Taxis, Pearls, Street Fights, and holes in the ground to pee in.

Okay -

Sunday morning here in Beijing – the 12 hour time change has got us waking pretty early so I have already walked to the vegetable market and made juice from my purchase – several carrots the size of dining room table legs something that looked like fat spinach, three tomatoes, a stalk of two foot long celery, four apples and a hunk of ginger - the whole lot, fresh from the farm, cost me about two bucks.

Yesterday we worked in the morning getting together our lessons and presentations for the coming week at the Western Academy of Beijing and the International School of Beijing. Then in the early afternoon Trish collected us and we cabbed to the pearl market where she introduced Sara to her favorite jewelry maker Cheryl. Now I am not a jeweler aficionado by any means – but I know a deal when I see one and the pearl markets in china are a bargain and a half. Unfortunately, in switching lenses on my camera I messed up and turned the auto focus off and everything taken is too fuzzy to discern – so take my word for it – it’s a bustling flea market kind of place with enough pearls to fill an Olympic swimming pool. Needless to say Sara walked away with about seven pounds of stuff for herself and gifts to pass out when we return.

Before going into the place – a five or six story warehouse type building divided into shops and stalls – mostly named for the woman who is running the establishment, Lisa’s, Cheryl,s, Connie’s etc etc - we stopped for a quick lunch at a small restaurant across the street.

I had a very nice bowl of hot and sour soup, Sara ordered some fried dumplings and Trish got a plate of sautéed greens and garlic – once the food arrived we realized we all liked what the other had ordered so we just shared everything and had a fine nosh. It was here I got to experience that charming overseas custom of peeing into a hole in the ground. The bathroom consisting of a slot in the floor with a small open drain. Not a problem for a guy – but I do wonder how a western woman would approach the situation the first time. I also wonder if it was really necessary to hang the sign warning “NO BOWEL MOVEMENTS ALLOWED”.

We ran into a little excitement as we crossed the street from lunch into the pearl market as there was a little dust up between a couple guys. Something Trish assured us was a popular pastime in Beijing – arguing in the street with an audience. I grabbed a couple quick shots of the combatants and it was then, switching back to a different lens that I messed up the focus thing. I didn’t catch it until taking shots of the mobile bicycle repair gal you see here.

So that’s it from day three in Beijing – I’ll keep you posted.

Great Wall vid

Found my way around the firewall - as promised here's a vid of our visit to the great wall.

A really really really good wall

Okay so Sara and I are here in Beijing getting ready to start a two week stint at the Western Academy of Beijing and the International School of Beijing. we’ve come in early a couple days ahead of time in order to get our brains accustomed to the 12 hour time change.

I don’t want to jinx things by saying that we are getting used to this long distance international travel – but I think we are getting used to this long distance international travel. Of course being greeted by a hostess as gracious as Trish McNair – the middle school librarian at WAB and her intrepid driver Mr. Tsi makes things a whole lot easier.

We arrive with no drama, I wander off and find a sim card for our travel phone and Trish (bearing Starbuck Lattes) finds Sara. Nothing to it. Boom shaka laka we are cruising down the road headed to the city. Beijing is much flatter than a lot of the major cities I have visited in Asia, at least so far in my experience here. It reminds of a Midwestern city in the states more than a coaster metropolis with skyscrapers and neon. The streets are wide and there is no sense of claustrophobia that one might experience in New York City, Hong Kong, or Singapore.

We visit the teachers we are going to be working with the next week for a couple hours. A luxury that we find invaluable. It is so nice to have the opportunity to speak with the folks whose classrooms we are are going to be sharing beforehand – kudos Trish, this was a brilliant idea.

After we are settled with the crew at school we jump in Mr. Tsi’s car and he drives us out to the great wall of China. We speed along the Changjin highway for a bit then navigate onto smaller roads, through orchards and stone masonries, beeping at cycle carts and mopeds as we pass. We enjoy reading the Chinglish signs, my favorite showing a crossed out cigarette reading “Fobit the Flame” Sara favored one which spelled the word closely as clowsley.

Mr. Tsi drops  us off at the foot of the great wall where we have lunch at a converted school house that now is a restaurant and art studio. We have a wonderful repast of pumpkin soup, pasta and lamb curry while our driver  goes to the back of the joint where he picks up his lunch which he takes back to the car. I pass this driver/guide part of the restaurant as I head to restroom and I see several seated around wood tables and benches eating giant bowls of what looks to be some pretty delicious soup. I overheard a guide seated at a table near us tell her clients that the restaurant provided free food to those who dropped their charges there for meals. She said it was simple food – I was kind of wishing I had ordered it, but those of you who know me know I am a soup head.

