Third Day in China

Greetings, Parker and Craig High Schools!  (Written by Chris Laue)

It is our third day in China- we are at the half way point in our journey and we have been busy almost every minute! 

Tuesday evening we met with staff from the JiangSu Broadcasting Company (JSBC) in Nanjing.  They are staring a new education channel and are looking to partner with schools across the world that have high quality high schools like Janesville.  Dr. Bjoin and Mr. Laue were interviewed for a future news show that will highlight schools that have international programs.  The JSBC is the largest broadcasting company in China.

Also on Tuesday evening, (which was Tuesday morning in Janesville) we connected remotely with Craig and Parker teachers during Tuesday morning professional development.  Another member of our team from Janesville, Dr. Smiley, is working to make it possible for our technology to connect us with schools across the world.  Our hope is to connect Janesville students studying world languages with teachers and students in the country they study!  We were excited to see teachers and tell them about the work we are doing.  Even though we are 13 hours away, we are still doing email, connecting with staff, and helping run Parker and Craig! 

A = Nanjing
B = Shanghai

Today we toured two schools- one in Nanjing and one in Shanghai (the cities are about 200 miles apart; we traveled by car and high speed train).  The school in Nanjing is also developing an international program. We talked with their principal about ways we could create opportunities for students from both schools to study abroad, make it possible for our teachers to share ideas, and support each other in improving how we prepare kids for life after high school.  The highlight of this trip was interacting with students.

We saw kids playing sports (basketball and volleyball), spoke to a class about what it is like to be an American High School student, and visited a computer class that was using Visual Basic, the same software we use in Janesville.  Students in China are very eager to have a "western" educational experience and attend our high schools and universities.  Perhaps the most thought provoking part of the visit was that the principal spoke about Nanjing being a “small country town”… It “only” has about one million people that live there!

We ended our visit in Nanjing and moved on to Shanghai, which is the second largest city in China and a major manufacturing hub. We toured the Far East School and met with students who came to Janesville last August to attend our district’s first International Educational Institute.  Dr. Bjoin, Mr. Laue, and Mrs. Brovick helped teach parts of the class… It was wonderful to visit students that we know and have them give a tour of their school.  The principal of Far East School, Dr. Chen, is interested in bringing a group of teachers to Janesville in the spring to learn more about western teaching.  

A = Shanghai
B = Lanzhou

We are finding that high school in China is much different than in America.  There is limited cooperative learning, little application and problem solving and a high level of memorization of facts.  I have a stronger appreciation of the great things our teachers do to make learning be interactive and alive at our high schools after watching many Chinese teachers in action this week.

Tomorrow we will fly to Lanzhou, which is in central China, four hours away by airplane.  Mr. Getka, who teaches computer science at Parker, is going to teach classes for a day and the rest of our group will present to students about American education and preparing for college.