Invited to Melaka!

We've been invited to Melaka in Malaysia, to speak about Malindi's Journey at the International Conference on Zheng He ( 郑和)   The conference title is: 


Zheng He and Afro-Asian World 郑和与亚非世界


We are two of  74 paper presenters in total, including people from Australia (2), China (36), Indonesia (4), Malaysia (7), New Zealand  (1), Panama (3), Singapore (3), Taiwan (9), UK (2) and US (7).  


After the conference we will travel to Singapore, and then Nanjing.  We depart on July 1, and will be blogging on our journey.  We are quite excited, and can't wait to begin posting our stories and lots of pictures!  


We are grateful to the Fund for Teachers for supporting our travel.  


Stay tuned!

Old Beijing, New Beijing

Greetings! Ni Men Hao!

On our second to last day in Beijing, we had the opportunity to do some sightseeing around Beijing. We visited some historical sites that represents the history of China, and some new sites that represent modern China.

Here are some pictures of some famous places around Beijing:

The most famous, of course, is the Great Wall!

How long is the Great Wall? Different sections were built in different dynasties by different emperors. What can you find out about how it was built?
Did it really keep the Mongols out?

Rooftops of Old Beijing

Old Beijing Hutongs (narrow lanes between the traditional houses)

Nine Dragon Wall

How many toes does each Dragon have?

Tian An Men Square (the Gate of Heavenly Peace)

Whose picture is in the center over the top of the front arch?

Forbidden City, Beijing

Beijing Opera

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Here is an important historical site that's not in Beijing, but we thought you should see it: Do you know who these soldiers are? Can you find out where you would go in China if you wanted to see them? How old are they? Who created them and why? What else can you find out about them?

Send us a post to this blog when you find out!

Through your research online and in your school library, you can find more pictures and information about these sites and their history. One day you can visit them, too!

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Now for some sites from new Beijing:

You can still see the rooftops of some old traditional buildings inbetween all the tall modern buildings!









In many parts of Beijing, there are more cars and buses than bicycles now!

We visited a large local department store...

Then we went to visit the sites of the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

We were so excited to see:

The "Bird's Nest" where all the track and field events were held!

We had to buy tickets to go in...

And it was really fun to be inside!

Right across the plaza was the Water Cube, where

all the swimming events were held!

It looks like big water bubbles! And when it lights up at night, it

turns different shades of blue. Very beautiful.

Here you can see the Water Cube and the Birds Nest, both lit up for the nighttime.

Teachers: Here are three great websites your class should check out for more Global education projects:

www.iearn.com

www.Oneworldclassroom.com

www.asiasociety.org

This is our last post for our trip to Beijing. However, in August 2009, Alicia be travel to the International Reaing Association Conference in East Africa. She will be meeting lots of teachers from around the world, and will be writing and posting pictures here to this blog! So, check in with this site in August for updates from East Africa and Dubai!

And please write to us and post comments - tell us how you are using the blog, and what you are learning about China!

We hope to hear from you soon.

Zai jian! See you again!

Alicia and Lucy

School visits in Beijing

Friday, October 24, 2008

We visited the teachers’ room at the Dandelion school. In China, teachers do not have their desks in the classroom, they each have their own desk in the teachers room. This is where teachers who teach the same subject can meet during their planning periods between classes, and work together, share information and plan lessons.

Dr. Zheng showed us a chart that the students made as they discussed qualities that woul lead to success for themselves and for their school.

Our last two days in Beijing, we had a wonderful opportunity to visit two schools: one elementary and one middle school. Both schools are for children of migrant workers. Both schools are extraordinary, and each is led by a school director and staff of teachers who are all committed to the mission of their school and their work with the students.

We posed for a picture with staff at the entrance to the Dandelion School.

The art teacher at the Dandelion School paints a student-designed mosiac at the entrance to the school.

Lucy, Dr. Zheng (school founder and director), Alicia. The painting artwork all around the school has been designed and painted by students!

