One World, One Dream

October 15

Our trip is almost complete. We had another busy day in the CIS classrooms during the morning and doing Professional Development with the Concord College teachers in the afternoon. The college invited us for a wonderful feast at the end of the day. Then we headed to the Olympic Village. Wow! Words cannot come close to describing the feeling one gets when standing underneath the Bird's Nest, dwarfed by the grandeur of its architecture. It is both massive and impressive! Then one looks to the opposite side only to become totally intrigued by the architecture of the Cube. Beijing is certainly leading the way with regard to original architectural design. That was also clearly demonstrated by the CCTV Tower that we would whiz by in taxis each day and by the Egg which we ended up at by mistake while looking for Chairman Mao's picture at the front of the Forbidden City the day before. This city is both truly amazing and fascinating.

After our walk around the Olympic Village, we jumped in two taxis to head to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had thought we had experienced everything with regard to taxi drives. It didn't take long to realize we hadn't! We think that the two taxi drivers must have been in a race to be the first to get us to our destination. We were holding on to anything and everything as we swerved around corners, beeped horns at buses that dared try to slide in front of us, narrowly edged by bikes and narrowly missed pedestrians who certainly do not have the right of way in Beijing and who constantly take their lives into their hands as they zig-zag eight lanes of traffic and four lanes of bikes to get to the other side. Actually, the bikes are more dangerous than the cars because one relaxes a bit as one gets to the other side of the vehicles, almost forgetting that you still have not reached the other side. And at night, most bikes do not have lights, and most owners are dressed in black outfits. Yet, the only accidents we witnessed during out time in Beijing were minor.

We will now be preparing to leave Beijing and we will do so feeling blessed to have visited one of the most vibrant cities in the world filled with many, many wonderful, friendly people. We also do so hoping to do our part as teachers to prepare a future generation for a world that is testimony to the Olympic motto of "One World, One Dream"!

Searching for Chairman Mao

Tuesday, October 14

We had a very busy day teaching in many different classrooms. We were checking out SMART Boards, updating galleries, and demonstrating the Senteo Responders. We also were very pleased to be visited by one of the Chinese teachers from the Concord College, Psyche. She had just learned about the Senteo Responders the previous day. Then, after having attended our two our session from 4:00 - 6:00, she taught a class from 7:00 - 8:00. Nevertheless, after a long day of teaching she also found time to put together a most impressive Senteo lesson. Joey and I were extremely impressed! After teaching until 3:00 the CIS School we headed back to the Concord College with Psyche to do a session with the Canadian teachers. We wouldn't require a translator this evening! On the way we ran into a major traffic jam. We used the time wisely by teaching Psyche some English while she taught us Mandarin. She had a great time laughing at Joey and I as we tried to say "We are teachers". Our Miramichi dialect caused that to be interpreted as "We are rats"! Psyche had great fun listening to us trying to get the pronunciation correct. We finally did and celebrated together. Then we taught Psyche the most important Miramichi response to the most asked Miramichi question. You should now hear her response to, "How's she going?" Without missing a beat, and with the best mixed Chinese/Miramichi inflection she now responds, "The very best!"

After doing a PD session with the English teachers we returned to our dorms, dropped off our bags and headed out in two different taxis to Tianaman Square. Bruce, Joan, and Jan arrived right under the picture of Mao like they were supposed to. Kora, Joey and I ended up on the other side of the Forbidden City. We now know why it is called a city. Wow! It is huge as we found out as we tried to walk around it! We kept crossing over moats and rounding corners, only to find more corners. On our left was one giant red wall. On our right the most interesting Chinese environments that ranged from parks to houtons. We finally gave up and hailed another taxi driver who laughed at our dilemma and finally got us to Mao's picture at the front gate of the Forbidden City. I was never so glad to see Chairman Mao! He was our lifeline to our colleagues this evening. After taking a most interesting walk along the streets outside of the Beijing Hotel we finally settled into a meal at the Outback. We completed the day reminiscing about another fascinating, event filled day in Beijing!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

(Monday October 13th) Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home! I guess being away for a special holiday like Thanksgiving makes you a little more thankful for everything that we have back home. As hard it was to be away from home for this occasion our hosts made sure we were well looked after.
Once again this was a day we were very much looking forward to as we were scheduled to be working all day at the CIS-Beijing, followed by a SMART Senteo PD session at the Beijing Concord College. CIS is an amazing facility which was built a mere three years ago and also served as the residence for the Canadian Olympic Wrestling team.

