what I actually do...

It's probably about time now that I say a bit about what my general work life is like here. I've been very lucky in that my school has been happy to let me make the decisions on what I do. VSO suggests volunteers take 1-2 months to simply observe and assess the situation before jumping in with ideas and changes and so I've been careful to do that. Actually, it only takes a few days to appreciate what the key development needs are but the longer timescale is required to understand the people and the culture and how best to approach these needs. I'm actually nowhere near understanding how best to meet the needs but I am now under pressure to make a move and do something.
VSO advises that countries and cultures are usually slow to change but here in China there's an extra dimension. The schools themselves - by which I mean the leaders, who aren't actually (and have never been) teachers - are keen for fast change, but those who actually have to implement the changes (the teachers) are much less keen. This causes problems for me as I obviously want to see things moving, but my main empathy is for the teachers and I want to support them at a pace that's right for them.
I did my first "English Corner" today - a group for the English teachers which aims to help them improve and grow more confident in spoken English - by organising a 40 minute chat on a specific theme. I wanted them to choose the theme but was told it was best for me to choose the first theme as they wouldn't know what to choose (and would therefore choose nothing.) I chose "Chinese and UK festivals" as a neutral theme that would allow us both to know each other's cultures better. I also chose the group that I knew would chat best (Grade 9 rather than Grade 8 or 7) but I still found that all the effort was on my part and that they were passive. Even when it came to them telling me about Chinese New Year, they still required prompts and questions to speak to me.
As one of my key objectives here is to make the students active learners, I worry how that can happen when even the best of teachers here aren't active learners themselves and therefore are going to find it very difficult to encourage their students to be...
I must say that, in general, what a Chinese teacher classes as busy would make a Scottish teacher laugh. They teach two (identical) 40 minute lessons a day to the same two classes each day of the week and the rest of the time they simply mark homework and write out a lesson plan which they don't follow.
My first workshop (on Enthusiasm and Motivation) is at the start of December and although I've told the teachers that the "enthusiasm" is for the students, it's at least as much as, if not more so, aimed at the teachers!
I'm also very lucky in my office. I share with three others, my translator (a university student teacher who is taking advantage of the chance to improve her spoken English (but who's sadly only here till Feb) and two 30 something female staff ( one who has been put in charge of the "foreigner" as she speaks a little English - and wanted the job) and one who is in charge of the Communist Youth League - still trying to find out exactly what this is...
We all get along great (although obviously half the time I don't know the finer points of what's going on - not helped by the fact that the Youth League Rep speaks no English whatsoever.) There's quite a "girly" atmosphere in the office, which I'm taking advantage of, and I'm now quite competent in offering compliments on clothes/shoes/hair in Chinese!


I know this is a terribly out of focus shot but I like it cos it it represents my office: minus 4 degrees inside - Ms Zhuang and Ms Yang warming up with their electric heater - me with my electric hot water bottle - snow outside - and a girly bonding session!