Chinese Minority outfits

Culture Day

Today was our last day of school before our one-week break for Chinese New Year. We had a compacted academic schedule with the last two hours of our school day set aside for ICS’s annual Cultural Day.

The kids were encouraged to wear traditional outfits from the culture of their choice. Most of the kids at the elementary dressed up and many at the secondary level did too. It was fun to see our Japanese and Korean students in their kimonos and hon boks. I used my free period to slip over to the elementary wing and get all kinds of pictures of the little kids during their in-class Culture Day parties.

I had gone out the night before and bought myself a Chinese jacket. Annika and Elise told me to enjoy wearing it on Culture Day because it was the only time that I was going to be allowed to wear it.

Once classes were over, we had an international food bazaar in the school’s courtyard. Some of the desserts were bought, but most of them were brought in by students and parents. All the secondary students were given two tickets to “buy” the desserts of their choice.

After the outdoor food bazaar, all the middle school and high school student filed into the auditorium for the Culture Day program. The show was emceed by four high school students and featured a wide variety of international songs. Highlights included a traditional Chinese folk sung a cappella by eighth grader Michael Lee, a Song in French by middle school drama teacher Ms. Abby Smith, and Korean Pop song hip hop dance.

In additional to the majority Han people, China has fifty-five recognized minority groups. The grand finale of the Culture Day program was a fashion show of Chinese minority costoms modeled by teachers. All the costumes were custom-made just for the Culture Day fashion show.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the fashion show. My costume came from Western China which means it has a bit of a Middle Eastern vibe to it and that's why I look like a little like the monkey Abu from the movie Aladdin.

It was all a ton of fun. I can't wait for next year's Culture Day.

-Jack

Culture Day outfits

ICS Soccer Pitch as of February 11, 2010

Pitch Perfect

Because Hong Kong is short on space, they squeeze in soccer pitches wherever they can. Therefore, almost no two soccer pitches are the same size and very few of them are the full regulation size. Because the soccer pitches are smaller-ish, it is impractical to play the standard eleven players per side. So it is pretty standard at the middle school and even the high school level in Hong Kong to play seven-on-seven. Or as it is called around here simply “Sevens.”

What most of the fields do have in common is that they are built of the same surface material: cement -which they invariably paint green.

School nurses routinely see p.e. students who have taken a tumble while playing flag football on the local soccer pitch. My colleague who coaches one of our school’s soccer teams had to have knee surgery in October when he twisted it on the soccer pitch trying to keep up with his middle school players.

This fall, the Hong Kong government said yes to our school’s request to use a small piece of land a hundred meters from our school down by the nullah. In Hong Kong, almost all the land belongs to the government. Schools, business, and developers simply rent it. None-the-less, it is up to the school to finance all the improvements to the field.

Unfortunately, the government only extended to our school a two-year lease. If we had been extended a five or ten-year lease, we probably would have invested in artificial turf. But since –in theory- the Hong Kong government could rescind the lease after two years, we are not undertaking the expense of artificial turf. Once school lets out for summer, we will try planting grass.

The area will have a space for a single tennis court which can also be used for basketball. It will also have a small track ringing the area.

-Jack

I Will Write for You

Friday is Queenie's last day with us. She will not be returning to ICS after the The Chinese New Year break. I am so bummed that she is leaving. She is a really awesome kid.

Earlier this week, I e-mailed all of my students feedback on their short stories. The students were supposed to be using our time in the computer lab to encorporate those suggestions into draft two of their short stories. Queenie used that time to emailed me back (reprinted with permission).

"Mr VanNoord, it's so awkward as i'm replying to your email while you're consulting with students right now. you are... currently sitting in your blue rolling chair talking with John. Do you see me looking at you? I bet you don't. Haha.

i just wanted to say that i am really thankful that you came to teach me in 8th grade this year, even if I'm not going to finish my last year of middle school with you guys. Mr Vannoord, you were the first teacher who gave me so many chances to write and show my own style of writing in every assignment you give. Honestly, I never had much opportunities to express my own feelings into writings in all the previous years. There was much less free writing, or should i say we barely got to write stories.

