The Christmas Movie starring Lise and Mya Banek (EBIS, Dandong, China, 2014)

Refrigerated Dragons (Luka's band) plays an open mic at QSI

Loving 3rd Grade

In my 8th year of teaching I find myself in the homeroom teaching position once again. When I started teaching I was a mixed-aged preschool teacher for Denver Public Schools. After that, I spent several years in different roles, from teaching English as a Second Language (or English as a Foreign Language) to coaching fellow teachers on culturally responsive practices to managing every aspect of national and state assessment administration in a large DPS school (700+ kids). 

At QSI, I am an "8-Year-Old" teacher (3rd grade). I have 11 students who originate from all over the world - India, USA, England, Scotland, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. QSI is a school for children who hold foreign passports so we have students who represent countries from all over the world. This is such a glorious way to teach children the value of multiculturalism. Children on a daily basis are celebrated for their linguistic and cultural differences and learn firsthand that meaningful relationships can be built despite differences. 

Here are some of our pictures from our first semester:

QSI upper elementary spelling bee. 

4 students from this age group moved on to the district spelling bee.

Multiplication project - organizing a tea party.

Picking their supplies for their party.

Organizing their tables.

Field trip to the famous People's' Park in Chengdu.

Drinking tea in the park. Later, kids had to write a opinion paper on which tea they like the best and why. 

We have a strong relationship with the local school and do a lot of collaborative work with them through our Roots and Shoots program at school.  

Attending a Sichuan Opera show at the local school. There are about 70 kids in the upper elementary division (8, 9, and 10 year olds). 

My co-teacher and I combined our Viking cultural studies unit and our simple machine science unit to create a really awesome joint unit. Kiddos here are going through the time machine back to the land of the Vikings!

Getting help from our PE teacher as we build our Viking ships.

Almost there!

Completed. Now time to see if they are seaworthy.

Some were more seaworthy than others. We went on to build simple machines to life our loot that we pillaged from other villages onto our ships. 

Bummer. Kiddos discussed why this ship was not seaworthy. Mast too tall? Hull to skinny? Length of ship too long? Kiddos discovered how clever the Vikings truly were.

QSI brought in a famous storyteller from England. 

Kiddos learning the present, critique, present cycle. This guy was presenting on a trip he took with his family over the National Holiday vacation.

We celebrate birthdays by joyously singing, eating treats, and sharing traditional ways that the family celebrates birthdays. This is an incredible gift to get to learn how people from around the world celebrate birthdays - traditional foods, types of gifts, and more.

8-Year-Old silliness. 

A lot of group work takes place as we strongly believe in project-based learning.

Every child plays an instrument. In elementary it's either the recorder or violin. In middle school the choices increase. Band and orchestra are options with outside music clubs also available, like Rock Bank. (Every child also takes a language class, mostly Mandarin but German, French, and English are also available). 

Weekly Update: November 8, 2015

Waking up on a beautiful sunny Sunday. The temperature has markedly dropped over the last month requiring sweaters when going outside. ​Comparatively speaking Mid-October to now has felt like early September-Mid October in Colorado. There is definitely a coolness in the air and on non-polluted days it definitely has a Colorado-like presence. 

We continue to hear that the pollution gets horrible in the winter. We've had several days where the AQI level was above 200 which means that no one is allowed to go outside, the air purifiers need to turn on in the classroom and we have to shut all the windows (Colorado usually sits around 20 in the summer and around 40 in the winter, for comparison sake). These days make me long for the beautiful Colorado air AND makes me laugh that we used to complain how bad the air pollution was in Colorado on certain days in the winter. What amazes me is that almost no one wears masks in Chengdu. In Dandong, where the pollution was for the most part better, everyone wore masks. Maybe it's not socially accepted here? Maybe people have accepted the situation and have decided to not take additional cautionary measures??? 

