I had to complete some practical teaching to finalise my TESOL qualifications, and found a college that offered to help me. There was a suggestion that if they liked me, there could be some hours for me. It was a little vague though - I guess they did not want to commit to anything until they saw me in action!
I have done more than my allotted hours for the practical assessment and have the completed documentation. Yoo Hoo.
Yesterday I was given instructions for working today. Today? I only offered to do 2 days without pay!!!! Then the boss later just said in a casual way - "We'd like you to work Thursday and Friday. We'll get some paperwork done!" So it appears that I am on staff from today. No information on hours, or rates of pay. Strange.
As the Korean expedition looks in doubt, it suits me. But sort of a strange way to be appointed.
Yesterday only one student turned up. A lovely young girl from South Korea. It was quite extra ordinary as while we focussed on the class material I was able to discuss like in Korea with her, in the context of her learning. She was quite delighted that I knew some things, and even had to have a photo taken of the pair of us. And with the "V" victory sign from her.
So I am headed off again today. Being more worn out by the day, but I am sure I will survive today and tomorrow!!! I will be very tired by tomorrow night!!!!
It takes me about an hour to go each way - I travel by train, as it is easier and far cheaper. And I can read, or listen to my MP3 player. I have a short walk from the college to the station, but it is a good pleasant walk. Yesterday on my way to the college I called in at a Chinese Furniture Emporium in the Valley and had a look around. Nothing I'd really want to buy but it was a little like visiting a market in Shaoxing!
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
The spartan life of a student
There are between 7 and 10 thousand students at the university, although only the students who started in September are doing university courses. Students are required to live in the dormitories although there are some students who live at home with their families, but they must live very close by. There are only a handful who do not live on campus.
The students mostly live in small rooms with bunk beds. 6 students to a room. There is no heating, no air conditioner for use in summer. So with bitterly cold winter - where it sometimes snows, to the very high heat and humidity of summer the students must endure it without the facilities that most families would have in their own homes.
The students must sleep, and study in their dormitories. There is little room to move.
They must be up early in the morning - in fact the first year students must be on the parade ground for exercises EVERY morning by 6.15 am. The only escape from that is rain or snow! After half an hour of exercise they can go for breakfast.
(Every morning from 6.15 am to 6.45 am we can hear the marching music from our apartment. The students march in formation, and then do star jumps and other basic exercises. The same music every day!)
The students rush back to get something to eat for their classes start at 7.30 am I think. They do have a 2 hour break from 11.30 am to 1.30 pm and many will rush to their dormitories for a sleep. They must be in their dormitories by 10 pm.
They have someone check on them every night too.
I think each dormitory has access to a toilet - a squat one no doubt, but there are no showers. To shower the students take a plastic bowl with their toiletries and a small towel to one of various shower rooms and they can shower there. Boys and girls shower together. Let me rephrase that. The boys and girls go to the same shower room, but I am not sure that they actually 'shower together' although that would not surprise me.
The students do their own washing and must of course keep their dormitories clean and tidy.
The pressure to do well at studies is enormous and it is not unknown for students to have breakdowns or worse. There have been suicides.
The pressure is put on by everyone - their dormitory "mates" put pressure on if they are not working hard, the teacher will put a lot of pressure on, as will the college. And of course their parents, many of whom make a huge sacrifice to pay the fees for their son or daughter to go to college or university. Many students have leadership roles within the class or within the dormitory, and the pressure there is immense too.
One student who is well known to me was "class monitor" which is a highly rated position in the class. She came to me yesterday to tell me she was no longer monitor, as Candy was now the leader. Candy is a highly spirited cheeky girl, but somehow managed to get the support of the rest of the class for a "take over." Some students are stewing over it. Not a nice feeling in the class right now.
There are no cooking facilities in the dormitories - but there are several huge canteens on campus. Some are very basic rice and traditional food. One cooks every meal when ordered by the students (or teachers, as we frequent that one a lot too.)
Can you imagine feeding 10,000 hungry students in half an hour. It is amazing, but they do it day in day out. The students collect their food on an orange tray, collect their chopsticks and a metal spoon, and sit at tables and chairs which are bigger versions of the plastic toy tables and chairs that kiddies play with.
In each canteen there are quite a few staff who clean tables, and clean the trays and organise the cleaning of the plates, chopsticks etc. It is all very efficient and clean.
