Contents
Organizational Updates
Introducing the RCEF 2010 Calendar
100% of proceeds from this unique calendar go to RCEF's program in rural China. Click here to buy.
Profile from the Field
The Little Librarians of Guan Ai School
Students take enthusiastically to managing the school library.
Teaching English in Rural China
Volunteer's first experience in rural China is eye-opening.
Curriculum and Teaching
RCEF's "Community Research" curriculum leads students to investigate issues in their communities. Below are two examples of "Community Research" projects going on now at RCEF's site, Guan Ai School.
Raising Chickens: Part Two
Guan Ai students decided they wanted to raise chickens to learn about farming and animals in their community.
Transition to Middle School
Sixth graders investigate their options for getting into middle school.
Donor Updates
Recognition of Recent Donors
We warmly thank the donors to RCEF in October 2009
Introducing the 2010 RCEF Calendar
The 2010 RCEF Calendar brings you into the learning world of Guan Ai Primary School, RCEF’s experimental program site in a village in Shanxi, China.
As the year goes by, this unique calendar will take you through the students’ enriching school year. You will also enjoy beautiful examples of paper-cutting, a local folk art that often decorates the windows and doors in the village. The bright colors and lively photos will surely provide inspiration for you and your loved ones throughout the new year.
Your purchase of a calendar will not only fund RCEF's important work but will also help to spread RCEF’s mission and message to those around you.
Order yours here
The Little Librarians of Guan Ai School
By Chuanmei Sun, RCEF Program Manager
Above: Students in the Guan Ai library are being trained as "little librarians".
Cultivating students as little librarians was a new idea this semester at Guan Ai School. To get students more involved in managing the school library, we began a new extracurricular elective class called “Library Management.” Held every Tuesday and Saturday for an hour, students gather in the library to learn how to become good librarians.
In the beginning, I observed that most of the students who signed up just came to play. I felt that this was not the right attitude and thought about how to change it. I decided that letting them experience the actual tasks of management was very important. Thus, we spend most of the time in class practicing hands-on tasks like checking out and checking in books from beginning to end. We let the students split into groups and practice being temporary librarians. At first, many didn’t take their work seriously. They had sloppy handwriting. They didn’t have a concept of how to organize books. They believed that registering books was all there is to being a librarian. Over the course of our class though, they began to see that registering books is the easiest part. Capable and qualified librarians have to pay attention to cleanliness, order and discipline. They must have a good attitude towards patrons as shown through facial expressions and language. They must manage classmates who misbehave in the library or don’t know how to check out books.
After a month of training, we evaluated our little librarians. The two Guan Ai teachers and I who are in charge of the class designed it very carefully. The evaluation consisted of three parts:
- an on-site, hands-on demonstration of organizing books and cleaning the library;
- a check of the neatness and accuracy of their registration records;
- an interview of each group’s leader.
From this, we selected a number of “Excellent Librarians” who now get to wear a special badge when they are working.
We pay a lot of attention to the students’ own ideas. For example, the students got to pick names for their groups and discuss which days they wanted to be in charge of the library. Every day during recess, there is a time that the library is open and managed by these little librarians.
At lunchtime, I often eat with a lively group of students who like to sing and dance. One day I mentioned how nice it would be if our class of little librarians had a class song. Immediately, volunteers took on this challenge. After they wrote their song, I suggested they choreograph a dance to go with it. You can see the results below. I must be very clear: they created the song and dance entirely on their own. Led by fifth grader Yani Xie, they practiced and practiced and wouldn’t let me see it until they were satisfied. I was truly amazed.
VIDEO: The little librarians created their own dance and song about the joys of reading.
Some students have written that their greatest hope is to become a librarian someday. To see that our class has helped spark some young dreams makes me very happy. Whenever I see the smiling faces of my students, I feel hopeful and fortunate. Here is one of the essays by fourth grader Chenru Ren:
Journal Entry October 27, 2009
I’m so happy today because I’ve become a librarian! At first I thought that becoming a librarian was just for fun. Actually, as a librarian you need to fill out forms. When you help people pick books, you have to have a smile on your face. It’s easy to say but hard to do! It was very hard for me in the beginning. After awhile, with the help of the teacher, I’ve slowly improved. I definitely want to become a real librarian to protect my country and be useful to society.
