Into the hills and into the classroom

Mr Su Hou, Principal of Mojiang
Teachers' Training College
It's close to the winter solstice and we leave Kunming before dawn, heading for Yuanjiang. We're accompanied for our time in Yunnan by Mr Su Hou, principal of Mojiang Teachers' Training College and a great friend of the Asia Education Foundation.

At first it's like a freeway; this road is intended to link Kunming with Bangkok. As it gets light the road is narrower and we notice that roadside trees are whitewashed for a metre above the ground.

We stop for lunch near a small market and see men smoking long bamboo water pipes. Then the road starts to climb, the mist closes in and some of us have the first suggestions of travel sickness. Others eat White Rabbit sweets and chunks of pomelo as we pass through 2,500 metres and are higher than any point in Australia.

The following day we're apprehensive because it's our first day of visiting a school and teaching classes. We arrive at Yuanjiang Number One Middle School to a welcome of clapping students on the school balconies, followed by green tea and sweet mandarins with the staff. Some of us shuffle through our teaching resources.

The school overlooks a clear lake and is set among palm trees and orange and raspberry coloured bougainvillea. It's a well equipped boarding school for 1,300 students.

We meet our teaching partners and go with them to their classes. As it turns out, most of us find the teaching a rewarding and sometimes emotional experience. We talk about the highlights. Some of us have time to get to know our teaching partners better.

Background Information about Yunnan Province

Lesson plan (opens in new window):
Years 9-10 Studies of society and environment 'Rural Yunnan into the 21st century'