Wearing my mask, I have to say, is not fun nor is it something I like to do. But I'm forcing myself because I've been rather sick the last month. Allergies & mold led to a sinus infection which led to an ear infection. An unmedicated ear infection led to loss of hearing and eventually a ruptured right eardrum. After about a week of not being able to hear + the pain and pressure that set in I finally broke down and went to the doctor. This is where I found out that my eardrum had ruptured and was prescribed antibiotics and sudafed. The doctor also prescribed (non-medically, of course) dehumidifiers for the house (story in a minute). Nathan lovingly gave me my nightly dose of ear drops for 10 days. I am better now, thank goodness. Not being able to hear 12 eight year olds is very very very difficult! Not only could I not hear what they were saying BUT the thousands upon thousands of words they speak everyday reverberated in my head all day long causing nightly headaches. 

I also need to hold myself accountable here because I've had lifelong problems with my ears, including skin grafts to heal ruptured ear drums that wouldn't heal when I was younger. This causes worry because every time one of my ear drums ruptures there's a possibility of damaging its ability to hear. This combined with my genetic disposition of early hearing loss on the Harper side of my family means that I need to do all I can to protect my hearing. Nathan and I were joking last night that it's time for both of us to go back to school so that we can learn ASL. HA! Thankfully, my sickness is all over now and I've learned my lesson. Daily allergy medication + dehumidifiers + occasional sinus medication + a mask on highly polluted days = Yaisa feeling (and hearing) good. 

​We continue to love our move here to Chengdu. Nathan goes on adventures every Saturday or Sunday to explore a new part of the city. It's one of his favorite things to do. He's almost mapped out the entire city and can tell you where most things are located. Sometimes we all go as a family and sometimes it's dad and 1 or 2 kiddos having some special time together. ​Chengdu is a great city filled with beautiful parks, streets lined with neat stores, and different themed neighborhoods (Tibetan area, pet street, north market where everything is super cheap...). 

We've become quite accustomed to our small cozy apartment. We were able to buy Luka a bed at a garage sale and have made him a bedroom in our living room (Picture below). We have a great patio out front which soon will be converted to a chicken play yard! We've wanted chickens every since we lived in our park hill home and soon it will be a reality for us. Nathan being our research guru has been researching chickens for the past month and has been all over Chengdu looking for the exact breeds he wants. 

Inside our apartment, we've had to buy two dehumidifiers due to the high level of moisture in the air here. Two weekends ago while going through our bedroom we found mold everywhere. This wasn't the black spotty kind of mold you happen to see on small patches of clothing of items. This was the light green kind that has grown so much we could have scraped it off with our hands. No wonder I was getting sick! The dehumidifiers are a blessing and we are so thankful we've bought them. We are needing to dump the water twice a day, that's how much water they are pulling out of the air! Being Coloradans who are used to needing humidifiers converting to the idea of dehumidifiers has been an interesting conversion!

Kiddos are doing well. Moving to China has been an adjustment for them in many ways. One way in particular is being American children who have been plucked out of an American school system and dumped into a international private school system surrounded by teacher children, consulate children, and children of high ranking businessmen and government officials. Navigating these relationships, i.e. relationships with children from these types of families has been an up and down experience for them. Understanding the reality that at times these children due to lifestyle have a very different view of the world then they do. Understanding that these children are upheld to different standards and often times have very different consequences than our kiddos has created an opportunity to see the world with different viewpoints. Nathan and I have worked very hard over the last 15 months to make sure that our family is a solid foundation, a pool of love and support, from which they can always come back to. We've instilled game nights, movie nights, family walkabout adventures and more to make sure that our bond stays tight. We constantly fill them up with positive and encouraging messages as they navigate through their experiences and decisions. Our kiddos are amazing and we are so very proud of them. 

As we approach the holiday season I am overcome with a myriad of emotions. Happiness because this season is my favorite, Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. Sadness at not being around my family and friends. Excitement to get to travel to different cities. Loneliness with not getting to be around my girlfriends who absolutely fill my soul..... We will be attending two different Thanksgiving dinners this year. One with several teachers on Thanksgiving night (we don't get any days off for Thanksgiving this year) and a second Thanksgiving dinner with a couple we have bonded with. They are from the States but have lived all over the world. They have three boys and our families get along beautifully. For Christmas we will be having a HONG KONG CHRISTMAS! Shhhh, the kids don't know. We will travel to Hong Kong and stay for two weeks. We've rented an apartment and will be taking the kiddos to Disneyland Hong Kong. They are going to freak out as they have never been to Disneyland and have always begged for us to take them. We are so excited to go during the holidays because Hong Kong is VERY westernized and it will very much feel like home. 

