What I Learned as an Exchange teacher in United States. “Two Years Teaching at a Mandarin Emersion School”

“The brief” The following is an account of my two years as an exchange teacher in a primary immersion school, as well as some of my personal life in United States. Recently the Mandarin immersion program has been gaining popularity in K-8 classrooms in the US. There are 57 Mandarin immersion schools just in California and 15 of them opened after the 2014-2015 school year. But most of Mandarin immersion schools are still in their pilot stage regardless of teaching pedagogies, training, and curricu-lum or teaching materials. I was assigned to assist and teach at Barnard Elementary School in the San Diego area, which was the first public school to bring in a Manda-rin immersion program and has developed into one of the largest in Southern Cali-fornia. I observed many different teaching styles, and participated in teachers’ col-laboration and tried out new teaching materials. However, compared with the cre-dential classroom teachers, being an exchange teacher in a public school system was a challenge. Satisfying parental concerns about teaching experience became a com-mon occurrence. At the same time of getting to know my new position as a teacher, I was simultaneously dealing with the proverbial culture shock. Being away from my family, familiar circles, and living in a foreign country without interpersonal support is hard for a lot of exchange teachers, and this was true for me. With no American teaching background, I was overwhelmed with tasks all the while trying to integrate into American culture. Increasing my knowledge as a teacher while simultaneously enriching my personal life experience at the same became a welcome challenge. At the end of my term, I received a satisfactory reference, this experience affirmed my

interesting in education. I ascribe to the philosophy of “work hard/play hard”, this experience has allowed me to do both, not only as a teacher, but also as someone who loves the great outdoors and the newfound appreciation of “American life”.

“I’m a teacher!” …help! I was hit with my first big challenge in the first week of being in the country. I was assigned to teach two Mandarin immersion classes of third grade because the cre-dentialed teacher was still in China, and her paperwork was not complete to start the school year. Therefore, instead of being an observer as was my understanding and expectation, I became the primary teacher on the first day! The model for the 1st to 5th graders is 50% Mandarin and 50% English, school time is 7:40am to 2:10pm for the students, while teachers arrive 15 minutes earlier and leave 15 minutes later. Except for a half hour lunch period, teachers stay with the kids all the time. Barnard Elementary School is currently the only Mandarin/English-only immersion school in San Diego, and for better or worse, most parents are very involved in their kids’ learning. Many have high expectations, a few even too high, of their child’s Mandarin learning experience. Some parents had even changed jobs or moved into

the area in order to offer their kids the opportunity to learn Mandarin. I did not receive any American k-8 classroom teaching training before I entered Bar-nard. I did not know what Common Core was. I did not know how to do classroom management, and I knew less about immersion class. On top of all the professional skills that I was lacking, surprisingly the most stressful experience was simply being told that I had to decorate my classroom. I didn’t have a clue how to go about this task as in my educational experience in China, we simply do not place any value on the decoration of a classroom and therefor I had zero frame of reference. All of the other teachers started two weeks before I did and had for the most part already dec-orated their classrooms. In addition to my inexperience, the classroom given to me was in utter chaos and looked like it had ransacked and robbed. I did a bit of spying on the others to get some ideas and eventually gave up on decorating and simply set-tled on stuffing all of the junk in several closets to give the impression that I was or-ganized. To compound my newfound stress of being ‘instant teacher’ simply to getting to and from school also was a challenge. I of course did not have a driver’s license nor my own mode of transportation, and therefor was completely reliant on my host family. They were wonderful in getting me to and from work, but not having the control of my own time at school only multiplied my stress. So, now I was ready to teach, the only problem was that I had a classroom full of un-ruly children and I found myself struggling to simply keep order. It seemed the hard-er I tried to keep them in order the worse they became. I was remembering when I was the same age and my teacher scaring me by stating “whoever talks in the class will be punished”, common sense told me this was not going to work in the American classroom. But, what to do, how was I going to reign these children in so as to be able to begin teaching them Mandarin. I would like to say that I figured it out and that the kids all settled down and all was perfect. But, the reality is that after four weeks the credentialed teacher finally came back and the students’ behavior was no longer my responsibility. I was then able to primarily focus on teaching Mandarin, and then had less concern about losing my hair, but was secretly happy about the weight loss. After handing over the third grade teaching, I was afforded the opportunity to ob-serve in many different classrooms. This experience was invaluable as I was able to discern many different teaching styles and saw firsthand which teachers had total command of their students and which did not. When I started teaching the FLES classroom (Foreign Language in the Elementary School), it was my responsibility to teach Mandarin to four classes, one hour each at different grade levels. I copied the best I could the classroom management of the teachers I deemed having the most success. I eventually was able to incorporate my own style and was on my way in creating sincere interest in my children with the Chinese language and culture. Some of the successes came as the result of observing the kindergarten classes’ morning routine. The content was rich with fun games, with singing and dancing, and adding