Rick and I were able to offer a number of individual teacher sessions dealing with Senteos and SMART Boards. We popped in an out of classrooms working with teachers and students alike. The staff at CIS is amazing!! In particular I had a blast visiting Ms Esty's Grade 3 class who were preparing a choreographed dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for an upcoming Variety show for parents.

There are SMART Boards in every classroom and the teachers are making great use of them. Most are very excited after having been exposed to the Senteos for the first time.

As the day wound down we were transported to the Beijing Concord College where we in-serviced 80 Chinese teachers on how to use Senteos. Despite the language barriers, and the use of a translator, the session was a huge success!!!!

Our day endedwith a wonderful meal, at the amazing Lan Restaurant, compliments of our hosts Andy and Charles. They wanted to ensure that we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving despite being many miles from home. We were also joined by a wonderful group from Thompson River College and officials from Royal Bank of Canada. I couldn't think of a better way to end off a spectacular day.

Brawl on the Wall

(Sunday October 12th)It is not everyday that you awake with the opportunity to visit one of the modern day Wonders of the World. Despite having been blessed with the chance to climb the Great Wall of China in April 2007, I find myself in line to experience it once again. Rick and I are excited with the prospects of having 4 members of our group (Kora, Jan, Joan, and Tyler) lose themselves in the awe of this unexplicable man made structure. We were fortunate to have a beautiful clear sunny day for our journey. However unlike the last time we made our climb, this time we found ourselves as innoncent bystanders who almost became front and centre in a skirmish taking place during our decent. During a particularly narrow spot on the wall, where it is necessary to enter an enclosed section, an individual pushed forward and butted ahead of the line. He was promptly grabbed and man handled by security officers but escaped only to have a woman come flying over the top and land a right hook to his face, which sent his glasses flying. Despite being front and centre for this incident we escaped unscathed. All in all it was a great trip yet again!


We followed our Great Wall trip with a visit to Dirty Nelly's Irish Restaurant and some shopping at the YaShow Market. As the day wound down we began preparations for our work at the Canadian International School in Beijing and the Beijing Concord College of Sino Canada.

Beijing Confidential

Our flight from Shenzhen arrived in Beijing shortly before midnight and it was almost 1:00am when we finally reached our home for the next six days, the Canadian International School Beijing residence. This residence is where the Canadian Wrestling team stayed during the 2008 Olympics.

Despite getting to bed late, a few of us awoke early to discover a Beijing that simply blew our minds. The sun was shining amidst a bright blue sky. The air was fresh and flowers were everywhere. In search of a morning coffee (before it was always hard to find a good one in Beijing) we ventured behind our residence only to discover a whole new shopping plaza that would resemble those you would find in Florida or Anaheim. Low and behold at the end of this high end, trendy shopping village we happen to find a Starbucks which gave us our morning coffee fix.

Next order of business on the Saturday schedule was to wander into the Lady Street Market. A very popular destination for locals and tourists alike. After a couple of hours of shopping we stumbled upon the Roadhouse Texas Style Restaurant, which is owned by a gentleman from Oklahoma. Great spot!!! We returned to the residence and met up with several members of the CISB teaching staff. They showed us a wonderful time and will be a great group to work with in the coming days.

Priceless!

