One of the complications of running an American Program in a Chinese school is that the students still have a lot of activities that are cross-program. Ceremonies, Morning exercises, and some subject classes require that the kids understand some of the commands in Chinese. This week also began the registration for after school clubs and classes. We met with a lot of new subjects, and teachers this week, and got the kids addicted to Hide and Seek at lunches.

Lining up, crossing arms, and standing at attention during ceremonies, these are things that I had actually forgotten I’d need to teach the kids the Chinese words for. Where I had been teaching the English commands for these things, I needed someone to teach the Chinese terms. Luckily I have 2 ladies on my team, Ms. Zhao, and Ms. Qian, who knew that the kids would need these, and taught them for me. I’m still trying to remember the Chinese words myself for these and it is nice for someone else to help out.

Luckily, another member of my team, Shirley, took on the responsibility of registration for the clubs and activities. On Friday Morning, she had no idea about any of the programs and she deftly learned everything she could about the available classes, to help the children and their parents choose appropriate clubs.

The kids had a slew of new classes Including their first Show and Tells. Most of the students took the opportunity to tell us all about their Holidays. Almost all of them did it in Chinese, this week, which is fine, as standing in front of your class and talking for 2 minutes is a terrifying experience for most. We got to see a lot of cool things brought in from photos of their holidays to a basket of cloth flowers, to a bottle of Salt water from the sea. It was quite entertaining.

On Monday lunch time I played Hide and Seek with the children, but there seems to be some cultural differences between Canadian Hide and Seek and Chinese Hide and Seek. In Canada, 1 person is it. He counts, then tries to find the others. If they can get to the starting spot they are safe. The following game the first person found and tagged is the next “it”. The kids decided that if I caught them, they should catch people, and try to drag them over to me to catch the next person. I think we need to spend some time clarifying and talking about why this is a bad idea.

The kids had art and musical classes, and sports this week for the first time. They warmed up to the piano, singing and art teacher well. They learned how to handle rhythm and pace in a musical setting. They made hand painting pictures in Art Class. Some of the kids were not quite sure how to behave around Mr. Liu our Calligraphy teacher, but I believe they got off to a good start. They played baseball, football, and went swimming. The children got to start a lot of cool sports this week.

We spent some time on lunch-room etiquette, and how to be polite to the staff in the cafeteria. The students will be picking up their own lunches from the lunch line next week and we wanted to be sure there wasn’t going to be any difficulty for them. We shall find out this week.

The APS (American Primary School) Week began on Monday, with the children coming in to meet us, get their school uniforms, and learn some of the basic class etiquette. The kids were excited, we were excited, and we had a great time all round. We started out with a thing I like to do called Attendance by answer. I leave a question on the board, with 2 or 3 answers, that day was a simple “How are you?” with “Happy” / “Sad” / “Scared” choices. I wanted to let the children know that it’s ok to feel scared, and a few signed their names on that side. Nobody was sad to be in school, so this is good. We then moved out to the field for a game of “Red light / Green light.” Which was a lot of fun. We introduced the class theme of Super heroes, and discussed that then we took pictures with Super hero masks. Before we knew it the children were on their way home with their new uniforms, around 12:30.

Tuesday We held the Opening Ceremony of our new program, again half a day only. The ceremony was lovely. The children entered the multi-function hall (Our School theatre/ lecture hall) dressed in their new formal uniforms. They all looked lovely, and they were given celery, a symbol for hard work, and a packet of lotus seeds, a symbol for bitterness (as studying cannot always be sweet), they came up to the stage where the APS teachers: Ms. Shirley, Ms. Qian, Ms. Zhao, and myself were accompanied by Ms. Peng, our Director, Mr. Zhao, the principle of ZhongDe School and Ms. Caroline Huang, an American advisor to our American Programs (Middle school and Primary). They gave us their vegetation, and we painted red dots on their forehead to symbolize the opening of wisdom in the child. After this we collected some letters that the parents wrote to the children, explaining their hopes and dreams for their child. Children were given the opportunity to respond to the letters, and one mother, Isabella’s Mother, read her letter aloud for us all to hear. The ceremony was a very touching ceremony filled with symbolism, hope and joy.

We then took a break for a day to prepare for the first Full day of school. When we came back on Thursday, we had a second ceremony to attend. This time the opening ceremony for the entire school. All the students of the school filled the soccer field, and watched as the middle school students paraded around in camouflaged t-shirts and shorts. They heard different faculty give speeches, and they saluted the flag as it was raised. Various parents lined up along the school fence to watch and wave at their child to show support. I would love to explain what the different speeches where about, but I only understood one, and that was from my friend and co-worker, Mr. Alan Kelly. Alan, like me, is a grade 1 teacher this year. He welcomed everyone back to school and raised spirits by making everyone look forward to the wonderful year we will have.

By time Friday came around, everyone had calmed down a bit more, and settled into their spots. We introduced the rest of their teachers, Ms. Ann the math teacher, Mr. Liu the Skating teacher, and Mr. Gu, the football teacher. We worked on how to understand lessons, and what how to work together. For most of the day. We discussed names of different books, safety, free-time activities and how important it is to name their things, and be honest when finding other people’s things.

Throughout the week, the students learned a lot, and I learned a lot, from my wonderful team, and I have faith that we will have a wonderful year.