rhythm to language. The kids were happy and engaged as the activities were con-stantly changing. Their morning routine was consistent each day, with a lot of repeti-tion and slightly adding one or two things they learned the day before. It was not long that I realized that teaching should be fun like that. I integrated a lot of songs and dances in my classes too, and also made sure every student was engaged. I felt great when the kids kept telling me that they loved learning Mandarin. I wish I could say at this point that the hard part of beginning was over, but unfortu-nately it had just begun. After only three weeks I was assigned to be the primary teacher of a Kindergarten class whose teacher was scheduled to take maternity leave. Because her delivery came two months earlier, the school needed me to take the class. It is probably safe to say that they were desperate as I was not qualified at that point to take over the class. I was tasked to teach the multiple subjects, i.e., math, science, social studies, etc., to children in a language they did not know. To compound matters this particular group of children had an unusual amount or be-havioral issues. Some kids walked out of class without asking, they cried and fought with one another. A few had legitimate medical diagnosis of ADHA and ADD and re-quired medication. An inexperienced teacher and a crop of unruly kids was a recipe for a perfect storm…the storm that came upon me was upset parents. Some even stayed at school in the morning not wanting to leave their children as the chaos was impossible to hide. Because I was not a credentialed teacher, and it is California law that a credential teacher must be in the room, the school scrambled to find teachers to come to class. On those days that an English speaking credentialed teacher made it to class some were helpful and engaged the children the best they could, while others simply sat back as they knew they would not be staying and all they really needed to do was to be present. Now, things actually got worse because the children had no consistency from one day to the next. It was all I could do to calm the parents with promises that this was a normal transition period and that things would soon get better. All though this was mostly wishful thinking on my part…this wish actually came true! A truly dynamic, skilled and wonderful teacher came to take over, it is safe to say that this was the turning point for me in which not only had my night-mare ended I was on a path of learning myself. Not only did this woman settle the class and the children, she taught me how to be a teacher. She quickly became one of many mentors during my two year stay, and to this day is a dear friend outside of the classroom. This was indeed a tough time for me, but as the Americans like to often say “that which does not kill us will make us stronger”, and I was undeniably strong-er. In spite of the challenges of the beginning, by the end of my first year I had fallen in love with each of the children. Each of them having their own amazing personalities. I even learned to understand and love the kids that seemed hopeless to me in the beginning. I can honestly say that to the extent that the first year was a challenge it was equally rewarding, with the proverbial happy ending.

Year two: The second school year was much more peaceful for me compared with the first one. I was assisting the kindergarten room teachers the first three months, helping them to prepare teaching material or provide the kids with extra help. During this time, I was once again able to observe different teaching styles, which inspired me a lot, and I tried to incorporate these skills into my own teaching. The position for a Confucius Institute teacher is more or less like a firefighter. I worked at where the school needed me the most. I was assigned to put out the fire for the first grade when the credential teacher had to leave the US and return to Chi-na because of a Visa issue. This could have given me once again a reason to be over-whelmed with stress and pressure. But, it was instead a happy reunion with the kids that I had learned to love from the year before. Maybe all my experience counted this time, maybe the new teaching curriculum and materials from Better Immersion helped a lot. Perhaps because I had the previous relationship with a lot of kids when they were in kindergarten, or maybe their former teacher had good classroom rules, and I just needed to follow them. The bottom line is that I had a very good start with them. All the teaching objectives started and finished with fun, and all the classroom management worked very well. It would be prudent of me to mention that creden-tial teacher in this class was also instrumental in the success of this class. Even though he did not speak Mandarin, he was there the entire time, both physically and mentally. The classes in which I was responsible to teach were actually taught under his name. He was a very experienced and responsible teacher, and we planned the lessons together everyday. The parents contacted him directly, so I able to primarily focus on teaching. Therefore, the kids, the parents and the teachers, we were all happy. Since I did not need spending too much for classroom management, and most of kids

