WE ARE FAMOUS!!! (In China)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-08/19/content_8585894.htm

Heading Home!

We are off to the airport in an hour! We are definitely excited to go home, but will really miss this incredible country. We have been so fortunate to meet such wonderful people while traveling. They have taught us so much about their culture and their education system. We are excited to go home, get some good rest and then process this entire trip and see how we can implement what we have learned into our classrooms.

And thanks for reading our blog!

Normal School #2

We had the honor today of meeting with an English teacher and Mr. Li, the retired headmaster of Normal School #2 in Beijing, the Middle School attached to the most famous teachers college in the country. They showed us around their beautiful, modern campus (which included an observatory and an Olympic pool!) Mr. Li was the principal of Normal School #2 when Yutong, Ellie's family's

Chinese exchange student from when she was four, attended the school
in the early 80's. The school has a partnership with The Sidwell
Friends School in Washington DC, which Ellie and her sisters attended
and where her mother taught. Yutong lived with the Terry family for a year, and
met Mr. Li twenty-two years ago. It was really special to reconnect
on his campus and for him to show us the tree that was donated by Sidwell
Friends. Yesterday, we spent the morning with Yutong's parents and
her English-speaking cousin and neighbor, everyone gushed over the
prestige of Normal School #2!!

When we asked the English teacher, Linda, one of our standard
questions, which was "How did you become a teacher?" she looked at us
and we knew we were about to hear a long complicated story. When she was 10, her
parents were sent to "camp" during the Cultural Revolution because
they were intellectuals. So we asked what she did when
they were sent away and she said she lived by herself (and her pet
chicken). She happened to befriend an English teacher and by the time
she was 17, she was teaching English to 1st graders. She eventually
went to college and became an English teacher to high schoolers, which

is what she has been for the past 30 some-odd years. Twenty years
ago, she spent a year as a public high school Chinese language teacher
in Olympia, Washington and has since created a teacher exchange
program there! As we have found with most teachers, she is energetic,

thoughtful, reflective and loves what she does. This school seems to
have a lot of the same amenities as a strong private high school in

the U.S. Students seem to be encouraged to express themselves
creatively through the arts and projects - - and Linda explained that
this school is much more progressive about their instruction -- moving
away from rote memorization and towards discussion and
discovery-based learning.

Ariel, Ellie's friend from Wesleyan, accompanied us on the tour. She
is working as a journalist for China Daily -- an English language
newspaper in Beijing. So look out for an article about us on
newstands across China!

The Most Positive Break-Up in History!

So our booking secretary (a.k.a. ourselves) made a mistake and double-booked us Tuesday night. At 11 am we realized that we had two dinner meetings, one with a teacher who has been teaching in Beijing for 30 years with her old student and his friend, and the other meeting with a graduate student at the University of Geo-sciences and his friend, who was an undergraduate math major.

We decided the only solution was to divide... and research!

Ellie's report: I braved the subway on her own and traveled to the University area of Beijing. I met up with Pengliang, a twenty -four year old graduate student who was also in charge of student affairs and his friend, Songpu, who is a nineteen year old Math major. They took me for a tour of a campus, showing me the outside of the teachers' dorms and then the much nicer student dorms -- and then to a traditional Chinese restaurant where I tried everything! Pengliang is a friend of Isabelle's, the woman who runs the English language program in the rural village of Fengyang that we visited. The three of us spoke about the Chinese education system, Math, College, the one child policy, and the Olympics.

