April 21 first day at Sizhong

Day 1 at Sizhong  (Number 4)
  This morning after breakfast I walked to Number 4 school.  My first meeting today was with all the administrators,-1 principal, and 6 vice principals. They first introduced themselves and described their role at the shcool.  They then presented a ppt about their school.  I then presented a ppt about Leicester and its school system.  Immediately, a discussion began about the differences and similarities in our schools.  At 10:00, we went to the court yard where about 3,000 students were assembled in their uniforms and arranged by grade and class.  First some students raised the China flag as they listened to the National Anthem followed by  a short speech given by a student about the exams that were given last week. I then was asked to give a welcome speech to the entire student body and staff.
After that very impressive ceremony, I toured the school.  After only visiting a few classrooms, I was  awe stricken and very envious of the state of the art facilities and equipment.  I first entered the security office, which has 174 cameras-one for each classroom and several in every space of the school campus.  Next was the science wing, the 7th grade bio-chem lab,where the students just finished a hands on bio-chemistry lab exam.  (Students must pass  a practical hands-on lab experiments to determine academic achievement for each grade level.)
The physic teacher explained that  each lab table has a computer  so that results and data can be entered into the program automatically and records stored and sent directly to the teacher.  Next was  the 9th grade biology storage room, which contained, hundreds of dissected specimens ranging from a fetus to a rabbit and birds etc.  You name it, it was there.
The next venture was to a language lab.  The teacher demonstrated it me as I wore a headphone set  with microphone.  He explained that all students can hear the teacher, however, only the teacher can hear each individual student and the computer records the audio for assessment.  Are you kidding me?? I wish I had that when I was a foreign language teacher.  I can only imagine how much better the teaching and learning could be in Leicester if we had half of the equipment, technology and supplies as this school has.  After a quick tour of the students' dormitories, we had lunch in the cafeteria.  The buffet spread was unbelievable. So many choices.   The students and teachers are given a 2 hour break.  So they can all choose to stay at school or go home for a rest.  This afternoon I spent my time observing three grade 11 English classes.  Two of the teachers taught the same topic, but in very different ways.  The first and the third class had 62 students and the second had 60 students.  One teacher told me she sees a total of 300 students every week and is responsible for grading all of their work.  A teachers work day is the same as a student day. 8:00am-7:30pm.  Much of the day is spent planning with colleagues and observing each other teach.