were very focused on what they learned, most of the original teaching plan was a little easier for the kids. However, there was general concern about the American students’ math regarding their algorithm performance. A lot of kids had to use their fingers to help their addition and subtraction within 10, which did not seem good for me since they were already first graders. While I was thinking about how to improve my kids’ performance in Math, the Shenmo Education who focused on abacus teach-ing came to Barnard introducing abacus to the students. And more importantly, they gave each kid an abacus, and left some teaching material for me. The kids were very enthusiastic about the new tool, and I think the mentor math it eventually lead to was perfect to help the kids’ math. From then on, I divided the 45 minutes math time into two parts; the first part was practicing the original lesson and then the abacus time. After three months, 17 of 45 students mastered the addition and subtraction within 1,000 with the help of abacus, which was far beyond the curriculum. And what made me proud was most kids did not need use tools to help them do the addi-tion and substation within 100 after we practiced mentor abacus. Abacus became their good friend to learn Math. This inspired me that I could successfully integrate some traditional Chinese teaching methods to the immersion curriculum. The other component of learning that was somewhat unconventional for first graders was Chi-nese poetry of the Tang Dynasty. I was successful in teaching poems that were more than 1,000 year old. These poems were invaluable in practicing rhythm and also get-ting to know the quintessence of Chinese culture. To my surprise, the poems became one of their favorites, and they chanted them whenever they got chance. I was wor-ried that the language might be too difficult to understand since it was not daily lan-guage anymore. However, most kids understood the poems well enough, and were very excited to recognize the characters they knew in the poems. They practiced a few minutes in chanting the poems everyday, and then singing and dancing a certain one. At first we focused on the forms and rhyming, and later on we focused on mean-ing. Each month they learned a new one; they mastered six at the end of school year. Before lunch time, they chanted Sympathy for the Peasants together; when I men-tioned the poet saw the bright moon and he missed his hometown, they would chant In the Quiet Night by Li Bai, etc.. At the end of the school year, I asked them to make a Chinese poetry book, after they wrote the poem they drew a picture beside it ac-cording to their understanding about the poem. I had made a false assumption that poetry might be boring, but the fact is that they are kids, and they loved rhythm and rhyming. The last day in the school (June 21, 2016) was sad and happy for me. The kids came with gifts, cards and hugs. They expressed their gratitude, and I hugged each of them. Each of them was my sweetheart. I remembered the first time meeting them, they were adorable and worried, and now they could talk with me in Chinese, I know that most are likely to forget me, and I them, but in that moment we were the closest people for one other, and this I will never forget. Besides having the precious time with the kids, I also promoted my teaching skills with the Profession Development (PD). There was a PD day each month for the teachers. This was a time we discussed any concerns anyone would like to discuss,

and we tried to find solutions. We would do lesson plans together, or we learned new technology icons together, or the experienced teachers share their wisdom with new ones. Besides getting the ideas and skills from the other teachers, there were a lot of reading materials to help me teach in English. One of the most important and rewarding experiences was the special needs chil-dren brought me into contact with the special educational teachers, from whom I learned how to communicate effectively. I was grateful to have the realization that some children who acted out simply may have a problems they are dealing with at home. Instead of blaming them for their poor behavior, teachers should learn to lis-ten and observe their changes, and offer them better service on their way to growing up. Learning to become an American teacher was not easy for me. I experienced many hardships in the two years teaching, however, in the end I felt grateful to have had these conflicts in my life. I will benefit from the experience and use them to continue with my career as a teacher.

“A little bit (more) about me” I am a fan of both outdoor and indoor sports. When I was studying in the university in Xiamen, I ran a lot, participating in both marathons and school sports each year. I love the freedom of riding a bicycle, and with my somewhat competitive nature I found myself on a month long trek of 2,500km through Mountains of Tibet. I enjoy swimming as well, sometimes even in the cold winter you might find me in the out-door swimming pool of the university. As someone like me who favors athletics as I do, a place like San Diego which is mostly full of sunshine should have been a jackpot for someone like me…but instead of enjoying the great outdoors in the first year I become a workaholic.

When I stayed with my host family in Point Loma, we had a great view of the Pacific Ocean sunset, but I had no interest in the scenery. All of my thoughts day and night were how to resolve issues at work. I was either worrying about the next day’s les-son plan or preparing the materials. The thought of going out for a jog seemed to be a waste of valuable time. Then one day, when I realized that I had lost too much hair and I was too worried about the work, I just felt wrong. So, I decided to change my outfit and put my running shoes on. On the sunset cliffs, I saw so many peaceful and happy faces, it then occurred to me, why could not I be one of them? It is so true that United States is a country on wheels, the ability to drive was so im-portant in San Diego. I was so eager gain my freedom and I started driving by myself in my own car after only a few months of being in the US with help from my host family. It felt awesome that I could get wherever I wanted in the city, all the beautiful places felt like my backyard. I realized the happiness related to the feeling of belong-ing and being free. Very soon, I got my own apartment. By now, I felt I was totally ready to explore more about this city and get involved to SoCal life. My apartment was next to Mission Bay, if one were to search online, you’d that it boast to be a fantastic place for running, biking, kayaking, volleyball and many dif-ferent sports. I took my geographical advantage of using the park. I bought a bike I once thought I could only dream of and while the park ended up not being a good place after all for a serious biker, it soon became my favorite place to run. For a while, I would run a circle around the bay every weekend, which was close to a half marathon each circle. When I saw the promotions for the famous Rock and Roll San Diego Marathon I did not hesitate to register for it.

