Epilogue II: Returning after 19 Months in Asia

I sat back and read a sampling of blogs over the past 19 months. It all began with the Tropical Traipse. That was a jaunt through SE Asia with the simple intent of relaxing after what was then an exhausting education practicum all throughout 2005.

I had no jobs lined up then, no future plans, just a major reward to travel through the best region on the planet after working my ass off. If the money was running low, I'd return to Shanghai and resume my previous job from 2001-04: teaching English at private langauge institute called 'Kai En'. Only this time, with an Ed degree, I'd be even better at it!

My family was with me at the beginning of the Traipse during Christmas '05 in Laos. They thought my idea was ridiculous. What else is new. Anyways, they figured, "No job lined up? You must be crazy!" Hardly. While holding a real teachers degree in Asia, I wasn't exactly worried about finding work.

And it turns out I did get a job, actually, a lot sooner than anticipated. Hanging out on the beaches of Koh Chang, I met up with a colleague / friend who was in the same course on global education I took during practicum. He was very knowledgable and spent a couple of days lounging in a hammock and selling me on a school in Dalian called "Maple Leaf".

At first, it all sounded too good to be true. There is no way any school could pay those kind of wages, higher than a Western country, and be so forthright about it. After all, this was China, the land of chintzy bosses. Not once had I been given a paycheque without having to either (a) double-check the amount or (b) solve a last minute 'problem' on payday. What's more, the school conditions sounded excellent, the students top-notch, and I could be teaching a real course related to my degree, not just "teaching English".

On the other hand, teaching English again would be better than the alternative of hunting around for TOC work in Vancouver and waiting maybe 2-3 years before actually getting a teaching job. Despite all the gains made during the strike (which happened during practicum), it was still a cumbersome process for new teachers to get good jobs.

I voiced that to my colleague in Thailand and his reply basically amounted to, "Fluff that TOC shiz, get your application into Maple Leaf and get a real job."

Then he disappeared on a plane back to Dalian. All that took place in Feb during his Spring Festival holiday, when he had 5 weeks to travel around and get paid for it. I had been traipsing for that long already. But he was getting paid for his travels, and I was not.

Hmmm ....

The traipse continued. It went like this. Laos --> Thailand --> Cambodia --> Vietnam. Good times for sure, like meeting up with a Japanese girl 'Mayumi' in Thailand who was planning a global traipse. She actually pulled it off too, and we still keep in touch.

We were in Cambodia at the time, planning to meet up again in India.

Then an interruption.

My colleague who sold me on Maple Leaf gave a super urgent email saying that a Math and Physics teacher had just quit and there was an opening ASAP. I promptly got my application in, had a phone interview, and was scheduled to begin teaching March 15, 2006.

It all happened fast, but it was a major dilemma. After all, I had enough cash to last 6 months on the road at least. By taking this job, the traipse would end. There were a few sleepless nights. But the recruiter made a good point, "You have 5-6 weeks paid vacation time during the winter break, for which you can travel in SE Asia if you like."

I was sold. After all, who could turn down an offer of paid travel? The traipse would continue on in stages. At that point, I went to India and had a good time, just enough to whet my appetite for more. Next year.

Eventually I took a series of flights from Chennai --> Calcutta --> Bangkok --> Xiamen --> Shanghai --> Dalian. I arrived at this Maple Leaf school and was greeted by the secretary at the airport. Talk about a warm welcome, they even dropped me off at a fully furnished and brand new apartment right on campus.

So much for commuting, and talk about swank apartments. Keep in mind I grew up lower-middle class, so this was all luxury to me, and I'm still adjusting. While not exactly poor growing up, I always had to be careful with money.

Things were only going to get better. It took some time to get the rust out of my Math and Physics skills, but I caught on quickly, and enjoyed some of the best students, classes, and colleagues. It truly was a well-run and professional school with great conditions. Best of all, I was actually teaching something related to my degree.

For China, the land of under-employment, this was unbelievable. Not only was the school well-run, but the experience opened up a whole new world. My future China experiences would be viewed from the frame that here I was, back in the country, now with a real job, helping students get a real education.

