Santa's BIG RED HAT - a ppt for ESL, TEFL - Peace and Goodwill at Christmas

This is a PPT I created today for a presentation I am making to prospective new students to my Chinese School, Nanjing Dongshan Foreign Language School.  The PPT is basically about how wearing a Santa hat unifies people across the world whether they be Christian, Muslim, godless communists in China. In the West and the East we all wear the Santa Hat. This can be a symbol for the real message of Christmas which is Peace and Goodwill to all.  There are also two poems which the students can shout out loud as the words appear. I will also give red santa hats to the students who can name the countries on each individual slide. (Please note that I have used some images from google - if you own the copyright of these images please contact me as soon as possible and I will remove them - this PPT is for educational purposes only)

Santas Big Red Hat by Rob Burton

Teaching ESL in China - Advice from the "Handsomest Teacher in Dongwai" - Official.

Teaching ESL in China. Lesson 2. Thankful for Thanksgiving No. 2. The competition. (Is the real title of this blog)

Todays Blog is coming to you from 'The most handsome teacher in Dongwai' and one of the most popular teachers in Nanjing.  In my defence, this is because I was part of an online poll of teachers carried out by a newspaper in Nanjing and I eventually came in at joint seventh (see pic above) in a poll of 16 other teachers and that I became the 'most handsome teacher in Dongwai' (the short name of my school BTW) is simply because there were no other contestants - so I am 'handsome' by default.

Lighting Incense in Thanks at the local Buddhist Temple

Nevertheless this has been told to me number of times by staff and students around the school and they seem inordinately proud of my success. One of the many reasons to be cheerful in China. Little things matter.

This week has been Thanksgiving Week and although not being an American I still have a role in educating my students about the ways of the West as some of them will be enjoying good old American hospitality in the near future.   So this week my Grade 10 students have been immersing themselves, as much as they possibly can in the 3 x 45 minute lessons I have with them, in what the message of Thanksgiving is.

So I talked to them a bit about the general idea of Thanksgiving and showed them this little cartoon which sort of skims the surface of the genesis of the holiday.

We had a listening gap fill exercise which re-enforced vocabulary

Then generate vocabulary around the dinner and the holiday and talk about giving thanks for things.

Then I made them read a poem aloud about giving thanks.

Thanks for the fire,

That keeps me warm.

Thanks for my family,

Keep them from harm.

Thanks for the corn,

Cobs stacked in a heap,

Thanks for the squash,

And the crops that we reap.

Thanks for the grains,

They’ll feed us till spring.

Thanks for the cows,

And the milk that they bring.

Thanks for the stars,

And the sun and the moon.

Thanks for the snow,

That’s coming here soon.

Thanks for the rivers,

The lakes and the seas.

Thanks for the mountains.

Covered in trees.

Thanks for all life.

And last, but not least,

Thanks for the turkey

We’ll have at our feast.

Homework was - Write  200 words about what you are thankful for in your life.

During the second lesson they get to read what they have written. I choose them as I have mentioned by a random number generator. 

It is interesting to note the differences between these Chinese teens and kids back home. These Chinese kids write from the heart with no sense of embarrassment and shame. They write heartfelt thanks to their parents for their life, for the love they receive and for the ongoing support by their mother and fathers who they recognise work hard to get them into this expensive school. I am not so sure Western Kids would so openly write about their emotions and feelings and then read them out aloud to the whole class. I would be interested to hear what a western teacher says about this. 

So thats the second class seen too.

For the third class I wanted a bit of a sense of occasion so I found an online Thanksgiving crossword and created a Thanksgiving word search using some of the crossword answers to give them a hand because we hadn't covered all the vocabulary.  

Now Chinese students love competition and so its always great to tap into that competitive spirit and offer some prizes for the best work. And boy don't they go for it. 

My prize was a box of Dove chocolate for 1st prize (chosen so if it gets shared around the class by the winner everyone should get a piece) and two smaller tubes of M&M's for second and third prize. 

In Grade 10 class A I had one girl finish before the 45 minutes were up with a 100% score (23 crossword clues and 23 word search words to find) and in the summing up another girl handed in a 100% paper and the boy at 3rd scored 80%.  Not one of my Grade 10 Class A finished the quiz in the 45 minutes and the best score was 80%.

I also ran this competition with my two Grade 12 classes as we had done thanksgiving in the past years - with less success - no one finished the paper in 45 minutes and the winners scored around 80% (Smaller class - fewer chocolates)

But if you want to keep your students busy, keep them engaged, and have some fun and a quiet class any sort of competition in the classroom gets these kids going. 

Autumn Semester in a Chinese High School

This last few weeks at Nanjing Dongshan Foreign Language School has seen a flurry of activity - every thing from live music to the 100 meters dash.

Most High Schools in China are boarding schools and the school I work for is no exception. There are over 3000 students who stay here from Sunday midday to around 5pm on a Friday. Its a busy week for them. As I have mentioned elsewhere their day starts at around 6am when they get up for breakfast. They are in class at 7:10am and through until around 9pm with just the long 2hr lunch break giving them some relief.

But its not all work work work. The students have a full curriculum which includes music, sports and play. This last few weeks we have experienced them all.

 Keeping the red flag flying 

 Waiting for marching practice

The first I knew of a sports day was when I was told on Thursday that I had to go and rehearse for the opening ceremony Thursday evening. Sports day apparently was on Friday afternoon. I was also told  that my Friday afternoon classes were cancelled because of the sports day. Now one would have expected a 'sports day' to be quite a big thing in the school calendar what with all the organising and practising and stuff and that we might have been given a little more notice about the rehearsing and the cancelled classes.  For instance, I might have already made arrangements to be off campus on Thursday evening because I like to plan things in advance not spontaneously want to rehearse for a sports day opening.

