Thursday back in school
Fully packed day of lessons today! My first lesson observation was in Biology where students corrected homework together. The use of two screens and s visualiser made this assessment method very practical and extremely beneficial to all students' learning .
Following this lesson, I had the opportunity you to try some Chinese painting. The art teacher was fantastic and I started my painting on a Chinese fan that I will be able to take home once dry!
I attended a Chinese lesson where the students all read aloud together. Something I have never experienced before. 40 students who read a passage within a book out load together!
My guide today, Rachel took me to the junior maths lesson (13yrs) and although I do not teach maths, I found the problems quite challenging! It has been a long time since I sat in a maths class! The students came up one at a time and without much hesitation and no help from the teacher solved these problems in less that three minutes!
They were then split into two groups and were given different problems to solve and we're very eager to approach the chalkboard to write out the answers. Impressive!
Next I had another lesson in speaking Chinese and then went straight to a physics lesson. Students Usually correct their work in red pen and marking. Teachers also mark in red pen but not all teachers provide feedback however marking is done daily as they collect books to check the previous homework. Here's the catch, teachers in china last only teach 10-12 lessons a week and the rest of the time they plan, provide extra help or complete marking.
Each grade has 11 classes and there are three grades so in total over 70 different classes where the teachers move to the students not the students. Normally every teacher has two classes only. If only!
Classes have in average 40 students.
The physics lesson involved learning from an exercise book and the teacher explained the tasks then they had time to work out the exercises in the book.
Students usually receive about 3 hours a night in homework mostly from the main subjects being English, Math science and Chinese. The other subjects twice a week on average.
After lunch I had toe pleasure of watching the students perform their extra curricular English activities which included literary club dance, drama and music. Really talented group of individuals.
As you can imagine the theatre was enormous and without fault! Fantastic.
The afternoon included a geography lesson about global air temperature.
Again students repeat answers in unison!l
Following the geography lesson I attended an art lesson where the students practised shading and drawing roses. They again had a workbook or textbook to guide them along with the visual provided by the teacher.
Videos and classical music played in the background as they drew in absolute silence - concentrated learning!
At the back of the classroom pinned to the wall (as in all classrooms) are student aspirations and motto's. This one had sticky notes with their academic grades they want to achieved - there was no reference as to where they are now because it did not matter, just the end goal that they were working to attain! #ambition, #progressivelearning
I visited the future classroom which is a recording classroom where teachers can be recorded and then judged by their peers and those who are willing to record advice . The students sit in groups and each has a leader and the. Each have a touch board to work on they can arrange the seats as they like - also know. As the room of wisdom!
The government holds competitions for teachers and they can enter the teachers competition.
Behind the mirror screen is where the observing teachers sit.
Software is called starC system : benq interactive whiteboards
The day ended with a final dinner organised by the school and my lovely guide Rachel and I went to the famous shopping area to do just that! Shops are open quite late in Suzhou
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