Pengliang grew up in a small village in the northeast of China, and has always been very driven to go to college and be successful. At some point, he realized that his life had been all study-study-study, and he had not "interacted with society" enough. He translated an old Chinese saying, "If you walk 1,000 miles, it is much better than reading 1,000 books." He then began working for a gap year organization on the weekends, where he helped British students explore China during their gap years. Now, as a grad student, he works as a dean for first year undergraduates, where he counse -ls students who are having a hard transition. I thought I would get the juicy dirt on Chinese college students- but quickly found out that -- in his opinion -- a hard transition meant that the 18 year old Freshmen were spending too much time playing video games at the Internet cafe and not enough time on their studies. Both young men were serious about school. Pengliang explained that his parents were farmers and they wanted him to have a different life -- one where he worked in an office and wasn't physically exhausted at the end of the day, one where he made more money and was able to better support his family. Songpu, who went to the Middle school that is on the same street as our hotel, explained that Chinese children have one task -- to study. "As a math major," he said, "my life is study, study, study. I study and go to bed at midnight, then I wake up at 5 and study." He said it was the same for his roommates. When I asked about the future of Education in China, they said they were optimistic that it was improving in a way that teachers were becoming better trained and more educated because now it is more common for people to go to university. Most of Pengliang's teachers had not gone to college, but now the teachers at that school have gone to teachers' college. The boys also spoke of Barack Obama with high esteem, but made a good observation- "Obama speaks about how far America has come in 100 years. What about China? We've been progressing for thousands!"

Aneal's report: I went to have traditional Beijing Snacks with Chris (the teacher) and her old student Will and his friend Annabel. Who knew that traditional Beijing Snacks include cow stomach? (Ellie really missed out on that one!) We had an amazing conversation about the education system in China. Everyone agreed that the Chinese education model was incredible to a certain extent, but lacks in helping students develop a sense of creativity. Their fundamentals are rock-solid, but everyone said that students have a hard time solving problems that are practical because many of them are solving problems without really knowing why they are solving them the way they are solving them. I told them that my students lack a lot in terms of basic skills, but not in terms of creativity. We decided that if we could some how merge the intense cultural expectation and non-stop practice of the Chinese education system with the creativity and discovery model of the American education system that we would have some really incredible thinkers and problem solvers in this world. Now we just need to figure out how to do that....

"Cable car up, Toboggan Down!"

Sounds like the trip plan at a amusement park, right?

How about the Great Wall of China?!

When deciding which section of the Great Wall to go to, we made the decision based on one thing -- a toboggan ride.

Welcome to China in the 21st Century. Things have become so touristy that you can go on a super fun ride, even when you are at one of the 8 wonders of the world.

It was really incredible being here. It is something that we have seen pictures of our whole lives, and to actually stand on the Great Wall of China was pretty spectacular. We had a hard time walking up and down the stairs (after we took the cable car up the mountain) so to imagine the construction of the wall is mind-boggling.

Xi'an Adventures

We just arrived in Beijing after a wonderful visit in Xi'an. We were able to visit the Terracotta Warriors and the ruins of a local matriarchal village before meeting with Emily and Frank, our contacts in Xi'an. Emily is in school to become a teacher and Frank helps run a program that gets foreign teachers to China to speak English. We had another fascinating conversation with them about why the math education in China is so different than in the US.

But first.... The Terracotta Warriors

This was totally insane! Some crazy little kid back in the day who happened to be the emperor of China decided that for his death he wanted life-sized clay soldiers to protect him in his afterlife (or while he still continued to rule from the dead). He also invited the jesters, the servants, the cooks and the concubines (only if they were constructed of clay). Each soldier (there are 6,000 in one section) has distinctive facial features, some are skinny and some have beer-bellies.

We also learned that going to one of the wonders of the world in China on a Saturday is a pretty bad idea if you want to maintain any piece of your sanity. We were mauled over by old Chinese women countless times. But braving the strong 80 year-old ladies was worth it. So much of the museum makes your jaw drop, especially when you see things like the detail in the bottom of some soldier's shoe and then remember that they were all buried for centuries!

We have been talking about how we can make a math unit based on the Terracotta Warriors. Some ideas include having kids "construct" a shrine for themselves. They would have to figure out the cost of materials, the area they would need to create their shrine, the cost of employment and the amount of time they would need to make it. We hope to collaborate with a Social Studies teacher to create this project.

