First Impressions

Well, I've been at my new school for a couple of weeks now (a week ago &madash; I'm writing kinda slowly) so it's high time I tell you my thoughts. I won't belabor the "China You Win!" aspect of the school, but suffice to say I've been here for two weeks, and everyone has been back for a week, and I still don't have a classroom (or a desk), a schedule, class lists, or all my teaching materials.

Let us move on to the things I'm digging about my school.

At my first new teacher meeting, we went around the table and introduced ourselves and our subject areas. Among the usual English and math teachers, there was a music teacher, and an art teacher, and a PE teacher, and a librarian. But there is not just one of each of those, oh no, there are entire departments.

And this might be the best thing about this school: in this age of high-stakes testing and drastically reduced budgets, this school has a fully-functioning art department and music program.

Fast forward to the start of last week. The whole school was back for three days of professional development. As we all know, any time two or more teachers start talking, whinging is soon to ensue. And yet, after three days of working on backward design, no one was bitching. The staff remained active and engaged in the activities. This is both a testament to the positivity of the staff and the pedagogy of those leading the sessions.

This might be the single best thing about this school: they are not a bunch of whinging slackers.

In one meeting, our vice principal mentioned that our kids don't have to make AYP. That's right, no high-stakes testing. Our parents still have crazy-high expectations, but it doesn't all come down to an assessment instrument that the kids find worthless and incredibly stressful.

That might just be the single best thing about this school.

Towards the end of the three days, she gave us a homework assignment: we are to design all our units using this backward design process. She encouraged us to do our best, but, and she stressed this, we should try even if we don't completely get the process.

Wait, let me repeat: it's ok for the teachers' to not be absolutely perfect as long as we continue to develop. That might be the single best thing about this school.

- Do you really care this was posted using BlogPress from my iPad?

Location:Beijing, China