GCGIS Guangdong Country Garden International School

(The inside courtyard of GCGIS elementary school)

(A NOTE:  Schools change sometimes from year to year.   Please read all the reviews at the end of these posts if you are considering teaching at Country Garden Shunde.  ESL reader boards would be a good place to get updated information.  I wrote this blog so others would have some idea of what teaching at Country Garden in Shunde, China, was like and that no one would be as unprepared as I was the first time I taught here in 1994.  If you are looking into other international schools in that area, CLIFFORD is also a good school/country club/resort to check out. :] )

This is the inside of our school.  Notice all 4 stories.    This might be why I have been so tired every day since I got here.   It has been like this even after adjusting to the time change.   I just want to go to bed at 7:30 every night.   I think it's a combination of the heat and the stairs.   Even my co-workers have been like this.

~Speaking of stairs, let’s find out a little more about GCCIS Guangdong Country Garden International School and what it’s like to live here in Southwest China!

The Stairs~

There are 7 flights to get to my apartment 3 times a day. I climb 4 flights to get to my classrooms and 3 flights up and down for lunch and dinner. I do all this while carrying a computer and teaching notebooks in 100+ weather with 85% humidity.  One day I ate a whole bag of gummy worms just to get motivated to go back to school. That's not such a big deal, mind you, except that bag of gummy worms was supposed to last for the next six months.

Fun fact:  In China, apartments have to put in an elevator if the building is 9 floors or higher.    You can guess how many floors we have.   (Answer at end of post.)

School stuff~

Right now am just trying to get my curriculum in order.   This means planning for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade English reading and writing.

 It is hard to teach students that don't understand what you are saying to them. (:] said in mock earnest). I have started adjusting my talking speed and have judged comprehension by the calm vs. blank expressions on students' faces. Also, the less they understand, the more they act up.

I really need to follow non-verbal feedback indicators to know where they are at.   My questions in English don't tell me.    It's decpetive when they are answered.    That means that 'they' understand me, but  who are 'they'?  'They' are probably a handful of students in the class who know English and don't represent the class like 'they' in an English-speaking classroom.  

School Liason~

I have met an awesome Chinese teacher named Josie who has helped me so much in preparing for this subject-jump. She is so petite but has a passion for education that makes her larger than life when she tells stories. She has gone to the UK and other places abroad.

(The Chinese teachers seem to travel a lot. What rich experiences they must gain! The UK, Australia, America... All in a summer and then about every other year. I believe they get a traveling allowance from the school and then can even go with exchange programs.)

Offices~

Josie is also in my office.  (There are 4 floors of classrooms corresponding to the 1st-6th grades, with an office of teachers on each floor.)  She has given me all these flash animation stories to use for my lessons. In doing lessons, you just hook up your laptop to the large flat screen TV in the classroom and you are set to PowerPoint or video-illustrate the day away.

You would think this is just a great way to advertise technology in the school, but I also have a feeling it is used to save money on making copies.  It could even be a substitute for buying books. (I was encouraged to take pictures of the pages of a storybook so that they could be shown on the large screen.) It can be done.

School Cafeteria~

We eat in what is called 'The Canteen'. I wonder if the Chinese know that that name gives it a very 'western' feel, and therefore should come come equipped with wooden saloon doors, bar fights and the occasional tumbleweed.) 

Otherwise, it is large and semi air-conditioned with table-clothed tables and napkins  provided in the usual form of tissue.  Each table also has soy sauce and some come with a welcoming view of the school.

In the Canteen they serve five + different Chinese side dishes that make up each meal.  There are about 13 different 'meals' you can sign up for.   The three unvarying sides for lunch and dinner are rice, soup-o-the-day and one of many types of fried lettuce.

Then you could have a really amazing garlic/ginger chicken, or oyster-sauce zucchini/mushroom mixture alongside some not-so-tasty spicy eel or eggplant that was very good on Thursday but now seems to keep appearing in every dish that comes through the partition window. It appears day after day until you're very sure that there couldn't possibly be that much eggplant in all of China for it to have fed 3000 students and 500+ teachers over the course of 4-6 days.  

(What I learned later is that they cook food by the season or buy in bulk. That is why you have eggs and tomatoes, fresh shrimp or garlic eggplant for so many meals in a row.