Back to our conversation about math... we met up with Frank Liu, a friend of Autumn's, a tour guide we had met in Guilin. Frank works for the Bruckland Group, an organization that trains foreign English language teachers in the cities of Guilin and Xi'an and then places them in rural schools. He brought us presents of Chinese math textbooks and invited us both to return to China as English language teachers -- next summer?!?

Frank brought Emily, a young math teacher in training at one of the many universities in Xi'an. She spoke to us about her training in the Xi'an primary schools and her plans of having her own classroom soon. We looked through the textbooks together, admiring their simplicity in comparison to our huge, hard-covered, glossy, and unnecessarily distracting American textbooks.

We asked Emily what kid of teacher she hopes to be -- "strict, of course" she responded. In many of our conversations about math education on this trip, the people we have spoken with have highlighted the intense nature of education in this country -- using adjectives such as "shame," "strict," and "pressure." Emily comes from a family of four, a large family by Chinese standards, and explained that she is one of 2 children who have gone on to college away from her small rural village. For her parents, going to college was not possible -- so it is a big deal for her family and community that she is going to become a teacher in the city.

When we asked Emily where most of the pressure comes from, she said "the mother, definitely." I (Ellie) was able to connect to that fact after many parent-teacher conferences where the Chinese mother asked their child, whose head was usually down, "Why do you have a 93% and not higher?" We spoke about the focus on education in the Chinese household -- how most children do not have household responsibilities such as cleaning or looking after their younger siblings -- their responsibility is their studies. I feel that I understand my Chinese-American students and the pressure they are under better after this trip.

We also asked her about something that we had been very curious about the entire trip -- the potty training rituals! Children under the age of two wear pants that have no inside seam -- it works as a slit. As tiny babies, the mothers use napkins to cover their bums -- and as the baby grows and the mothers learn their children's body rhythms, they know when the baby has to go to the bathroom. The mothers whistle when they know their baby has to expel and they then set the baby on the ground (very Pavlov) -- sometimes at the side of the street or on top of some spread-out newspaper. In short, there are no diapers. Babies' bums are viewable and there is much less plastic waste in the world. We saw this as very symbolic of the Chinese culture -- the children rise to the expectations of their parents. In America, children often wear diapers and pull-ups way past their third birthdays -- parents would hear about this Chinese practice and think -- my kid could never do that. The same goes, we believe, for math. Children are capable of a lot more than we give them credit for -- they are teachable and ready to learn. These babies are happier not walking around with a soggy diaper, just as the teenagers do their math homework without complaining and are able to tackle American college-level mathematical concepts at an earlier age.

Holding Baby Pandas in Chengdu

(7/23)

We don't think we need to say any more. Look at the pictures!

The No. 13 Middle School of Guilin

(7/21/09)

Today in Guilin, with the help of our English speaking contact, Autumn, we were introduced to a middle school math teacher and dean, Zhao Gui Hai (who claims that his American name is "Ocean"). We met at the school for a tour and a discussion about math education, school schedules, teacher responsibilities, discipline and behavioral issues, and a lesson in Chinese morning exercise. We were also able to meet the Chinese teacher, Ying, who joined us in our conversation.

Zhao explained that their school, No. 13 Middle School, is a "model" school -- it is what other schools strive to be like in terms of their structure, buildings, and instruction. The school houses 900 students in grades "one" to "three." School begins each day at 7 am (with a negligible number of late students) and they have 8 45-min periods. After 3rd period, the students go to the courtyard to do the "morning exercises." They said that in their school days, the exercises were a kind of synchronized stretching, but these days they are more dance-like. We got a mini-lesson. We discussed how our students do not get much opportunity to exercise during the day and often come to school not having eaten breakfast. At their school, all students go home for lunch and a nap! When they return, they do "eye exercises" -- which seem like mini-meditation/massages you to with your thumb and forefinger to your temple/sinus/eyes -- we tried it, it was very relaxing. When the "eye exercises" have commenced, the students are instructed to look outside into the green area of the courtyard -- then they are alert and ready to learn!

