Porn for demographers

I made my roommates a delicious pad thai and as we are sitting down for dinner we hear a knock on the door and two female chinese voices.  there was some confusion but guess who it was! The Chinese census!  After answering a few questions in Chinese we are now officially counted in the Chinese census! Honestly, I have no idea why they had to come to our door since we are registered with the police bureau along with 92849348543568347 other organizations. Whatever, puts people to work and puts a smile on our faces.

Fire on Fanyu Lu

woke up this morning to fireworks and a fire in our backyard.

New roomnmate!

Meet the newest roommate! After going on a walk through some art galleries Mike and I picked up this little guy!  Little did we know this this adorable and cheap little pet would actually cost us a fortune. He is a read earred slider and apparently needs 30 gallons of water and a filter so he can live forever.

This is the story of five strangers picked to live in a house...

...find out what happens when people stop being polite and start being real. The Real World Shanghai

It might as well be an MTV with the exception:
(1) We live in a million dollar+ apartment, not a house
(2) We weren't picked to live here... within a week of meeting we decided we actually like each other
(3) We take our jobs and school work VERY  seriously (sometimes)

Personailty wise and our crazy lives would make for good television.

I've been in Shanghai for almost a month now and have yet to give a detailed account of the "strangers" I live with.  so without further to do... welcome to the frat house.


I'll speak about annie first since I recently posted this picture in a missing persons ad.  Annie was give the award "Most likely to dissapear in China" because she never spent any time this summer at our Irvine campus.  She could have spent more time with me, her first ever roommate, but nooope she had to go to San Diego several times a week to see the man who bought her that cute little dog :)  In the month that we have been in China, Annie spent a week on retreat for her job and 2 weekends visiting her grandparents in Qingdao. Nevertheless I love her and NEED her.  I need her for her fluency in Chinese and for savisng me from these ridiculuous children that we live with. A quote from Annie's facebook is "At one point in your life you either have the thing you want, or the reason why you don't"



Also inhabiting the first floor is Miles.  Miles teaches at Shanghai University. According to Miles' facebook he is a gifted child.  One of his favorite quotes is,  "I asked my Mom is I was a gifted child. She said they certainly wouldn't have paid for me."  Facebook also states that he likes movies, music, politics, reading, dancing, blues stars and MEN.  Among Miles most recent accomplishments is missing work because he lost his keys and locked himself inside the appartment for the entire day.

Although he is a child, John Yunggun lives upstairs in the man cave. He is the oldest one of us, by a few weeks, and also the youngest.  In our program, he was voted most likely to have hsi students laugh at him. His students are kindergarteners.  Of Chinese heritage, John was born in Lousiana and moved to Oregon. His facebook mysteriously indicates that he attended both LSU and University of Oregon and that he is a graduate student at Harvard University class of 2012. Clearly an intellectual, his profile inquires, "How will you be remembered?"


Last but not least is our founder, Mike.  Mike came to Shanghai a few weeks before the rest of us and found this beautiful apartment.  I get to spend an awful lot of time with him since we work at the same school.  I'm not sure where he went to college but he does talk about Penn State a lot.  Oh yeaaaa I forgot he has a Penn state alumni sticker on his door, maybe he went there?  In the about me section on Mike's facebook he has the quote, "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..." interesting.  Facebook also states that he is interested in Mandarin Chinese, politics, sociology, demography, foreign affairs, foreign cultures, tattoos, live music, camping, hiking, and blah blah blah.

The frat house... part 1

Courtesy of my favorite roommate, John Wayne Gregory. CLICK THE LINK!


John Wayne Gregory:The Traveling Cowboy: My Crib in Shanghai: The wait is finally over. The worldwide premier of my crib has finally taken place. Enjoy!

Closing the achievement gap... suck it TFA

Teach for America (TFA), an organization which trains US college graduates to teach at low income schools, prides itself on closing the achievement gap between students of different income levels.  Well I say suck it TFA (1) for rejecting me and (2) for not realizing my true potential to close the REAL achievement gap.

As quoted from: http://blog.openstudy.com/2010/04/06/why-american-students-are-lagging-in-math-and-science/
"American students are lagging in math and science and trailing countries like Canada, Czech Republic and China, the National Center for Education Statistics concluded in a 2009 report. The study compared the ability of 15-year-old students with other students from countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in solving real-life mathematical problems. It found that students in the US are below average in math and placed in the bottom quarter of countries that participated and trail nations such as Estonia, China and Finland. More than half of the participating countries outscored U.S. kids."

While TFA will not put the future of America in my hands, I have chosen to close the achievement gap by exposing the flaws in the Chinese education system.  Yes, I am teaching at an international school, but call me crazy to think 11th graders can graph a linear equation... a STRAIGHT LINE.  I remember doing this isn SEVENTH GRADE. 

