(NAME-MCE) Earthquake in China

[Bill Howe]

This note is from my brother Bob. He and his wife are in China teaching
English for two years.


>>>
You may have heard some news today about an earthquake. We're quite
alright. I was teaching and Maria was at home.
Our teacher training taught us about classroom management, problem
students, pronunciation problems, grammar problems, but it did not say
anything about what to do in an Earthquake.
I was teaching today and was just about to start when one of the kids
jumped up and pointed to the overhead screen. It was shaking. Then I
looked up and the lights were swaying. By now, all of the kids were on
their feet, screaming.
Ohhh... this is an earthquake.
Strangely enough, I didn't panic. It was kinda cool. The floor was
shaking. I could feel my brain bopping around in my head - and I was
experiencing a little vertigo. The head teacher for the class just
happened to be in the room. He told the students to sit back down.
HUH? Sit down?
By now, the tremors had stopped. Hmmmm...but what about after shocks?
I looked out the window to see if the other teachers had taken their
kids out. I couldn't see anyone. Kinda odd. I called Maria to see if
she was ok. She had felt the table and floor shake.
My class monitor was pretty freaked. He wanted to go out. I asked him
to go see what the other classes were doing. Yes, the bottom floors
were emptying out. Enough for me. "Okay everyone. Leave your books
(yes, the students had gathered up their books). Walk slowly and
carefully out of the building."
Isn't funny that the students would save their books?
When we got outside, the class head teacher was already there. Funny.
He tells the students to stay put and he goes outside.
They say, in th event of earthquake, you should go under your desk.
What do I know? All I know, was I had a class of 60 students on the
5th floor. I didn't want to be this high if the tremors got worse or
if there were aftershocks. I've seen the construction quality of the
buildings here, and I would be MUCH more comfortable standing on solid
ground rather than on the 5th floor.
Well, thankfully, my city was far away from the epicentre of the
earthquake. We only felt the shockwaves. The earthquake measured 7.8
on the Richter scale. In other cities, 4 student died when a primary
school and water tower collapsed. 100 were injured. 900 students are
trapped. Please remember those were lost their lives and those who
were injured.
>>>


-- 
Bill Howe
Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) - http://apaact.com/

13th Annual New England Conference on Multicultural Education (NECME)
October 8, 2008, Connecticut Convention Center - Hartford, Connecticut
http://www.necme.org