Daily Classroom Schedule

Chinese students will come to the GCC camp with routines established after years of Chinese education.  Some will be desirable to keep and some may be extinguished for the purpose of an American immersion.  Respect for teachers is a behavior teachers can expect of their students.  For example, students will often rise before speaking or responding to a question.  Also, at the end of the day with the last ten minutes of class, students will automatically clean the classroom.  The teacher will be expected to do nothing but take care of their own materials.  Students will sweep, mop, clean the blackboard, and straighten desks.  This is an example of a desirable routine activity.

Morning Classes:

First Period: Language/Culture Lesson

Materials: Daily schedule, Journals, Material for table names

Procedure:

• Go over the daily schedule (with classes and times) with the students and either post a copy or write the schedule for the day on the board. Begin each day with the schedule of the day’s rotation.
• If this has not yet been done, have students make name tags for their desks for all to see.
• Engage their journals.

With the help of the national Teacher, discuss expected behavior for the three weeks and how it can differ from activity to activity and when GCC behavior can be different from behavior during a regular school year.  For example:

• no mobile phones,
• when watching a movie — no talking, complete quiet,
• during class – raise hands, wait for turn, participate, if not ready to participate, it’s o.k. to say “pass” (but not all the time!),
• evening activities can be crazy; teach signal for quiet such as one hand over mouth and other hand raised,
• don’t talk when someone else is talking.

It’s important to discuss how this may/may not be different in their culture.  This can be the first opportunity to establish the give and take of cultural exchange, which we hope will be part of most every lesson.  With the help of the National teacher, ask them what’s expected of them in their regular classes.  This is also a good time to explain that the GCC atmosphere is somewhat different from that of American schools during a regular school year . . . that the “camp” atmosphere is more relaxed.

Discuss how the two cultures might differ in body language and touch.  You might have the National Teacher tell them that you are going to show them some gestures from American culture and see if they know what they mean.  You could then have them do the same with gestures from their culture, a counterpart gesture in their culture.  Some ideas:

• Come here (beckon with finger);
• Good work (o.k sign, high five, thumbs up,);
• Eye contact (what it means in each culture);
• Shoulder shrug (I don’t know);
• Hugging (when appropriate and how it varies from person to person);
• Nod (yes)  Shake head (no) – not the same in all cultures;
• How to say good-by (words and gestures);
• Shake hands (men tend not to kiss and hug each other, their culture?);
• Appropriate for teachers to show approval to students (pat on the back).

Second Period: Activity or State Class

Present you state or activity lesson to your home room.  Your classroom will be known as the (Your State)  Room.

Third Period: Craft Class

Present your craft to your home room.  As with your state lesson, there is no urgency, as you will have these students throughout the fifteen days of camp.

Afternoon Classes:

Fourth Period: Activity or State Class

Fifth Period: Language/Culture Lesson

Establish a routine, especially in your first class in the morning.  Some ideas for starting the morning class may include a song, news, weather, sports, a recitation of today’s date (“What day is it today?  What day was it yesterday?  What day will it be tomorrow?”), and sharing of homework.  Furthermore, the day’s schedule should be written on the board and reviewed for the class.  The schedule will include information regarding the rotations for the day:  Where will they be going (what room number)?  What state will they be visiting?  What is the evening activity?  It is recommended (not required) that students keep a journal.  Thus, the teacher may have a prompt written on the board such as “What do you hope will happen during your summer Language/Culture camp?”  “What do you most miss about your home?”  “What will you be doing ten years from now?”  On Friday: “What are you going to do during the weekend?”

At the end of the day, when your homeroom students return to their “State-of-Origin” classrooms, they may record their experiences of the day in their journals.  They may write about what they learned; they may write a letter to their teacher, parent, etc.  The teacher may choose to collect journals to read and respond overnight.  At the end of the week, every student should have something to bring home to show their parents.

Evening Activities:

Evening Culture Program: The schedule for these activities are already designated but, like most everything else, subject to change based on the wishes of our hosts, visiting staff, and availability of facilities, equipment, etc.  The friendships and goodwill portion of our goal statement can be realized more fully during times like these – times when all staff, Chinese and American, will be involved in planning or carrying out the evening program.

Four evenings each week, staff will offer students a program of activities.  These will likely commence at 7:00 p.m. and last until about 8:30 p.m.  

The schedule and nature of the evening events may dictate the themes of a portion of your daily Language/Culture class.  For example, if the evening activity is Trick or Treat, then the theme of one of the daily lessons needs to be Halloween.  This lesson would include a rich list of vocabulary terms associated with this American holiday.  These words might include:

• Pumpkin
• Jack-O-Lantern
• Trick – Treat
• Candy
• Ghost
• Goblin
• Monster
• Scare
• Scary
• and so on.

Examples of Evening Activities:

• Customs/Immigration
• Scavenger Hunt
• Valentines Greeting Exchange
• Halloween/Trick-or-Treat
• Olympic (Picnic) Games
• Movie Night
• Student Talent Show
• State Presentation
• Staff Talent Show
• BINGO Night
• All-School Dance Party

Vocabulary lists, including activity sheets, word finds, PowerPoint presentations, slide shows, electronic games, etc. will be available from your dean in the staff workroom.