I've been working round the clock to get the TDC firmly established before I finally end my placement here in Simao (either next week or next term, depending on Freda's health). That's included recruiting part-time workers from Grade 2. We had 22 applicants last week, 11 of whom reach the interview stage. These 5 are now officially TDC part-time employees. [From left to right] Xiao Mei (one of Freda and Edie's homework tutors) and Cindy are Publicity Assistants. They will be responsible for producing the monthly TDC newsletter as well as brochures, posters and noticeboard bulletins. Clair and Jilly are our two Office Assistants. Their main role will be to help with office admin and daily tasks such as copying, typing and preparing materials for training courses or other activities. Janet has a special job - she will help with anything extra that comes up. She particularly likes writing and she is lively, communicative and eager to work. This weekend she will help me prepare a photo gallery with bilingual captions to display at the TDC Open Day/Christmas Party on Christmas Eve. We have a lot of work to get through but it's great to be doing it as a team.
Employing these part-time workers has been possible thanks to a VSO grant, in response to an application I submitted earlier this month. We also have funding to pay a team of 4 data entry assistants. They will contribute to our on-going research by helping enter qualitative and quantitative data from thousands of feedback forms and questionnaires into a database I've set up. The 5 girls will work 3 hours a week. As well as a small wage they will receive lots of training, which we hope will increase their job opportunities in the future. Many students take the secretarial studies evening class every term, but few have the chance to put the skills into practice. It's a joy to watch them seize this opportunity. Thanks VSO!
Employing these part-time workers has been possible thanks to a VSO grant, in response to an application I submitted earlier this month. We also have funding to pay a team of 4 data entry assistants. They will contribute to our on-going research by helping enter qualitative and quantitative data from thousands of feedback forms and questionnaires into a database I've set up. The 5 girls will work 3 hours a week. As well as a small wage they will receive lots of training, which we hope will increase their job opportunities in the future. Many students take the secretarial studies evening class every term, but few have the chance to put the skills into practice. It's a joy to watch them seize this opportunity. Thanks VSO!
The new workers attended their first TDC meeting today. After introductions and a (rather short) 'tour' of the office, we set to work dividing up the tasks for the coming week. Given the lack of time until the Open Day, we'll all be putting in some hours this weekend. Our work has been eased by some funding from Simao Teachers' College as well, to cover the purchasing of materials, including Flash Drives. Given that we don't have a computer for the workers to use (our lap top is in constant use during the day), they will have to work in the library and transfer materials back to our laptop when complete. Hou Wanxia has spent the day running around between classes to find ways to reimburse our expenses to date. Every time she comes back to the office something new has popped up - an Excel spreadsheet of our accounts, an in/out tray, labels on cupboard doors. We make a good team and spend our time wisely, doing essentials that the other can't.
Ali has been putting his librarian skills into good use, helping me catalogue the resources in our modest little TDC library. It contains a selection of teaching books donated by VSO in 2008 as well as some left by Paul when he completed his own placement in 2007. I'm also leaving behind many of my own books and audio materials, not to mention hundreds of picture postcards. Some of these even belonged to Alex Williams, the volunteer who was here before me. Last week Xiao Liao came in to find if we had any pictures to help her lead-in to the topic of surrealism. Surprisingly enough we dug out 9 postcards that were perfect. It's great to know that these materials may carry on being of some use. We just need to let people know we're here and what we have to offer. In fact, The main aim of Thursday's Open Day is to let teachers and leaders from other departments find out about our work and services. What I really hope to do now is bring in some materials (in Chinese or English) relevant to other teachers, including Maths, Chinese, Physics, Biology. We are currently developing our training materials to be used by other departments but this will take some time, especially given the shortage of good translators. As Well, I suppose the Great Wall wasn't built in a day.
If your school or organisation has any books or materials (on teaching, learning, education in general) then please send them to us, even if they are well-thumbed. We particularly need materials for science and humanities teachers.
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