Capital Normal University High School Visit

We spent most of the day at Capital Normal University High School where we talked to students, staff and the principal. It was a great visit and the students asked some interesting questions. I really enjoyed the tour and talking to the students and staff. Students have a long day as school starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 4:45 p.m.  They usually have two to three hours of homework.

It was so nice to see a warm welcome to the Northland Pines school District in Beijing, China

A picture of the school with the principal 

Another view of the school

A model of the school

Students listening to my presentation. Note the student uniforms. This was a public school.

After my presentation, the students were so eager to learn about American Education. This was an English class 

Hot lunch

I liked this picture because one student was using chopsticks and the other a spoon

Having lunch with the English Department and the principal 

Saying good bye at the school

Late afternoon we met with a reporter for a Chinese magazine and had a great discussion about education. 

Talking to a reporter 

After we finished the interview, we toured the Summer Palace. It was an unbelievable sight. See the link for a brief history lesson.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Summer_Palace

  

Enjoy the pictures I took while at the Summer Palace

It was a great day today and tomorrow will bring another adventure! As my Monday is over here in China, school is has just begun Monday morning at Northland Pines.

China March 15, 2015 pictures

Following are the pictures I took today at Forbidden City

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

Tried to get a few hours’ sleep last night. It was a different feeling waking up in Beijing.  Walked to McDonalds to start the day with a cup of coffee as temperatures hit the 60's today.  We then ventured off to the Forbidden City for a site seeing morning. We were so fortunate to have Xiaodong Kuang with us as he was a wealth of information, and more importantly, knew how to get us there as we navigated the Beijing subway system.  The Forbidden City was quite impressive as we looked back in history. The thought of building this massive structure back in 1420 is beyond comprehension!  The Forbidden City, situated in the very heart of Beijing, was home to 24 emperors of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties.  Enclosed are two links so you will have more information at your fingertips. It was definitely a great history lesson about the Emperors and their lifestyles. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

 http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/forbidden-city/

Unfortunately, we are unable to get to Tian'anmen Square as it was closed to the public today.  Due to the Congressional Congress session going on, security was very tight because of the Congressional Congress meetings taking place. Here are some links about Tian'anmen and the relevance and importance to Chinese history. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

In the afternoon we met with and interviewed a group of potential Chinese students that are interested in participating in one of the US/Wisconsin opportunities. We also met their parents and had a great conversation as they were very interested in American Education. Jack, Xiaodong and I all spoke and did a presentation as I was able to showcase the Northland Pines School District and Public Education in the USA!  Had a great dinner that evening and tried all kinds of different Chinese foods…. but yes, I need lots of work with my chopsticks! 

Arrived in China

Well that was a long flight... 6,570 miles to be exact. Left Chicago at 4:35 p.m. on Friday, March 13th and landed in Beijing at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, March 14th.  China is 13 hours ahead of our central time. The interesting fact about the flight is we left Chicago at 4:35 p.m. headed west, across Canada, around the North pole, crossed the Pacific Ocean, crossed the international date line, and flew over Siberia - landed in Beijing at 7:20 p.m. the next day and it was light outside the entire trip! It never got dark. Temperature in Beijing when we landed was in the 50's. 

We are staying at the Beijing Yuehong International Hotel for the first three nights of our visit. Just to put things in perspective, Beijing is a city of over 20 million people and the population of Wisconsin is about 4.5 million! 

China Trip March 13 2015

Hello,

Friday, March 13, 2015

Well, I am off to China! Getting ready to board the plane with Jack Palmer and Dr. Xiaodong Kuang flying direct from Chicago to Beijing  - it looks like a 14 hour flight! My intent is to blog regularly during this trip and include pictures when possible. Obviously, this will all be dependent on the Internet availability in China. I want to thank Dr. Xiaodong Kuang for sponsoring this trip for me. I will be arriving in Beijing, China on Saturday evening at 7:25 p.m. There is a 13 hour time difference between Wisconsin and China.   Stay tuned to my blog for this exciting trip!

Business Partnerships so Important to Schools

Here in the Northland Pines School District we have a great business partnership with CornerStone Custom Builders, INC. For approximately the past 30 years the NPHS Trades Class has constructed a house on site, then sold and relocated the house to its permanent site. About 7 years ago when the economy was at a decline and the school district budget was facing some tough times, this program was in jeopardy of being eliminated. CornerStone stepped up and saved the day and the program! The Northland Pines School District entered into a partnership with Cornerstone where they supply the materials for the house and assist in the design; in return the students build the home and enjoy the educational and real life opportunities. At the end of the building project CornerStone is responsible for the sale of the home and the moving it to its future site, relieving the school district of the financial burden of approximately $80,000 in materials, relocation expenses and the risk of the home not selling.

CornerStone offers an additional aspect to the program by allowing the students to see how the entire home manufacturing process works by bringing the students to the factory and showing them all of the stages of building a home for a client, from start to finish. This partership supports the NPSD expectations of rigor and relevance and allows students to work hands on with local businesses which not only includes CornerStone but also 12 other local businesses. 

This week we are experiencing unusually nice warm weather here in Wisconsin, so the students are taking advantage of great construction weather and working diligently at finishing up the 2015 house! What a great opportunity for our students and what a great partnership. 

Thank you to CornerStone Custom Builders for your commitment to our students, school district and community. 

