chongqing -- a chance to teach

[Anonymous]

I want to show this video to my students and I already sent the link to my Principal because it is so timely. So many of us complain about too much emphasis being put on the CSTs and having to "teach to the test"...WOW, we are on easy street compared to Chinese educational goals! Very intense! I was interested to hear how they are concerned about suicides committed due to the tremendous pressure of the exam and of the burden of carrying the futures of your whole family on your back!

[Anonymous]

For the school highlighted to be a public school, this video content was quite impressive. Still though, the annual tuition of $2,200. was likened to the average Chinese annual salary. This means that although some scholarship is available, it truly must keep some potentially strong students from being able to attend.
The expectations of your only child making it through this entire process has much to do with assuring that your family is "set" for life and old age. Gosh, no pressure there, huh? My students have hopes and dreams, and often talk of helping their parents, but there is no "maybe" in this setting. The interview with author Vanessa Fong, after the video, clarified for me that this intense level of competition has merely intensified due to the 1 child per family. If everyone is supposed to succeed, and there is only one child per family, there is an even more competitive need to succeed and gain the security for your family. If your kid doesn't cut it, you don't have kid number 2, 3,4 to give it a shot. And, with only a 3% acceptance rate to the top tier colleges, the competition is incredibly fierce. I enjoyed the Principal speaking to his faculty about bonuses for teachers for acceptances to the most prestigious colleges, encouraging them to keep the rigor up, but later on, he is asking for their extra attention to any students scoring poorly on the routine exams, as there has been a suicide reported at another school. The personal/social part of counseling was a blip on the screen, compared to the rigor of the academics and rote learning.

[Anonymous]

My 20 minute lesson will be from my photography class.
The power of visual impact, how to prepare your photograph for the del mar fair.

I have loaded up my bag with about 50 photographs that my students have taken this year. It is my hope that I can have a room either with a large table in the center or we are able to push all of the desks together so we can layout all of the images.

Lesson: How to pick the winner at the Del Mar Fair?

a. Introduce my self and my roll as a digital photography teacher.
b. The importance that we at ECHS put on competition.
c. What is the San Diego county fair
d. How important the county fairs are in American history and culture.
e. Explain the rules of choosing the winning photograph.
f. Explain the bonus assignment, what is the common thread between all winning or popular photographs?
g. Allow students to look at images and discuss the which one is the best.
h. Students have narrowed down to several, then they are asked to explain why they chose that particular image.
i. Pick final image, closing statement and give away all of the photographs.
j. take group picture with winning image.
edited by jdarrough on 6/23/2012
edited by jdarrough on 6/23/2012

[Anonymous]

I want to teach a class on the power of being an entrepreneur. Success is not a linear progression, a lot of times its taking advantage of an opportunity.

I forwarded the video to our executive director he is going to play it at a staff meeting.
edited by jdarrough on 5/11/2012
edited by jdarrough on 5/11/2012
edited by jdarrough on 5/11/2012

[Anonymous]

Students have to grow up faster than in America. They live in dorms away from home at a young age and study for 16 hours daily. Students are amazingly well behaved because of the importance of the tests in determining a students future. What could we learn from this to increase student effort, behavior, and manners in America. Did you see the piles of books on every student desk!!!

[Anonymous]

i have a study skills test prep lesson i could teach, designed by a SAT/ACT prep company.....what do you think? Maybe the students will have had way too much of that, but there are some more good tips to share.

[Anonymous]

After watching the video, I mentioned to my students about only having one chance to take and pass entrance exams to college and they decided that was unfair - what if you were having an off day? Is there anyway to put that video on a disc? (I am technologically challenged!!) If I bring a laptop to school, could I find a wireless network or does the school have to be hooked up? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

The prospects of teaching (even if it’s only a mini-lesson) in China are extremely exciting. I’m looking forward on hearing all the details and look forward to the opportunity of interacting with China’s future.

I found the documentary on the Gao Kao fascinating and could not help but reflect on our own profession. While the Gao Kao turns off many Westerners (and for many valid reasons), I could not help but admire the culture of education and the importance bestowed upon children’s education by the society. Make no mistake about it, in no way am I advocating for rote learning or for pushing our children to the brink of suicide because of high stakes testing, but instead of finding ways of better garnering our energies into greater buy-in on the value of education. The type of education that is critical and evaluative and creates higher levels of thinking.

