Summer of Service

(From Leslie)

My two favorite parts of any day are the early morning and the evening time just before everyone settles down to write the next day's lesson plans. Both times are cooler and quiet but infused with activity too.

In the morning:
When I arrive at the school usually just before class starts at 8, I see the "tracks" of the teaching, signing, and activities from the day before. Chairs sit empty in circles leaving evidence that discussions happened the night before. A format never really seen in Chinese classrooms and a set up that the classroom may not see again until next summer. The chalkboard is full of words and phrases from the day either from class or from the countless discussions that happen in between those time and during the evening literary magazine meetings, office hours, rap sessions, music groups, and play rehearsals. I can often tell which teacher was the last to use the blackboard just by what is written on it. For example:

Andrew: Pictionary remnants
Lisa: some interesting literary prompt such as "write a letter to yourself as if you were a shoe"
Michael: "Yo dog, what's up?"
Jean: "ABC" (American Born Chinese)
Chris: some big word I have to look up later
Rory: "Homie" and rap lyrics
Betty: words to a Robert Frost poem or a poem her students wrote:
"I like to speak English,
All my homework I will finish,
I will work all day and night,
All my answers will be right."
Ashley: Some important grammar point and the characters from the Wizard of Oz.
Francine: Vocabulary from the day before. But I can here her "teacher" voice when I read them. Very melodic with excellent dictation.
James: All of the words to "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie
Daniel: "Rhythm", "Coda", "Melody", "Verse" and lots of words to an Irish song

In the evenings:
This is the time when I get to hear about many of those discussions that took place in those circles. When the teachers could be discussing anything, they instead talk about the students, their classes, and their lessons almost nonstop. Something funny that happened that they want to share; an imitation of an accent; a discussion about life, politics, communism, Japan, Taiwan, America, etc. are always being shared in some corner of the room while we eat Auntie Tao's home cooked Chinese meal. And that discussion will trigger another thought that tugged at their known truths and made the teachers question what they have learned from their own teachers and society and culture.

I wish you could be here for all of the moments but these are my favorites.

Leslie