We visited the Beijing Xingzhi New Citizen School, an elementary school for migrant children, and the Dandelion School, a middle school, also for migrant children.

Migrant means moving from place to place. Migrant workers are people who must move from place to place to find work to support themselves and their families.

In the United States today, migrant workers tend to be agricultural workers who move from place to place as the seasons change, based on the harvest time of certain fruits and vegetables. Almost 1.3 million U.S. citizens migrate between states to work and earn their living in the agricultural industry (PBS website, link below).

In China, migrant workers are typically people who leave their villages in the countryside to find work in the cities doing construction. They are considered migrant because they have left their home community, however, they may actually stay in the city for a much longer time. In Beijing, almost one million migrant workers live in Beijing, and built most of the tall new skyscrapers and the beautiful Olympics buildings that you saw on television this past summer.

In China, people have a hukou (hoo-koe), or residency permit, for the area where they live. The hukou allows them to find a house or apartment to live in, medical care, and schools for their children. Unfortunately, when people move from one place to another to find work, the government does not give them a hukou for the new city.
We could see that the schools that we visited, which are especially for the children of migrant workers, play an important role in the lives of the families. Some of the children live at the schools; at one school, both teachers and students live in dormitories. Both of the schools also had students who had been displaced because of the earthquake in Sichuan province. At one of the schools, the Director was sponsoring a young student from Sichuan province who had been orphaned.

Teachers:
For more information and background on migrant labor in the United States, check out the PBS website at http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/migrants.html

Also look for stories of Cesar Chavez, Black farmers, and others for literature connections on the topics of agriculture and migrant workers. A good children’s book is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan.

Language mini-lesson:

In Chinese language, the word for “study” is 学. In pinyin it is written “xué,” (shweh).
According to the site http://www.zhongwen.com/, an explanation of the visual meaning of this character is of hands reaching down through a roof (covered mind) to teach.

From this one character 学, we get:

学 校

xué xiào: school

学 生

xué sheng: student

学习

xué xí: study

同 学

tōng xué: classmate, schoolmate

Here's a different, but important word:

老师

lǎo shī: teacher

Students stay in their classrooms and teachers come to them. Students had their own desks where they can keep all of their books and supplies.

Left: Lucy poses for a picture with a student in a Math English class. His jacket says "40 Acres and a Mule Productions" - Spike Lee's company!

Center: Boys in the class wanted to know our favorite sports. Theirs is...basketball!

Right: We posed for a picture with the 8th grade class.

The Library at the Dandelion School is brand new, and has been supported by donations from teachers who have traveled to China with Primary Source in Watertown. The picture here shows an entire bookshelf full of books donated to the school by Boston teacher Kevin Freeley.

At both schools, students work together to run many parts of the school; they help keep the school clean and beautiful by designing and painting murals; they cook and serve lunch together, they run the library, and participate in other activities that keep the school going.

One school got a recent donation of computers, and these are being set up in a separate computer space in the library.

Mr. Huang, Director of the Xing Zhi School gave us a brief introduction to the founding of the school.

Mr. Huang has been commended in the local newspapers for the work of his school.

Students start the school day with group exercise: marching to music.

Alicia and Lucy march along!

At many schools in China it is common for students to wear uniforms, but at these two particular schools students do not wear uniforms.

Student work was displayed in lots of places; one school had the “Wall of Peace” , a sort of graffiti wall, where students express themselves freely; here students write words and pictures that tell of their hopes and dreams for the future.

"I hope....." (wǒ xī wàng....)

Both schools had their own art studios, where students had an opportunity to create their own art. Both art teachers we met are also artists, and devoted to teaching their students. We saw students learning paint, using many different techniques. They used regular and colored pencils, watercolor, sketchbooks, and large paper. We saw students work that included many practice sketches with pencil, and finished works that represented scenes from students’ lives and experiences.

A young artist with her painting in the Xing Zhi school art studio.

One day we hope that some of our students from Boston can visit China, and these schools - then you can write a blog and tell us about your experiences and new friends!

再见!
zài jiàn! (see you again!)

Lucy and Alicia