Happy Easter. This morning I was able to have a bit more time in the morning in my hotel room. It was nice to be able to spend some time listening to conference talks and reading the Ensign that I picked up at Deseret Book before leaving Portland. It was a good time to reflect on the holiday that I am missing. I keep checking my watch tonight to see if the kids would be awake and I can just imagine their excitement as they find their baskets and then go on th...

It is Saturday and so normally there isn't any school. However, today there was a test for the Senior 2 students. It is one of the tests that colleges look at when admitting students---it isn't the most important test (College Entrance Exam) but it is a big deal. Mr. Feng had assigned his vice principals to take care of this for him so that he could take me out touring the area, but we stopped by there in the morning and I couldn't believe how formal it was. ...

The morning was wonderful. I was lead around by one of Mr. Feng's teachers. She was incredibly nice and took me to observe several classrooms. They took me to all English classes because the other teachers were apparently pretty nervous to have me in there since they didn't speak English. It was interesting to see how they teach. They do a four step process: 1. Self-learning 2. Teacher directed learning 3. Group work 4. Practice It was i...

Mr. Feng was in a meeting this morning with visitors that were coming to observe his school, so he sent one of his leaders over Teacher Affairs to the hotel to pick me up. It was kind of funny to be picked up by a driver for the school (the driver's name is also Mr. Feng)…of course it was a really nice shiny black car. So we headed away from the security of our English-speaking group and tour guides and into the unknown. We arrived at the school and Mr. Fe...

Today was spent visiting more schools as a group. We started out the day at the Xi'an Foreign Language School and were treated to the morning exercise routine. It was amazing to watch 1700 kids go through a morning workout and dance to some music. I was amazed at their unison and also that they were all doing what they should be. At the end of the workout, the students treated us like rock stars---storming the stand where we were, wanting to shake our hands a...