Fair or Unfair Mega Hockey Co-ops?

This was a great article written by Jeremy Mayo, Sports Editor of the Northwoods River News. I completely agree with him. It's time the WIAA take a close look at this situation and in my opinion an extremely unfair playing field for teams like Northland Pines! Go Eagles!!

3/2/2015 3:40:00 PM Shoutouts & Callouts Super-teams are stunting growth of girls' hockey in Wisconsin Jeremy Mayo Sports Editor A close examination the teams that advanced to the sectional finals of the WIAA girls' hockey playoffs will tell you exactly what's wrong with the sport. • Bay Area (Green Bay East/Ashwaubenon/Bay Port/De Pere/Green Bay Preble/Green Bay Southwest/Green Bay West/Notre Dame/Pulaski/ Seymour/West De Pere), combined enrollment - 13,200. • Sun Prairie/Cap City (Sun Prairie/DeForest/Madison East/Madison La Follette/Waunakee), combined enrollment - 7,515. • Onalaska (Onalaska/Aquinas/Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Holmen/La Crosse Central/La Crosse Logan/West Salem), combined enrollment - 5,272. • Central Wisconsin (D.C. Everest/Mosinee/Wausau East/Wausau West), combined enrollment - 4,910. • USM Wildcats (University School of Milwaukee/Divine Savior Holy Angels/Nicolet/Shorewood/Whitefish Bay), combined enrollment - 4,441. • Hayward (Hayward/Ashland/Northwestern/Rice Lake/Shell Lake/Spooner), combined enrollment - 3,055. • St. Croix Valley (River Falls/Baldwin-Woodville/Boyceville/Glenwood City/Saint Croix Central), combined enrollment - 2,281. Want the game of hockey to grow in the state? Want more girls to have the opportunity to play? Put an end to the mega co-ops. I can hear the screams from Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison and Wausau now. "There's no way you can split up our co-ops! Our schools don't have the money to go it alone. These girls have been skating together for years. We wouldn't be able to put a competitive product on the ice." There is one exception in the girls' hockey elite eight, a small school going it alone that blows all those arguments out of the water - Northland Pines. Here are the Eagles, with a paltry enrollment of 446 students - the lowest for any school in the state that fields a girls' hockey team. Despite that handicap, they are able to field a deep, competitive team and be a threat for the state tournament every year. And they'd get there more often if they didn't have to face the likes Central Wisconsin in the sectional finals every year. But this issue starts way before high school. A quick survey of the teams participating in this year's Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association state girls' tournaments reveals the likes of Western Wisconsin, Appleton, Wausau/Everest/ Mosinee, Rock County, Green Bay and Stevens Point/Marshfield/Waupaca. What's happening is all-star teams formed at the youth level are making their way through the ranks to the high school level. Since only the best play, only the best continue to play, so when someone asks why a team from Green Bay needs 11 schools to make up one team they'll say, "because we need that many to fill the a roster." The real purpose for co-ops should be to help schools with smaller enrollments increase the number of extra-curricular options for their students beyond what they can feasibly provide themselves. If Mercer, with an enrollment of 32, has a couple of girls who want to skate and needs to join up with Lakeland (enrollment 734) to do it, by all means go for it. I find it inconceivable that it takes over 13,000 students to find 20 girls to make up a hockey team. But that's what we've got in Wisconsin girls' hockey. Let's look at the numbers another way. Throw Northland Pines out of the equation again and the schools that make up the seven co-ops in the sectional finals field 25 WIAA boys' hockey teams. The Central Wisconsin co-op is made up of four schools that all have standalone boys' hockey teams. The schools of the Bay Area co-op have five boys' hockey teams. The Hayward, Sun Prairie and Onalaska co-ops each have four. University School co-op has only two, but there's an asterisk there: USM and Divine Savior Holy Angels are both private schools - and DSHA is an all girls' school. It's a farce and a system that slants the playing field heavily in the favor of major metropolitan areas. It boils down to rural versus urban - just like the WIAA public-private school debate, the school voucher program and the state spending formula on education. And, as with those other issues, it's rural schools that get the short end of the stick. If any school from the Northwoods is going to win a girls' hockey state championship, it's going to have to play the co-op game like everyone else. And, at least looking at the Great Northern Conference this year, the talent is there to do it. Imagine if the Northern Edge, Northland Pines, Lakeland and Tomahawk joined forces. Let's call them the Northwoods RATTLERs (as in Rhinelander, Antigo, Three Lakes, Tomahawk, Lakeland, Eagle River). You'd have several strong players from Pines and the Edge. Throw in standouts Nicole Nerva, Erika Vallier and goalie Erin Sparks from Tomahawk, and a few role players from Lakeland and you'd have a team with three excellent lines, at least six strong defenders and arguably the three best goalies in the conference. With a combined enrollment of 3,456 students and representing four boys' hockey teams, the RATTLERs would be right in line with the other major co-ops in the state - and would probably be as successful. But here's the problem. The Edge and Northland Pines had enough participants to play JV games against each other this year. You combine those teams and add two more to the mix, you are shutting the door on the opportunity to play for a significant number of girls. That's not to way to grow a sport, though it might be a good way to win a state title. Sadly, too many around the girls' hockey community are far more obsessed with the latter rather than the former. Until that changes, girls' hockey in Wisconsin will continue to struggle. Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@rivernewsonline.com.