We'll that's the news from the 86 for now! 

Much love from China,

Y. 

Weekly Update: September 6, 2015

Weekly update in Chengdu take one!

We're six days shy of our one month anniversary here in Chengdu. It's hard to believe it's been a month already.

 If we were to compare Dandong to Chengdu life is much more easy and convenient here. For example, in regards to food there are many import stores, every grocery store has an imported section, there is an online store that I can buy all our essentials and have them delivered to the school for free (and they have Australian meat!!), there are foreign restaurants here including, American BBQ, several pizza joints, Indian, Mediterranean, Arabic, an Irish Pub, American cafes, and more. 

​Transportation is also easy (caveat, the ease of getting around does not include the traffic, which, at times is AWFUL!). Chengdu is designed in a three ring design. The city center is located in the middle with Ring Road #1 circling the city center. Then ring two is beyond that, and of course, ring three is on the outside. American Gardens, the name of our neighborhood where we both live and where the school is located is on ring road #3. There is a bus depot near our apartment where we can take a bus to anywhere we want to go in the city. Taxis here are cheap (starting at 8rmb, $1.25) and as long as you have the address where you want to go in Chinese then you are good to go. Another great thing about the taxis and restaurants here is that there is no smoking!!!! A blessing considering in Dandong you were allowed to smoke everywhere - including indoors (malls, restaurants....). 

Life is also easier because we've learned the nuances of being a foreigner in China during our time in Dandong. For example, we already know how to put money on our phones. This involves giving our Paraprofessional money and she buys more data for our phones from Taobao (there are no contracts here). We already know how to buy bottles of water for our apartment, which includes buying water tickets.  We simply call the gentleman and say the number of our apartment in Chinese and he drops off a bottle of water at our apartment. We've also hired an 'A Yi' again who comes three days a week and cooks and cleans for us. It might be very hard for me to leave China because of this luxury - It is so wonderful to come home to a authentic Chinese (Sichuan, of course) meal and a clean home after a long day of work!

I would say, for me, though, the biggest blessing has been our school. QSI (Quality Schools International) is a great educational organization. Because they have been around since the late 70s they have a lot of systems in place that are functional, based on best practices, and sensible. They don't over complicate things and absolutely make every decision, as an organization, based on what's best for children. I wholeheartedly believe in their motto "success for all" and their sub-motto that "success breeds success." You can say that I've drank the juice. Most of our coworkers are long time international teachers and travelers and because of that have a certain ease about them. They are relaxed, easy going, and love to hang out together. There are a lot of families here (teaching partners with children) so our kids have had someone to play with from the moment we landed....this is not an exaggeration. The moment we landed we headed to our apartment. We then left to have a look at the school (which is right across the street) and there were 4-5 staff kiddos there that had handmade a sign for us and all the kids became instant best friends. Most weekends the kids are off playing at the school with the other kiddos or are hanging out at each others houses. A copy of times the older ones have taken the bus into town and have gone to a restaurant by themselves. 

...one month in and I can say that we really like it here! 

Quick snapshot of each of us:

Luka: Luka is loving 6th grade and says that he has the best teachers he's ever had. He has joined Rock Band and is the drummer. The Band plays twice a week and may have some upcoming shows. He has also joined Boy Scouts and will head to his first campout this upcoming weekend. He has a best friend here named Grant - the boys get along great and have already had multiple sleepovers. 

Lise: Lise is doing great in school already. She, of course is very organized and loves to raid the teacher's supply room for more supplies. She has gotten up many mornings to go running and is really excited for Cross Country to start. Both Lise and Mya have joined the Roots and Shoots club that will run year long and will be working on several charitable activities and events. The group will organize and help with the "Live Aid for Nepal" event that the school puts on which rounds up musicians from around the area and puts on this huge concert. All proceeds goes to Nepal to help in the rebuilding efforts. 