I was content with running until spring break, it was the time that my schedule was different with my Chinese friends as they worked in a different school. I felt lost to have so much time and did not know how to use it. I started searching online and luckily discovered a group people planning to backpack across Catalina Island. I was always looking for having backpacking experience and wanted to camp so much. Even though I had zero gear for backpacking, it did not give me the reason to say no to the opportunity. I drove to REI and got all the gear I would need in a very short time, as it was literally the day before the hike. Knowing I did not have any experi-ence in backpacking, the organizer said he needed to meet me first in order to make sure I was not kidding. We met when I was shopping for my gear, I suppose he saw a crazed look in my eyes, he said my ambitiousness was encouraging and gave me the permit to hike with the group. It was such an inspiring experience, particularly in meeting Lucy. She was a woman in our group who shared her experience with me of hiking the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) which is from Mexican border to Canada. And she did it when she was 64. I hiked then hiked every weekend after the amazing and in-spiring experience of crossing Catalina Island. The more I hiked, the more I was fas-cinated by the trails. I heard more and more people talking about Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that Lucy did and John Muir Trail (JMT), and the more I knew about them the more I wanted to hike on them. I did not have six months to do what Lucy did, but she recommended JMT to me. It was also a famous trail; most people could finish the hike in about three weeks. My summer vacation was perfect for that. After visiting my family back from China, I started preparing for the trail right away. Because of my lack of experience, I did not know that a permit could be so difficult to get. I decided to camp in front of visitor center to be the first one get the walk-in permit. However, I was luckier than that. When I my friend dropped me in the visitor center, I got the last permit they had. The permit started my 21 days hiking in the wild. It was one of the best choices I ev-er had. When I carried half my weight’s backpack on my back, across the forests, get-ting up the passes, seeing clear lakes, drinking the water directly from the melting snow, I felt life could be so simple and contented. After setting up my small tent in the mountains, I would breathe in the eternally immutable Milky Way. The impossi-bly beautiful starry sky was often divided by the shooting stars. Views so amazing words can’t describe. Biologists tell us the endorphins produced when we do exer-cise triggers positive feeling in the body, this is unequivocally an international rec-ommendation.

I met so many people on the trails. I more or less made a name for myself in many of the hiking groups and clubs of the girl that was always so happy. Most of these hiking excursions would require me to get up at 2: - 3:00am, drive for an hour or two or carpool with others to get an early start to the day. Having the joy in my heart of a successful year of teaching, and my newfound love of hiking, I had no need to im-prove my life as I was happy and content. I could not know that my life would forev-er change and that my happiness would far exceed any I had ever dare dreamed. On April 25th 2015 I had signed up to do one of the most difficult day hikes in the entire US. I could not find my Meetup hiking group and asked a man that was starting the same hike as me if he could help me locate them…to make a long story short, I hiked with him and his friend that day, and now to the very day of this writing we have been the two happiest people I have ever known. We have conquered many hikes together, he taught me to ski in Utah, and we’ve traveled to Florida, Chicago IL and Washington State, no matter where we go we always end up hiking and exploring. In summation, I went to the US simply to be an immersion teacher and maybe expe-rience some US culture. I could not ever have envisioned the difficult but eventual rewarding experience as a teacher. Nor could in ever even imagined that I would find myself in the wilderness for 19 days hiking 340km by myself. And lastly, I could have never dreamed that I would meet the man that is to be my husband in the middle of it all -

在美国沉浸式学校当中文老师 开头语：我于2014年8月外派于美国圣地亚哥州立大学孔子学院下面的孔子课堂

巴纳德小学，我在文中写了我这两年的教学和一些生活经历。近年来，中文沉浸式

教学在美国中小学教育中极其火热，而且开办学校每年都在增加，仅加州就有56

所中小学，其中有15所是2014-2015学年以后开办的。但是无论是教法、师资还是

教材，大部分学校对于沉浸式教学都还处于摸着石头过河的阶段。巴纳德小学是圣

地亚哥地区最早开办中文沉浸式的公立小学，现在已发展成为南加州最大的一所中

文学校之一。任教期间，与学校一起经历了起起伏伏，见证了多样的教学教法，师

资队伍建设和对课程教材的选择。比起持当地教师资格证的老师，外派老师的身份

在公立学校上课又比较“尴尬”，常常受到各方的质疑，家长对于我们资历的“查问”