After TWO WEEKS of teaching this single section of the book to my students,  I gave the students a quiz.  I was disappointed to see students sleeping during the quiz (they were scolded and told to TRY) and to have to rescore the quizes 3 times to get anyone to pass. The average score was 23% and there was ONE student who passed out of 18.

I swear I AM A GOOD TEACHER.  These students are amongst the richest and most spoiled kids in China which also makes them amongst tthe LAZIEST.

After teahing the topic for two whole week and going over the homework I actually said to my roommates the night before that I think the quiz is too easy! Because I am nice, I gave them the quiz anways.

Decide for youself with THE ACTUAL QUIZ!

Quiz directions: Graph the equation or system of equations for each question.  Calculate the slope, x-intercept, and y-intercept, and label the intercepts on the graph.  You are advised to check your answers algebraically.

1.       2x + 1/5y = 20

              y = 4x - 40

2.            Find an equation in slope-intercept form passing through the points (2,5) and (7,-3).  

3. Annie wants to go on vacation.  The flight to Japan is $500 and the hotel costs $140 a day which she would split with her 4 roommates.  Annie could also fly to Bali and stay with a family member and it would cost her $675 for a flight.

4.    A consumer electronics company sells 6.7 million MP3 players per month at a price of $100 apiece; when the price is lowered to $80, the company sells 10.2 million players per month.  How many MP3 players can the company expect to sell per month at a price of $75?
 

Because  I am an awesome teacher, I have the students the chance to improve their grade if they did test corrections.  Guess how many took me up on my offer? THREE.

In summary,

problem = achievement gap
solution =  international schools breeding rich, spoiled and LAZY students.

Back to school x 2!

After 18 years of schooling, graduating from college was suppose to be an end... ok I will admit it, at least a break from formal education.  WRONG.  The reason for a full week gap in blogging?  Back to school... times two. 

Monday was the first day back to school for the students at Jin Cai.  Out of all the days I will teach, this is suppose to be the easiest.  The past four years, I took at least 5 classes a semester, multiply that by 8 semester... I sat through 40 first days of class (already two math problems in the blog, I guess I am settling into life as a math teacher).  Anyways, those 40 first classes should have set the bar and given me direction.  I know I can't prepare for everything but first days of class have a pretty standard formula... introduce yourself, have the students introduce themselves, and go on talking about the classroom rules and class structure... perhaps teach a little.  Well give that most of the students have all of their classes together they know each other well and didn't feel like telling me much.  So that 40 minute lesson plan was greatly cut down.  It wasn't a disaster but I felt like I was holding on to survive.

The first problem I encounter was in my 11-2 math class.  The 2 means that they are less able to communicate in English than students in 11-1.  I had the text and I was told to start at chapter 7 but I wanted to know how much of chapter 1-6 I should review.  Turns out I started with something too basic and I got laughed at (just a little).  i felt slightly defeated but when I moved to the next topic, which seemed of equal level, they were  stumped.  The students can solve complex problems algebraically, often in their heads better than I can, but they cannot do math graphically.  I have them a simple linear equation and they were dumb-founded as to how to graph it. I enjoyed my break on Wednesday when I didn't meet with the class but after that it was back to the grinder and we spent the rest of the week graphing lines.  Unfortunately, that's only chapter 2.  My boss suggested that I just move onto chapter 7 and review when necessary so please, pray for me and hope this plan works! I also have these same students for E11-2 economics which they say is their hardest class. For me, it is the most fun class since I actually enjoy the material.

My 12-2 math class is a totally different atmosphere than 11-2.  The class is about half as big (12 as oppose to 25) and they speak much better english. The 11-2 class is mostly Chinese and other students whereas this class has students from Venezuela, Turkey, Egypt, USA, and New Zealand.  The difference in maturity is huge and it is hard to think of this class as students rather than really cool people I could be friends with. They respond well to the threat of detention so that's how I set the boundary.

The fourth class I teach is ESL math and science vocabulary.  The perfect analogy for the class would be to place it somewhere between babysitting and pulling teeth without anesthesia.  The goal of the class is to get students into regular english level math and science classes next term and already I can tell maybe one will make it.  Some students speak no english at all and just give up.  Just like math is boring, its difficult to make a class entirely about learning vocabulary be fun.  The most interesting part is their names.  I teach Dew, Guitar, a girl named Ben and God. Yes, God.  God is from Thailand and God is a talkative punk.