Mya: Has joined middle school girls soccer and is having a great time. She is also in the Roots and Shoots club and looks forward to all the charity work they will do over the year. The girls have created a babysitting business and will soon begin advertising. Both have high hopes of raising a lot of money and building their babysitting resumes. 

Nathan: Nathan is enjoying his job as the PE teacher (he teaches 3rd - 8th grade). His Athletic Director portion of his job hasn't really started but once the competitive sports season starts he will be very busy. He is still in his alternative licensing program and continues to plug away at it. Once completed he will have his professional teaching license. 

Me: I am loving teaching third grade and am so thankful that my position switched from preschool to 3rd grade! I would have been happy, of course, to work with the wee ones but I am really loving the age group I work with now. I am loving being back in the classroom full-time and thankful for the challenge it provides me. I am teaching all content areas; daily we have reading, writing, math, cultural studies, IT, and extended learning (my co-teacher teaches Science). I have a great fellow 8 year old teacher and we work well together. I have already found Crossfit here and as mentioned on Facebook, last week I tried Rugby for the first time (loved it). I am so EXCITED to have these opportunities again and be able to do the things I love again. In this moment in time I am in love with Chengdu!!

That's all for now! Hope all of you are well. 

Much love from China,

Yaisa

P.S. My grandpa sent me this link which is a video of the largest structure in the world located here in Chengdu. Check it out!   

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tn9hoo6cZFc

​ Neighborhood chickens.  ​ 

-- 

​Nathan introducing himself at the Back-to-School night.

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​ Chengdu gets a lot of rain. Some have said that Chengdu sees less sun than London.

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​ The pitch near Sichuan University. This picture was taken right before I joined the last game of the night (after two hours of playing Rugby).​

EBIS Spring Formal

EBIS's Student Association planned a wonderful Spring Formal for the jr. and sr. high students. It was located in one of the nicest hotels in the city and was an Oscar theme. The students did a great job putting everything together and a great time was had by all. 

Lise and her friend Mark

Mya and Hannah

Lise and Julia

The "girls:" Tina, Mya, Hannah, Lise and Julia

Mya and her friend John

Drama club presented a play

The girls performed a dance

Delicious food

Teacher of the Year: ArCasia James (our English teacher)

Our Recruiting Director, Jacky

The one and only, Louise. She's magical!!

Life in Dandong

We arrived in Dandong July 2014, arriving during a time of immense heat. The Yalu River provided some extra humidity that us Coloradans don't typically feel. At first, living in this strange new place was overwhelming. We were unaccustomed to many of the cultural norms, some of which we might never become accustomed to (i.e. constant spitting). Our emotions ran the gamut, and we were in constant communication about if our current placement would be a multi-year placement or not. Then there was Thailand - an epic trip - over Chinese New Year. This experience reminded us of one the many blessings of living in Asia, that being the ease of travel throughout all of SE Asia. April brought spring and MAN Dandong flourished once again after a cold winter. Dandong in the spring and early summer is BEAUTIFUL! We found it a lot harder to say goodbye to Dandong then we thought. Below are some of our pictures from this beautiful city:

Repainting our apartment.

Man sitting on small seat made from wood to hoist himself up the 31 floors of our apartment building.

The Baneks took to the streets often to check out the city.

Found a cute park tucked behind our apartment.

At 5pm these bad boys are rented out and riders ride along the riverfront.

Kite flying is an everyday occurrence.

Hiking to the waterfall located by school.

View from the top. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-built-a-bridge-to-nowhere-in-north-korea-2014-11

Base of the waterfall

Street BBQ

Put all your vegetables in one bin, all your meat in another bin...

Grill master seasons and pre-grills your selections.

Then you finish them off on your own tableside grill

King of the World

Peace

Our apartment was located on the 29th floor of this building

Few traffic rules + a general "no merging" rule + bikes + pedestrians everywhere = an extreme vigilance when walking or driving.

Indoor market we would frequent to get local vegetables and fruits. This was a store we didn't frequent - seen here are all the various organ meats. 

Living on the 29th floor meant that we were above the firecrackers. Firecrackers are lit on the street before every wedding. Due to the high population everywhere in China there are multiple weddings daily at each of the hotels & event centers. We happened to live above a wedding event center.