是常有之事。在适应新老师这个角色的同时，也要处理各种文化冲突。远离家人和

熟悉的圈子，人际关系上的无助无疑也是一种考验。如何在没有受到美国教育体系

培训的前提下，在眼花缭乱的美国教育和他乡生活里，获得美国中小学教学知识和

技能，同时也丰满自己的人生经历，这是我这两年的考验，但更是我的机会。在任

期结束之际，拿着我满意的推荐信，和怀着对教育更深刻的信念，我对自己的职业

信仰加深了一份信心。同时，我也充分地享受过“美国生活”。正如我特别认可的许

多美国人的信条“努力工作努力玩（work hard play hard）”一样，对于一个户外爱

好者和“美国生活”的热爱者，这份工作让我两方面都收获颇丰，

“我是一名老师！”……谁来救救我？！

我到美国的第一周，一个承重的担子就落在了我身上：我要去当三年级两个沉浸

式中文班的老师。因为持证的老师手续还没有办下来，人还在中国，没有其他老师

可以替代。所以我跳过我预期的教学观察期直接上任。巴纳德小学一至五年级是

50／50的中英文模式，也就是每个班的小朋友一半时间在中文教室，一半时间在

英文教室，两个班轮流交换。每天的上课时间是上午7:40到下午2:10，老师要比小

朋友早到和晚离开教室15分钟。一天除了吃午餐的半小时，老师一直跟小朋友在

一起。

巴纳德小学是目前圣地亚哥地区唯一一所完全中文沉浸式的学校，家长非常重视小

朋友的中文学习，有时候甚至于过分参与。有些家长为了小朋友能到这所学校上学

甚至搬家换工作。当然他们对老师的要求和期待也是特别高。

我在进入巴纳德小学以前，没有接受过美国中小学教育的培训，不知道什么是共同

核心（common core），不知道怎么管理学生，对沉浸式这种用中文来教各门学科

的教法更没有任何概念。在所需的所有职业技能中，我的第一关竟然卡在了教室布

置这件事上。大部分老师都已经提前两周来学校将教室布置好了，而我却只有一个

周末。我到各个班去观察怎么布置，看到每个老师都有自己的风格和模式，而我要

上课的教室，乱的却像是刚遭过抢劫一般，我完全不知道从何下手，也不知道每个

东西到底有什么用途，又为何要布置教室呢？我们在中国几十年的教育都没有任何

一个教室是布置过的。而且，我刚到美国的时候，住在住家家里，离学校很远，我

没有美国驾照也没有车，坐公交车去学校的话，一趟就得花三四个小时。虽然住家

很好很乐意帮忙，但毕竟周末一大早叫醒他们送我去学校还是我的一层负担。此情

此景之下，我能做的最好的布置就是将所有“垃圾”塞到橱柜里，以此显示教室是清

理过的。

对教室布置的无力感，其实只是挫败感的第一步。学校第一周是训练小朋友的纪

律，可是我的班却是越训练越乱。记忆中我的小学老师对纪律的唯一训练是：“谁

说话谁出来罚站。”小时候每次听到都心惊胆战，特别乖不敢出声。基本常识告诉

我，罚站是肯定不行的。可是，怎么样训练小朋友呢？其他有经验的老师告诉要用

行为表(behavior chat)，要用积极的语言鼓励每一个小朋友，要用各种游戏吸引小

朋友。搭班的英文老师帮我一起备课，每样东西都准备两份，我只需要翻译成中文

来教就可以了。可任是如此，我还是不知道在我的课堂里做什么，我把英文翻译过

来小朋友根本就听不懂，或者不想听。我每天都设计很多游戏，希望小朋友可以参

与，但最后几个调皮的小朋友就可以乱了一整个班。每天都在上课，或者在备课，

我一天能睡上五个小时就觉得那天睡眠充足了。压力非常大，不仅来自于上课和安

排如何上课，也在于不知如何应对家长的焦虑和质疑。一个月下来，我很想说我终

于知道怎么上课了，但事实是，直到持证老师接手后，我才开始不用每天操心每门

学科如何教，不用担心头发掉太多，但其实也偷偷庆幸自己瘦了一大圈。

我从沉浸式班出来后开始教一年级至五年级的FLES课堂（小学外语教学），四个

班每班一小时，与每个班的主教老师都有密切的合作。我开始有机会去听了他们每

个班的英文课，才看到原来可以这么管学生，可以那样教学生，一切之于我都是新

颖却又有效的。我开始依葫芦画瓢地用他们管学生的办法，鼓励学生尽量说中文。

同时我每天早上也有了半个小时的备课时间，我利用这半个小时到各个班去听课。

学前班老师们每天的早课(morning routine)给我最多启发，丰富多彩，唱歌跳舞和

各种语言活动相结合，快节奏变换紧紧地抓住了小朋友的注意力。我开始将所见所

学利用到自己的课堂里。当小朋友不断告诉我喜欢中文课时，我获得了极大的满足

感。

到此时我很希望我最大的困难已经结束，但事实是好景不长，而我的不幸才刚刚开

始。我接FLES的课还没几周，便告知要去接任一个学前班，因为这个班的老师要

休产假。且她早产两个月，我还没反应过来就需要马上接任了。学前班是80/20的