Friday, October 10
Priceless! This is best word one can use to sum up our final day in Shenzhen. It is the word that best describes the warmth with which we were welcomed, the hospitality we received, and the send off we were given by our friends from the Sino-Canadian International staffs in Shenzhen.
Joey and I spent most of the day trouble-shooting and tweaking some technical issues with regard to the new software we had brought with us. We took one more walk to the local market where we saw live fish being caught in the tanks and then prepared, in front of one's eyes, for the dinner table. One is guaranteed that the fish are fresh in Shenzhen! We then had a get together with the ISSC staff before heading to the airport to catch our three hour flight to Beijing. They left us with many wonderful memories that will remain with us forever! We want to thank both the staff and students of ISSC for a week we will never forget! Xie xie! Thank you!

It was at the Shenzhen airport that the word "Priceless" surfaced again...
What was the cost of a taxi for Joey and I from the Hong Kong airport to the Eaton Hotel?
980RMB (approximately $160.00)
What was the cost of five bottle sleeves that I bought from the "Beatles" store in Shekou?
250RMB (approxinately $40.00)
What was the cost of the plane ticket from Shenzhen to Beijing?
900RMB (approxinately $150.00)
What did Joey say the look on my face was like when I realized that we had paid more for a 20 minute taxi cab ride from the Hong Kong airport to our hotel than we had paid for a three hour flight from Shenzhen to Beijing?
PRICELSS!

From A Walk in the Park to a Simulated Video Game

Joey and I began our fifth day in Shenzhen by taking a walk in a beautiful park that is neatly tucked behind the wondrous modern architecture of Shezhen. Even though it is only a five minute walk from our hotel, one would never know that it existed without being told how to get there by the teachers at the Sino-Canadian International School. Such is the daily tale of Shenzhen. Pleasant and unexpected surprises pop out at you from the least expected places!

We started our day by taking a walk frontwards through the park. I stress "frontwards" because many people from China actually were walking backwards on the 1.5 kilometre track that circumvents the trees, flowers, and sculptures that contribute to the park's beauty. While we strolled along among hundreds - no make that thousands - of people we saw many interesting things taking place: basketball games, Tai Chi, kites blowing in the wind, and ladies sweeping paths with straw brooms. Many days you will see our 66 year old Canadian colleagues who teaches at the international school, Jim Harpel, training for his next long distance run. He begins running at 4:30 in the morning and continues to circumvent the track until 6:30. One of his most recent races was the Great Wall of China Marathon where he ran along the Great Wall, sometimes having to line up in single file to transverse narrow paths that were bordered by 200 metre drops on one side!

During the day we introduced students and teachers to the SMART Senteo Responders. After school we did separate staff inservices for the International School and the Chinese High School on the Responders and SMART Notebook 10. Then we headed to Shekou, the international district, for dinner. Wow! What a change that was from the morning walk in the park. Joey described it best when he said, "I feel like we are in the midst of a video game!" Our taxi driver was amazing. He swerved in and out of traffic in a manner which I have never experienced before. He played chicken with two cars that he met in spots that only allowed one vehicle to enter at a time. He was going to be that vehicle regardless of what anyone one else, in any other vehicle thought! Then he swerved in and out among other vehicles, large and small, in a manner that made us wonder whether we were either with one of the most skilled drivers in Shenzhen or one of the craziest. Luckily for us, the former proved to be true, only being finally validated by the close call we had at the very end of our journey with a bus and a car! We congratulated our driver, thanked him, and then blessed ourselves for having survived a drive like none we would ever experience in Canada. Then we settled in for a very relaxing (richly deserved after our drive) meal with our friends and colleagues from both New Brunswick and Shenzhen.

It's hard to believe that this will be our last night in Shenzhen. Tomorrow we fly to Beijing. That will certainly be another adventure full of architecture, history and wonder - the Great Wall, the Egg, the Bird's Nest, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Water Cube. As much as we look forward to what awaits us in China's capital city, we will look back with great fondness upon our week in Shenzhen. The city is beautiful, the people wonderful, and, most importantly, our colleagues from the Sino-Canadian School most welcoming and friendly. They have provided us with a week that we will never forget, memories that will remain with us for years to come. We now look forward to working with them collaboratively by means of the technology that we have available today - technology that has made our global village a place where we can learn a lot from each other!

