End of Book Week

This past week was Book Week at school. You may be asking yourself a couple of questions at this point. What is book week? and Do you have a week for everything at QSI? The answer to the second question is YES. We have weeks for everything under the sun, including a Sun Week, Moon Week, Stars Week, and Milky Way Week. Pluto Week was dropped a couple of years ago because it was demoted as a planet. That was a bad day for those Pluto fans out there. I digress a little bit, but we do have several themed weeks toward the end of the year. Earth Week is next week, but it is so for many of you out there. More on that later...

Book Week was successful. We had our pictures taken with our favorite book. I really didn't have my favorite book with me, so I just posed with my Kindle along with the book cover of a book I was reading on the Kindle. We placed these pictures on our door along with a statement about our favorite books and where we buy English books in China. Just about every teacher did this. Jamie never got around too it because she was out of town and didn't prepare for it.

I took my kids along with some other students to the elementary school on Monday to read poems to some of the younger students over there. It was good and our kids got community service hours for it. At QSI, each student must do so much community service each year. No one really knows what happens to the student if they do not do this, and I'm not sure if it goes on their record or not. It is a good way to get kids involved in the community or school functions. I think my 12 year olds have to do 25 hours. Since they are 12 and half brain dead, most do not have more than 3 hours at this point. They'll be picking up trash in Shekou at the end of the year I guess if they don't get it finished.

All week for 30 minutes of one period of the day was D.E.A.R or Drop Everything And Read. I enjoyed this because I didn't have to plan for that time and was able to read. The had taken all of these pictures of teachers with books and posted them in the media center computers as screen savers for Book Week as well as made all sorts of banners, posters, and displays on each floor representing all sorts of various books.

The highlight of the week was a children's author David Greenberg's guest appearance and presentation. I had never heard of him, but he has written books entitled Slugs, Bugs, Snakes, Crocs, and other animal related books and poems. His most recent novel, however, called The Tugging Strings, concerns growing up in the Civil Rights Movement. Interestingly, his dad is Jack Greenberg who was one of the only white attorneys who worked for the NAACP and actually worked on the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. He later went on to be an attorney for Martin Luther King, Jr. Pretty amazing actually. His presentation was amazing and he is very talented with children and his writing. The kids loved it.

So that was Book Week or all that I can remember right now. Next week is Earth Week and there is 3 times as much going on. We do actually teach somewhere in the midst of all of this, I promise.

Griffey had his 2nd guest barking appearance today with a 10 year old class. They were watching the movie Shiloh and begged their teacher to let him come and watch it with them. He had a blast and they did too. He's the best dog in the world!

All for now. Jamie and I are going to Hong Kong tomorrow since it will be our last time for the year. We have to turn in our passports to renew our visas for the year when we return from Bali. Supposed to take a month to do this, so when we get them back, we'll just about be headed home.

I am hoping to finish Chapter 2 of my dissertation by Sunday with the exception of some additional Chinese research. I am excited about this and it is amazing what I have accomplished. I'm proud and can only hope that it is any good. We'll see soon enough. Have a great weekend everyone!