中英文模式，也就是小朋友一天除了一个小时的英文课以外，其它时间都在上中文

课。我对学前班的了解也就仅限于他们半个小时的晨课，其它时候要怎么用中文来

教这些几个月前才听到第一句中文的小朋友各门学科如科学、数学和社会学等，我

是没有概念的。而且这个班的小朋友是有名的难管，有些小朋友上着课就往外跑，

或者是突然大叫起来，互相攻击打架的事情每天都要发生。好几个后来诊断出多动

症需要药物治疗。一个没有经验的老师和一群难以管教的学生在一起，风暴就此产

生了。这场风暴就是担忧的父母：有些父母早上送完孩子后并不是正常地离开学

校，而是聚集在教室门口因为班里的混乱是难以掩藏的。按照加州的法律规定，没

有加州教师资格证的老师是不可以单独教小朋友的，所以教室里每天都必须有一个

持证老师在。学校每天在系统里任意请代课老师，有一些代课老师会积极帮助管理

学生，有一些却只是坐在教室后面忙自己的事，因为他们知道他们的存在只是为了

合法，课还是我在上，他们也不会说中文。而且此时，一直在帮忙的助教也更换

了。教室里的老师频繁变换，让情况变得更加糟糕。学生没有持续和稳定的学习环

境，很难有一以贯之的学习态度。我所能做的就是安慰父母一切都只是暂时的，过

了过渡阶段后，一切都会变好的，虽然这只是我一厢情愿的愿望……但这个愿望竟

然成真了，后来一个充满能量和生活经验的老师走进了这个教室，可以说，她成为

了扭转乾坤的人。她不仅结束了我的噩梦，而且成为我这两年生活中的导师。就像

美国人说的：“那些死不了的磨难会让你更强大”，不可否认，我在这些考验中变得

更加强大了。

尽管开端那么艰难，一学年终于以丰收和平静结束，我也深深地爱上了我的每一个

学生，不管调皮捣蛋还是懂事乖巧，之于我都是美丽的小精灵，怎么爱都不够。 第二年

第二学年相对平静一些，前三个月是在帮助四个幼儿园班的老师，或者准备上课材

料，或者帮助那群有特殊需要的小朋友。在这过程中，我又一次看到了每个老师不

一样的教法，我也开始对照自己前一年的教学，启发很多。

但是孔子学院的外派老师就是消防员，哪里需要去哪里。在圣诞节前夕，一年级的

一位老师因为签证问题必须回中国，这样我又开始了我的“救火”生涯。但我虽然说

是在“救火”，其实是一场愉快的重聚。或者是我之前的经验都算了数，也有可能是

与小朋友之间建立了联系，也可能是因为原来的老师一开始就设定了很好的班规班

矩，或者是这两个班的小朋友真的很乖，从一开始，就特别顺利，教学任务都能顺

利开始顺利完成，小朋友和老师都很开心。当然更重要的可能是，为了合法的那个

持证老师（其实我教的就是他的班），虽然不教课不说中文，但他经验丰富，也非

常负责任，我们每次都一起备课，课后有什么问题家长也直接联系他，我专心上课

就好了。这样家长、小朋友和老师各方都很安心。

小朋友因为没有太多课堂管理的问题，大部分都很专心学习，原来的教学计划对他

们有些简单。但是，普遍而言，我们对美国中小学数学存在不少担忧，因为他们在

强调动手能力的同时，对数学概念的建立却有些滞后。我的一年级小朋友也不例

外，大部分对十以外的加减法都特别吃力。就在我苦思如何提高小朋友数学之时，

与圣地亚哥孔子学院合作的北京神墨集团来到巴纳德小学宣讲算盘课，而且给每个

小朋友发了一把算盘且留下教具给老师。小朋友对算盘的热情也点燃了我利用这个

绝佳良机的想法。算盘是他们算术的工具，而珠心算更是培养他们算术思维的方

法。每次45分钟的数学课，一半完成正常的教学任务，一半时间用来学和练习算

盘。三个月下来，17个（一共45个）小朋友掌握了四位数以内的加减法，远超课

程标准。而我感觉特别有成就感的是原来一直用手指头算术的小朋友，也掌握了

100以内的加减法。算盘成为了他们学习数学的好朋友。这给我一个很大的启发，

许多在中国传统教育中的工具是可以成功移植到美国教育中的。教授中国诗歌，也

是我的另外一大收获，以前总是觉得诗歌太难，而且跟现实口语不对接，不具有实

用性。一次我在阅读关于美国中小学英语教学的书中，里边特别强调学前班至二年

级（k-2）对语感的训练，诗歌和带韵律的短文是非常好的方法之一。当时学校课

程大纲里也规定一年级的小朋友要掌握六首诗歌，虽然大部分老师们都没有教，我

下定决心好好地教这六首唐诗。每天花上几分钟读诗，然后唱和跳一首诗，差不多

一个月教一首诗，刚开始重读重背，后面重意思理解。让我意料之外的是，他们不

仅熟读熟背了这些诗歌，而且还能理解其中所表达的意思。比如每次吃午餐前，小

朋友都会齐背《悯农》；我说看到月亮想起家乡，他们会背《静夜思》；我说“春

天来了，到处都听到鸟叫”，他们会说“春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟”……后来，我让他