The students have a lot of choice with their food - if they have the funds. We have a card with credit on it and each time you order food, your card goes on the card reader and funds are deducted in payment. Some students have much more money each month than others.
Some students are on scholarships, and I think some of these come via the Communist Party - so these students seem to have more funds than others.
There is no doubt that some students come from more wealthy families, and I have no doubt that this wealth is used for various privileges on the campus.
They have two big libraries, but Internet access is a challenge here. It is for the teachers, but for us it is free. The students must pay. Some have their own laptops, but many have to queue to use the college computers.
There are many social clubs here - from dance, music, language, photography and other interest groups, so the students have access to many social activities. Most report campus life as a lot of fun, and they certainly make life long friendships with their dormitory mates, or class mates.
Many do not get home often, as their home might be many hours away from Shaoxing.
The students mostly live in small rooms with bunk beds. 6 students to a room. There is no heating, no air conditioner for use in summer. So with bitterly cold winter - where it sometimes snows, to the very high heat and humidity of summer the students must endure it without the facilities that most families would have in their own homes.
The students must sleep, and study in their dormitories. There is little room to move.
They must be up early in the morning - in fact the first year students must be on the parade ground for exercises EVERY morning by 6.15 am. The only escape from that is rain or snow! After half an hour of exercise they can go for breakfast.
(Every morning from 6.15 am to 6.45 am we can hear the marching music from our apartment. The students march in formation, and then do star jumps and other basic exercises. The same music every day!)
The students rush back to get something to eat for their classes start at 7.30 am I think. They do have a 2 hour break from 11.30 am to 1.30 pm and many will rush to their dormitories for a sleep. They must be in their dormitories by 10 pm.
They have someone check on them every night too.
I think each dormitory has access to a toilet - a squat one no doubt, but there are no showers. To shower the students take a plastic bowl with their toiletries and a small towel to one of various shower rooms and they can shower there. Boys and girls shower together. Let me rephrase that. The boys and girls go to the same shower room, but I am not sure that they actually 'shower together' although that would not surprise me.
The students do their own washing and must of course keep their dormitories clean and tidy.
The pressure to do well at studies is enormous and it is not unknown for students to have breakdowns or worse. There have been suicides.
The pressure is put on by everyone - their dormitory "mates" put pressure on if they are not working hard, the teacher will put a lot of pressure on, as will the college. And of course their parents, many of whom make a huge sacrifice to pay the fees for their son or daughter to go to college or university. Many students have leadership roles within the class or within the dormitory, and the pressure there is immense too.
One student who is well known to me was "class monitor" which is a highly rated position in the class. She came to me yesterday to tell me she was no longer monitor, as Candy was now the leader. Candy is a highly spirited cheeky girl, but somehow managed to get the support of the rest of the class for a "take over." Some students are stewing over it. Not a nice feeling in the class right now.
There are no cooking facilities in the dormitories - but there are several huge canteens on campus. Some are very basic rice and traditional food. One cooks every meal when ordered by the students (or teachers, as we frequent that one a lot too.)
Can you imagine feeding 10,000 hungry students in half an hour. It is amazing, but they do it day in day out. The students collect their food on an orange tray, collect their chopsticks and a metal spoon, and sit at tables and chairs which are bigger versions of the plastic toy tables and chairs that kiddies play with.
In each canteen there are quite a few staff who clean tables, and clean the trays and organise the cleaning of the plates, chopsticks etc. It is all very efficient and clean.
The students have a lot of choice with their food - if they have the funds. We have a card with credit on it and each time you order food, your card goes on the card reader and funds are deducted in payment. Some students have much more money each month than others.
Some students are on scholarships, and I think some of these come via the Communist Party - so these students seem to have more funds than others.
There is no doubt that some students come from more wealthy families, and I have no doubt that this wealth is used for various privileges on the campus.
They have two big libraries, but Internet access is a challenge here. It is for the teachers, but for us it is free. The students must pay. Some have their own laptops, but many have to queue to use the college computers.
There are many social clubs here - from dance, music, language, photography and other interest groups, so the students have access to many social activities. Most report campus life as a lot of fun, and they certainly make life long friendships with their dormitory mates, or class mates.
Many do not get home often, as their home might be many hours away from Shaoxing.
Publish Post
Thursday, 12 June 2008
The final exams
We've had a few dramas with the planning for the exams. In part because we seem to be "ignored" by our college leaders, until things go wrong.