We asked Zhao why he thought his students were good at math and he responded, "They're not!" Hmmm, we wonder what he would say about our students. Autumn, Ying and Zhao all think that the reason Chinese students are the way they are (which in America, we would call "good") is because of the pressure and expectations of everyone around them. The parents, the teachers, the administration and all of the students in the class expect their peers to perform at a certain level. If a high performance level is not achieved, the students are shamed by members of the educational community (which as we wrote above, seems to be everyone). We asked if any of the students had drug or alcohol problems and everyone responded "no." They were surprised to hear that the duties of the teachers in the States frequently were unrelated to the subject that they teach. It was a fascinating look into the school system here and we are excited about our next school visit in Xi'an!

Fengyan Village

We had an incredible day today! As we mentioned in our previous post, we met a couple from Sweden who are volunteer English teachers in a rural village about 1.5 hours from Yangshuo, where we are currently staying. We had a driver pick us up around noon and we were off on our adventure, a true adventure considering the driver didn't even know where the village was because it was not on the map. So he made several stops along the way and screamed something along the lines of "Which way to Fengyan Village?!" in Chinese. (We both like the way he operated because that is how we have gotten around this country, but instead of yelling in Chinese, we show them a piece of paper that says the name of the place we are going in Chinese characters and follow people's hand directions til the next block, when we do it all over again.)
We turned on a TINY, (or should we say tiny) road and then waited for our friend to show us the way to the volunteer English teachers' house. Every student there has some sort of English training, so while waiting for our friend, a two-year old yelled, "Hello, bye bye!" at us several times. We were given a tour of the volunteer house which was a beautiful old house with nice renovations. Then we went down to the swimming hole and got a bit of the history of the village. We passed old brick houses with chickens running around and ducks mating and old old cars beeping past us.
After our mini-tour, we went to school. Our friend Caroline was teaching a lesson on travel. The students were very different than our students on some levels (they were quiet when we were talking and they had all brought paper and a writing implement), and similar in others (general 14 year old apathy). They introduced themselves and told us their age, hobbies and favorite food. There was a lot of "basketball" and "rice". We got to introduce ourselves and talk a little bit about where we were from. Then the students wrote down their answers to "Where you would like to travel and why?" There was a lot of "America" because of "the NBA". Many of their other answers reflected the presence of the visiting volunteer teachers -- "Australia" and "Canada" and "hamburgers" were also popular.
We were drawn to the 2nd floor where the 4 and 5 year olds were singing the alphabet and going through the numbers 1-10. We know what it is like when visitors come in so we waited until they got to 10 and walked in and recess was called. Heads turned and "HELLOs" were screamed and Ellie took her camera out and complete chaos ensued. Ellie was attacked at the door with peace-signs and jumping children who could not wait to get their picture taken. Ellie did a little jump rope with everyone jumping around her. It was time for them to get back to class so we handed each of them a "I HEART NYC" pencil and they all said some version of "thank you" to us.
We headed back to the volunteers' house (equipped with Western toilets and mosquito nets) and had a delicious home-cooked meal. There were many volunteers from the UK doing their gap year with the program, which is ever expanding -- two new volunteers were entering as we left!
This program just started in February, but it is off to an awesome start and is in the great hands of two passionate people, Leo and Isabella. Check out their website at http://www.thegreenlion.net/.

Yangshuo, An English Language Educational Hub

From observation, Yangshuo seems to be an educational hub -- many English-language schools with white-international-just-out-of-college/uni twentysomethings running around with teams of Chinese schoolchildren in matching neon colored t-shirts asking the tourists "Do you have time to help us? What is your name? What is your favorite food? Do you like China?"

Yangshuo is very Westerner-friendly, we found a bar/restaurant that only plays country music and serves a dozen different types of hamburgers. It makes sense that English language schools would pop up here, where the streets can serve as a classroom for the eager Chinese students. Furthermore, volunteer English teachers from all around the world can live here comfortably and enjoy the hostel/backpacker culture in the evenings while they teach during the day. The children we met on the street with their teachers explained that they do not live in Yangshuo, but are staying here for the summer to learn English -- sort of like a summer camp.

