Day 3-Sizhong Morning classes

My morning was spent visiting the middle school at Sizhong.  On my way to school today, I walked to school with a history teacher.  She explained to me that today she will be "reviewed" (observed) by 6 or 7 teachers.  She said that this takes place 1 time per month because she is a first year teacher.  The team of teachers are from a variety of subjects and grade levels.  They will rate her and give her suggestions and feedback. (By the end the day, she told me she was only rated 77 out of 100 by her peers..she was very disappointed.)

My first class to attend today was a 7th grade math class with 42 students .  The class was all in Chinese so this is the gist of what I observed while watching. Class began  with a student reading the learning aim out loud.  "How to solve practical problems in our lives."  Teacher then said, "We will demonstrate this through solving inequalities and exploring problems." The class spent the entire period (8:40-9:20) solving one math equation.

Teacher first gave a brief review of an equation from yesterday:

45x+40(12-x)_<500    x- _<4

Then he introduced the problem for today:--(grade 7)

600-x+1000(30-x)_<22000

After the students solved the problem, they then had to write a paragraph about how to explain the differences between inequalities and equations being equal.  They then had to stand up and say what they learned from this problem.  Before leaving, they all wrote what they learned in their daily journal.

The next class that I attended was a grade 8 physics class, 45 students worked on two experiments, friction force and measuring buoyancy force and density.  They measured different forces with lab equipment; including scales, springs, measuring cups, and beakers.  Students were given 15 minutes to do the activity, fill in the blanks from a worksheet, write a brief lab report and then switch groups to do the second experiment. For the last 5 minutes of class the students shared their findings out loud to the class. 

I then went to a "labor skills" class, it was really more like a logic and problem solving, hands on activity center, held in the media center.  There students work on challenging activities, such as puzzles.

In 7th grade robotic class, the students work on building a robot.  Groups of 4 students work on building the robot  while one student in the group sits at the computer and does the programming to make the robot move.  Students are given 30 minutes to complete this task from start to finish.  They must program two speeds and make it travel for 10 seconds.  The high school robotics class competed and won first prize a for their robot in January.  Their task was to build a robot that could shoot as many balls into a basket as possible in 100 seconds.