When we arrived we were given a program - in Chinese - despite the fact that we work in the English Faculty. This faculty does not write anything in English. So we are often "kept in the dark".
Last week some of the foreign teachers received an email from the Faculty with some instructions about the upcoming final exams - too late, as many of us have conducted the examinations. Some of us have planned to leave the college on or just after the 20th June, but appears we are expected to remain until 27th of June. Even though there will be no classes for us in that last week. (Perhaps next semester we will get more notice of changes.)
There is conjecture about the poor communication with the foreign teachers. Is is just the language problem? Or is it the way that our leaders here operate with all teachers? Do the Chinese teachers accept this late information without protest? Is it a control thing for the foreign teachers e.g. keep them in the dark and they will have to comply? In all the time we have been here, there has been no staff meeting and little correspondence. Questions asked remain unanswered. I asked for a meeting with the faculty head - a man we have never met.
Initially it was too difficult to arrange - but now it is on today. It will be interesting.
Another funny thing happened yesterday. A student leader was distributing the latest issue of the school newspaper - a fancy full colour glossy mag with stories about the recent ceremony to celebrate the college's upgrading to an university. He came over to chat to me and told me he was giving out the newspaper. I asked if I could have one. His one word reply was "No". When I asked why not he said it was all in Chinese and I would not be able to read it. I replied "Then can I look at the pictures?" as I could see a few photographs on page one. He thought for a moment and gave it to me. Here I am after four months, receiving my first copy of the newspaper, which I might add often includes stories about the foreign teachers. When I opened it , there was a paragraph in English - in fact a speech by one of the foreign teachers at the ceremony! I knew about the ceremony of course, but not the foreign teacher's involvement. We are ill informed in the college. Or not at all.
Maybe today at the meeting we will resolve some of the problems with the final exam - to the satisfaction of the college and the foreign teachers.
When we arrived we were given a program - in Chinese - despite the fact that we work in the English Faculty. This faculty does not write anything in English. So we are often "kept in the dark".
Last week some of the foreign teachers received an email from the Faculty with some instructions about the upcoming final exams - too late, as many of us have conducted the examinations. Some of us have planned to leave the college on or just after the 20th June, but appears we are expected to remain until 27th of June. Even though there will be no classes for us in that last week. (Perhaps next semester we will get more notice of changes.)
There is conjecture about the poor communication with the foreign teachers. Is is just the language problem? Or is it the way that our leaders here operate with all teachers? Do the Chinese teachers accept this late information without protest? Is it a control thing for the foreign teachers e.g. keep them in the dark and they will have to comply? In all the time we have been here, there has been no staff meeting and little correspondence. Questions asked remain unanswered. I asked for a meeting with the faculty head - a man we have never met.
Initially it was too difficult to arrange - but now it is on today. It will be interesting.
Another funny thing happened yesterday. A student leader was distributing the latest issue of the school newspaper - a fancy full colour glossy mag with stories about the recent ceremony to celebrate the college's upgrading to an university. He came over to chat to me and told me he was giving out the newspaper. I asked if I could have one. His one word reply was "No". When I asked why not he said it was all in Chinese and I would not be able to read it. I replied "Then can I look at the pictures?" as I could see a few photographs on page one. He thought for a moment and gave it to me. Here I am after four months, receiving my first copy of the newspaper, which I might add often includes stories about the foreign teachers. When I opened it , there was a paragraph in English - in fact a speech by one of the foreign teachers at the ceremony! I knew about the ceremony of course, but not the foreign teacher's involvement. We are ill informed in the college. Or not at all.
Maybe today at the meeting we will resolve some of the problems with the final exam - to the satisfaction of the college and the foreign teachers.
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Will I come back to China?
A reader has commented that perhaps I have had to many challenges here to return - but this time of the semester we are considering returning. I must say I have had some days when I think I would be mad to return, but others I ponder my unfinished business.
I still need to see more places - I haven't seen enough, and I have learned that it takes one semester to find your way around the issues that initially take so long to resolve.
Today I am feeling 100% well ( a change from previous weeks), my computer seems to be working OK, and I've been able to ramp up the material for students - I've felt so bad about my lack of resources. I will be able to bring more resources from Australia when I go home. I KNOW what I want to bring now.
As well, we have opened a dialogue with the college - that will make it easier for "foreign teachers" in the future. We have made some changes.