们把诗抄下来，在旁边画他们对这首诗地理解，装订后，成了他们很有纪念意义的

书。六个月下来，六首古诗也成为许多小朋友的最爱。我错误地判断唐诗之于一年

级的美国小朋友会特别难，但是小朋友很快就掌握了，因为他们特别喜欢节奏感和

韵律感。

学校的最后一天（2016年6月21日），小朋友和家长带着礼物和卡片来感谢老师，

祝福前路，我拥抱每一个小朋友，多次被戳中泪点。两年了，从学前班到一年级，

记得初次做他们的老师，他们可爱又令人忧心，如今已满口中文，我知道大部分小

朋友会不记得我，我也不会记得每一张脸，但我们曾经是彼此最亲近的人之一。

我除了收获与小朋友美好的相处时间外，也收获了我自己职业技能的提升。美国的

老师每个月至少有一个教师培训日（Professional development），或者老师之间

内部交流，或者校长带着大家探索，也有时候请比较有经验的专家开讲座，也有校

际之间交流。这些培训是老师之间火花的迸发，新知识新教法汲取的绝佳机会。我

在每一个教师培训日都收获丰富。同时大量的英文教学方法，普适性地或稍作修改

可以运用到中文教学中，有大量的文献可以阅读，也可以观摩其他老师上课。

在帮助特殊学生的过程中，接触到了许多特殊教育老师，成为我最受益和重要的特

殊收获，在观察他们怎么与特殊孩子交流的过程中，我学会了如何更有效的沟通。

每个突然失控的小孩身上可能都背负着一个失序的家庭，老师们应当倾听和观察他

们的变化，才能抚慰他们成长的烦恼，从而为他们提供更好的教学服务。

非常珍贵的还有午餐时间，不仅仅因为这是唯一可以稍微放松的学校时间，更重要

的是与其他老师的链接。我这两年一起吃过最多午餐的人是与Julie和Sheri，除了

一起讨论怎么上课，友谊也在此悄悄生长。

这两年，是我剧痛的成长期，成为一名美国老师是一条披荆斩棘之路。但我真心感

激人生有这么一次剧烈碰撞的机会。我将带着碰撞后的成果，继续我的教育生涯。

生活篇

我是一个特别喜欢户外和运动的人。在厦门念书的时候，我爱跑步，每年的马拉松

和校运会都要参加；我也爱骑行，我骑了川藏线（成都－拉萨），环了海南岛，从

厦门骑到深圳，整个福建省各处都有我骑行的轮印；我也爱游泳和大海，深冬的厦

大游泳池也有我的身影，而且我特别喜欢在大海里游泳，也偶尔跟帆船队出海看城

市里鲜有的蓝。我这么一个爱运动的人，在一个充满阳光和各种运动机会的圣地亚

哥，竟然成了工作狂一般，每天所思所虑都为工作。

我刚来美国时跟住家住在Point Loma，就在著名的落日崖（Sunset Cliffs）街道的

山顶，每天傍晚傍着客厅的落地窗能看巨美的太平洋落日。可是我一般都在落日的

余晖中捧着电脑设计教学活动或者裁剪着教学材料。甚至觉得连去跑步都是在浪费

宝贵的时间。有一天，捧着自己大把掉下来的头发，摸摸越来越稀疏的头，我意识

到自己太过焦虑，这样下去大概要生病的。于是决定换上运动服穿上跑鞋到落日崖

跑步。在太平洋浪潮和落日相互辉映中，游客来来往往，他们每个人脸上都轻松又

欢快。我想，那大部分人脸上的平常才是正常人生吧，我为什么不是其中一员呢？

在美国这个车轮上的国家，没有车就意味着失去了大部分的人身自由，圣地亚哥也

一样。所以我抵美后的第一件事就是准备考驾照和买车。很幸运的是，一个多月后

我就开着住家为我挑选的车在城市里自由驰骋了，圣地亚哥所有美丽的地方像是我

的后院一般。当我可以开着车去我想要去的地方时，我才明白安全感和归属感很大

部分都来自于“自由”，我才开始真正地一点点体味这个城市的正常节奏。两个月

后，我搬进了自己的公寓，至此，我感觉我已经完全准备好了探索这座城市以及享

受南加州阳光海滩的生活。

公寓在Mission Bay公园旁边，网络上介绍Mission Bay公园有很多活动，是骑自行

车、跑步和水上活动等等的绝佳场所。我利用自己的地理优势，买了一辆自己梦寐

以求的公路车，很快发现对于我这种真把骑车当回事的人来说并不适合在这个常常

人群拥挤的公园骑行。但很快公园成了我最爱的跑步场所，后来我发现绕着

Mission Bay跑一个圈刚好差不多时是半个马拉松，于是很长一段时间，每周六我

都在上面跑步划上一个圈。有一次看到著名的Rock&Roll马拉松的宣传，于是毫不

