The RCEF Blog 博客

Ever wonder what life is like everyday at a rural boarding school in China? Well, below is the daily schedule at Guan Ai Elementary. When the days start getting darker earlier, the schedule is adjusted slightly so that students wake up a bit later and get ready for bed a bit earlier. The schedule is obviously very full. However, Guan Ai has operated by this schedule length for the last three years and incredibly, the children brim over with energy from morning to night. As a boarding school, Guan Ai is responsible for the students twenty-four hours a day. Kids have nowhere else to go but stay in the school. Thus, they have evening study halls whereas at non-boarding schools, students often go home after 4 or 5 PM.

Each grade has math and Chinese every day. In addition, they have English, Science, and Social Studies, and Physical Education about twice a week. Art and music are taught once a week each. Guan Ai only takes every other weekend off because parents say they are busy (or gone) and prefer their children to be taken care of as much as possible at school.

06:20 Wake Up

06:30 06:50 Wash Up

06:50 07:10 Morning Exercises

07:10 07:40 Morning Study Hall (Usually for reviewing and reciting lessons from their textbooks. Oral recitation is a very common learning technique in China.)07:50 08:30 First Period

08:40 09:20 Second Period

09:20 10:00 Breakfast and Recess

10:10 10:30 Practicing Chinese Characters

10:40 11:20 Third Period

11:30 12:10 Fourth Period

12:20 01:00 Fifth Period

13:10 13:40 Sustained Silent Reading (free reading extracurricular books from the library or checking out books from the school library)

13:50 14:40 Lunch and Recess

14:50 15:30 Sixth Period

15:40 16:20 Study Hall 1

16:30 17:30 Extracurricular Classes (12 electives and each student voluntarily signs up for two, which are taught on alternate days. The electives are: Cooking, Poetry Recitation, Drama, Arts & Crafts, Chess, English Corner, Soccer, Chinese Yo-yo, Aerobics, Community Service, Story Time, and School Newspaper.)

17:30 17:50 Chores (Each grade sweeps out their own classroom and has a part of the school yard they are responsible for keeping clean. Grades rotate throughout the week to wheel out the school trash wagon and dump it in a nearby landfill. There are no public waste services in most rural villages.)

17:50 18:10 Recess

18:20 19:00 Dinner and Recess

19:10 20:00 Study Hall 2 (Once a week, movies are shown during this period. We strive for a combination of educational and entertaining programming. See Sara’s post calling for suggestions.)

20:20 Rest

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