Nihau from Shanghai, China. I am currently at our sister school, Guangming Middle School, on a teacher exchange.

The school is located right in the heart of downtown Shanghai and there are many tall buildings around it. Guangming is a coed school with approximately the same number of students as OGHS and there are more boys than girls in the classes I have been teaching.

We presently have 13 girls from Guangming in our school, and a Guangming teacher was at our school for part of Term 3. I am spending five weeks at Guangming teaching oral language and writing in a more New Zealand style. The students I have been teaching so far would be the equivalent of Years 11 and 12. I have been impressed by the level of English of some of the students and their willingness to share their ideas and opinions with the class.

Classes start at 8:00 and finish at 4:20 or 5:10. There is a ten-minute break after each class and two during the day that are a little longer. In the breaks, students do things such as play basketball, badminton, do their homework, or sleep. Twice a day they do some physical exercises in the room and some massage to help their eyes.

The school canteen serves breakfast and lunch, but it seems mainly teachers eat their breakfast at school. Breakfast is served 6:30 - 8:30, and lunch 11:15-12:30. It is a lively place at lunch time as students and teachers all eat in the same room. There are a few different options for each meal, and Western food is served on Wednesdays. Some snacks are also on sale in the afternoon break.

My apartment is only a five-minute walk from school so I haven't had to take the subway at rush time. The streets in my area haven’t been as busy as I expected but it can still be somewhat crazy as street lights seem to be more of an indication of what you should do rather than what is done. You need to keep checking every way for vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, and quiet electric scooters that don’t have their lights on at night. In my free time, I have been exploring the city and learning more about its varied history.

I have been teaching Chinese students for 18 years and this is my first time in China so this has been a great opportunity for me to meet some of our students’ parents, teach in a Chinese school and see where our students come from.