On top off all these classes I have to monitor two detention periods, I am an assistant homeroom teacher, I serve on college committee as well as represent the foreign teachers for the PTA. No I am not an overachiever, I am an underpaid slave.  Oh and because I need 16 teaching period (None of activities mentioned in this paragraph count), I also teach math lab and GLEE CLUB as electives.  The first glee club is tomorrow and currently there is no lesson planned.  FAIL.

My obligations don't stop there either... I AM A STUDENT. RAJDHJDHJDSFHJSF.  Concordia. KHJDJSHF.  I'm not sure which I like less, Math 11-2 or my classes. Actually, most of my assignments are interesting but finding the time to do them is nearly impossible the into.  Online classes when the Internet is slower than slow is also a setback.  I wrote the intro to my business plan about selling bagels in China today and I still have another assignment to make up (literally).

Through all of this I did finally find time to party.  It was more like therapy.  Go big Friday night.  I met up with a friend from Miami who has been living in China for a year and I went out with the roommates.  Our apartment is still a hotel and we had  three friends crash here that night.

Well I guess it is time to lesson plan! I didn't come close to my goal of planning a weeks worth of math lessons this weekend so I better get cracking!

China's got me spinning!

So back to talking about that gym I joined yesterday.
Let me preface this post about my new fitness plan by telling you that this post being written from my couch after a bitter, burning round of baijiu. That's Chinese liquor, better known as poison, to my Americana readers.
Anyways, today I went with roommates Mike and John to the gym for spin class. Here's what I observed from this new experience of being instructed to work out in a different language.

      1. There is a time and place for American music and at the gym is definitely one of them. Music is a very important part of a work out for me, and since my iPod is now broken (sad story) I am thankful the gym plays some good beats.
      2. The class lacked the variation of an American spin class, there were no hills, only one brief set of jumps and no sprints (I was ok with that one). My theory on this is that the Chinese have a one track mind and can only concentrate on a single thing. I am not sure if this applies to other aspects of Chinese life but I will look into it.

      3. Not only did the class lack the variation of an American style class, it lacked in intensity. When I took classes in Miami and at home, the class would continue without stopping as the song changed however in China, each 4 minute song required a 1 minute cool down/rest. As out of shape as I am, this wasn't something to complain about.

      4. For all the class lacked, it made up for in heat. I would have been cooler if the bike were set on the top of the building in the high noon soon. Mind you, Shanghai is incredible hot and humid this time of year. The room had no air conditioning and got so hot that all the walls and mirrors fogged up.
    
      5. I might be able to learn some Chinese this way. In order to be respectful and have a problem free gym visit, I am going to have to improve my gym related vocabulary in order to better communicate with the employees. Also, I could follow the class by following the other bikers even if I didn't know what the instructor was saying but it would be very cool to understand him!
In other athletic news, the University of Miami is playing its first game of the season in just a few hours. GO 'CANES!

Typhoon bu hao!

Last night many of my Shanghai dwelling classmates received a call telling them not to come in tomorrow since all Shanghai schools have been cancelled because of a typhoon. My roommate John was particularly excited since instead of attending their first day of actually teaching, which involved they would be eight twenty minute classes to kids whose ages and abilities he does not know, he could enjoy his leisure.

I try to read and keep up with what's going on in the world but this surprised me.  Kudos to John's employed because if it wasn't for him I'd have no idea that a typhoon was coming.  Some doppler radar would come in handy over here.

Unlike the rest of Shanghai's academic community, I had another day of training today. STORY OF MY LIFE.

First off, for those of you who don't know a typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane, the only difference is the location.  So as a MIAMI HURRICANE (an alumna of the University of Miami, Go 'Canes!), it should be expected that I may have encountered a storm or two in my four years living in Miami.  false.  I was one of the uber-rare classes who never got to experience the pain (no AC) and joy (no school) of a hurricane.

Before that was Emma Willard where we never had a snow day because most of the students and teachers lived on campus. Apparently the administration lacked concern for the young drivers risking their lives on slippery roads, the school rarely had a snow day.

Don't get me wrong, I don't sit around wishing for natural disasters but I do think that people should be able to stay at home and enjoy the beauty of nature.

After getting caught in the rain twice, that's exactly what I am doing now.

I first got stuck in the storm on my way to the Police Bureau Station.  I got out of work early today (woo!) to go to the PSB to register myself.  Authorities expect you to register with the police within 24 hours of your arrival.  If you are staying in a hotel or a guesthouse you're accounted for.  Even when you enter the country or get a visa to come they ask for an exact address of where you are going.  Authorities here REALLY want to know where the foreigners are.  There was very little communication or attempts to communicate during this interaction and it was over with fast.

The rain let off and I walked to the gym for day one of Operation Get Back Into Shape.  I am hoping that can be done in just 60 minutes a day because after an hour I headed back home... in the typhoon.