Nansha College Preparatory Academy

Assemblies were held in the cafeteria under these UFO looking lights.

Any visit that begins with a bicycle ride is okay in my book.

These guys are personifying hard workers.

This is our third trip to Nansha College Preparatory Academy located in an idyllic locale nestled between Hong Kong and Guangzhou surrounded by pointy hills that look like they were made by ants the size of tractor-trailers.

Okay, maybe the place is a bit more of a working class harbor town than holiday get away destination but the school, teachers and admin have always been sosupportive and friendly that coming to work here is almost a vacation.

Composing infomercials about historic mpires on the library’s whiteboard tables.

Sara and I were happy to reconnect with two of our dearest international friends – Dianne and John Salminen – whom we have worked with in three far flunglocations – Indonesia, the UAE and China.  John teaches music and Dianne is thelibrarian. John and I and a very young and fit teacher assistant took theaforementioned bike ride right after Sara and I arrived from Shanghai.

 NCPA is a bit of different flavor of international school – the student body iscomprised of Chinese Nationals who begin their time here and in Englishimmersion in 7th grade.  This presents some a particular challenges when offering an AP curriculum with an eye toward graduates enrolling in Western universities.  The students and staff certainly are more than up to the task.

Some dystopian found poems being hatched.

We worked mostly with kids from 7th thru 9th grade and wethrew a lot at them. Personification, prepositional phrase poems, found poemsin our dystopian novel units, even infomercials selling historical empires being studied in world studies – all culminating in a Spring Break send off assembly.

 Four quick days felt like a whirlwind after a month in Shanghai – but they were four days packed with learning (and some laughs too.) Another plus – the place has a great coffee counter with a barista who knows his stuff and kept this poet
amply caffeinated throughout this residency.

 I can say though, even without a coffee buzz – I would certainly be revved to
return.

Out with Dianne and some of the other teachers – having amazingly enough – Chinese food.