犹豫地报了名。后来我周边有各种各样有趣跑步比赛。一年多下来，我跑了圣地亚

哥半程马拉松、Torrey Pines半程马拉松, 迪斯尼乐园半程马拉松、感恩节跑、色彩

跑、圣巴巴拉马拉松和两次Rock&Roll圣地亚哥马拉松。后来认识了一些兴趣相投

的朋友，我们一起组队跑步和徒步，2015年在一起训练Ragnar比赛，我们八人一

天一夜的接力赛是一场美好的相聚，他们许多人也成了我的挚友。这是一个跑步者

无法停歇的城市，我刚好符合了她的气场。

在繁忙的教课外，能课后去跑跑步，我是满足的。直到第一年的春假，我与另外一

个学校的孔院老师假期时间不同，不想独自出行，这突然空出来的大把时间让我有

些不知所措。我开始在网上寻找活动，幸运的是找到一个春假背包穿越Catalina

Island的活动。背包游走山水一直都是我的梦想，而且也一直想去露营。虽然我没

有任何装备，我立刻开车去REI（一个最专业大型的户外装备店）在最短时间内置

办完了装备，事实上，那就是开始徒步的前一天。当时的组织者听说我没有任何徒

步和露营经验而要走那么难的路，以为我是开玩笑，说要见我以后才决定是否带上

我。我们约在REI见面，大概是他看到我购买时眼里的疯狂，于是同意带我一起背

包穿越。这样我开始了人生第一个长途背包旅行，四天三夜，背着我40斤左右的

背包走完了Catalina Island，一共77公里，非常有成就感。这是一段非常受到鼓舞

的路程，特别是认识了Lucy，她前一年64岁时用六个月走完了整个PCT（Pacific

Crest Trail），一条从墨西哥边境到加拿大的徒步路线。至此以后，我开始了每个

周末都至少爬一座高山的挑战。现在，南加州的那些叫得出名字的高山，基本上都

有过我走的足迹。无论是雪地里的步步小心，还是沙漠中的高温前行，都没有阻止

我征服的乐趣。

当我走过越来越多的山头，我听到越来越多的人讨论长途背包旅行PCT和JMT，我

对这样的旅行越来越向往。可是我没有六个月的时间去完成Lucy走过的PCT，她推

荐给我她很喜欢的一段是John Muir Trail，就是大家讨论的JMT，是一条很有名的

路线，大部分人三个礼拜可以完成，暑假走这条路线正好。于是我探亲回来，第一

件事就是准备去John Muir Trail。因为缺乏经验，我原来并不知道登山门票那么难

拿，但我抱定决心要走，决定在游客中心前面搭帐篷睡觉（事实是很多人这么

做），希望获得第二天第一个进去拿到当日发放的门票的机会。大概是“有志者事

竟成”，我竟然比这幸运，一进游客中心就听说有人退了一个张门票，顺利拿下，

开启了我21天（19天在JMT上）独自野外背包的生活。这21天艰巨的挑战与从未

可想的美景并存，也大概是我人生最难忘的一个经历。当我白天背着是我体重一半

的背包，穿过一片片森林，翻过一座座高山，看过一个个湖泊，晚上一个人睡在深

山之中的小小帐篷内，看着头顶清晰的银河系，天空里不时划下一个流星，我没有

害怕孤独，反而更享受与大自然独处的恩赐。生物学家们说，运动可以分泌胺多

酚，给我们带来积极的情绪，这是宇宙真理。

在路上，来来往往我遇到很多人，很多人也成为了朋友。在徒步圈子，多多少少我

给自己获得了一个“最具感染力的开心女孩”的名声。在教学中获得的快乐和新的徒

步爱好带来的满足，生活之于我是幸福的，我并不需要任何更多的事来增加我的幸

福感。大部分的远足都需要我凌晨两三点起来，开几个小时的车到山脚下，以便早

早出发。2015年4月25号也是这么一天，那天要去走全美最难的一条路线之一，但

是我与我原来约好的朋友失散了，于是向路人问路，然后……长话短说，结果那天

我跟这位路人和他的朋友爬完了这座山。在我写下这篇文章时，我们已是世界上最

快乐的一对。我们一起征服过很多山，跑过很多步，看过很多北美的大好河山，一

起在路上一起探索。

总之，我接受外派任务的初衷只是想要当一名老师，了解一些当地文化，好好练习

英文。我从没有想象过当老师会有如此艰难又收获丰满；更没有想象过我会独自一

人在野外行走21天，背包徒步走完340公里的JMT；而最重要的是，我从未想过会

在这里遇上我的心上人。