After filling our bellies we take the two-seater ski lift type cable car up to the wall ( a bit harrowing) and slide back down on a toboggan.  The slide down was rather disappointing because of a lady in front of us who road her brakes the whole way down so that by time we reached the bottom there were 26 grumbling folks piled behind her.

Even though the ride down from the wall was not as exciting as I had hoped I still have great wall height hopes for the rest of our visit here. I’ll post a video of our excursion once I find a way around the other great wall here in china – that great firewall that blocks YouTube.

Test post

Test post from mobile app.

Ducks

Ducks

White strips of rags

Dangle and wave attached to the tips of bamboo rods

Knuckle jointed

Fifteen feet long

One grasped in each sinewy hand

Of the Vietnamese duck man

As he steers this hungry flock

From one rice paddy to the next

Eating the insects that would wish

To snack on

Fresh green shoots

Quacking foul and boisterous as

Traffic in a Hanoi roundabout

The face of a clock

Reading quarter past ten

His arms soaring forward

As if outstretched wings

The birds nested in the center

Of the walking flock are of little concern

To the leather weathered skinned duck man

It is the outliers that he eyes

From beneath his straw non la

Those few who would rather snap at the muslin scraps

Than attend to the task at hand

Just as one is gently tapped back in at the right

Another attempts to escape to the left

Dreaming of pastures not within the constrictions

Of this day's curriculum

And every good tender of livestock knows

One never plays favorites

Although

How can he help but admire

Those who push at the edges

The ones

Who make him work

The hardest?

Singapore was fine and I ain’t lion

Currently I am  hurtling through space at 478 mph 30,000 feet above the earth somewhere off the west coast of Norway  outside it is minus 57 degrees Celsius and I have eight and three quarter hours before I touch down in the United states.  As chilly as it may be outside of this plane I will certainly harbor warm feelings toward the kids and teachers I met at Singapore American School. I don’t care how cliché I may sound. Remember kids - I am a professional here – I am allowed to break the rules. So, like the Singapore Merlion, allow me to gush a bit.

 

The past three weeks have been one of the best residencies I have participated in since going fulltime as a teaching artist over  a half dozen years ago. Lots and lots of credit goes to Dr. Nancy Johnson and the whole eighth grade Reading and Language Arts department at SAS. This was the epitome of an author/consultant visit. Here’s the formula: Each Monday Sara and I  started with an assembly program that focused on a different facet of our classroom workshops – sharing examples of our and other’s work highlighting some of the strategies we would be teaching – imagery, metaphor, word choice and oral presentation. For some of the audience this was a precursor for others a review – read on and you’ll see how.

 

Then the rest of the week we divided and conquered one of the three  teams of RLA teachers which consisted of a pair of of teachers who taught five classes between them. Two as solo instructors and one as a duet. This meant Sara and I saw each class two times during the week tag-teamed the shared class and then started the pattern again with a new dynamic duo the next week. (It really isn’t as complicated as it sounds in print) So – every eight grader saw three different assemblies and participated in four workshops. I know having this much time with the kids and teachers made all the difference in the world. This is a unique arrangement  but if I am ever asked what makes for a successful visit I will always refer to this model as a gold standard.

 

 

It was so cool to see the kids employing strategies that Sara taught them the day before while I was teaching my workshops and then taking my lessons into their next session with Sara. We developed a writer’s vocabulary that we shared during our classes and we got to know many of the kids by name and even almost figured out the block schedule before it was time for us to go.

 

 

Of course this couldn’t happen without teacher buy in. Thanks so much to Nancy, Brian, Crystal, Scott, Erin, Rebecca and Brenda for letting a couple crackpot poets loose on their classrooms. I know a lot of schools might think they could not get away with such a schedule – but I really believe we got some super work done and didn’t fall behind at all of classroom goals. Plus, I know Sara and I learned a lot, pushed ourselves and are better teachers for the experience.