Additionally the college has been granted University status - and I'd like to be here for the first semester as a university.
Yes, I'll come back.
(As well, as I am a senior, my future opportunities are shrinking!)
I still need to see more places - I haven't seen enough, and I have learned that it takes one semester to find your way around the issues that initially take so long to resolve.
Today I am feeling 100% well ( a change from previous weeks), my computer seems to be working OK, and I've been able to ramp up the material for students - I've felt so bad about my lack of resources. I will be able to bring more resources from Australia when I go home. I KNOW what I want to bring now.
As well, we have opened a dialogue with the college - that will make it easier for "foreign teachers" in the future. We have made some changes.
Additionally the college has been granted University status - and I'd like to be here for the first semester as a university.
Yes, I'll come back.
(As well, as I am a senior, my future opportunities are shrinking!)
Sunday, 24 February 2008
The College
This is the view from my apartment window - the college buildings are on both sides of the canal. It is such a grand scale that it is overwhelming.
The college has some 7000 students - mainly girls - who are keen to study and get good jobs. It is a private college, so they have to have supportive parents or family to pay their fees.
The College is on 106 acres of land with impressive buildings with marble staircases, and Grecian columns everywhere.
According to the information given to us there are nearly 400 teachers, most of whom are full time at the college.
There are four canteens where we get meals. We have a plastic card with our credit on it, and we choose a meal at any of the counters of the canteen. Within seconds you are presented with a freshly cooked meal - you can see it being cooked from the counter. It is put on the plate and handed to you as you hand over your plastic card for processing. We take a pair of chopsticks or a spoon to eat and sit down at the many fixed tables and chairs. It is all so quick. And the students/teachers are in and out in no time.
The meals are good - we have found one place where the description of the meal is in English and we can point to the number on the menu - and we only choose things that seem OK to us. Pigs intestines and vegetables, or similar meals are not on our list of preferences!
There are many street vendors, especially around the West Gate and beyond where you walk through the winding lane ways of stalls all seeming to do brisk business as you dodge cars, bicycles, motor scooters and students and other strange vehicles. One can buy almost anything in the stalls.
The fruit and vegetable stalls look OK - I will buy carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and some green vegetables there - but I have nothing to cook on. I'm looking for a cheap wok somewhere. But no hurry.
I have quite a list of things I need to get - so bit by bit I will set myself up in the apartment to make it comfortable for the next four months or so.
One thing I find amusing is that it is so cold children are rugged up so well, that they could not possibly bend their elbows with the layers of clothes they have, and women carry the little ones around and they look like dolls with arms and legs extended and unable to bend.
We have found the cold hard to deal with but it will warm up soon. Spring starts next week.
The college has some 7000 students - mainly girls - who are keen to study and get good jobs. It is a private college, so they have to have supportive parents or family to pay their fees.
The College is on 106 acres of land with impressive buildings with marble staircases, and Grecian columns everywhere.
According to the information given to us there are nearly 400 teachers, most of whom are full time at the college.
There are four canteens where we get meals. We have a plastic card with our credit on it, and we choose a meal at any of the counters of the canteen. Within seconds you are presented with a freshly cooked meal - you can see it being cooked from the counter. It is put on the plate and handed to you as you hand over your plastic card for processing. We take a pair of chopsticks or a spoon to eat and sit down at the many fixed tables and chairs. It is all so quick. And the students/teachers are in and out in no time.
The meals are good - we have found one place where the description of the meal is in English and we can point to the number on the menu - and we only choose things that seem OK to us. Pigs intestines and vegetables, or similar meals are not on our list of preferences!
There are many street vendors, especially around the West Gate and beyond where you walk through the winding lane ways of stalls all seeming to do brisk business as you dodge cars, bicycles, motor scooters and students and other strange vehicles. One can buy almost anything in the stalls.
The fruit and vegetable stalls look OK - I will buy carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and some green vegetables there - but I have nothing to cook on. I'm looking for a cheap wok somewhere. But no hurry.
I have quite a list of things I need to get - so bit by bit I will set myself up in the apartment to make it comfortable for the next four months or so.
One thing I find amusing is that it is so cold children are rugged up so well, that they could not possibly bend their elbows with the layers of clothes they have, and women carry the little ones around and they look like dolls with arms and legs extended and unable to bend.
We have found the cold hard to deal with but it will warm up soon. Spring starts next week.
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