I also found out that after a terrible cooking administration last year, the school used its own Bi Gui Yuan [Country Garden] ‘farm’ to produce the food that we eat at The Canteen now. The teachers are very happy with this arrangement and talk about how much better the food is this year!)

The Western Buffet~

On the other side of The Canteen, they have created a great Western Buffet. It is mainly used as a food option for the international kids at the school. The Koreans really requested it.    It serves things like curry and rice, potatoes and bacon, french fries, chicken nuggets (all homemade!) and sweet and sour ribs. It really is worth the 20 Y--or was it 40Y, that we pay for it.

(You get 300Y at the beginning of each month you your cafeteria food allowance money and you decide how you want to spend it.)   With our food allowance, we can afford 15 trips to the western buffet in a month. I have designated my arduous first-week Mondays (we're on a two-week school schedule) and fun-day Fridays to go there. It’s cute! We all sit in orange McDonald’s style booths and can drink cold water from a provided soup bowl. (They don’t provide drinking water on The Canteen side.)

Bi Gui Yuan (Guangdong Country Garden International School) is really two schools that are separate but share the same courtyard and eating/playing facilities. One is the Chinese private school. All of its classes are taught in Chinese except an for Oral English.

Here it seems that there is no set curriculum to follow. I have heard that the students are more difficult to teach which may be because there is less support from the Chinese administration or that the students take foreign language learning less seriously.

The GCGIS International School has a few more international students, more classes are taught in English and the ideal to follow is a western-style/discovery-learning educational format. This equals research-based activities, group projects and using different materials to create unconventional output, ei: displays, posters, storybooks and, most important of all—The Portfolio work sample.

(Activities were then designed done to be fit enough to put in The Portfolio work sample. It is a brilliant idea. I actually did that as a 1st grade teacher back in the States but didn’t think of my reading or writing class’ contributions until the end of the year when it was mentioned.) They are currently working towards IB International Baccalaureate School certification.

(The classroom westernized--see bulletin board)

You should have seen how they transformed the school during this year. In the beginning of the year it looked like a typical Chinese classroom with few adornments on the walls but always with a nicely decorated bulletin board in the back of the classroom.

In a matter of days, the classrooms had student work displayed in the windows, motivational English says broadcast on every wall and art projects hanging from the ceiling. I finally realized what made each culture’s classrooms so different. It was the amount of material on display.

The International office had just a few desks a bench and a printer. When you walked in the next day there was a full-size copier connected to a scanner, a large-scale paper-cutter and---a laminator! They just needed a die cutter and then the illusion of an office straight out of a western country would have been complete.

(A workroom)

The GCGIS international side pays more to their teachers, so there should be noticeable benefits for the students’ education, right?  In that, I mean, they have the chance to play intra-mural sports that the foreign teachers initiated.

By the way, I am now assisting with the middle school boys soccer team. At our official foreign teacher's meeting, these two volunteer sports program directors got everyone to talk about what sport they had played in the past.

Before we knew it, we were signed up to coach or help coach that given sport. It was very sneaky of them though. (There was still some agreement on our part before we were signed up lock, stock and barrel.) They took this on all per gratis so it is a good thing to help out in.

The initiator of this is from the Philippines and has lived and taught in China for 7 years. He has the coolest apartment due to all the stuff he has been given from past teachers who left.

Speaking of cool apartments, our floor—the 7th--is the coolest. We are just like ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Friends’. Whenever we hear someone at their door, we all poke our heads out like little mice to see what's going on. Someone's always got something to say about this or that to add to the day’s stories or a comment that gets us wondering whether we should stand, open-doored, out in the landing or take the conversation to someone’s room and save our hard-earned air-conditioning because we hate to leave our happy little group. It's so comforting. We all joke around and try to figure out who is who. So, I'll give you our little cast of characters...in real life..

(The names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

First there's my little Canadian friend, Sunny. She just finished her college teaching courses and is doing 1st and 2nd grade here after she student-taught high schoolers just before. She fits her name and is the most cheerful, sunny person around.

She also loves to travel and has been to Africa, backpacking through Europe and in and out of the pubs of Ireland. She is probably the closest in age to me even though she is in her 20’s.

That being said there are not very many girls here my age and even fewer unmarried young people. The majority of foreign teachers here are older/retired men that have taught all around China and are here because of the reputation of our school.

