Today we taught at the Suzhou North America High School in Suzhou, China. We all taught our lessons in different classes to different grade levels. I taught about basketball and NBA history to 10th grade. Thomas Carrington assisted me with lesson development. We brainstormed about different players and different teams. Next, we talked about the creator of basketball, the date that basketball was created, where basketball was created, and the original thirteen rules of the game. Then, we talked about the history of the basket, the hoop, the ball, and dribbling. After, we talked about the date that the Basketball Association of America was created and when it was merged with the National Basketball League to become the National Basketball Association. We talked about the tallest and shortest players ever. We also talked about popular basketball players such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Yao Ming, and Jeremy Lin. Following the discussion, we crumpled paper into sphere shapes and partnered up to shoot the balls into each others’ hooped shaped arms. We divided up the classroom into two teams by counting off one’s and two’s. One’s went to a side of the classroom and two’s went on the other side. Thomas and I took turns to become human hoops on the sides of the classroom as each team took turns to shoot their paper basketballs into our hoop shaped arms. To conclude the lesson, I asked them what players and teams they knew and what they learned from the lesson. The students had fun and enjoyed the basketball lesson a lot. Ensuing the basketball lesson was lunch. I ate rice, chicken, and pork. Soup, yogurt, and a banana was also provided. I tried all the flavors of juice, which included orange juice, grape juice, guava and strawberry juice, and mango juice. After basketball, I played basketball with some students at the indoor basketball court along with Thomas, Alyssa, Jack, and Jasmine. I really look forward to continue learning about Chinese history and culture with these amazing study abroad participants in the program!
