Because of work’s needs, I came to Miramichi from Fredericton on August26th ,2015. I live with an old man who is also the neighbor of Harkins Middle School’s principal . Landlord,Donald,is a very kindhearted and nice person, he offered me various of convenience in order to make me feel happy to live here. Jennifer who is the principal of Harkins Middle School is a very friendly lady and also an excellent principal. In particular, she has strong China complex ,because her mother-in-law is Chinese people who came to Canada from China,so Jennifer’s husband is also half Chinese,and their daughter has a quarter of Chinese descent. With the help of principal, I ‘m familiar with the school’s colleagues and environment as soon as possible . This city is not very big and has three directs. The house I rent is not very far from school and downtown making my life here very convenient.

Harkins Middle School is a English and French bilingual School, 320 students in total,15 classes. At first , principal asked me to listen PE teacher’s lessons to know how they teaching. After listening on round I started to exhibit Chang Quan and Taichi . The kids in middle school’s age are usually like foot ball and basket ball and so on. They are very interested in Chinese martial arts,but they can not understand totally what is Chang Quan or Chinese martial art. I order to make they have more chance to know Chinese Cultures, I talked with principal if I can teach every class,but she refused. Because she thought to find some good classes to learn. However, I was thinking I’m here , it’s better to make every student has chance to know different cultures. So I intended to teach all students around the school, and we started to try. 

I shared the students with PE teacher, half students with him ,half with me,and switch next time. I felt tired but fulfillment after the whole day’s lessons. Karate and taekwondo are popular here,so I combined bisic Chinese kongfu movements that made students are interested in.

Harkins Middle School’s schedule is very special ,they use six days course schedule,but actually they have five school days which keeping the sixth day’s schedule . There is a good advantage that they can go on the schedule in case of the special situation and make sure to finish all the plans. However ,this brought me difficulties in some degree, because I have to remember where is my class every time. I planed basic training ,Body coordination exercises,short routine exercise and games to make the lesson more interesting,which makes students gain more.

November26th ,2015 is a big day for me. I held the activity calling “ Play Taichi Together” around school,and leaded all students to play Taichi in the gym. The director of CINB, Ms. Teng Jing came here and brought the customs for students.

Principal Jennifer gave opening speech and let me give a speech too. I was very excited when I saw all the students wearing CINB’s T-shirt and played Taichi With me together. With the music of Taichi  ,we started with Fist-palm salute and greeting with each other in Chinese. I lead students to do Pranayama techniques, Taichi routines. All students felt comfortable and proud. Local journalist also came to interview and reported this activity. We made a very big success ,and all the teachers and students said  CINB made Chinese martial arts to put down roots here. I was very proud when principal said “these kids will still remember this scene after many years ... ”

Read more ...