We meet a Swedish couple on the bus to a light show (a popular tourist activity that was created by the same team that did the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Summer Olympics) who are volunteer English teachers in a rural village 1.5 hours from Yangshuo. We are planning to be guest teachers at their program on Monday afternoon! Check their program out at http://www.greenforce.org/expeditions/china_adventure.htm.

We are making the best of the Swine Flu-forced closings of the programs we originally planned to visit and are finding opportunities to visit schools and learn about the Chinese educational system everywhere we go -- being friendly and curious goes a long way here!

Pedaling to a Local School

Today we asked a tour guide to help up set up a school visit! Sam, the tour guide, led us on his motorbike as we pedaled bicycles through the city and along a highway (where we demanded to stop and purchase bright yellow and red construction helmets -- what the locals use for motorbike helmets -- we are so local!) and rice paddies to a local primary school. While the school was not open for students, the headmaster gave us a tour! The school housed 46 students, ages 6 to 12. The students come from five of the neighboring villages and, while classes do not start until nine in the morning, the students often arrive at seven because they love being there so much.

The headmaster, who was also the Chinese and English teacher, lived on the campus of the school and presented the staff room and classrooms with pride -- not to mention the ping pong table!

Just beyond the school was a public park where you could walk up 835 steps to the "Moon Rock." There was a beautiful view of the river valley and we met a local teacher there who explained that many of the teachers in the Yangshuo area travel to the village from more rural areas for work, and then return home for the summer.

SOOOOOFT Sleeper Train Ride

(7/16/09)

So we realized we were in China for real today. We went to the train station in Shenzen, right across the border from Hong Kong, and about 400 Chinese people were staring at us and few people spoke English. We just kept showing our ticket (which was all in Chinese) to anyone that would read it. They sort of pointed and yelled and eventually we found ourselves in the "soft sleeper" waiting lounge, which was quiet and cozy and smoky. We eventually rushed to the train when someone yelled "Guilin" at us. We walked into the train and saw our room. Ellie got stuck because she and her bag couldn't be in the 4-person room at one time. We remedied that eventually, after much laughter. We bunked with Jackie, a tour leader for a travel company (we know, lucky) and a local who ate soup loudly at 1 am. That train rocked us to sleep! (although "soft" is a bit of a misnomer... think "softer than steel, but not by much...") By 7 am we were in Guilin. When we got out of the train station, we realized that everyone LOVES to say "Hello" to us everywhere we go. We toured around Guilin during the day and met up with an English speaking contact (Autumn) after dinner who attended local schools in Guilin. We were fascinated with what she had to say about math education and we are going back to Guilin on Monday to meet up with a local math teacher. We are super excited about this.

A couple of things she said about math education in our conversation:

-When asked, why do you think the Chinese are known for being good at math? she said that they just did math, they didn't know they were "good at it, until now."

- Students followed the teacher with no questions asked

- Students wait to be called on

We are meeting again with Autumn on Tuesday the 21st and we are meeting one of her math teacher friends!

MAINLAND CHINA BOUND!

(7/15/09)

Sorry for the pause in our postings! Here in mainland China, blog websites and Facebook, etc. have been blocked since the Xinjiang riots and subsequent crackdown. But we found a loophole: e-mailing our posts home and having them put up, UNCENSORED, from a US computer! Magically, Flickr has not been blocked, so the pictures will keep coming.

We spent one last morning in Hong Kong and decided a good way to say goodbye was to visit the BIG BUDDHA.

Lamma Island

On the recommendation of Leo and Shirley, we took a trip to Lamma Island. In the guide books, it is described as a small island where you can get away from the "hustle and bustle" of Hong Kong because there are no cars on the island and you can walk on an "easy" path from one side the the other.
Hmmm, this is not what we found. Immediately when we got off the ferry, we were nearly run over by bikers. Thank goodness they had those little "ring-ring" bells. Then the golf carts came careening towards us.
We decided to walk on the "easy" path to the other side of the island. Just check out the look on our faces in some of our pictures and tell us if you think that is the face of leisure. We rested our weary feet in the ocean, putting our backs to the industrial-factory-complex and looking instead at the life guard on his neat floating stand.
It was a really fun experience actually, but I am not sure it is possible to "get away from the hustle and bustle," but we'll keep you posted if that changes.
Oh! And we are off to Mainland China today after we go see the Giant Buddha. We will be on the top bunks of an overnight train tonight. Yeah, think about that one...and laugh!