In a nutshell, Maple Leaf blends the best of Eastern and Western education methods, which really is my ideal kind of school.

The next 17 months progressed extremely quickly after that. Although very busy with school work and a church fellowship I found in downtown Dalian, it was refreshing to take travel breaks (mostly by bike) and continue exploring China and SE Asia. Here were some highlights:

May '06 --> Shanghai visit with Physics colleagues
July '06 --> Biking through Fujian
Aug '06 --> Biking from Bangkok to Chiang Mai
Feb '07 --> Sichuan to Yunnan combo of biking and a bus ride from hell, followed up with another Thai bike rie from Bangkok to Krabi in the south

May '07 --> Zhejiang mountains by bike
July '07 --> Yunnan mountain grind, which you just read about

I got paid for all those as well, and more will be coming.

Now while Maple Leaf would sound like job utopia, there were a few drawbacks as recorded in the blogs. An accepted fact of life at the school is the busyness. Put simply, all of the above trips were done after nearing the point of exhaustion from a very demanding school experience up until the holidays.

Most of the exhaustion centered around term exams: preparing, fine-tuning, making 4 versions, test-piloting, administering, and finally marking them. Term exams would take place 4 times a year. I went through this cycle a total of 6 times, and some problem always came up.

In addition, I was give a leadership role this past year for the head teacher of Physics 11. It went well at first, but later the pressure became too much. I decided to drop it for next year. Technically I was still a "first year teacher" even in my 2nd year. I got along well with everyone at first, but two new innovative teachers came in, who basically shook up the entire Phys department. They introduced great ideas, but their expectations of students were extremely high. We had to keep reminding them, "Guys, this is only Physics 11!" They got bored with basic Physics and wanted more creative, novel exam questions.

All of a sudden, if term exam writing was a challenge before, it now became a nightmare in 2007.

Pretty much every single term exam killed my class average.

Conversely, I don't think my in-class tests were that easy, but I sure learned from my practicum: only assess what you cover in class, and nothing beyond. I focused on that all year. That is, it was entirely possible for students to get a perfect score on my tests if they studied hard from their notes and did the practice problems. As it should be, and every single test had at least one 100% score so I knew it was possible.

Studnets, expecting that from the term exams as well, would study their brains out, only to get much lower scores. The exams were filled with "creative" questions that demanded students apply what they know to questions they had never seen before. I hadn't done that in class, for better or for worse, so my students choked on the exams.

Actually, it got so bad that I had a student write me saying, "I'm sorry I was a Grade 11 student this year. The term exams were horrible. What's the point of taking notes in class and studying if we're being asked new questions on exams? If teachers want to ask those questions, we should at least do similar types in class to prepare, and not those unrelated review packages with questions that lazy teachers take from the internet that don't even have an answer key."

Now we have to take this into perspective. You can't predict every question that could appear on a Physics exam, that's just silly. But if you do old exams or practice problems, for example, that trains you and prepares for the kind of stuff you can expect on the real thing. To throw a bunch of curveballs is blatantly wrong, in my opinion. It basically amounts to punishing those students who work really hard by preparing the best way they know how.

And we all know how much those marks meant to the students --> their marks are their lifeblood, to quote a Chinese saying. In other words, you don't screw around here.

Trouble is, I argued those points with new colleagues 'till I was blue in the face but never really gained any ground. "Well, you gotta separate your As from your Bs" was the common response.

At any rate, there will be improvements on the exams for next year.

The stresses of being a "first year teacher" definitely make for an exhausting year and the trips were, certainly, necessary.

I'm looking forward to next year when I'll have this game down pat more, and especially the testing and exam situations.

After 19 months in Asia, I really don't what to expect while going back to Vancouver. Certainly it'll be quieter and there will be more space, but who knows what else? It's only for 3 weeks, but still a major transition. I feel nervous about it.

But seeing that I signed another 2 year contract with Maple Leaf, I will be back.

Here's hoping I won't crash my car after getting back on the road. Maybe I'll just stick to bikes and public transit.