Anhui teaching camp!

The leadership convention was very interesting. It was the first time I experienced this type of event. The convention was really short. We arrived relatively early at night so the first there was no one in the dorm. I slept alone which was kinda weird since I thought there would be people. I was lucky that the translators and volunteers were there to assist me or else I would be so lost. There were shower cards which was very interesting since I never knew that exist. Then, It was the "first day" we had to get the green shirts/uniforms. After that I just went back to the dorm and fell asleep. I woke up because the teacher wanted to meet up. After meeting up, I forgot completely what happens. I think my roommates arrived, which I thought was great. The first round was pretty scary since it was me and my partner going up to a large stage. I realized that some of the people who asked questions were mean they asked were should I implement the treatment in china. I am like what the heck, I don't even know cities in china come on. Then came round two, it was with my roommates and others in one group. I think it was group 49. We had lots of fun. Then we had a project to do in one day, which was hard. Next thing we know it is that we had problems with transferring the project then we have finally got it done. I skipped the third round. The third round was honestly not hard. Finally, we were done so we can now tour. I would also like to thank all the teachers, friends, translators and volunteers for treaty me with care. The teachers really supported all of us with their positivity although some of us are really naughty (me).

I went to Xikou today and it was a really great experience to be immersed into village life. We had class in the morning and then we went to tour a school and a wood manufacturing place. I had never been to a village before and I loved going there today. Michelle Zhang

Today was the first day of teaching in the Anhui teaching camp. I was the second one to teach and it was a very interesting experience. After the lessons, the group took a break from the classroom and went hiking at JingTing Mountain. When we were done with the hike, we came back to the classroom to continue lessons and plan for the STEM project. Teaching a lesson was a very unique experience and was different from what I have done before. I had volunteered as a TA for three summers, however it was still challenging in some ways. Before the lesson, it was very stressful and I was nervous, however I enjoyed it at the end. It was fun and I think it was pretty rewarding. During the lesson, I encountered a few difficulties. Beforehand, we did not know the levels of the students. From what I saw, all the students have learned at least a little about my topic (Pronouns and Subject-Verb Agreement) and found it pretty easy. The high school/ college students seemed to know a lot about it and are already very comfortable with my topics, however the middle school students seem to struggle more. I think it was a little difficult to teach with this gap. The students also did not like to raise their hands or volunteer to answer questions. This could of been because they were bored or did not understand what was going on. There was also a lot less time given then I thought, as I did not get to let them do the worksheet and I had to skip over some parts of the lesson. After the lessons, we ate lunch and went to the JingTing Mountain. It was very tiring to hike up the mountain, and the heat made it worse. There were a lot of bamboos and statues, which a lot of people took pictures of. I did not try to climb to the top of the mountain because I was too tired and dehydrated to go on. When everyone was done, we were all drenched in swear and exhausted. After hiking, some of us went into a temple and prayed. We then walked around the temple and probably made the gods mad because of all the noise we were making. As we were leaving the site, it was already starting to storm. Before going into the classroom, we stayed outside and watched the storm. We mostly pointed and gazed at the lighting, which was very pretty and cool. The huge lighting bolts flashed across the sky and I was very surprised as I have never seen lighting like this. When the electricity in the classroom was working again, we all went in to start the lessons again. Two of the Chinese students taught us about the culture of the internet in China. Afterwards, we got into our STEM projects groups and decided on the topic of the project.