School visits

[vjones]

Hi Everyone,

We currently have four school visits scheduled for our trip. A couple of schools still need to be confirmed, but we are hopeful. Below is the city and type of school we will be visiting.

Beijing - Dandelion Middle School
X'ian - Kindergarten
X'ian - Private Middle School
Taiwan - Lishan High School

Please feel free to share your fun and creative gift ideas with your colleagues! 😀

Best wishes,
Venus

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Venus.

Gift idea: I stopped by SF Chinatown and picked up some relatively inexpensive keychains that have pics of SF/GoldenGate Bridge.

P.S. - I made sure it didn't have "Made In China" printed on it.

[Anonymous]

Hello there.

Gather that everyone is hurtling towards the end of the year as we are.

In the meantime, wondering if anyone has any recommendations for travel evacuation insurance. Any suggestions are very much appreciated! Done searches. Will look at usual suspects like AAA, but any recs are more valuable.

Thank you.

Take care.

Best, Adele

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,

Venus has already alerted you to our planned school visits. These could change, but it's a good idea to start getting ready by preparing small gifts from students to students or from you to students.

-- the key chain will be a big hit and it's an idea others may wish to act upon as well

-- bookmarks made by your students for students in C and T will be a hit, be sure to have the students personalize them in some way, they could draw or glue photos to the bookmarks and you can laminate them, they're flat, unbreakable, and easy to carry

-- trifold "hello I am...." brochures introducing oneself

-- postcards, stickers, visors, pens and pencils

YOU NEED TO SCREEN ALL GIFTS for appropriateness. This is critical. Explain this ahead of having students work on their contributions and hopefully this will help you avoid having to leave materials behind.

Other items to consider preparing for the school visit:

-- You might bring a memory card for your camera with pictures of your students on it that you can show students you meet in China/Taiwan.

-- You could bring a small photo album that has your school, your students, your family, and favorite places or things included. This will open the door to many conversations.

-- You could bring a school yearbook which will fascinate students and teachers alike.

-- A school shirt, hat, visor, or other distinctive item to share with 1 person at two of the schools.

-- A book that could be part of a group gift to the school.

BE SURE that your school notes your participation in the school newspaper/newsletter and be sure that you let your school's PTSA and/or booster club know about your selection to go on this prestigious journey. Tell them about your curriculum development plans. At the very least, this will help you get the recognition you deserve for the time and effort required. In some cases, the booster club may give you a small grant to buy items to use with students in the future. $100 will buy hours of discussion starter items.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all the gift ideas. You only want us to bring one bag right. Just Kidding. I hope this works for a gift. I started a group project with my freshmen in which the students broke into groups and were assigned: 1) What are the five things that make up the class' character (the students came up with family, faith, friendship, peaceful and students) 2) Find the chinese characters for each of those words. 3) Prepare a Little Book based on your character and you (the things you like, the things you do, using phrases and pictures). So the students develop 'Little Books' to give to the Chinese students as gifts. The lesson and idea came from learning about Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. I thought it would an informative and cool lesson and they turned out great, so I have about 70 little books to share.

[clay dube]

Hi Michael (I think that's who USC5000 is),

The Little Red Book is better known today among foreign visitors to China than among children. Three decades ago, though, kids would already have started memorizing some of the quotations included in the Little Red Book.

I think the little books will be a hit. I'm curious which characters you've had them latch on to for the five topics. Here are some possibilities.

family 家 jia
faith 信念 xinnian
friendship 友谊 youyi
peace 和平 heping
students 学生xuesheng

While we're having a mini-Chinese lesson, how is everyone doing with her/his numbers? Have you bought phrase books? Anyone listening to cds or tapes to get some basics down?

[Anonymous]

For students: I had my freshmen create comic strips about an important holiday or their daily schedule using ComicLife on the Macs at school. Their comics are brief but I think it might be fun for the kids to see what images they put on their, etc. I also had the students put some personal info on the back of the comic strip. I still need to laminate them but for just a half period project they turned out pretty good.

For host family: I also recently was in Washington DC so I got a magnet from there and hope to turn it into a proper gift once I get something from NYC next week and SF later this month. I really wanted to get a stuffed bald eagle, I am not going to lie, but it was "made in China."

I am considering buying those picture frame 4 set coasters you can buy these days for just 5-10 dollars and putting pictures I have taken in Hawaii, Napa, etc. I am only wondering though if it people China use coasters. I don't want to give an unusable gift

[Anonymous]

I am using the book mark idea, but I am having the students write an I am poem on them. I will attatch the form. 8)

[Anonymous]

My students all wear these rubber bracelets that when you take them off your wrist they fall into a particular shape like a phoenix, lion, etc. my High students love them-- i'm not sure why- Is this a good gift idea? I was hoping to bring a bunch and they are small

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a great idea! Lightweight and something "usable" for the kids.

[Anonymous]

All Fantastic Ideas!
After much debate, I finally decided on Postcards from LA. Its a neat variety that ranges from Photo collages to colorful Neon backdrops that will be personalized by my students.

[Anonymous]

Likewise, great ideas.
School is over in my district. Dealing with other issues, such as job.
But focusing on trip next week. Will be scouting for gifties: postcards, keychains all sound like great ideas.
Will bring a yearbook to share with the high school. They're heavy and take up space.
Thanks for all the ideas.

[Anonymous]

I will be bringing a middle school year book. Much lighter weight that a high school yb. I am getting some small photo albums and making some compilations of some of my favorite pictures I have taken around the country. This will be inexpensive, but meaningful. I have some small beach balls with red, white, and blue stars and stripes. I thought these would be good for some of the younger children.

I am unsure about bringing pictures of my students other than the yearbook. What are the legal guidelines? I have taken some great feild trip pix. I have some pix of my class at the Oceans movie premere at El Capitan on the red carpet. This may be exciting to show Hollywood. My kids were super excited that tha paparazzi was there.

[Anonymous]

So I pretty much missed the boat with getting all my students on the trinkets assembly line. The end of the year came by too hard and fast.

I've been looking around at shops and would like to get the Chinese students things that are not made in China.

Here's my crafty idea for the next two weeks:
* Have a DiY (Do it Yourself) gathering with five to seven people.
**BTW, I do run the DiY club here in the middle school. Not totally coming out of left field.**
* Turn this party into a mini craft fair supplied with things like felt, buttons, a sewing machine, rubber stamps, card stock, ink pads, magnet backing...etc.
* Have the goal be to make at least two things per person

I haven't figured out how to do volume yet, but I actually like the idea of making something that's hand-made. I'm open to anything that meets that criterion.

Thank you.
-Adele

[Anonymous]

I will be getting slightly weightier items like our yearbook and clothing items for adults.

A colleague at my school had other ideas and I hope they work. Since I'm the only one up here in the East Bay, I plan to call the UC Berkeley alumni office and folks at Cal Athletics to see if they can donate pencils, stickers, and the like.

Back at our K-8 we have pencils and stickers, too, so that should work.

-Adele

[Author]

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