Jiaotong Middle School

This blog entry has been composed collaboratively by Reid Clark, Sabrina Jahn, and Debra Evans. We are all Canadian high school student teachers, but here in Xi'an, China, we have been fortunate to work at a fantastic school called Jiaotong Middle School. The first few weeks we have taught English Immersion at the grade seven level. We will have experience at the grade eight level in our last week. Here is our story!

When we walk through the hallways as classes finish at Jiaotong Middle School, situated in the heart of Xi’an, a rush of students approach us. The students are extremely keen to engage in conversations with native English speakers like us. For many, this may be the only way or time for them to converse naturally in the English language. When it comes to teaching a class on Monday morning, there are no weary faces, but rather engaged faces that are keen to learn from us. This was noticeable from the first moments we walked into the classrooms here and received an overwhelming applause from the students and teachers. Here, we normally begin a class by stating, “Class begins,” which is followed by the students rising to their feet and proclaiming, “Hello Mr. Clark,” or “Miss Jahn,” or “Mrs. Evans.” Class also ends in the same manner. It is certainly different than what we are accustomed to in a B.C. classroom.

Teachers at Jiaotong are always looking to us in more ways than one. They want to know how they can develop their own curriculum similar to ours, and incorporate metacognitive reading strategies from such educational reading resources as Reading Power by Adrienne Gear. They want access to our lesson plans and PowerPoints, with the desire to learn all they can from us before we leave. They want us to attend their department meetings so as to learn about our reading comprehension methods. We must admit it feels like we are being treated as professional-educators rather than as student teachers. Unquestionably, and sometimes uncomfortably, we are venerated by many here.

We have already been complimented about some of the pedagogical strategies we have used thus far. The teachers have told us they have already tried using these strategies in their own classrooms, and happily report they have been successful.  In turn, our teaching has also been impacted as our cooperating teachers have guided us to address student-specific examples with an emphasis on the development of conversational English for English Language Learners (ELL).

We will never forget the people we have met, how they have welcomed us, and so seamlessly accommodated us into their school and classrooms. It is vividly apparent that students and teachers alike have a thirst to learn English, and believe that it is one way to advance in their competitive world. As growing professional educators, our daily experience within the teacher-centered classroom forces us to put our best selves forward. As we return to Canada we will bring with us the invaluable experience of this grand adventure. We now feel that we are becoming global educators.

 This has been very common. Students want to take pictures with us!

 Miss Jahn delivering one of her first lessons. We were required to teach the students about ourselves. Miss Jahn had a lot of fun discussing Justin Bieber and action movies!

 Every Tuesday we join the students on a basketball for English Corner. We play English language games. The court is a English only zone. They love it and so do we!

Mr. Clark got to deliver a presentation to the English Department. The topic was Readers Theater. He focused on articulation and expression of words. We had lots of fun. But this is also an example of how the teachers here think that we are professional educators. We are already delivering workshops!

Mrs. Evans, is always good at getting the students to sing. Here is her way of telling the students how she got to Xi'an. Can you guess how?

Thanks for reading!