The RCEF Blog 博客

When I was a teacher in California, I once went to a quick workshop about Bizworld, and I thought it was the coolest teaching ever! Bizworld is a program or toolkit that introduces the concept of entrepreneurship to students in primary school and even secondary school. I thought students at Guan Ai would definitely enjoy [...]

Chinese kids don’t really play board games like American kids do, but like any game you introduce to kids, they pick up quickly, especially if you play the game in class. Little did they know they were actually reviewing math skills for their end of semester test that was coming up. The other function of [...]

Teacher Sun was really hesitant when I first suggested this project. In high school my physics teacher made each student make their own guitar and play a song. I figured Guan Ai elementary school student groups should be brilliant enough to make an instrument that could at least play some notes here and there. In [...]

Teacher Yang has never really been too comfortable teaching science. At heart she’s an English teacher, and she always seems a bit hesitant to explain some of the more challenging science concepts in class. But when I bring up science projects for her students to do, she’s always more than eager to try them out. [...]

For the Guan Ai 4th graders’ lesson on masted ships, Teacher Sun decided that the best way to learn about how masted ships function, students should build their own boats and find a way to make them work. The 4th grade Chinese language text required students to know the vocabulary of a masted ship’s parts, [...]

The challenge: Create a structure capable of supporting weight. The rules: Use only disposable chopsticks and rubber bands. Timeframe: Three class periods (40 minutes each) Awards: Structural Award – the structure can support the most weight Teamwork Award – every group member actively participates in the project Environmentally Friendly Award – the structure uses the [...]

If Guan Ai’s 4th Grade class is considered the smartest group of students at the school, then Teacher Sun, their language and science instructor, deserves immense credit for providing her students with a rich, engaging curriculum. Earlier this week I visited a language classroom of another teacher at another school. The lesson consisted of students [...]

Teacher Pei and I have focused on providing the 3rd grade students with a very hands-on science curriculum. The funny thing about the science textbooks in China is that each chapter is filled with pictures and drawings of kids doing science experiments, but never clear instructions on how the teacher should allow his/her students to [...]