Then there are 4 younger couples and a few odd balls like me and the cool people on the 7th floor. :] (we are kidding!  Everyone in our building--they put all the foreigners together--unless we get an apartment somewhere else, is very cool.  :])

Also on our floor, there's Mamando, our black brother from Chicago who has an African name and speaks Chinese. He's planning to marry his Chinese girlfriend and settle down in China.

Next door to him is our very cute little Pakistani brother that likes to dance. He is just a button. We all want to take him home with us. :] (Like a puppy). He just taught at an International School in China and also has a potential reason to stay in China for the long-haul.

Mamando has a DJ station in his room and a bottom shelf just full of records that he mixes. He moved all his unwanted furniture up two flights of stairs so he could move in $500 worth of black and white furniture from IKEA. (Yes! They have one here in Guangzhou!)

By the way, they have a metro (subway) here going to the important places in the city--shopping, the embassies, a waffle shop, Starbucks, Pizza Hut…It's just a quick ride away. Also, the city is so much cleaner than I remember!!

Maybe that is because the subway took the place of many of those diesel-spouting buses...or maybe it's because I'm here in August when it's summer and you can see the sky.

That's a quick low-down on some of the school and some of the city things around here.

(* 8 floors)
P.S.  Since I wrote this article, the school now gives the teachers an apartment stipend for them to chose wherever they would like to live.   There are some great high rises in the newer Bi Gui Yuan Country Garden Estate areas and some beautiful villas with yards and gazebos.   

June: Wonderland Time!

June 21, 2009

(A NOTE:  Schools change sometimes from year to year.   Please read all the reviews at the end of these posts if you are considering teaching at Country Garden Shunde.  ESL reader boards would be a good place to get updated information.  I wrote this blog so others would have some idea of what teaching at Country Garden in Shunde, China, was like and that no one would be as unprepared as I was the first time I taught here in 1994.  If you are looking into other international schools in that area, CLIFFORD is also a good school/country club/resort to check out. :] )

It’s June! And I’m having a great time. 
 It took 8 months of hard work and trudging-on forward, but I am in Wonderland!

 I have students who are quiet during class time, follow my directions and are able to understand English enough to participate creatively in the lessons!   I've won a victory.

 It had been 'always winter and never Christmas' in my teaching experience here.    It seems this year has been represented by Narnia movies.   ..all that perseverance.  Strange obstacles in a strange land. The Sound of Music has been inspiring too. 

It has helped to learn all their names--all 250 of them. 

In the beginning there were multiple sets of twins and look-alike siblings. (That is why it was so hard to keep my classes straight!  I was sure I had already gone through chapter 5 with class 4.1 because that’s the class ‘Neville’ is in.

 Little did I know that Neville has an identical twin brother named ‘Omar’--names have been changed to protect the innocent--in class 4.2. Neville always seemed to be either very good or very bad. His behavior pattern was finally explained by the discovery of his twin. 

So, now looking forward… I see green hills, I see school, I see more work to be done. But good work. The kind that brings the cows home and the harvest in. Fulfilling work. We'll see what happens with that.

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy~

School's Almost OUT!: Starbucks and Country Garden Buses

Have Bus Will Travel

 

 
 

 

June 12, 2009

A month has passed and now we are only two weeks away from the end of school!  If I ever thought I would make it to the end of this year, still breathing and thinking coherently, I would have strongly refuted you.   In celebration of this fact, I think I will hop on a bus to Guangzhou and get myself a 'designer coffee', as my Mom calls it, at Starbucks.

Here I am in GZ.  I am reveling in the fact that I can e-mail my friends, drink a commercially-made mocha, listen to Harry Conick Jr. singing in English while I'm at a Starbucks in China.

 

(A Chinese Starbucks bulletin board)

This week, each class will finish their respective reading book and then have fun worksheets till the end of the year. This lesson plan leaves just enough time for movies on the last couple days of school. 

If my grade school teachers ever did this (and I know they did!) it was to give themselves a break. I remember one of my teacher showing us a movie on chinchillas--out of the blue, and another on behavioral statistics, for no reason at all. Anyhow, I digress...

(These are some of my dear students from Grade 3 class 3 ~some making silly faces.)

