Awesome, Amazing, Adventurous, Class A!

Hi y'all,
We are on a break right now from finishing our first TIP teaching session here in Beijing, China. I had 31 teachers from Shandong Province in my group. I had wondered what it would be like helping adults older than me improve their English speaking ability--many of whom had already been an English teacher anywhere from 10 to 20+ years. Our main goals are in the ABCs. We wanted the students to "Attack your limitations", "Build your confidence" and "Commit yourself" -- all in an English-only environment. Although it may sound like a daunting task, they were very friendly and kind towards me. I taught them new games and activities they could use in the classroom to promote English learning. All in all, it was encouragement that they needed to become more confident in speaking English. It was a wonderful 21-day transformation to see students go from shyness to boldness of speech. Some highlights included watching movies together, performing dramas in the classroom, playing games during PE time and giving a speech. Perhaps one of the most memorable moments for me was when I was asked to participate in the talent show to sing Amazing Grace with my class! Please enjoy that moment with me in the video below.
Peace & Love,
JoJo / George

Session 1 Complete

Mia here. It's amazing how connected I feel to 27 students after 21 days together. Class D became a family. The students went from shyness and feeling uncomfortable with their accommodations, to feeling energized by the English-only environment. A few said that they were even able to dream in English! Toward the end of the session I got a cold, then a weird stomach ache, then another form of chest-cold. I guess my body is finally adjusting to the new environment. Even though I was uncomfortable during the last couple of days, I was honored to hear such thoughtful and heart-felt speeches...one was from a father telling his story of being too strict with his child, and how his own son taught him forgiveness, and that a new kind of father/son relationship can be formed. Another speech highlighted why women should be able to be head teachers more frequently in senior school. I was blown away! Over lunch we discussed similarities and differences in teachers' schedules here and in the U.S. Some of my favorite moments included watching these skillful teachers let loose and play together like teenagers, act out mini-dramas, hearing and helping them fine-tune persuasive speeches, observing their 20 minute English lesson practicums, and seeing each person take risks such as learning to play basketball for the first time or speaking up in class. My class monitor made this video for the last day of class. You'll hear a couple of their favorite English songs: "A little love" and "Yesterday, Once More". They took pics of class time, PE, chatting in the cafeteria, and silly ones from the weekend scavenger hunt.

Here's a group of my students dancing during the talent show:

Becoming Facilitators

Mia here. A bit of a delay in posting. Deep breath, here's a wordy-one on what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. I'll try to provide some entertainment along with the update.

A sweet moment by the river during our
scavenger hunt

We spent last week with our leaders and peers who trained us on various aspects of the total immersion program (T.I.P.) methodology, history, and schedule. I love that we also learned by doing. For example, one day was a game, activity and song exchange so we could learn fresh ideas from one another. Jojo and I got to share some of our youth group and camp games/songs. Thanks YMCA for the Milk song (this was pretty funny to make them do).

Jojo made a really cool, animated PowerPoint of Katy Perry's "Firework"; we both sang while Jojo played guitar. Turns out Ms. Perry's song very much reflects the spirit of our curriculum! T.I.P says: "Attack your limitations, build your confidence, commit yourself"...might as well say "Baby, you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth..." Who feels pumped up? I do!

We also very much enjoyed researching and giving presentations on various parts of Chinese culture. Jojo made another impressive PowerPoint about Feng Shui and I talked about cultural understandings of "face". My PPT was slightly less cool, but still pretty slick (if I do say so myself). We ended the first training week with "Survival Mandarin" and scavenger hunt in Beijing practicing what we absorbed. It also included some funny stuff like tasting stinky tofu and asking strangers if we could take pictures with them.

Jojo and I got the opportunity this week to work with Wouter, Director of Operations, to come up with social media strategy for recruiting summer volunteer facilitators. Summer is T.I.P's busiest season with up to 500 students per month. I really enjoyed this process; here's what Jojo and I worked on respectively: Instagram-jojo & Pinterest-mia. Special shout out to my social media-savvy friends, Dellany and Erika, who showed me the power of a good tweet...hopefully I'll be able to embody your special abilities when our new website launches and we're tweeting & hashtagging up a storm. Side note: I didn't realize I'd get to be a part of such a cool side project along with teaching!

It's Friday night and I'm sitting in our common room watching speed skating on using a projector feeling tired & sore, but satisfied. Our afternoon involved getting our class assignments and then cleaning/setting up our rooms. We will each have our own cohort of about 30 students (English teachers) from Shandong Province. While overwhelming at first, I got really excited, almost giddy about making posters with permanent markers and setting up my desk/shelves with supplies. Nerd alert! I felt more like I was a kid playing teacher. #itwasawesomsauce (I'm already practicing my hashtag abilities, aren't you proud?!) While we worked, we also got a free Mandarin lesson while hanging out with one of our Chinese admin staff. #bonus  

I'll leave you with a panoramic view of each of our classrooms:

Class D - Daring, Delightful, Dazzling (---> scroll to the right, there I am working in my pajamas)

Class A - Amazing, Adventurous, AwesomeSauce (---> scroll to the right to find Naomi - one of Jojo's newest fans)

Missing all your warm hugs. Sending you lots of love! 
M & J

This just in...

Snow!

We made it!

We arrived at our dorm in Beijing on Tuesday night, Feb 4th. The other facilitators have been super hospitable showing us around, and it has been great getting to know each of them. Our start date to the next session has been moved to the 26th so that will help us in getting better acquainted with our new home. Yesterday we got to visit the old summer palace. Here are a few pictures of us.

 

eating fried mutton on a stick

taking pictures in cutouts

 

ice shoeing on a frozen lake