ARRG WORK

WOW I’ve been utterly atrocious the last few weeks updating. This is probably the direct result of Midterms. No I’m not taking them I get the give them, which isn’t as great as it sounds. Shanghai High School has to be one of the most test oriented schools I’ve ever witnesses. Every student’s grades are dictated by tests. At last weeks meeting, which I never pay attention in, the administrations was telling us that all test would be worth 70% of the final grade and homework should be worth no more than 10% if that. That includes everyone, high school students to students in the primary school. Can you imagine a 7 year old taking a midterm and final!!! It utterly preposterous. So what ends up happening is students don’t give a rat’s ass about general performance and only worry about how they do on their test. Most of my students are very smart but I’ve never met a bunch of lazier children in my life. I should not that the majority of my kids are rich foreign students who’s parents are working is Shanghai so the majority of them really don’t care. There was a brief moment today where I almost lost it because a Chinese teacher asked me to write list of students who don’t do their home. Granted I should not have gotten pissed off at her but I think it’s completely ludicrous for me to point the students out who do not turn in their homework when we don’t even make homework worth a significant percentage of their grades. Then there is what we call Optional classes, name for because the work for the class is optional. There classes are designed to give student breath in their learning but in an enjoyable setting. Students have a large selection of classes to choice from. Some of the classes include American movies, English Movies, English conversation, creative writing, and my Personal relationships class. If these classes sound like a joke its because they are. None of the student's optional grades get factored into their GPA. So if I wanted to give everyone a failing grade no one would really care because the grade does not affect their GPA so it’s like it never existed. Heck if I wanted to I could give my students the grade ‘banana’ and no one would notice the difference. *ARGGG* I think my frustration stems from my realization that I’m nothing more than an over glorified test-facilitator/babysitter.

School News

Part of my job is to edit the website news that is written in Chinese and translated into English. Most of the news I get is quite trivial and most schools would never consider putting it on their website, but here everything and anything can be turned into an exciting piece of tabloid. Here's one good example

We Can Know Ourselves More
Students of G7 were organized to watch a documentary about puberty. Considering about the special mental qualities of this age, they were divided into boys and girls. While watching the film, students sat in groups, concentrating their attention with curiosity. They even discussed when they saw something they were interested in.
Puberty is the period of time when sexual organs mature and additional sexual characteristics develop. Both sexes experience huge splendid changes not only physiologically but also mentally. Thus to make puberty education properly and to make students realize that the changes inside their body are normal is so important and helpful.

See anything can be made into news

News from the Mother country

Heres a bit of news i found on Cambodia. Its not everyday we make the top news on Google http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSBKK21344820071016

Its starting to feel like Fall

Korea pictures are up!! Unfortunately I wasn't as awesome as I should have been and i ended up forgetting two pairs of shorts, a polo, and four undershirts at my hostel back in Korea. . . I guess thats what happens when you decide to drink you weight in soju the night before you morning flight out then try to pack when you're drunk off you ass.

As for China things seem to be getting better. Its actually starting to feel like Autumn here. The temperature is dipping, days are getting shorter and the pollution is starting to die out a little, i can go running without feeling like I have smoked a pack of cigarettes. As you can see Shanghai does get blue sky.































However I still do miss Fall in Michigan, so if someone could please send me a pumpkin and some cider it would be much appreciated.

Korea Trip

I just got back from Korea and I have to say trying to put the trip into words doesn't Korea justice. The sights were amazing, the people enjoyable, and OMG . . . there was clean air. No smog, no acid rain just pure, unadulterated air the way it was meant to be. As you can tell after living in the chimney that is China I've come to miss the good air quality back in Michigan. I've only been here for about a month and I think the pollution has taken 3 years off my life. Also Koreans seem use to seeing foreigners because I traveled with my Big-ass, loud-mouth, white friend and no one really seems to shocked when they saw him. In China everyone flocks to him like he's bloody Jesus Christ.

But enough about my complaints with China. Korea has to be one of the most technologically advance countries I've visited, it makes us look like we're in the Stone Age. Everyone has some kind of device they are walking around with, the bathrooms all have flat-screen TVs, and even the bums are sporting tech gear. Probably the coolest thing the Koreans have is the portable satellite TV. They're about the size of a cell phone and you can get TV signals anywhere. So you can watch the news, a talk show, or a soccer game on the subway. One Korean told me the new thing is for people to do a lot of their money transactions using their cell phones. The idea kind of freaks me out a little but its kind of cool that you can pay all your bills on a phone.

My favorite place I visited was Mt. Seoraksan, one of the tallest mountains in Korea. The town that was located by the mountain came straight out of a novel. Everything there was so natural and undisturbed. We climbed up one of the peaks and the view was to die for. I honestly could have spent another week in Korea because its such a beautiful Country. Defiantly worth another visit.