Lost in Translation.....or Lost on the Streets of Shenzhen!!!

Today was probably the most enjoyable day that I had so far on this trip. Rick and I were really excited as this was the day that we actually got to do what we love best and that is to teach kids. After some initial teacher assistance in the morning, my first group of students was a Grade 4 Math class and what better way to get things kick started then to pull out the Senteo Classroom Responders. Although, I had only 10 students in my class, they were very energetic, but also absolutely engaged in the Senteo Lesson. By the end of a Math quiz I was giving them they were so focused on what they were doing, that they moved closer to the board with each question. By the end of the quiz I had a whole herd of kids around me which was great. They were so excited! As I finished this class, Rick proceeded to make arrangements and assist in setting up a global collaboration project involving a K-1 class here at ISSC with a K-1 class back home in Miramichi. We then proceeded to do two periods of Science, focusing on the digestive system. Rick took the lead on this one and again we experienced great success. We ended our day by dealing with a few tech issues and assisting in software set up.

As with every other day, we met at 6:00 as a group to supposedly go to an Italian Restaurant about 20 minutes

away from the school. There were approximately 20 of us. Things started off well, but we soon branched off into separate groups and proceeded to lose each other. I was with Lori D, from home and her boyfriend and lead tech guy Dave. As we are strolling along I realize that both Lori and Dave have only been in Shenzhen for a month and we could be in trouble. Sure enough the three of us are lost in downtown Shenzhen, which has a population 5 times the size of Toronto. At least there are no rules from stopping you from having an ice cold brew as you walk along. We were calling and texting the others (who also became lost) but with no success. After about an hour of walking and using our best Chinese dialect we discover we are only two blocks from the restaurant. As we arrive we realize that there are two other groups perched at other restaurants in the area. Guess we should have taken cabs....but man drivers over here are absolutely nuts!!! Red lights mean nothing, street walk signs mean nothing, etc. Anyway, we ate at the Spaghetti House which was fantastic, Upon leaving the Coastal City Mall we are brought over to an ice rink that is also housed in the mall. Pretty amazing! Another wonderful day.

Bring on the Kids!!!

Tuesday October 7th - This was one of the days that I was really looking forward to because of the arrival of the students. There are many different nationalities represented at this school from K-10. The chatter of the kids moving between classrooms all dressed neatly in their school uniforms is definitely a site to behold. Some students, who had recognized us from our previous visit stopped by to say hello.

We spent part of our day assisting teachers with technology in their classrooms as well as spending time getting our SMART Board PD organized. We presented to all of the K-5 teachers in the afternoon. They were an amazing keen bunch and proceeded to invite us go into their classrooms the following day to do sessions with the kids. Joyce, the daughter of Dr. Pang (who invited us over) arranged to take us out to a nice restaurant in downtown Shenzhen for supper. Whoa!!! What a spread of food that was presented to us, not to mention that we were treated like royalty. It was also nice to have our good friend and colleague Bruce (who joined us earlier in the day) on hand for this meal. What an incredible day!!

Return to ISSC

Monday-October 6th - After a great breakfast at Kansas Style Restaurant here at the Shenzhen Hotel (Wow....who would have thought you could get bacon, eggs, toast, and OJ over here?), we made our way to ISSC (International School of Sino Canada) - Shenzhen. The school grounds are so welcoming with lush palm trees, beautiful landscaping, and wonderful classrooms.

Upon arriving at the school we were greeted by many of the staff members who we had met the previous year. It was a school PD day so there were no students around. We were able to catch up on old times and new developments around Shenzhen. The main focus for this day was to have teachers work on uploading their lessons to the Internet for students and parents to be able to access from home. Rick and I also spent most of the day with the school's tech guy, "Dave" who hails from Australia, but is currently dating a Miramichi gal. We learned a lot about how the technology is running and what areas we had to target with our sessions. There has been a big request for Senteos and training, which we began to plan for Tuesday. Our day was capped off by a wonderful meal at a nearby Szecheuan Restaurant with many members of the ISSC staff.