 

Honestly – this one is going to be hard to top. At least until the next time…

as promised kiddo – you made my blog

Singapore Jungle biking addendum

Okay – I was having trouble getting this uploaded earlier:

Singapore week two

Okay – our second week of work at the Singapore American School was as rousing a success as our first. We collaborated with the B-side students  this week (don’t think these kids are the flipside of any hit singles though) they shared an enthusiasm only rivaled by the A siders one floor below. The upcoming week we will work our way to the top of the floors and inflict ourselves upon the C-siders.

It is really a pleasure to get to know the kids a little better than we usually have the opportunity. Sara and I are both meeting with each class for two hour and twenty minute sessions. Four contacts! And it’s so heartening to see them employ strategies we’ve taught in prior sessions when participating in later workshops. This is an excellent model for getting the most out of a couple teaching artists. Again, kudos to Dr. Nancy Johnson and the whole eight grade RLA team. We will certainly miss you when we leave.

On a side note – one of the A side teachers, Brian Arleth, took me into the rainy jungles of the city for some biking. Mud, roots, monkeys, lizards, a capella singing, flat tires, long climbs, arm-hair raising descents and a lot of sweat later he returned me safely to the pavement of the city and a dip in his pool.

Some boys we came across when popping out of the jungle into a park biking around Singapore.

If the shoe fits – and other clichés.

Just finished up our first of three weeks as visiting author/teachers at the Singapore American School. Every morning at 6:45am the wide smiling Mr. Ali pulls up to our hotel and whisks us off to the sprawling campus and then he deposits us back at 3pm a little bit tuckered out but always impressed with the work accomplished by the students during the day.

Singapore is a city state – think Manhattan with its towering buildings surrounding a green space. Now – get rid of all the trash on the streets of NYC and replace Central Park with a rainforest jungle complete with monkeys and boa constrictors and you’d be approaching what Singapore is.

This visit is really a gift to a couple of itinerant poet educators such as Sara and myself – set up by our friend Dr. Nancy Johnson an education professor at a state university in Seattle Washington.

Okay you’ve heard the old adage those who can do and those who can’t teach right? Well, first off it’s a pretty stupid adage – teaching is one of the toughest professions one can do and teaching teachers to teach is doubly so. One of the most deadly traps a teacher can fall into is losing touch with the goals of their profession. Whether it be dancing as fast as one can to prepare students for some barely relevant high stakes test sacrificing critical and deeper thinking skills or becoming so entrenched in the academic theory side that real classroom experience becomes something decades removed for the folks who are sending fledgling educators into the bubbling cauldron that is, for example, a middle school.

This is what makes our friend Dr. Johnson special. She has ditched her university job for two years to come to Singapore and teach 8th grade language arts. What many would classify not only a leave of absence but also the leaving of one’s senses is the embodiment of another much more applicable adage of walking the walk.

It is one thing to expound on classroom strategies or sing the praises of the difference a  teacher can make while giving a keynote at a conference but it’s so much more relevant to lead by example wearing the shoes of the profession. So here’s another adage for ya, what have you done lately?

Well lately Sara and I have been privileged to work with Dr. Johnson and her teaching partner, Brian Arleth’s classes and we are so looking forward to the next two weeks with the rest of the 8th grade RLA professionals here at SAS. it is so very rare that we get to have this much constant contact with the same students.

So we’re going to take the weekend here to do a little bit of writing – recharge our batteries – (and maybe help Brian pick out a new mountain bike) so we can hit the classroom Monday (can you stand another adage?) bright eyed and bushy tailed as a long tailed macaque.

Not so Heavy Metal

Okay -

So I have been doing some bike restoration and other work over at my dad's garage. His place is super well equipped for anything that one might decide to do to a piece of metal. I've decided to try my hand at some metal sculpting - or rather metal pounding, distressing, cutting, heating, bending  painting and chemically etching. So far my subject mater has been pretty aquatic - but that doesn't mean everything I do will be fishy. I figure once I have 12 - 15 pieces done I might start shopping around for a gallery show - we'll see. In the meantime here are a couple things I've made.

 This one is 55 inches tall and each fish is a bout 30 inches long. It was my dad's idea to drill out and mount it in an old slab of concrete.

 

 This is a pic of the wood carvings that inspired the above piece.

 This Stingray has a 45" wingspan and 46" from tail tip to horn.

This guy is 36 inches long.

Clicking on the image will give you bigger view. Unfortunately pics don't do these justice - you can't see how the clear-coat gives them a nice depth - but this'll give you an idea of what I've been up to.