News update - February 2012

Hi, again! It’s February 19!

The sun is shining in Shenzhen today and it’s a welcome change from the past rain and cold during the last 3 months. It’s actually 64 degrees at the moment and there’s an expected high of 79 by Friday. Rain is not completely out of the picture, but by the looks of it, there will be less of it and more sun for the next couple of weeks. Rain, cold (40-55), and no sunshine are no fun when there isn’t central heating anywhere including my apartment. We are all blessed, however, that our classrooms are heated and the heaters have worked all winter!

I am growing accustomed to the noise of the streets below my apartment and the nocturnal disturbances of unhappy neighbors above me and to one side of me as well as the sounds of babies crying and horns honking at all hours. My neighbor, Family, has been living 4 hours from Shenzhen as he and his brother start up a new business making a machine that makes stationary and paper products. His wife, Janny, and their little boy, Xuan Xuan, as well as her mom continue to live next door. It is always more joyful for their family on weekends when Family is back home. Though our schedules don’t connect most of the time, a couple of weekends ago, Janny went with me to the open market (called a wet market) nearby and bought me a new kind of fresh water fish still swimming around in the tub. It was her New Year’s gift to me. She also shared her recipe with me. It was delicious! And of course, it was steamed! It is an expensive fish and when given as a gift it is highly regarded as a symbol of friendship. I am blessed!

I’ve decided to continue teaching at Buena Vista International School next year believing this is still the will of God for my life. Though adjustments have not been easy regarding life in Shenzhen and though the situation regarding the development of the school has been stressful, things are looking up. Some days are better than others, of course. The first year in Thailand was extremely difficult, too. In the end, I loved it there and could not see myself anywhere else in the world. Staying another year will help move me in that direction for China, too… for the sake of what God is and wants to accomplish through me, I must be faithful to this purpose.

In January, a new interim principal and his wife came to lead our staff of Chinese workers and American teachers. Todd and Janet Luedtke have been LCMS educators and headmaster in Papua New Guinea for years as well as the US and Concordia International School in Shanghai. Their expertise is proving very beneficial. The school officially has a policy regarding many things, which previous to their arrival, was non-existent. Welcome and needed changes, additions, and adjustments are being made across the board.

We have two new teachers. One is dedicated to teaching ESL both after school and with the lower functioning English learners. The other is serving half time as PE instructor and half time as a classroom Chinese translator/presenter of content being taught in grades 5-7. Wow, you say! What’s that all about?

As of February 20, the school will be using a different format and system for teaching. Because the student population is 100% Chinese with poor use of the English language with the exception of our two teacher’s kids, we are switching to bilingual classrooms as much as possible. Research shows that kids learning in both languages, both their 1st and 2nd language, learn not only content better but also the 2nd language. The students will have pre-teaching in Chinese, teaching in English, and summary in Chinese. Additional teaching if needed will also happen in both languages. The Chinese instructor for grades K-4 will also be spending her time in those classrooms teaching Chinese content and as mentioned above, the PE instructor will be spending afternoons in grades 5-7 combined lower level English learners. Students in all grades will continue to receive ESL though grades 5-7 combined lower level English learners will have two classroom teachers all day in addition to the ½ time PE instructor teaching content in Chinese. Their all day classroom teachers will be the new ESL instructor for those grades as well as the teacher who up to this point has been teaching grades 5-7 Social Studies and Literature.

Grade 5-7 will be divided into two groups as you may have guessed from my writings above. The lower level English learners and those more able to master content because English usage is greater. The woman who has been teaching Science and Math up to this point for those grades will now teach Math, Science, Social Studies, and Reading/Writing/Speaking/Listening/Grammar/Vocabulary to the upper level English learners.

How do I fit into all of this? I will continue to be the ESL teacher for Kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2, and Grades 3 and 4 as well as the upper level English learners in Grades 5-7. Grades 3 and 4 as well as Grades 5-7 upper level English learners have two English level groups. In addition, there are students from all those grade levels who need extra ESL time in pullouts which I will be able to do because I won’t be teaching the lower level Grades 5-7 or Grade 7 which was broken into three different groups before.