 

 

I finished up at Starbucks in Guangzhou and made my way across sidewalks, down escalators and subway tunnels to reach the other mall where our Country Garden bus picks us up at.

 

 

(A view from my favorite Starbucks in Guangzhou)

It's always daunting catching a bus in China--even in a 'gated community' like Country Garden because when you are given bus schedule information, there can sometimes be changes that have not been updated to you.  

It isn't always easy being on the outside.   If I was able to read some more Chinese characters that would help. 

 I will usually ask about 2-3 people for confirmation that I am standing in the correct line for the right bus. 

 You can imagine the relief at not only finding--yet again--that I am in the right pick-up spot but am also in the right line at the right time.   If you want to feel like Conan the Barbarian, successfully navigate a bus system in China. 

Ah, here it is (now imagine my relief), it's a Country Garden bus and I'm in the right line at the right time.   (There are at least three different Country Garden resorts in the Guangzhou area and outer limits and I need the bus for Shunde [Shoon - duh!] Country Garden.)

Some of these buses are nice, but tonight it’s a ghetto bus and its parts are starting to show some wear. The seats have itchy upholstery, the window curtains are hither and yon, some people have arm rests...some don’t.   But it's not too bad on the whole.    It is cleaned out after every trip which I think is great for China. 

Some advice: sometimes it is better to get a seat in the front of the bus as you breathe in more exhaust in the back.   It took me a while to figure that one out.   Why I was coming home from Guangzhou with such headaches.   Fumes.

 We're off and now I'm listening to African music on my way home. It came with my computer, but it feels like I'm hiking right outside some Kenyan tribe and can hear their drums in the distance.   Awesome stuff.   As I type, my fingers are literally dancing over the keyboard trying to keep up with the bumps on the road.

 

Passing beautiful southern China foliage on my left,  I listen to two Chinese ladies gab on my right.   Now the playlist is on Indian techno--and I'm by a river in New Delhi.      

 AN hour long bus ride into Guangzhou is not too bad this way. 

Why I was tempted to buy a cow in China...

I was so elated! I had found real creamer (for coffee) and real mozzarella cheese (for whatever!) in Guangzhou, China. I quickly bought them!   Overcome by joy!   I didn't think about the long trip back and the 90 degree weather outside.

They would have been safe from damage except I felt the compelling urge to buy a digital camera for my lessons at school.   I then I tried to buy an MP3 player.   But it was so pretty.

After two hours in my backpack in the humid Guangzhou night air, my packages had begun to...fade. Hoping to lengthen their life span, I took a quick detour to Starbucks.    I asked them for two cups of ice.

I packed the items in them as if they were my own children.  You would have thought I was transporting a live heart for an organ donation. I smiled to everyone and thanked them for their compassionate looks. 

Maybe I saw compassion but they saw a wide-eyed, crazy, American redhead who had lost her marbles in the insane SE Asian heat.  Balancing a backpack, a shopping bag, a map, a purse and a bus schedule--that kept coming in and out of her purse--along with now two cups of venti ice, she looked like this was normal.   All she needed now was an ice cream cone and then 8 flutes to juggle.

I had had a stellar day otherwise in the city--finding things, buying things, getting places, seeing sights, all breezily.  I was feeling very confident with my bags and cups. However, when I saw that my ice had melted just by walking to the bus station, I gave up.

 I let go of my dear purchases.   Without a decent burial, I placed my treasures in a nearby trash can hoping a local beggar might discover them.

But what local beggar is going to be excited over mozzarella? Would he even recognize the luxury value of real cream if he tasted it? It would have given me joy if that could have been arranged.  But it could not.

I made my way home not too disheartened.    If I had found them once, I would find them again.   They would appear when I least expected it.  And I would be ready.

All was not a total loss, however.   For there in my backpack, where my dairy creamer should have been, was a pink Cannon Powershot camera,  next to a jewel-green MP3 player.   
 

Bangkok Dental

Last month, I went to Bangkok to get some dental work done. (Well, to vacation too of course, but the dental came first.) It was a great experience. Stayed at the same hostel I went to last time~Sukhumvit On Nut.

A GREAT place! by the way. I feel like I have family in Bangkok!  I can't wait to see them again.  Super people, super help, super food!  

