The school visit

12-01-2018

Our time at the CWD had come to an end, but I must mention a trip to one of Hanoi’s many public schools that happened before the karaoke night;

A sizeable group of us got on a bus from the CWD and headed to one of the public schools in the city. It was all very exciting wondering what was in store for us as the bus passed Nguyễn Đình Thi roundabout and circled the large Tay Ho lake. We eventually stopped at a school near the Nhat Tan bridge. Truth be told I never did find out which school it was due to not having a clue what school names were on Vietnamese signs at the time, but my closest guess would be Phú Thượng.

We then all got out and nervously waited outside the school. And HOLY MOLY! Once we went inside, students were everywhere! They were so excited, trying to hi 5 us all and all saying hello. It was a slow walk right through the center courtyard of the school, and only got more daunting when the massive drum started with its pounding. This was like a tribal ritual, and we had no idea what was next…

We all made it to the end of the courtyard, and slowly climbed the steps leading up to the second floor of the school. I settled beside Megan Mcgurk and Pip, and we all looked back at the courtyard we had just walked through. Then, all the school students arranged themselves into a formation at the courtyard. It must have been somewhere between 800-1000 students! The massive drum stopped…silence…and then they all started……
Dancing.

This was a mesmerizing display. Students would be swinging their arms and moving their feet all in synch. All 800+ of them. All I could do at that age in school was run around in circles and play football. And here’s coordinated dancing to a funky kids beat nicked from one of those European campsite anthems that’s better than anything Ireland has done at the Eurovision for the past 20 years. It was stunning coordination.

Following on from that, we moved into the teachers room, which had a red velvet curtain at the back of the room featuring a golden bust of Ho Chi Minh, the hammer and sickle, and a big 5 pointed star. The tables were dark brown, and arranged into a large, long rectangle with flowers snugly arranged in the inner gap created by the tables. Whiteboards were at the front of the room, with timetables, teacher names and day to day activities. Crucially there were fans and air conditioning, something I would assume was missing from other classes.

As we all sat down, we got to know Jur. Like Nick, she was a veteran teacher of Vietnam, teaching here for a number of years in public schools. Unlike Nick though, she was fully with BME and not associated with ELC. She also seemed to possess more of a stable style of teaching. She gave us some of the little tidbits of life in the classroom, such as bringing hand sanitizer to prevent getting too many colds, having sticky balls or spinning tops to help with games, and generally having an authoritative attitude first before loosening up in class over time.

We also went into one of her classes and observed her. We had 20 teachers at the back of a relatively standard classroom (meaning there were 40+ students in the room!) and squeezed in as much as we could. It was economy class seating right there.

I took a few things in from the observation. Mostly to have games after an initial stretch of writing on the blackboard. Getting students involved as a whole seemed more important than individual teaching, and to have the attitude of a gameshow host when it comes to the activities. The magnetic wheel that attached to the blackboard brought back thoughts of Derek Mooney presenting Winning Streak. At least the students were enjoying it, dying to get a chance to spin the wheel and win points for their side of the class. Giving stars as a reward also looked important to keep them going.

So I consider this a visit worth doing. Its increased the pressure somewhat but also relieved me that there will be someone assisting me during the classes. 40 minutes feels like a lot of time with classes this big, but with planning I should get on alright with it. We will see on Monday.