Teaching in China

Earlier this year, I was contacted by one of the students in my Mathematics, Science & Learning Technology doctoral program at UMass Amherst about an opportunity to teach teachers in Beijing, China. I drafted a proposal for a week-long seminar and sent it to the company in Beijing (MindXplorer). A few weeks later, I found out my proposal was accepted by the local Ministry of Education in Beijing and that MindXplorer would sponsor my trip with one colleague. So, I invited my golfing buddy, and teacher extraordinaire, who happened to just recently get a passport, Sharon Edwards.

Sharon showing off our teaching textbook (translated text of our presentation slides)

During the last week of spring semester, we wrapped up our courses, submitted grades, and hopped on a plane to Washington, D.C. and then off to Beijing. On our flight to Beijing, we headed toward Canada, got close to the North Pole, and went over Russia. When we landed in Beijing, our plane hit the ground so hard one of the wheels exploded. After sitting on the runway for a bit, we had to get off the plane and take buses on a very long ride to the airport. An hour and a half later, we made it through immigration (Note: China requires a VISA, so if you plan to visit, get one early), picked up our bags, exchanged money, and met our contact from MindXplorer, Chloe, who waited more than 3 hours for us due to the plane problem.

Me and Chloe (who brought me a personalized lunch every day!)

Chloe and a driver took us to the Beijing Hilton Hotel, which was located near many embassies. The Hilton, a 5 star hotel, was a stunning place to reside for 2 weeks. By the third day, everyone knew Sharon, and by default, me. The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly and our rooms were fabulous (overlooking the India and Korean embassies).

View from my room at the Hilton

On Sunday, before we started teaching, Chloe took me and the interpreter, Clare, out to lunch at a nearby restaurant. It was quite a challenge finding gluten-free food, since most Chinese food is cooked with soy sauce (which has wheat in it). Luckily, I found a delicious plate of vegetables cooked in tea oil and ordered a place of rice shaped like mice, along with a cucumber pear drink. Little did I know at the time that this would become one of my main food staples for the entire trip. We ended up going to this restaurant (Tak Yong) almost every other night (rotating with the Hilton restaurants).

Mice-shaped rice!

We started class on Monday, unsure of what to expect. We planned a lot of design-based group activities and we had no idea if the teachers who came to our seminar would be willing to participate (or what they might think of such activities). We arrived early on Monday to setup the classroom. We requested a number of materials, such as poster paper, markers, play-doh, and post-it notes for our activities. Once the classroom was setup, an individual from the Beijing Institute of Education introduced Sharon and me to the class and gave us official certificates (we’re foreign experts!).

We started the morning with a storytelling activity and the teachers were engaged, connecting, and laughing right away. We spent the week exploring the Understanding by Design model as well as a number of other models and theories for teaching and learning (e.g., Universal Design for Learning). Every activity we threw at the teachers, they did with joy, energy, and interest. It was such a lovely group of teachers. We had a group WeChat (one of the most popular social media tools in China) where teachers shared photos and videos they captured every day. It was an incredible archive of the week and a fun way to connect with one another.

My favorite activity was the cause of the seasons makerspace. We asked teachers to bring “junk” from home to design a model representing the cause of the seasons and create a stop-motion video of their model. This was the first time many of these teachers had to apply the knowledge they learned from textbooks and the results were surprising (hint: The cause of the seasons is not due to the distance of the earth from the sun...watch the Private Universe video to see a number of Harvard grads and professors incorrectly state the cause of the seasons).   

At the end of each day, Sharon and I would attempt to catch a taxi (which is way more challenging than in the U.S. even though there are way more taxis) and then try to tell the taxi driver where to take us. The first day, I had to ask a local security officer for help…it worked. However, the taxi driver did not speak any English. Our interpreter, Clare, ended up helping us find a taxi each day after she heard about our troubles.  Fortunately, I downloaded an Offline Beijing app (well worth the $5) so that I could track where our taxi was going without internet access and then show the taxi driver where to go if we were off track (which happened more than once).

Auto rickshaw (left) and taxis (right)

Back at the hotel, we would rest, go out to dinner, and plan our next day, which usually involved quite a few changes to the lesson plans. This was hard since most of our teachers did not speak English and they were given translated versions of our original slides at the beginning of the week…but we managed with Clare’s help.

Teaching with Clare, our fabulous interpreter

At the end of the week, I was asked to give a lecture for a documentary about international education for teachers. A camera crew came in to the classroom to film and I had to wear a microphone. I talked about the “Myth of the Average” (a great TED Talk). The teachers were not allowed to have their cell phones out and they had to look like they were taking notes, so I had a captive audience. Good thing they enjoyed the lecture! Unfortunately, the mic didn’t work and I had to repeat everything I said in a quiet office nearby. Clare had to join me in repeating her translation as well.

To wrap up the day, we held a closing ceremony and each teacher was given a certificate. This turned into a big photo shoot. My cheeks hurt from so much smiling. It was such a lovely group of teachers. We learned as much from them as we hope they learned from us.

