middleschoolkingdom

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“I’ve never had so much fun studying Chinese!” - S “I have to really pay attention!” - T3

What happens when you can’t hide (and daydream) in a class of 40.

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First day of school without brothers! 4th grade, here we come! #almostlate #notimetotieshoes #brothersaresleepingin

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As you can see from our silly video, we've decided to opt out of the China school system for Trey and Sean and give "homeschooling" a go. It's important to caveat that, however: we're hiring two tutors, one American and one Chinese, and they will be primarily in charge of their education for the next year or more. There were a bunch of things that have come together to help us think that this is the right risk to take. Trey had a tremendous year for his first year of middle school and did very well academically. However, the days were grueling, and while it was a tremendous cultural experience, we've come to think that the academic content was so driven by the high school entrance exam that even topics like Chinese were not as useful (which primarily focused on classical Chinese and not on refining writing and reading ability like what is done in the US context). We actually think that hiring a tutor will allow their Chinese to further advance. Nor did Trey particularly like school, and while he got along with his classmates, he left there with really only one close friend, the only other American with whom he can stay in touch. One flip side of Trey doing so well made us think that he could better spend his time challenging himself with topics he was more interested in. On some level, we felt that the extensive time commitment of Chinese middle school wasn't worth it. It was really a big commitment for us all, and we ultimately want more flexibility and time with our kids before they grow up! A few other things fell into place: Terry's old IUP teacher was up for teaching them Chinese, which means that we have someone who had taught Chinese at Yale and Middlebury who can teach them five hours a week. In addition to being a great teacher, she's also a ton of fun (and to the extent the boys are like Terry, she'll be able to handle them). Also, Terry's sister, a principal of an elementary school in Beijing, was wanting a change. Putting together curriculum is her specialty, and this will allow her to do something exciting with her nephews while also doing a few other things. The cost of all this, while more than the local Chinese option for middle school, is still way cheaper than other international or bilingual options that would be prohibitively expensive. While we ultimately felt that the time was right, we cannot emphasize enough how grateful we are for Trey and Sean to have had their first years of school entirely in the Chinese school system. Mia has three more years, and she'll continue at a local school where she has great teachers and good friends. On to the next adventure! #homeschoolroad #americathebeautiful2019 #middleschoolkingdom

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The list of English mid-term scores. Everyone knows their rank and teachers have no issue with using these lists to “strongly encourage” better parenting. T3 isn’t on this list. He said it might be demoralizing to the other students since English is his first language. In actuality, he’s not on any of the lists. When I asked why, no one could give me a reasonable answer. I’m thinking they don’t want his scores to mess with the class average (he tends to be an outlier -- he got the top math score of the class, but failed Chinese politics).

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M’s teacher asking me to sign a permission slip for a free dental procedure offered at the school. I asked one of my colleagues what it meant and she wasn’t sure either. #lostintranslation

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Public shaming on the parent WeChat group.

Apparently there’s an app in China that was originally created as a homework help tool but is now seen as crowd-sourcing answers for copying. 

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Math for our kids is really much more about Chinese. I know S’s class is talking about reducing fractions, but that’s the extent of what I understand from this open class. 

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Generally, we’ve asked our kids’ English teachers if they can just do their Chinese homework or read quietly in the back on their own. Occasionally they get recruited to be 小老师 (little teachers). 

One of the activities in English class this semester was to work on their spoken English through the performance of little skits. The teacher posted them to WeChat and asked all of the parents in the school to vote for the best performance. Our performance got the most votes (1123). I don’t think it had to do with the fact that a native English speaker had the most lines. I think one of the other moms has the most WeChat friends.

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One of the responsibilities of the “class monitor” is to lead the class in eye exercises. What does this mean? It means calling people out when they aren’t following the recording from the loudspeaker.

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This was fun. If you haven’t checked it out yet, The Hutong is Beijing’s premier culture exchange center. Ask for Marissa.

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Back to school! Grade 6, 5, and 2 -- last year where all 3 are on the same campus...

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Open house for M. While much of the class was recitation, kids were given a chance to express some creativity by drawing pictures of sections of the text, role-playing, and “working in small groups”. Participation (volume of text reading and reciting) was reinforced by the teacher praising each team (and moving their magnet across the scale on the board).

My daughter is one of the class monitors. She is leading the class in their eye exercises (https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/04/21/chinese-children-rub-eyes-to-improve-vision/. The reason why her eyes are open? She’s checking to make sure that everyone is doing what they ought to be doing. She’s been told that she needs to call students out if they are not following instructions. 

I always wonder if class monitors are liked. Our oldest is also a class monitor and he says that the students are not bothered by him calling our their infractions. Why? “I suppose it’s because the role is clearly defined, and the ones who get called out have been called out for years.”

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Happy Easter!

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Ballet Saturdays!