Teaching English in Rural China
New Yorker Susanna Eng taught English in a RCEF partner school for five weeks. From becoming a “celebrity” to over a hundred primary school students, learning to ride a bike, and practicing Mandarin in a total immersion environment, Susanna’s first time in rural China was unique and memorable. She shares her experiences in the interview below.
How does volunteer teaching English at Xiaochao Primary School compare to your expectations?
Becoming a small celebrity of sorts among the students was and still is unexpected and amusing. Walking around the school, I am incessantly greeted with choruses of 'Hello's' and 'Hi's' from giggly students. I often hear announcements of my arrival whether I am going to a classroom or the toilet. Before a class, I am often welcomed with cheers and hugs of my legs when I enter a classroom. I have also caught numerous curious George's poking their head into my bedroom when they thought I was not there or looking.
How do you teach English?
I was a bit surprised when Principal Liu and several of the other teachers told me that I do not have to teach from the lesson books and encouraged me to focus on teaching the students English that can be used in everyday situations. Not teaching from the textbook in China? How taboo! But I respect their way of thinking very much and take it as a sign of progressiveness. For each class, I have been making customized English lessons by modifying the materials in the lesson book and incorporating the teaching methods that were taught to me at RCEF headquarters (Guan Ai Primary School) by RCEF English Teaching Coach Kiel Harell. When I am not teaching classes, I sometimes help out in the cafeteria with meal preparation or do extracurricular activities with the students who reside at the school.
What has been your best moment so far?
The best moment happened only a few days ago. I heard a 2nd grade student singing a few lines (more or less correctly) from "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which I had taught them, as she was being picked up by her mother after school.
Who is the Xiaochao teacher and/or student who has left the deepest impression on you and why?
While all the teachers at Xiaochao have been wonderful to me, Principal Liu has left the deepest impression on me. He is one of the most caring and compassionate individuals I have ever met and he places the well-being of the students and teachers above anything else. Every day he sets an example for the rest of us, whether by making sure a student has had enough to eat at lunch or checking that a teacher made it home safely in the dark.
From the very first day of my arrival, he has gone out of his way to make sure that I was comfortable, that I felt safe and secure and as much at home living at the school as possible. He has welcomed me into his home and I have shared some great meals and conversations with him and his family. His hospitality and kindness has touched me very much and I am so grateful for everything that he has done to help me adjust at Xiaochao.
What do you think that people who have never been to a rural primary school in Yongji should know about the realities on the ground?
One of the things that I am really impressed by is how far they are able to stretch the little resources that they have. Back at home, even the lowest-funded academic institutions may have better resources and materials than these schools. Here, expect to see broken desks and chairs in use, very old and weathered learning materials, and facilities that would have been renovated years ago back at home. Learning resources that we think are basic and essential may be very scarce or outdated. I asked for a teacher for a ruler once and only after searching for a good 15-20 minutes did she find one that was broken. Many students up to the 6th grade probably have never used a computer before. Printouts and handouts are pretty much nonexistent. In spite of this, it's amazing how the students are still able to learn and accomplish. I have never seen more students more disciplined and eager to learn.
Is there any advice you would give to other people who are considering volunteering to teach English in rural China?
For those who have never been to rural areas before, it may be a shock at first. One needs to be accepting of the rural lifestyle and all the challenges and lack of modern conveniences that comes with it. Learning to adapt quickly is key! But those giving teaching in rural China even the slightest thought, they should cast all doubts aside and just sign up. They will see things and meet people they would otherwise never see or meet. The experience will be amazing and incomparable, guaranteed!
If you are interested in volunteering as an English teacher with RCEF for periods of at least 2 months, please send a resume and cover letter to recruiting@ruralchina.org.
Raising Chickens: Part Two
By Sara Lam, Executive Director of Programs
Above: Chickens in the cage that students designed with the help of village farmers.
Last month, Executive Director of Programs Sara Lam reported on her extracurricular elective class for fourth through sixth graders at Guan Ai Primary School. Their goal is to learn more about their village environment and resources. The students voted to learn about farm animals and how to raise chickens. Here, Sara shares the latest phase of the project.