In my next letter, I’ll share how the new program is working for our kids. Our goal is to give them the best education possible based on their needs. It will take all of them at least 3-5 academic years to become proficient in the English language to the level of 1st language English speakers in the US. However, almost all of our students if studying school in Chinese rather than English would be the cream of the crop. Intelligent they are indeed! Their parents also push them hard and some seemingly merciless, too.

Behavior issues are common in some of the kids because both parents work (often out of the country or out of town) and these kids are raised mostly by nannies called “ah-eeys” or “aunties”. Some students have their own drivers. They all wear designer clothing when school uniforms are not mandated. Usually, however, school uniforms are the norm. Most students have ipads and iphone4s. By next school year, each student will be required to have Apple Mac Book Pros or Airs. Some students already have them and use them in studying while at school. Of course, teachers also have to monitor a few of the students who do not stay on task with their computers, iPads, and iPhones. IPhones are permitted as they have dictionary functions. Teachers confiscate these electronics just like in public schools in America for the day when caught being used for off task items.

I love my first and second graders the most as well as the upper level English learners. The upper level English learners are able to move faster and make more progress… so what’s not to love? It’s the same with my first and second graders… those little kids are sponges! They came to the school not knowing a word of English and now just over 100 days of school are creating complete sentences and phrases with correct English! They are not writing very well yet but that will come! They do well on their spelling tests and are reading better than some of my 3rd and 4th grade students! They know their phonics, too, and a bit of grammar as well… they can name all the nouns and verbs in sentences and can even define a homophone (and give examples)! The area where they have the farthest to go yet in terms of their grade level is in vocabulary, which stands to reason. As they read more and more books, their vocab will increase, of course. Little kids are so fun to be around. They are happy eager learners with such great attitudes!

The school continues to provide after school ESL classes for the students as well as Guitar, Choir, Art, a type of English Kung-Fu, and outdoor English games. ESL is offered to between 2-4 levels of English learners each day. The other classes mentioned are offered once per week. Art, PE, Chinese, and Music are also a regular part of the weekly school schedule as well. The kids play golf every Friday at the nearby golf course/club for that day’s 1 hour PE class. The club has its own golf instructors. (See note at end of letter.)

English Kung-Fu is a big hit with the kids. The instructor comes from Hong Kong. The rest of the after school classes are taught by the teachers. I teach two times after school and in addition, I tutor a student after school 1-2 nights per week. We also have a faculty meeting after school each Tuesday. Of course, it has taken a lot of extra time and meetings to get the new bilingual system in place for Feb. 20 but it’s been worth it for our kids!

Prayer Concerns:

1. For the students’ English to improve quickly for the sake of their academic success and forward movement in school.
2. For the Light to shine forth through me, the other Light teachers, and the new principal and his wife who are LCMS. The 2 new teachers hired recently to help with ESL, PE, and Chinese content are LCMS as are the two grades 5-7 teachers.
3. For a continued growing sense of contentedness in Shenzhen for all of us.
4. For a good friend for me… someone to “hang” with on the weekends or after school.
5. For the school and its continued development and progress.
6. For the school to obtain the needed government license so that we teachers can get teaching visas and permits.
7. For new teachers… anyone interested should contact Dr. Allan Schmidt at allschm@aol.com. Dr. Schmidt is the school’s LCMS consultant. He consults for all Asia LCMS related schools. My school is not LCMS, however, but rather LCHKS.

Note: Our new PE/Chinese content teacher is Italian, fluent in 5 languages, plays guitar and piano exceptionally well, is a great artist, is a wonderful cook, and excels in soccer and fencing! Chinese was his major in college and he speaks and writes it as well as the Chinese! He’s been living in China for 8 years already, too! The only thing we know about that he’s not good at yet is golf! Poor guy! Can’t be good at everything, right? His wife is surely blessed! ☺