During the first weekend we had free time to explore Beijing. However, Beijing was hosting the Belt and Road summit with 28 heads of states (presidents and prime ministers). Two days after we arrived at our hotel, the staff started putting up fencing around the entire building. Then, gates were added. Then, a number of security cameras, military guards, and road blocks. Next thing we knew, there was a metal detector and x-ray machine that we had to go through to get into our hotel. It turned out that the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, stayed at our hotel for the summit. We caught a glimpse of her leaving our hotel lobby for her presidential car, which took off with a motorcade of a number of cars and buses.

Our hotel lobby

Security fences around our hotel

So, knowing that traffic would be a nightmare (also, I discovered that in Beijing, people describe travel time as “with traffic” and “without traffic” since there’s such a substantial difference…of course, I’m not sure why, since I can’t imagine Beijing without traffic), we took the subway to the Summer Palace. When we arrived, we were awestruck by the beauty of the buildings. We climbed to the top of a hill and then down the other side to an enormous lake. At the top of the hill, we could see all the way to downtown Beijing. We walked on a shaded pathway near the lake. Every piece of wood in the pathway was painted with stunning art.

Painting on the Summer Palace shaded pathway

The next day, we took the subway to the Temple of Heaven. The subway system is incredible. It’s huge and seemingly complex, but actually relatively easy to navigate (of course, I can say this now…after taking a train the wrong way a couple of times, we’re pros). And, it’s cheap ($1/ride).

Beijing Subway Map

When we exited the subway station, we went the wrong way, so we ended up seeing the Silk Market and Pearl Market - next to a row of American restaurants (McD’s, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, KFC). We finally found our way to the entrance of the Temple of Heaven, which lead us to a huge park with thousands of trees. We walked along the shaded pathway, past people of all ages playing a number of games we’ve never seen before, to the entrance to the Temple of Heaven. After a steep incline, we entered the Temple area and were awestruck, yet again, by the size and beauty of the temple. This Temple was built entirely from wood without any nails (wow!). There were a number of buildings in the courtyard, so we wandered around the entire area, but it was very hot, so we didn’t last long. We headed back to the hotel and rested in preparation for week 2 of teaching!

Temple of Heaven

Park next to the Temple of Heaven

For week 2, we had even more teachers in our class. They were another incredibly talented, thoughtful, and engaged group of learners. The funniest part of the week was when there was a miscommunication during a pre-assessment activity. Sharon and I filled out pre-assessment surveys about “shoes,” for the science teachers when in fact the surveys were about “incline planes.” The science teachers used their smartphones to translate what we had written and then we all had quite a good laugh about it. They even renamed our WeChat group to “shoes” to remember the fun they had.

Shoes!

We made modifications to each day based on the previous week and this week seemed to run even more smoothly. However, the Internet was shut down in the building due to the worldwide virus. I wasn’t able to show digital tools and apps until Friday. When I finally got the chance, I had to do it in a small group without an interpreter (Clare was working with Sharon’s group), and that was quite hard to do, but we managed. The teachers were very interested in digital tools for teaching and learning. We wrapped up the week with another closing ceremony and even more pictures.    

On Saturday, Simon, our main MindXplorer contact, picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and drove us to a non-touristy part of the Great Wall of China – Mutianyu. It took an hour and a half to get there due to traffic. We had to take a shuttle to a gondola to get to the top of the wall, but it was worth it. The air pollution levels were very high, so it was difficult to catch our breath, and it was 95 degrees out, so I felt like I was melting. We walked down a number of small stairs from one lookout station to the next. We had a spectacular view of the wall as it snaked through the mountains to the north and south. We found a shortcut back to the gondolas and headed back to the hotel.

Enjoying the Great Wall with Simon

The next day, we went to the Forbidden City. The crowds were very overwhelming. We had to wait in a long line just to get through the security checkpoint to enter the outside of the Forbidden City. There were police and cameras everywhere. The outside building had a giant portrait of Mao Zedong on it. The Forbidden city is massive. We walked through a number of buildings and then found out that we could walk to the top of one of the buildings. At the top, there was a Silk Road exhibit with ancient clocks, navigation tools, and stunning ceramics. The items there were stunningly beautiful. When we left the exhibit, we walked along the top of the building and found a side exit that took us to Wangfujing street, one of the most popular shopping streets in Beijing. It was much more upscale than I imagined (e.g., Prada, Omega). We found a few souvenir shops to explore and a side street with interesting food stands (chips on a stick!). Then, we walked to Tiananmen square, which was a much longer walk than we had expected.

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Wangfujing shopping street

In the evening, we took the subway to the Olympic stadium (Bird’s nest and the Cube). Both buildings were stunning at night with all the lights. The Cube (swimming center) had a fascinating design projected on the walls. There were many people out and about – roller blading, biking, jump roping, singing, and walking. It was a fun way to wrap up our 2 week trip to Beijing.

The Cube

Bird's Nest (Olympic Stadium)