When jet lag punches you in the face...

You don't update your blog. We meant to update our blog about our wonderful day yesterday, but it was physically impossible to wake up from our afternoon nap with enough time before meeting a friend for dinner.
SO.... sorry to keep you waiting, but we had another incredible day in Hong Kong. We met up with Shirley Mann, the current Director of Summerbridge Hong Kong and Leo Zen, a former teacher at Summerbridge HK and a current teacher in an all boys school in HK. Unfortunately, both of their schools were closed because of H1N1 so we weren't able to see their schools in action, but we had an incredible conversation with them where we learned a lot about the school culture here.
A couple of things that stuck out from our conversation:
-The students take exams at the end of their 10th grade year. If they pass those exams they are allowed to continue in high school and then have the chance to graduate from high school. If they don't pass those exams (which happens to a fair number of students) then they stop going to high school and join the workforce. However, this system is changing because they want to give everyone a chance to graduate from high school. As with every systematical change (as we well know in NYC) everyone seems a little stressed about it. Will the change affect the quality of education? Will the change give students who would not have otherwise gone one to higher education the opportunity to do so?
-The students who attend the Summerbridge program (check out their website tagged under "Our Supporters") were incredibly upset that the program was closed down for the summer. Summerbridge is a huge opportunity for these students. All of them are low-income students so without Summerbridge, they are kind of stuck at home for the summer without these catchup classes. It also seems like the sense of community that these students gain from attending Summerbridge is something that they really look forward to. It's like an intense academic summer camp that these students look forward to the entire year. Fortunately H1N1 will not last forever and Summerbridge will be open next year. (Sounds like a good enough reason come back!)
-Students love being the top student or really good students. They are pressured from their friends and family and schools to be great students. That is not something we frequently see in our schools. Leo Zen said said something to the effect of: In Hong Kong, you don't want to be the kid who is not good in class, it's the American equivalent to being bad at football.
- Leo teaches at the Diocesan Boys' School which he explained in an email "has a 140-year history in Hong Kong, and the philosophy of the school and its teaching practices have been influenced by an interesting mix of British colonialism, Asian culture, and progressive ideas in education." At this school, they teach both the local curriculum and the IB curriculum. He is chaperoning a school trip to Uganda this summer where 15 students and 3 teachers will travel there to build houses.
- Currently, there are three types of schools in Hong Kong.
1. Local "public" schools: They are government run schools where the students go based on where they live and they pay no tuition, but possibly school fees for uniforms and books. A portion of these schools are CMI (Chinese Medium Instruction), where all subjects are taught in Cantonese, except English. This is controversial because there are no Universities in Hong Kong that are CMI. Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School, however, is a government school that is not CMI.
2. DSS (Direct Subsidy School): It is the Hong Kong equivalent to a charter school, where the schools have more autonomy and are able to choose their own curriculum and decide on the pay scale for their teachers. Diocesan Boy's School, which was once a government school, is now a DSS school.
3. International Schools or ESF (English School Foundation): These schools are the equivalent of top American private schools, with International Baccalaureate and AP programs and all instruction in English.
-Because of the large number of students in a class (this is the first place that Ellie has not been able to impress anyone when she tells them she has 34 students in each class) teachers often use a microphone.
-Things like Special ED and IEP's do not really exist here, which is obviously a problem for some students.
-Students that move back to Hong Kong from the US often do poorly in their math classes.

There is such a cultural difference in the way education is viewed here. The top math student here is like the quarter back of an American High School. We think that is pretty indicative of what we are up against when we are teaching in our classrooms.