I've always looked forward to a new writing assignment, no matter what topic it was going to be: Teacher's pet, Why Study History, Personal Narrative, short stories, descriptive paragraphs. i remember what i've wrote in all of them exactly. :')

Okay, one more thing. Even though you won't be able to see me every other day anymore, even though i won't be sitting next to Harry in english, or having fun in your history classes, I hope this favor i ask of you isn't too big. Although i'll be leaving and it means i'm not going to be your student anymore, i still want to write stories for you, just like the rest of the class :D If it's possible, you can just tell me what topic you guys are talking about and i'll find time to write for you!

thanks mr vannoord

Queenie"

Yes, Queenie, you may write for me anytime.

Goodbye and God Bless You

Last week I had to say goodbye to Belinda. It was a double whamming because she was such a sweet, hard-working student and because I only found out twenty-four hours before she left. She transferred to another international school in Hong Kong.

She is the third student of mine that has transferred since the beginning of the year. Because our school has a sizable waiting list, the vacancies are quickly filled.

I don’t think that the rate of student turnover here is any greater than it was back in the suburbs of Chicago where I was teaching in a public school. But the recent departure of my students here has stopped me in my tracks in a way that I didn’t experience back in Chicago.

I guess that’s because students' presence here is an explicit choice and not just a by-product of geography. When my students here leave, it’s not because mom or dad got transferred, it’s because they are making a conscious decision not to be here.
Each departure has made me ask “Wow, I wonder what she wanted in her middle school experience that she felt she wasn’t getting? Was it academic? Social? Is there a program we don’t offer, that they feel is essential to the middle school experience?”

I realize that there is a lot going on at this school that I don’t have a hand in. I also realized that these students had a three, five, eight-year history with our school before I ever stepped off the plane. None-the-less, each departure has caused me to ask what I could have done differently that may have caused them to stay. It has caused me to look at the rest of students and wonder which –if any- of them is also on the fence? What is it that I’m doing today in the halls and in the classroom that will cause them to want to come back each day?

The whole experience has kind of caused a seismic shift in the way I look at my students.

Teaching in a public school –to be honest- I never really thought much about it. Students pretty much just showed up every week. Here in the world of international schools, the administration and the teachers have to work every day to convince parents that they should send their students and their educational dollars here.
It’s a new mindset for me. I am still getting used to it.

Hey, Belinda, good luck in your new school. I hope it goes well for you. You are sorely missed.

-Jack

picture: students from a neighboring international school

Media Blackout update

One of my 8th graders just revealed the results of the Superbowl to me in the hallway after school today.

Arghhh.

-Jack

Media Blackout

Here at ICS, we are in the midst of a self-imposed media blackout all day today. The Superbowl finished up a couple of hours ago. It was on live from 7:00 a.m. to about 9:30 a.m. this morning (Monday). But of course none-of-us watched it, we were all busy teaching.

My principal taped it and another colleague is hosting a big Superbowl party this evening. The die-hards sport fans among us are absolutely paranoid about inadvertently finding out the results.

Normally even-keeled colleagues are standing at their classroom doors barking at students as they enter the classroom not to say a word. Teachers who won't give students a detention for failing to turn in a major project are threatening students with three-day suspensions if they say a thing.

No one here is logging onto the internet or is checking his personal email for fear of finding out Superbowl results. Even people who are not going to the Superbowl party or who couldn't care less about football are keeping themselves ignorant, lest they have a turrets-like moment and uncontrollably shout out the score and thus become a pariah around here for all eternity.

I am usually not much of a sports nut, but all this hoopla is proving too much for even me to resist. Rumor is that we might even have a few of our British and Kiwi colleagues at the party tonight.

I tried to get my Australian colleague and neighbor -a big rugby fan- to come, but he said no thanks. His exact words were "Get them to take off those helmets and all that padding, and turn it into a real sport, then I'll think about it."

I'll be bringing a seven layer salad.

-Jack

After six months of being corrected by my Nigerian and Indian coworkers, I have had to learn to refer to it as American Football. Don't want to be confusing it with futball.

(picture by Annika VanNoord)

fast food Hong Kong-style