Also, on the way, just happened to meet with a friend from Guangzhou who had booked the same flight and same hostel as me.  That is pretty rare given all the choices in Bangkok. We had a good time pal-ing around the city until I had to take care of tooth business.   :[


So, my dental work... Turned out pretty well.   Yay!   I wanted to go to a recommended one called Dentist 51.   I had research it on-line, seen all the pictures, read all the reviews, etc. .    But with time restraints, went to one down the street from the hostel recommended by the front desk personnel.  Their name is in Thai or I would pass it on.    It was on the corner of 89 Sukumvit.  

They spoke English, had real dental equipment and were very gentle. It didn't hurt at all. I was so surprised.   They took x-rays, re-created part of a tooth that needed some attention and even touched-up the one next to it for I think $50.   Amazing.    So affordable. 

Hong Kong and the Queen's Spa, Shenzhen in 2008

I am going back in time because so many of my travel experiences didn't get to be uploaded.  So here they are, in random fashion. 

Hong Kong Sometime in April 2008

Hello all! I have had a productive weekend in Hong Kong (April 2008) and just wanted to share it with you all. :] I went to HK to buy a new computer. I have been using our school-issued laptop and was afraid that I wouldn’t get myself a personal one unless I did so soon. I settled for an HP CQ60. For all of you enlightened on the latest computer products, I hope I bought a good one. I bought one at 17” in case my next year finds me without a tv. The size has been a little regretful since it’s so heavy. I have a hard time lugging it around unless I stay put in a coffee shop, but its screen is so beautiful.

Hong Kong was wonderful. On the way there and back, I crashed at a beauty salon called Queen’s Spa. You can’t beat their amenities (free food, movie channels, pools, hot tub, massages) and 24-hour rate (168 Yuan=$25). It’s like a hotel that way but your cover charge is dismissed if you order a certain amount of massages or food. The main lounging room is just filled with lazy-boy recliners with tv’s attached and small trays to put your drinks and snacks on.

Many people end up sleeping in their lounge chairs but they do have separate ‘sleeping commons’ for men and for women. At one time, the areas were just made up of massage tables but then the sleeping common was finished and it turned out to be an enormous sleigh bed with dividers. It’s not as uncomfortable as it sounds but there are 65 other women sleeping in the room with you. We are all in our pink striped spa pajamas. It’s very interesting. I can’t take pictures of it though. On a side note, I usually sleep pretty well in that environment, but this time there was a chorus of snorers making it difficult. The sound was so syncopated it could have been broadcast on OPB as a supernatural phenomenon.

I survived the Queen’s Spa (sometimes it can be kind of loud and raucous) and went to Hong Kong again for Sun gathering. I was really looking forward to it. Life Community is a much larger fellowship and there’s more freedom to worship here than in China. When I walked up the hill to their rented facility, I was disappointed to find that they had moved. I didn’t know where to start looking. I ambled over to a HK landmark St. Andrews and discovered that they were still holding services. It was a beautiful red brick and white mortar Anglican church. It looked like it had stood there since the founding fathers of HK disembarked.


It was the most refreshing time. It was Anglican in service (I expected tradition and liturgy) but everything about it felt alive and modern. The woman guiding the service spoke with conviction--even when she was just giving the announcements. They used modern worship songs, and the pastor spoke on forgiveness. The gathering felt really mission-oriented even though nothing was verbalized. I had the conviction that those attending lived their lives through their faith and believed that their time and place here on the planet really mattered.


That kind of attitude is nothing if but contagious! I left feeling like a part of the believing community at large. I also wished I could be ordained as an Anglican minister just to help relieve them of their need for lay pastors. It would be so neat if things would come to that--if pastors of any Bible-believing denomination could swap leaders with other Bible-believing denominations in order to fill positions.


These longings surface and I wonder what in the world I am doing teaching. I wonder if I should serve full-time in an area of need instead of working for what feels like a black hole of daily living expenses. I hate to put so much energy into making lucre at the expense of fulfilling my heart’s desire. I know there is a balance in here somewhere.

So it's now been over half a year since I wrote a post?! I guess my year in China was a little more stressful than I thought it would be. (As previous posts showed.) For now, I am just writing to say that I am back! but like this site, I am a bit under construction right now.  I will be coming back in full force soon!

take care, y'all.