Chinese Summer Camps

I have just completed working on two summer camps; both were very different to each other. They were both in the same city, Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, very different but both enjoyable and practical for me in gathering new ideas for the coming school year and beyond.

The first camp I was returning to for my second year, I arrived on the 10th of July after taking an overnight sleeper train, took a bus to the hotel and checked in, unpacked and gathered what I needed for the next day and beginning work. There were 22 foreign teachers from a variety of countries around the world. Each teacher had chosen a different ‘home’ country for their classroom, mine was England and on each afternoon we would teach a rotation class on that country. We also had to teach a craft, something the students could easily complete and take home with them, in my classes they made ‘English Name Certificates’ using each students creativity through drawing and writing. We also had to teach a sport, at this time of year, China is too hot to be outside for too long, so rather than go outside and teach a conventional sport, I chose to stay inside for most of this lesson, playing some indoor games and just going outside for the last twenty minutes or so.

The emphasis on this camp was letting the students have fun while learning, as well as classroom work; they had a field trip to the zoo, shortened to half a day because of the heat. Opening and closing ceremonies had to be organized, a backwards day, where evening activities were completed in the morning, and Christmas was celebrated in July. It was fun, but each day was a long one, first breakfast was taken in the hotel, and then onto the bus to the school to begin working at 8.30 after a morning meeting. After lunch we would return to the hotel for an hour’s rest work from 2pm until 5.30, and after a meal complete the day with bingo, games or other activities to keep the students entertained. It was enjoyable, but long days, and each evening I would return to the hotel ready to sleep and get the rest necessary to repeat the process the next day.

During that summer camp I was offered a place on a second one, in the same city but at a different school. So on completing the first camp, it was a case of checking out of one hotel, a short taxi ride to another ready to begin the process again. This second hotel was not as geared up for westerners as the first one, although it was closer to the city centre and just across the road from the school. Breakfast was provided at the hotel, on the first day in the school we were told to get to breakfast early as otherwise all the good stuff would be gone. After about 3 days each of the foreign teachers discovered there was no good stuff available, and I think by then all were going to a nearby KFC to get a more desirable breakfast. Lunch was available at the school, canteen style school meals vary greatly in quality and this was definitely among the better ones, so no real complaints there. For the evening meal we were each given a sum of money that easily covered the cost of buying a meal, then it was just a case of going out and finding something to eat, there was lots of restaurants close by and the choices were endless.

On this summer camp, there were just six foreign teachers, all from the UK. The school wanted us to teach to the students topics that were closely related to Britain, we taught each day from 1pm until 5pm, the rest of our time was free, although as the classes were to be taken a little more seriously than the previous summer camp, some time had to be given to preparation of the next day’s classes. The students also had to learn an English song and a story, my class sang ‘We are the World’ and gave an adaptation of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ Hopefully both summer camps run concurrently next year with no overlaps, then I will happily attend both again next year.