by
Simon Aoyama
After
a pleasant day at the Stone Forest, we headed back to the
Yunnan Experimental Middle School to visit our Chinese friends
again. Our plan was to stay the entire school day.
We entered the school grounds at around 7:00 AM and were
welcomed by a large sign and a welcome ceremony consisting
of several speeches and a ceremonious flag raising.
After
the welcome ceremony, we headed off with our Chinese friends
to have a brief tour of their school. We saw calligraphy
made by the students, the schoolboys gym area, library and
briefly played basketball. The next part of tour was
to observe the morning exercises. It was quite an
amazing site, seeing a thousand students form in rigid lines
performing a series of exercises in synchronization.
Three
Chinese classes (history, ancient Chinese language, and
music) were next on our schedule. This was our first
encounter actually observing how Chinese classes are run.
Unlike our classes, which tend to have group work, individual
work, and a lot of interaction, I was amazed to see that
the entire class time consisted of the teacher lecturing
while the students listened intently and occasionally answered
questions. The only exception was the music class,
which was the most interesting of the three classes.
We listened to traditional Chinese music and listened to
students singing and playing keyboards that were small organs
run by blowing into a tube.
The
school day breaks mid-day for two hours to have lunch and
rest and we spent some time around the city as well.
We were all excited to be back with our Chinese friends
since this was the only one-on-one time we had with them
during the school day. We had a pleasant lunch and
then went shopping around the Green Lake Park area.
A group of us went to Skateboarp (yes, it is spelt s-k-a-t-e-b-o-a-r-p)
Heaven, one of the few skateboard shops in Kunming, if not
the only one.
 |
Kate's
prowess on the high bar impressed everyone! Noel and
Wyatt are spotting. Our Chinese friends showed us a
trick or two too.
|
|
Morning Exercises, but with only part of the students
shown. All were lined up just as neatly. |
Our tour of the school included a trip to the school
library where Jan, Ryan and Justin were shown some periodicals
the students have available. |
Wyatt reading
some of the calligraphy that is on display by the students. |
This
lavish conference room was stocked with fruits, snacks,
candies, water, juice and lovely orchids. We had a short
rest before going on to some classes. |
All
three of the classes we visited the teachers used PowerPoint
presentations to teach their material. This class was on Chinese
history. |
It seems basketball is its own universal language and even
our non-players played!
|
After
lunch our students did some presentations for the Chinese
students on American Culture, then we were front row guests
at the annual Arts Performance. The students had been working
all year preparing songs, dance numbers, and costumes. Our
students again performed the Vermont State Song (on stage
in front of at least 600 people) and were soundly applauded
for their efforts. |