This rehearsal (I did go of course) consisted of waiting around for about half an hour with other teachers, then marching as a group for 5 minutes and then being told that we had finished.

The sports field

So Friday afternoon, sports day happened. I did my five minutes of marching for the opening ceremony and then the obligatory flag raising, national anthem, school anthem and flag raising and speeches.

 The school enmass

Marching

 Superstar teacher (Blush)

And then the fun began all 3000 + kids were there running, jumping, watching - mainly watching in an organised Chinese fashion. There were no parents watching their little emperors and empresses do their thing unlike a British sports day - no egg and spoon race, no sack race. Here in China you have winners and losers. Its a competitive society and the winners take the prizes.

Running

 Jumping

 Watching

 Competition is fierce

 But a bit too much for some

 The rest - well they sort of watched

There were so many events that the Sports day was carried over to the Saturday. Of course I was then told that I would have to cover my 'missed' Friday class on Saturday. At the last minute of course. 'Too Late'! I told them. 'I have an appointment downtown on Saturday - you need to tell me these things earlier'. I didn't really I just had some vague plans that I would go downtown, but the principle was that 1. I didn't want to work Saturday - my day off, and 2, They should have told me earlier.


Anyway a week or two later I actually did go out for a Sunday lunch with some expat teacher friends in the Xianlin area of Nanjing. This is where around 12 or 13 universities are located and where I had my first job in China. We went through a Mall and chanced upon this talent contest. Interestingly some of the students competing were from that old college of mine. Nanjing College of Information Technology

 These are some reasons to be cheerful in China - dancing girls

 The bookshops are always busy in China with readers - no one stops them or shoo's them out.

 Han dynasty costume

 Getting ready for the dance

 Even the cops took part - who says this is a repressive dictatorship? 

So next up is Halloween, not that the school kids know much about it. Its just another Western (American) custom which is being taken on board, probably more for it potential for selling more junk , as it is in the West,

Traditional Halloween Dancing by the senior students 

The Juniors are more traditional - here singing a song

Some of my students

I think under all that there is one of my students - but you know, Im not really sure at all - its Japanese cos-play

Costumes

Food and drink was served

Elva - who is the Admin boss worked hard doing the food

Me

Me and Simon in full gore

Halloween started at 6:30 in the evening and the Foreign Language Department (not the whole school) had set the party up in the indoor basketball courts above the canteen. We were entertained with dancing and singing and general fun. Lots of the kids wore costumes some didn't - the seniors, of course, thought it was now beneath them to have fun.

Some of the students had organised a Ghost Walk around the campus. It was quite good as night had fallen and at certain spots they had kids jumping out in costume scaring the participants. Me and Simon were roped in to do some of the scaring.

I also had what I thought was a good idea. The poor High School students were still in their classrooms doing self study. So I went and barged into their classrooms scaring the bejesus out of them until one of the Chinese teachers asked me to leave.  I later heard that the School Headmaster had rung Elva our admin asking who it was in the classrooms, because that night some of the students couldn't sleep and had had nightmares. Oops - good job I was in disguise.  I heard this from Elva and I asked her to keep my secret. I haven't heard anything yet!!


Last Sunday we had a concert in the school theatre. One thing this school does it try to provide the students with access to different types of cultural events. This is a 'new agey' Australian Singer/Songwriter/Pianist. Karen Joy Hawkins look her up on Wikipedia.

Simon was roped in to be the MC for the afternoon

 I got to admit this wasn't my cup of tea - too plinky plonky with breathless vocals that I couldn't understand or hear, let alone a Chinese audience.

This is the view past the heads of my bosses. Although I had a VIP seat, they and their communist party cronies had the seats in front. The head to the left is my agency boss (PhD purchased in America - common knowledge - wifes MA? From Harvard? But she can't speak English? OH My! Wonder how much that cost? -  and on the right the school boss who has converted the staff accommodation on the top floor of my block for his own use - he turns up every morning and goes there - use your imagination guys....) 

 Actually in the interval we had a student play Chopin and after the main event had finished, other students, in a band, played for us. They were, in my view, better than the main event. (my phone had run out of power so no pics.)

You can tell the weather is getting a bit chilly now because the Chinese teachers are using blankets when they have their mid morning nap. (I also have the winter quilt on and the fluffy slippers)

So now its mid semester already - so its time for those pesky mid-semester exams!

Only for some they don't seem that important

 Sleepy and its only 8:30am

 And their parents are paying big money for this - so I don't let them sleep - these pictures will be for the parents if they ask why  little Do nt Giv Afook failed!

This is Albert - I don't even know why he's in my class. Apart from the fact his parents have paid the school.

I confiscated this from a boy during the exam - opened. And no he didn't have a pencil he needed sharpening.

So thats what the last few weeks have been like here in sunny Nanjing. There have also been trips out, trips downtown, trips to see the doctors as I have written about elsewhere. 

Heres a few more photos

 Snooky  Still fit and Healthy

 Me with some of my students - the school wanted a 'publicity shot' 

 The opticians girl - on the look out

 In the bookshop where the game is more interesting than the book

 Taking the birds for some air - locally

 Its orange season

 Our local BBQ

 The river close to me

 A local view - food is grown everywhere

 Vapour trails

 More publicity - I was entered into the 'Most popular teacher in Nanjing' competition.

 A local bike

 Scooter girl by my fruit and veg market.

I'll write about the actual teaching soon.