Cohorts & Classrooms

China's educational system approaches the learning experience by doing what a few places in America do, put a class into a cohort so the same group learns and, in this case, nearly lives together. As I've learned during my time here this is also the tradition in primary and secondary school. Students build bonds with each other that are life-long. In effect, they learn the nuances of what Americans call "networking" and it provides the platform for business and personal relationships throughout their lives.

My students are from different provinces, so the chances of them knowing each other prior to university I would say are slim. These students are Juniors so they've been together now for three years. It's fascinating the dynamics this produces.

It was apparent from my first day they all knew each other very well. One of the things I really miss is fully understanding--since they speak Chinese with each other and English with me--all the conversational dynamics among individuals. I can only tell by body language--assuming it's the same between cultures, which may not be--when they are upset with one another. So, when I allowed them to break themselves into groups, it was a very easy decision for them all to make.
As a cohort they have a classroom where they take all of their classes. In a sense, I enter their kingdom each day--vs. what I would say in America would be 'neutral' ground. The desktop image projected from the PC to the screen right now is one chosen Tuesday by one female student; it's a local heart throb singer who is popular in China right now. "He is very handsome!", she confessed.

They also put favorite songs on the computer and during the 10 minute break between my two class periods each morning and afternoon, occasionally someone activates one of he songs and they blair through the two speakers mounted in the ceiling. I call "time" at the sound of the bell and silence the music.

On the first day of class one of my students asked me, via the 3x5 cards, if I would put a copy of my presentation slides on the computer. Sure! So they access these slides and use them to study, review the words that may be unfamiliar (and I've not given a good enough explanation on a word's meaning...more later on that) or slip their memory disk into the computer and take it to their dorm room with them.

My student's classroom bears description. Standing at the front of class in front of the blackboard I see three sets of wooden seats--similar to auditorium ones that the seat folds up--with small, long wood tables in front. (I've sat in these and for my Western leg length they were not designed) All these seats and tables are connected, so it's challenging to "bring the chairs together" for group conversations. On my left is a bank of windows with light blue curtains; because of the light we draw them so students can see the slides projected on the screen that powers down from the ceiling when I press the button each morning.

The teaching lectern is wood and it has about a foot tall platform that runs the length of the blackboard. Standing on top of it I feel like King Kong, so I maneuver myself in front of the lectern on the floor and stretch to reach the mouse to advance my slides.

I stare at the back of the room at the same type of wall mounted heating unit that I have in my bedroom and office back at my apartment. It has never worked during my tenure here. When I reviewed my first stack of 3x5 cards on my first day of teaching one student expressed concern for my health, "was I used to the cold since I didn't wear my jacket in the classroom?" The easy answer to that was, no, I was freezing but had elected--on only that day only--to not wear my gloves and jacket in the classroom, thinking as a teacher I need to look like I was staying in the room rather than leaving. Alas, I abandoned that notion the next day and like the students, wear my jacket and the first level of my nordic ski gloves to conduct class...I will need to wash my black gloves very well when I return to extract the chalk dust.

One thing I mentioned to Lorraine that I saw missing in my classroom were two items: a clock and a trash can. She said she didn't have the former but the latter ishe has in hers, since she teaches at another university that's close (there are 30 in Wuhan!) Not having a trash can in any of the classrooms at WUT produces what can only be described as classroom detris as anything that needs to be discarded finds a home on the stone floor...breakfast food packaging, toilet paper used as kleenex for those with colds, and the usual suspects. This is one reason why I appreciate the fact that most of my teaching is first thing in the morning, after the woman who washes down the granite hall floors has done a tour of duty in my students' classroom.

:)