Fiddle Faddle

Marissa

Since we have been in China for about 2 months now, I figure it’s about time we write a new blog post.

This year has been a lot easier of a start than last year was. We are able to be the people who others come to for help rather than having to ask others how to do simple things. It’s a nice change to be able to help others instead of needing so much help ourselves.

Changes:

The primary school has gone through some rough changes.  The beginning of the year started off great. I had five new English co-workers; all male, most of whom are in their 40’s, which is a big change from last year. I am now the youngest teacher in the primary school instead of being one of the oldest. The number of other teachers soon dropped down to four, as one of them was fired within the first five weeks of class. Since it is hard to find a native English speaking teacher in the middle of a semester to replace him, the rest of us were required to take on more classes. This means that we are all now teaching a total of 26 classes a week instead of 20. I went from teaching only second grade students to teaching three different grade levels (grades 1-3) and from one subject to two (English and phonics).  This has put a lot of stress on all of us and has decreased our teaching effectiveness. I feel that my classes are not as creative, nor as fun for the students because I do not have as much time to prepare my lessons.  It has been very discouraging, especially since parents and the administration at our school do not seem willing to offer help.

One of the main things that is different for a teacher in China, compared to one in the USA, is that parents have infinitely more control of the schools. If a parent complains about a class, the principal instantly takes the parent’s side and the teacher is at fault. If the parents don’t like the textbook that we are using, the school can change it. If a child is misbehaving in a class and the parent does not believe that the child did anything wrong, the parent has full right to come to our school and yell at that teacher for over a half hour straight. If the parents think that their child is the best, they feel that should tell me that I need to call on their child for every question during the class. Parents can control how we teach, by looking over our lesson plans before we teach them, as well as what we assess the students on, by looking over our exams before we give them. The administration at our school allows these things to happen, because, if the parents are not satisfied, they will pull their child out of our school and that’s 30,000rmb ($5,000) less that our school will be making that semester. Our principal does not seem to be concerned with the complaints that the teachers and staff have. He showed up to the first few of our weekly meetings, where we are supposed to discuss our classes and receive help, but has neglected to show up to the last few because he didn’t want to listen to our problems anymore.

This brings me to the second big change in the primary school this year: Our principal was fired last week. This did not come as a big surprise to anyone, though we were all relieved. I’m sure that, in any other context he is a nice guy; however, this was his first principal position, and, to be honest, he really seemed like he didn’t know what he was doing. We now have two new principals at our school from our sister school in another part of Wuhan. I’ve heard that they are well-liked at the other school, which gives me some hope for our school and the rest of the semester for the first time this year. I’ll try to update on any more changes that occur with all of that.

Life:

Life here overall has been great! We love having an electric scooter that we can use to get around the city because we no longer have to use the busses or taxis. We have been able to explore different parts of town because of it.

We are a part of a young married adult bible/marriage study that meets every Thursdaynight with some friends. It has been really cool to get to know new people through that, and to be able to learn a lot about how other couples resolve and work through different things. The best part is that whoever hosts, makes dinner for everyone, so that one night a week that we don’t have to cook! hahaha

Our Sunday group is still going strong. It has been cool to get to know a few more foreigners this year and to be able to meet together every Sunday. We are both finding through this group that we have many different opinions that seemed to be shared within it. Most of the others in the group come from a Church of Christ background, which is a bit more conservative than any church groups that either of us have really been a part of in the past. It has been a learning experience for us and we are growing through it. They are great people and we love being able to hang out with them during and after our service.

David and Valarie (our friends from back home) helped us put together a financial budget, since they took a class on it about a year ago. It was a lot of work to have categorized every dollar that we spend, but we are on our way towards financial freedom! I’m anxious to see how well we estimated and what we may need to adjust in November.

The weather here has been changing slowly. This past weekend it was in the 80’s, while today’s high is 70 and rainy, which is still warmer than back home. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather!

We are still in love and are loving our lives! Excited for our time here and getting excited for what’s to come when we move back this summer!

Life is an adventure, and we are doing our best to take full advantage of that.