PT was kind enough to give us a list of dates for interesting international events a few weeks back. This month of blogging i've been attempting to do, is one such thing included on the list, but today I want to talk about the start of the next event that I am addressing in my project.

International education week is all about raising awareness to the importance of having an international element to learning. I decided to bring the week to Kuitun for my classes, while using it to kick-start a side project.

First, let me talk about my activities for this week. Because of the mixed ability of my classes, some classes will spend more time on different things. I am starting the lessons off with two questions - "why is education important?" and "why is learning a language so important?" My classes so far have had a varied response to this part. Some can't think of answers at all, whereas some students pointed out that education and languages can lead to better jobs and better opportunities in life in general.

Because most of my students really were stuck on the question, I added about the importance of education in the poorest countries of the world, such as parts of Africa and South America. Although I must take the language ability of my students into account, I did get the impression that thinking about education in poorer countries wasn't the sort of thing a Chinese middle school student does. It made me think that perhaps the UK does make a good effort already to add an international element to education - as I'm certain the Ivo raised similar themes during my time there in classes.

My second part of the lesson for the week really is an international experience for my students. I made a presentation about my old school in the UK and talked a little about some of the major differences. The classes today found the pictures of 6th formers dressing up for fundraising days particularly entertaining.

This part of the lesson was also interesting for me. It was a chance to reflect on the differences between school in the UK and school in China. In a way, it's disappointing that most of my students will never be able to experience the difference first hand.

Hang on for why I say most.

Now, the 3rd and 4th part really depend on English ability, as I don't really have time in my lesson to do all four, and the poorer students wouldn't handle the last part - as proven by trying it today..

Given that the average English level in the class is a little to the poor side of things, I give them an even more international lesson by teaching some very very basic German to finish off the lesson. I think they enjoyed the short introduction to German, but it's hard to tell sometimes. I really wanted to highlight just how similar some words were in German to their English counter-parts, as I feel that is the most interesting element of German that you can explore in a 15 minute introduction to the language.

Most of my classes on Mondays are fairly weak, so I haven't really yet had a good attempt at my final and most exciting part of the lesson. Why is it so exciting? Because it links into that side project I mentioned at the start of the blog. This week I want me students to write a letter to my old school back in the UK. In the letter, they have to say a little about going to school at 二中, and what it is like living in Kuitun. After that, they can ask whatever they like (but I will be checking the letters after they've written them...) and I will send them back to the UK. At the same time, I have asked that the Ivo does the same thing. Hopefully, both schools will be receiving letters from the other country, talking about what their schools and towns are like.

I am therefore using international education week to really start pushing forward on my side project to set up a lasting link between 二中 in Kuitun and the Ivo back in the UK. I have teachers excited about the idea in both schools, and I'm currently working with them to try and make this link happen. If it works, that truly will be something that I can give back to my new school in China, for all of the opportunities I have had given to me here already. In a perfect world, this project could lead to regular letters between schools, Skype calls between countries, a sharing of ideas and cultures, and even, with a bit of luck, short educational exchanges between schools.

It's an ambitious project and so it may not work as well as I hope it will, but I'm looking forward to giving it a good go. As far as I'm concerned, international education week is the best week to get the ball rolling.

I'll give you all an update on the happenings of the week as they come!