Principle Sun and I visited a free-range chicken farm right before our extracurricular class started one afternoon. We heard that they breed and raise free range chickens which are not artificially bred for special characteristics. The farm was amazing. There were 1500 chickens of all different colors roaming freely in three acres of woods. Those chickens were almost fully grown but there was another batch which had just hatched two weeks ago.
I hurried back to school to share my findings with the students and asked them what kind of chickens they wanted to buy. They unanimously decided on the free-range chickens rather than the factory farm chickens that they had visited in another village. However, the students were split over whether to buy fully grown chickens or little chicks. The boys in the class wanted to buy the big chickens so that they could start collecting eggs right away and because they didn’t want to wait another two weeks before the chicks were ready to be raised outdoors. The girls, on the other hand, wanted to buy chicks because they wanted to help and watch them grow up. The aggressive boys ended up dominating the discussion and the girls refused to participate.
Based on the results of that class, I decided that the next lesson should be focused on techniques for group decision making. We brainstormed pros and cons of our three options – factory farm chickens, fully grown free range chickens and younger free range chickens. Then, students holding each viewpoint took turns arguing their cases. During this process, one student thought of a new idea, which was to raise half free range chickens and half factory farm chickens in order to make a comparison between the two. This was in line with our original idea to raise the chickens in two separate cages and experiment with different methods in each cage. The students loved the idea and quickly reached a consensus. Next, we used the same process to discuss different options for dividing up the work of taking care of the chickens, including feeding, changing water, and cleaning the cages.
The little chicks finally turned one month old a couple of days ago. We brought the students to the chicken farm to buy the chickens. Each student got to choose and catch their own chicken. We wanted to get a couple of male chickens, so we tried our best to identify the sex of the chickens we were catching by the size of their crowns. The students also got some helpful tips from the farmer about how to take care of them.
Something very sad happened the next day – a dog ate one of our chickens! One side of the cage has bars instead of netting, and the dog was able to catch it through the space between two bars. This was our first disaster and I was impressed by the students’ swift response. Before I had even heard about the incident, the students had already covered the side of the cage with extra netting to prevent further casualties. I can already see many more improvements that need to be made to the cage and to the way we are feeding the chickens and each of these is a great educational opportunity for the students.
Transition to Middle School
By Rong Lihua, Program Manager
Above: Students inspect a dormitory room as part of their tour of a nearby middle school.
The idea for investigating students’ transition from primary school to middle school came to me this summer while I chatted with some Guan Ai Primary School graduates. I learned that some of them didn’t yet know which middle school they were going to attend in the fall. Others were reluctantly going to schools that their parents had picked for them. To help future students think through their choices and gain confidence in facing big life decisions, we decided to carry out a community research project with this year’s Guan AI sixth graders. By interviewing parents, middle school students, and staff at middle schools, we hoped our sixth graders would gain more information by which to evaluate their own upcoming middle school options. We hoped that this would increase their motivation to do well in their studies.
Yongji, the closest city to Guan Ai, has two middle schools which are very difficult to get into. They have a reputation for good grades and strict management. Many people appear to need connections to get in. There is another school in the north of the city which is far from Guan Ai. If students don’t go to the city for middle school, they have two choices: the close by township middle school which has a reported bad reputation, but is free, or the middle school in the neighboring township which appears to have a better reputation and which some students are already familiar with because it’s close to their home villages.
Evaluating this environment, I took charge of designing this project along with Sara Lam and Ms. Xie, the sixth grade math teacher. Ms. Xie did most of the facilitation with students. In the first class, we asked the students to brainstorm their hopes and fears for middle school. We then discussed how to deal with these issues and find solutions. We came up with three questions:
- What school do you want to go to and why?
- Is your preference the same as your parents?
- What factors do you want to consider when choosing a middle school?
We found out that 80% of the students wanted to go to the two best middle schools in the city because of their reputation for quality and because they had friends there. Only two students had the same preference as their parents. The others either had different preferences from their parents or didn’t know what their parents wanted. Below is a picture of the blackboard covered with the factors that students care about in choosing a middle school.
