Professional Development in China

The government mandates Chinese public schools, but this does not mean that they are all exactly alike. Each school is run by a set of administrators who make daily decisions. Just like an American school, teachers have different ways of teaching and managing a class. Teachers make lesson plans and turn them into the curriculum administrator. They have the flexibility to adjust the lesson to the needs of the class.

This past week we got to experience some of the professional development that happens in our school and province. On Monday and Tuesday the English teachers held “open classes”. Any teacher in the school could come and observe the lesson, take notes, and ask questions at the end. I was pleased to see a focus on best practices.

Grade 5 student workbook

Candice reviewing weather terms with 5th grade students.

On Wednesday we started to notice a few changes going on around the school, such as extensive cleaning and arranging. We later found out that more than 100 teachers from around Guizhou Province were coming to the school the next day to observe classes, learn about our school, and watch a student performance.

Thursday morning Candice and I sat down and reviewed the 4^th grade lesson that would be observed by the visiting educators. My lesson focused on learning four new words and identifying opposites. The new words were donkey, tail, blunt, and sharp, which was a great lead into playing Put the Tail on the Donkey. I found it challenging to involve all the students in a class of 50 students, so I divided them into four teams and selected people from teams. Using the projector and a donkey tail I made with a little tape and paper- we were in business. The game was a big hit. The students were beside themselves and so were the visiting teachers.

Playing Put the Tail on the Donkey

Later in the lesson I reviewed opposite words they had already learned and introduced two new words from the workbook: blunt and sharp.

I created a PowerPoint game of memory in which students had to find opposite terms. I again broke the class into four teams. Some students cleverly took notes on the location of words and won points for their team. By the end of the game, even the adults were trying to find the winning pair: old and new. Our goal as teachers in China is to use the provided curriculum and make it fun and engaging, so that students may use language as a tool instead of purely memorization.

Natalie and I read a short story during each lesson. Reading aloud helps to train English Language Learners’ (ELL) ears to recognize the sounds and cadence of the English language. Books are also an excellent way to build background knowledge about different cultures and ideas. Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann brought our lesson to a close. The language of the story is simple, but this encourages students to use language they already have to name the different animals and describe what is happening on each picture. We also made predictions about what will happen in the story. They laughed and laughed at the idea of a bunch of animals crawling into bed with the zookeeper and his wife. At the end of the lesson a couple teachers asked me questions about my lesson, and then we took many group photos.

Lizzy reading Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

After my lesson the teachers went outside to the courtyard to observe the students’ morning exercises and a special performance of many different activities, such as inline skating, feats of strength, running, jump roping, tossing scarves, balancing balls, and drumming. 

Students performing a drumming exercise in the school's courtyard

The visitors’ next watched a DVD presentation about Guiyang No. 4 Experimental Primary School and a short video of the performance we watched a couple of weeks ago when Professor Rhea was presented with an honorary position.  Our school is working hard to be leader in education in our province. Natalie and I are proud to get to work closely with the teachers in Guiyang for eight weeks. We are learning a great deal and having an incredible experience. 

Lizzy