1st Day in HK

We arrived in Hong Kong safely last night and hit the ground running today. We started our morning with breakfast at a local place near our hotel. We decided to go there based solely on one thing: a sign in the window that said "English Menu's." We both ordered "scrambled egg sandwiches" which apparently in Hong Kong are "egg salad sandwiches." We both figured it was close enough. After breakfast, we walked to the bus and took it to the Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School to meet up with a few students. One of Ellie's current students (Oi Yee Liu) at The High School of Telecommunication, Arts, and Technology Brooklyn used to go to this school in when she lived in Hong Kong and she put us in contact with one of her friends who still attends this school. We met them at 9am but got there a little early so we were able to watch the students file into school in their white and blue uniforms. We both thought it was interesting to see how they individualize themselves, either by their bags or their hairstyles or the way they carry themselves.

The four students we met up with, Ludy (our main contact), Josephine, Marco and Stella were so wonderful to us. They were the school's prefects- friendly and polite and all had great developing personalities. Here are a few things we learned about their school:
There are 40+ students in a classroom
The school is for 12-18 year olds and there are about 1,120 students total.
They have about 1.5 hours for lunch and they are allowed to go out for lunch and hardly any of them are ever late getting back from lunch. When students cut afternoon classes, its to study for their final exams.
Instead of bells, they have music that plays between classes. (usually cartoon-type music unless its around the Chinese New Year or Christmas)
As Marco said, "We have demerits but don't have merits."

The students asked if we wanted to meet some math teachers and of course we got very excited. We went up to the staff lounge and one of our tour guides popped her head in the door to see if we could meet the native English teacher and some math teachers. We got to meet Annette, an English teacher from Australia and a math teacher, Mr. Herman Yuen. We talked to Herman for a while about what subjects he teaches. He teaches everything from 7th grade math to high level calculus. He gave us the final exam that he gives his high level students. It was some pretty tough math! But the whole test was in English and all the answers had to be in English.
After getting an incredible tour of the school, we went out for a snack with Ludy, Josephine and Marco. We asked them to take us to a restaurant that they would go to for lunch. I (Aneal) ordered the "Seasonal vegetables with Oyster Sauce" and Ellie ordered "Fish Ball soup." Marco challenged Ellie to picking up one of the fish balls with her chop sticks, which she did and then immediately dropped it back into her soup with a big splash. They also got a kick out of watching me eat my slimy (and unruly, according to me) vegetables with my chop sticks.
After eating we asked them how to say some important phrases in Mandarin. As they were giving me a tutorial (which wasn't going that great, but not because of them) Marco had an idea. He said we should write out what we wanted to say and they would translate it into Chinese characters. So now we have a sheet that will hopefully help us out when we get into an language-pickle.

The students helped us to the local MTR train station, where we had them help us put more money on our "Octopus Card" since we had an embarrassing tourist moment on the bus earlier that morning. We exchanged e-mail addresses and presented them with Brooklyn tote bags and "I <3 NYC" keychains. When we asked Ludy if she liked her bag, she responded, "OF COURSE!"
It was very exciting to make the global Brooklyn-Hong Kong connection from student-to-student, it's a small world after all!

Final Preparations

After six months of grant writing and preparation, it's hard to believe that we leave for the airport in just 24 hours!

Tomorrow we are headed to Hong Kong (via Tokyo), where we will begin our adventure! We've packed our back packs full of light cotton clothing and I LOVE NYC pencils to give as gifts to our friends at the schools we visit. Our carry-ons contain dried fruit, nuts, no bottles of water, phrase books, picture dictionaries, and guidebooks so we can get excited on the plane!

As we say so-long to our friends and family, we feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity by Fund for Teachers to explore math education in programs and schools from Hong Kong to Beijing!

For those of you who are concerned, Ellie does in fact have an exit row seat and Aneal has found a paperback copy of Wicked.

We plan on updating our blog frequently with pictures, anecdotes, and reflections. So please visit and comment often, so we can share this experience with you!