Mainland China and Shenzhen

It is now Sunday evening, October 5th and we have just settled into our accomodations at the Grand View Hotel in Shenzhen http://www.szgvhotel.cn/en/hotel_info.htm . This is where we will reside for the next six days before moving onto Beijing, next weekend.

I look forward to meeting up with old friends and new faces at both the ISSC and Shenzhen Concord College campuses. Rick and I had a wonderful time working with many of these teachers during a summer PD session at U de Moncton this past summer. The schools are located only a few blocks away from our hotel, which will make for a nice morning stroll. Hopefully the weather cooperates for us, as while I type this posting, we are experiencing somewhat of a mini-typhoon outside.

The schools here in Shenzhen bring back special memories for both of us as we really enjoyed working with the staffs and being in the classrooms with the students. I've always said that Shenzhen is a hidden gem here in China. You could compare it to Orlando, Florida as it is accustomed to mild temperatures, surrounded by palm trees, and numerous attractions.

We are now preparing to depart for one the greatest restaurants that I have ever eaten at, "Gypsys" which serves Australian Cuisine and is located in the International District known as Shekou. Mmmmmm...I can almost taste the famous "reef and beef".

Anyway, stay tuned for the next blog update which will probably come tomorrow after we spend our day at the schools.

Hong Kong Arrival

I am sure that anyone who has ever been on a 15+ hour flight will agree with me when I say that it is not a whole lot of fun! Fortunately, we had a very smooth flight, but that didn't mean it was any shorter. After leaving Fredericton, NB on October 1st at 5:40am and taking a two hour flight to Toronto, we proceeded to board Flight 15 to Hong Kong. After countless hours of eating airplane food and watching numerous movies we touched down at Lantau Airport in Hong Kong at 1:10pm on October 2nd. We then commuted to our destination for the next three days, the Eaton Hotel in downtown Hong Kong. The Eaton is a very nice hotel and I recalled it vividly from our last trip.

We spent our first full day touring around Hong Kong by Ferry, Bus, and plenty of walking. Travelling across the Star Ferry to the central Business District is an enjoyable experience. We then decided to venture over to the Stanley Market area which is filled with neat little shops and restaurants from all different cultures. After dining at King Ludwigs' German restaurant we strolled through the shops and stores, but resisted making any purchases as we plan to do the bulk of our shopping in Beijing. We also visited the Temple Street Night market and took in the World renowned Hong Kong laser light Show.

It is now nearing Noon on Saturday October 4th and our plan for today involves travelling to the highest point in Hong Kong, Victoria's Peak along with exploring other destinations and tourist attractions. Tomorrow we leave for Shenzhen and the Chinese mainland. Our work in classrooms then begins on Monday.

China Revisited

Growing up in Miramichi, NB, Canada the thought of one day visiting China was just an unimaginable dream. Now here I am typing this post from Hong Kong and preparing to enter mainland China for the second time in the past 18 months. I am well aware that most people will never get the opportunity to travel to Asia even once during their lifetime, yet here I am again. For that, I am very greatful and appreciative.

The purpose of this trip is to provide professional development in the area of technology for teaching staffs at four Canadian International schools located in Shenzhen and Beijing. The primary focus is on SMART Board Training and how to create an effective lesson using this type of technology. My involvement with SMART Boards has led me from the hills of Hollywood to the Great Wall of China, and from the Rocky Mountains of Alberta to the Gateway Arch in St.Louis. Hard to believe that less then 10 years ago I began my teaching career and was worrying about finding work and now here I am jetsetting around the globe playing on a magic board that is captivating students and teachers alike. Not sure how much longer this thrill ride is going too last, but one thing I do know is that I am going to enjoy every single minute of it.