Above: Students filled the blackboard with factors in choosing a school.
After this class, the students said they wanted to go ahead with the investigation. Thus, right before the national weeklong holiday in October, we brainstormed people whom they could interview and picked interview questions. They settled on asking older students and parents (their own and others' parents) about conditions at different middle schools, including whether there are gangs, computer labs, extracurricular classes, etc.
When they came back from the break though, I found that only a few students had actually carried out their interviews. We summarized what they had found out and what they still wanted to learn. We also talked about the reasons why students didn’t do their interviews and introduced some techniques for interviewing. In the meantime, Sara Lam, Ms. Xie, and I reached out to the two rural township middle schools to see if we could take the students to visit. One school agreed, so on October 15, we went on a field trip. Our students got to sit in on two classes and then a teacher took them to tour the school’s library, dormitories, cafeteria, playing field, and laboratory. The students even got to split into four groups to interview the principal, teachers, students, and janitors. When they came back from the trip, the students wrote an essay about their experience and feelings.
Finally, we invited some students who had graduated from Guan Ai last year to return to the school and share their experiences with this year’s sixth graders. They said that middle school has a lot of pressure and there are a lot of smart students. There are very few extracurricular classes and the physical education class is not as interesting as Guan Ai’s. However, there is one area they were better prepared for compared to their peers from other schools: small group learning. Their middle schools just started using small group learning this year but Guan Ai instituted it last year.
Up to this point, we’re glad to see that the sixth graders have gone from not knowing how to choose a middle school to gradually gaining more and more information useful for forming an opinion. This is what we hoped for. In the next stage, we’re preparing to take the students on a field trip to another middle school so that they can discuss the differences. We’ve also come to see that there are a lot of things that our students will have to get used to when they enter middle school. How to help them prepare is another direction we teachers should pay attention to.
Donor Roll
We are grateful to all the supporters who donated to RCEF in October 2009! (A complete list of donors through the years is available here.)
Silver Sponsors ($1000-$4999)
James Tu (Hong Kong)
ZBI Employee Allocated Gift Fund (New York, NY)
Bronze Sponsors ($100 to $999)
Annie Hsieh (Stanford, CA)
Chi Cheng (New York, NY)
Hongzheng Lu (Pittsburg, PA)
Microsoft Matching Gifts (Princeton, NJ)
Stephen Potter (Seattle, WA)
Winston Ko (Davis, CA)
Yingjie Li (Jersey City, NJ)
Supporting Sponsors (under $99)
Alex Da Silva (New York, NY)
Eugene Lee (New York, NY)
Irene Chow (New York, NY)
Ping Zhou (New York, NY)
Sudarshan Gururaj (New York, NY)
Yue Jiang (New York, NY)
The RCEF Newsletter is a monthly publication about the educational initiatives being carried out by RCEF in rural Shanxi Province, China.
Read more about RCEF's mission and main program site Guan Ai Primary School.
Contact Us
Donate
You can help rural Chinese students reach their potential. Contributions are 100% tax-deductible in the U.S.
Checks payable to "Rural China Education Foundation" can be sent to:
PO Box 92424
Rochester, NY 14692-0424
Donations can also be made online!
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From our Blog:
Guest Speakers at Guan Ai
A calligrapher, a singer and even a professional emcee visited Guan Ai School to share their talents with students.
Click here to read more
Beekeeping Journals
Curious fourth graders took on an independent project to learn about raising bees.
Book Making Class
Stories took shape in a summer class on making and illustrating books.
Summer Nature Camp
Rural migrant children in Beijing got to experience nature in the mountains outside the city.
New School Year, New School Training
RCEF Math Teaching Coach Steven Liu helped rural teachers map out their curriculum for the semester.
Click here to read more
How I Prepared for the Start of School
Read how Ms. Li, first grade math teacher at Guan Ai School, planned her lessons during a RCEF training.
Click here to read more
RCEF History Slideshow
Four years ago, RCEF was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. This slideshow marks major milestones in our development.
Dispatches from the Field
A special collection of blog posts gives an up close and personal window into our experiences on the ground in rural China
Past Newsletters
RCEF posts monthly and quarterly newsletters on our website.
Click here to read past issues