Friday, June 27th marked the first outing of the Syuejia Mobile English Van and the last and only outing for the semester.
Despite that this was the very last day of the semester, it has become quite important to simply push forward and try things out to see how things go.
I tend to fall into the trap of planning too much. But the very best way to work out the quirks in the system is to get out there and try. Even if the shortcoming are plainly obvious, simply getting out there reveals which things really don’t matter too much and which are of more vital importance.
We got off to a slightly later start than we had expected, but Jiangjyun Elementary School is fairly close by and we still got there with some time to spare.
First thing was to find a place to setup. We absolutely have to park in the shade as the screen becomes quite unreadable in the sunlight. We’ll just have to bear this in mind when we setup in the future.
Due to the relatively small size of the school we gave the class to both the grade 4 and grade 5 kids.
Ariel started off with a bit of an introduction to the program and other details. Sorry, I was busy walking around taking pictures, so didn’t hear all that was said.
Once the introductions were done, it was time for class.
First off was the class introducing the local area. In the class we introduce a few things about the local area and teach the students how to say those things in English. This class is pretty smooth as we’ve done it a few times at school and it’s mostly polished. The one difference that often comes in is that this is completely new for the students outside whereas students in our school get at least a bit of exposure to the topics beforehand.
During the break the kids were able to borrow books from the van to read. There is quite a selection and there are quite a number of awesome classic books that I’d like to do with my classes at some stage.
While the kids were reading, I took the opportunity to take a little walk around and take a photo or two of the school.
The school is situated right on the main coastal road. I have ridden this rode numerous times in the past and passed this school. This was the first time I’ve had a chance to see it. It’s quite typical of many of the schools out here. There are so many schools where the size of the school vastly exceeds the number of students attending.
Above is the rear view of the van. The front has the TV, whilst the rear is simply for books. The books are easily within reach for the kids so they can go ahead and take the books and read them on their own.
This was our final parting shot.
It was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed the time outside the school. The whole show went off mostly smoothly and it was a fitting end to the semester. Next time the van will be heading out is probably at the beginning of September, when school goes back.
Thanks to the kids and teachers at Jiangjyun Elementary for giving us such a warm welcome.
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