything, but usually wanted the theory
developed into another area, which we had not covered, or was not even on the
syllabus.
Unfortunately, in my second
year, the grade averages of the new class has declined
drastically. It is now not uncommon for several students to get zero per cent
in some of their tests. Class discipline has also begun to slip because of this
lack of ability.
Compared to the work
schedules in the
Last year, I read an
article describing a TV programme about to air
called, "Classroom Chaos." A teacher had smuggled a small, digital
camcorder into various, random
I smiled as I read it and
thought back to my teacher training days in
(China Daily 06/02/2006 page14)