Tecumseh teachers experience Chinese culture on recent trip

Shanghai, Beijing and the Great Wall of China were just a few locales Tecumseh Public Schools teachers visited during their three-weeks in China, where they helped teach a summer school program at Zunyi Carey International School in the Huichuan District in Zunyi, Guizhou, China. Eight TPS teachers and TPS Supt. Kelly Coffin traveled to China in late June as part of a partnership with Zunyi Carey International School, which funded a majority of the trip. The last two Mays, the Chinese school has sent teachers to TPS to shadow Tecumseh teachers and learn how U.S. schools teach students, which is vastly different from how schooling is done there. “We’re used to structure and know what you’re doing day to day,” said Kim Kasper, a fourth grade teacher at Herrick Park Elementary School. “They don’t have a school calendar and on the whim say you have a long weekend this weekend.” During their visit, the Chinese government told English-speaking Chinese teachers they had an exam to take the very next day and without warning, leaving Tecumseh teachers without their translators in the classroom. “The language barrier didn’t matter,” said Kim Schmidt, Tecumseh Middle School (TMS) fifth grade teacher. “To me, it was the fear of not being able to communicate once I got there, but it wasn’t an issue.” Schmidt added non-verbal communication and body language, things she and other teachers have learned in their careers, helped eliminate that language barrier. “I walked away feeling stronger as a teacher,” said Elizabeth DuMoulin, another TMS fifth grade teacher, adding that with a difference in language, cultures and customs and still being able to teach impressed her. “I’m just really impressed by the team of teachers on how flexible we were.”Out of the three weeks the teachers were in China, they spent 10 days teaching the kindergartener through sixth-grade students at the school. “I miss those kids so much,” said Schmidt. “There aren’t words to describe it. It was life changing. There’s not a word to say how absolutely wonderful it really was.” While there, TPS teachers had a chance to explore China, visiting the Terracotta Army, the Forbidden City and the village of Miao. They climbed the steepest part of the Great Wall of China, were the steps were of various heights — a design to ensure invading Mongolians couldn’t get a sure footing if they invaded. Coffin said the traveling was purposeful, not only visiting some of the tourist attractions many people visit, but also experiencing the culture and customs of China itself. “It was a wonderful privilege being shown truly the culture of their people,” Coffin added. “We have context now. We got to see so many different parts of China, it just clicks why some things are they way they are. Once you go there and once you experience this, you start to know the people more. You set aside the generalizations and you’re really open.”Coffin added that just because its different doesn’t mean it’s wrong. The partnership between TPS and Zunyi Carey International School was created with hopes of Chinese teachers incorporating U.S.-style teaching aspects into their own techniques. In China, education is about passing a standardized test. While the U.S. has standardized testing, it is not the single purpose of an education. “While we have assessments, that’s only a very small piece of the work we do to prepare kids,” said Coffin. “That isn’t what drives the work we do with our kids.” Buffy LaGore, a TPS instructional coach and former TPS middle and elementary school teacher, said it was very rewarding to go over and show them how U.S. teachers teach. “When they were here, they were skeptical it would work in China,” LaGore added. LaGore said one difference was getting the students to sit on the floor. She said she had to teach students step by step on how to move from their desks to the floor, something we take for granted in the U.S. Going forward, the partnership between TPS and Zunyi Carey International School will continue, including the summer school working and inviting Zuni teachers to the U.S. Coffin said the partnership could be expanded to have some student exchange programs and that Chinese teachers could one day teach at TPS, receive an education at Eastern Michigan University and then go back to China to teach. “Our students are going to be working with the students that we worked with over there someday,” said Coffin. “As you go out into the workplace, you’re not just working with people from Tecumseh, Michigan, you’re really working with people all over the world. We want our students to understand to get to know the people first and see they’re more like us than not.”