Final Post

While I was reading the instructions on this assignment I read that we had to write three consequences of contacting an international contact. At first I was thinking I did not have any bad experiences contacting my professional. Then I looked at the definition and realized that it could be good experiences that I took from contacting the professional. The following are my consequences that I had contacting a international contact.

1. I became more aware of what goes on in China. I knew they had poverty but their poverty seems much harsher then our poverty. 

2. It shocked me that they do projects to make it look like the children are learning when officials come in. I always thought they were way smarter then Americans. So it made me more aware on what I do when I have people observe me. 

3. It makes me want to go explore the different cultural and then open a multi-cultural preschool.

My goal for international contact is to stay in contact with him every now and then just to compare issues on what is going in in his country and compare it to our country. 

• What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

In China everything is about face, I cannot stress that enough and it is practiced from the top of the government down. I wouldn't say the principal doesn't care about early childhood development but I would say she cares more about the school's and her image first. Twice a year people from the board of education would visit the school. For the weeks leading up to the visit the school switched from actual learning to making it appear like they have been learning. They will have the kids do hurried art projects, a few of them a day, sometimes cutting out my English class completely just to make some fake project that made them look like they knew some English. It reminded me of the scene in Matilda when they saw the principal coming and hid all the pictures and painting behind drab curtains except here it was the opposite. "Make them look like we did stuff". Sometimes the teachers, who are 18-20 years old and bend to the principal's every demand, will sleep over night at the school to "finish" the kid's art projects. It would not surprise me if the principal also slipped these inspectors some money on the side. So in conclusion all I know is what I saw at my school. I know the parents are eager for their kids to start learning, especially English, as young as possible so they have a chance to compete for a good college. I don't think they actually know what is going on behind the scenes though. My school made it a rule not to let parents in the front door. As long as it appears like they are learning the parents are happy and if they are not learning it must be the child's fault.

• What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

For a white English teacher from America you have China in the palm of your hand. You literally can work in any city at any level. If you have more experience you can earn better pay and have better chances of teaching in better schools. Me and most people that came to Beijing over the years had 0 experience teaching and 0 experience with little kids. But I learned and after 3 years my salary grew. It grows even more now. I have my resume posted on websites and I still get emails from schools all over China. They want to pay me 20,000RMB ($3,170) a month which is like double what I was making. It's because demand is skyrocketing at light-speed and because I have 3 years experience. I could teach at University level, but the problem with that is that you would make like 8,000RMB a month but the hours are shorter and you have to make dreaded lesson plans, yuck. I'll stick with singing ABC's and playing games for 20,000. I worked at a recruiting company that works with schools all over the city. They train the teachers, sometimes, and send them out to the schools. These companies are popular and an easy way to find work. I was trained with a large group before the school year started for 2 weeks. People who come -mid-semester might get a few days or no training and propped up in front of a class before they can get over jet-lag. You also have the opportunity to tutor kids on the side. I tutored some of my students and their parents. I could make a cool 3,000RMB on Sunday alone. Enough to pay all expenses for the month and then some. I also had a job at a training center where I taught a few classes of 20 kids. The opportunities are literally endless with little to no experience required, where else can you find a deal like that?

• What are some of your professional goals?

Although I took my job seriously in China my real goal was to become a screenwriter. My stay in China was a way to make ends meet while I wrote my scripts, but it became a bigger part of me. China sucked me in. I have thought about going back if I wasn't ready to make it as a screenwriter yet. If I did go back I would rather not teach classes but be a trainer for new English teachers. The pay is great and all I do is watch, evaluate, and give advice.

• What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

I have been living in L.A. for over a year now trying to push my screenplays through the door. I landed an agent finally and last week a producer optioned one of my scripts. So I am very happy about that and where it might lead. After I get in the door I would have a great paying job where I can from anywhere and have tons of free time. I really want to go back to Beijing. Maybe see more of China or just get an apartment in Beijing and live there for a few months out of the year. Maybe I'll go back to teaching just for the experience of it. I think you get a deeper, richer, more intimate understanding of China when you work there, especially with children. You get the opportunity to be invited to the children's house for holidays and help them make new year dumplings, and be taken on trips outside the city, stuff you cannot do when you just visit. The funny thing is, through all of my experience in China, I come back to the states and cannot find a teaching job because here there are strict requirements. You need certificates and early childhood development degrees and the cost of living here is high. It is a much better deal to do it in China where you can make at the very least, five times more than a Chinese teacher. Haha, I really felt bad when the Chinese teachers would show me their pay stub for 1,200RMB a month when they do everything in the class; cleaning, feeding, teaching, crafts. I teach two classes for 45 minutes then play and I made 11,000RMB. It's good work if you can get it.

My insights:

It suprises me that they hiring almost anyone to teach. I always thought they had high qualified teachers. Chinese people are seems to be way more knowledgeable then were are. 

I also would like to take this time to thank Kyle who was willing to email me back and fourth what a great experience.

References

Kyle. (2014, 10 15). (Cheryl, Interviewer)

I have found many things that are helpful on the NAEYC website. I still want to become a member but I am not able to become a member at this time. One of the links that I followed were to the affiliates of NAEYC. I knew Michigan had MiAEYC but I had know idea that each region of Michigan had a local chapter. Looking at the chair people of the chapter I know a lot of them. I would like to contact them and see how to become involved. 

With me wanting to be part of a member of the NAEYC I decided to search the benefits section of the website. I saw that there is three benefit packages. They all offer the same thing but only one of them offers six cutting edge books. Digging further into this they list six reason why to become a member. 

I have signed up for a newsletter but have not yet received any newsletter yet. I am not sure if something went wrong while filling out the form. 

The website does have things for equity and excellence in Early Childhood. They show training's and different articles for professionals to read. 

I did not see anything pertaining to different languages but I did find things pertaining to different ethics.

My international contact has not yet emailed me back about excellence and equality in China. This has surprised me because he has been emailing me every week.  From reading our past emails I came up on what I think the issues on excellence and equality is in China. I am hoping that he does email be back later this week so I can get his insight about it. 

From reading the past emails that we have been exchanging I think that the rich children gets a very high education and the poor children do not get a great education. The children who have rich families pay for a private school for the children to go to. Where the children in the poor families have to go to the public schools which sometimes are not the greatest in China. 

Not only do the children who are in the low income families have lower quality schools but they also have a rough living situation. They are taught at a very early age to beg and sell things. I keep going back to the place where the family lived inside their store. All they had was bed with a curtain covering the bed.

Most of these families did not have running water. I can not even imagine not having running water. You would not be able to do simple things like wash your hands, or even flush the toilet. I have very high credit for those families.