Another thing I could not help but wonder as I viewed China Prep was whether students and families across all social lines, place the same type of emphasis and value on the Gao Kao and on education in general or is such drive found more in elite schools like the one depicted in the documentary?

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the link. I showed the video to my students in class.
Since we covered Chinese 4 philosophies this semester, I made a quick one day Cultural lesson about 'College Entrance Exam: we reviewed the methods, subjects and purposes of ancient Chinese 科挙 'Imperial' Exam included how they cheat (!), then compared that with our SAT in the US, 受験 Jyuken in Japan and the current Chinese exam system (the video). We found many similarities and differences among these testing systems.
I would like to research more historical facts and further develop this lesson to cultural perspectives, such as why they needed students to memorize materials? Whey they required students to study arts in the test? etc.
After 2000 years, why Korean, Vietnamise, japanese kept the same system?

(perspective of culture) Are they able to change their testing method from memory base to critical thinking?
As Kanji spread out along with Buddhism to all these neighborhood countries to all the way to even Vietnam,
this testing system went Whenever I touch this Imperial Exam, I can show my students this video and have them compare and contrast with modern Chinese test and Japanese and Korean, as well.

[Anonymous]

As our school's academic counselor, I find this time of year to be the worst. Students are stressing out over their AP's, stressing out over upcoming finals, stressing out over low grades that could mean being dropped from honors courses next year, stressing out.....

I spoke to my seventh graders about China Prep and the gao kao, and they were very interested in how the students in China deal with their stress. I told them that their parents make a lot of additional sacrifices for them such as cooking their meals and doing their chores, and they of course thought that was a great idea. I intend to show them part of the video as we prepare for our finals in the coming weeks. Maybe seeing other stressed out kids will make them feel better?

I looked up some stats regarding the suicide rate in China. It ranks among the highest with Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, and Hungary. In 2009, suicide was the number one killer of people between the ages of 15-34. In the rural areas, the suicide rate is three times that of the urban areas. 22.23 people in 100,000 commit suicide in China, as opposed to 11.8 in 100,000 in the US.

We aired The Road to Nowhere to our faculty and parents earlier this year, and the over all response was that we are pushing our kids ways too hard. But, at the same time, the question of how else would they make it into elite universities came up. No easy answers there.

[Anonymous]

I've enjoyed reading the conversations and questions people have asked from watching the documentary on the Gao Kao. A few years ago I had the privilege to travel and ask Moroccan middle school and high school students about their experience in their respective schools. The stress level was no way near those of the students in the film. Granted the school in documentary is one of the most rigorous and renown in China but as many of you who have posted mentioned the cultural legacy the exam has on Chinese society is a huge factor to consider to begin to understand why the students are the way they are in China. This definitely has to be taken into account when trying to compare this system to others in the world. I'm also interested in the question glopez asked if the same value or emphasis is placed on the Gao Kao across social lines.

I look forward to the conversations we will have with students from the schools we are planning to visit while in China.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know by when we will be given the details about the mini-lesson we are to teach?

[Anonymous]

I can teach students a Japanese culture of making a wish on thousand cranes, and show them how to fold a crane in Japanese. Then, we all wish their college exam as they do in Japan. I can prepare an Origami instruction in Japanese for students to follow as I show them how to fold a crane. At the end, hope they learn some Japanese as well. (Chinese students could guess the Japanese writing through kanji characters.)
How do you think? (Do they understand English? Do we have someone translating our lessons? or We need to use visuals to teach

[Anonymous]

I would think the Gao Kao has equal importance across all socio-economic lines in China. It seems like even more emphasis would be placed on it in lower socio-economic classes because success is viewed as a way out and up. I remember that we talked in class about how the military is seen as a way to improve your standard of living for many Chinese. I would think success on the Gao Kao is viewed with even more prestige.

[Anonymous]

I did finally get a chance to go on the website Dr. Dube recommended and check on historical temperatures in Chengdu. And for me Dr. Dube, it was better that you asked it in English. Average temperatures during the last month of June typically average around 84 degrees. The record highs for each day range from 91-98 degrees. Precipitation ranges from 0.05-0.07 percent. That sounds very dry. Is this a desert or something? For the first two weeks of July, daily temperatures average between 85-86 degrees. The record highs for each day range from 89-109 degrees. Precipitation ranges from 0.06-0.11 percent. Again, not much rain to speak of.

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