Last week I traveled outside of Kunming to the countryside of Deze to teach English at a middle school for two days. I was accompanied by three women from Hong Kong and Alma, CWEF’s Education Director. We were welcomed by a large group of teachers from the Education Bureau who were very eager to have us teach at their school. As we prepared for the following days activities, I soon realized that teachers were coming in from around the county to observe our foreign teaching techniques and were taking our lessons very seriously.
Each class consisted of 60-70 students and each period lasted 45 minutes. Such large class sizes initially posed as a problem, but since 4 of us were teaching each class we were able to get around to each student and help them. We emphasized creativity in the classroom: drawing, singing, dancing, games, etc. Chinese classrooms can be a bit boring, with emphasis on memorization and repetition so we really wanted to show the teachers there are more fun ways to learn English.
We brought the students outside and gave them chalk to draw activities they like to do. We were teaching Who, What, When and Where, so students made sentences such as: “On Monday, I like to play ping pong with my sister on the playground.” Leaving the classroom to have class was such a foreign concept to these students they were very reluctant to even start drawing on the playground with the chalk. We also had to encourage them to get out of their seats to move around the classroom when doing other fun activities and games. We tried to be as silly as possible to get the kids laughing and enjoying themselves and at the end of the day, one of the English teachers in the back of the room commented that we seemed very professional.
Overall, it was a great trip. At the end of each day I certainly was exhausted. I have to give credit to all teachers out there, getting in front of a classroom full of students and keeping them engaged is an exhausting activity. I only did it for two days, I can’t imagine doing it year after year!
I hope the English teachers that observed us can utilize the teaching techniques we used and engage their students more. In countryside schools, much like the one we were at, it is common for students to drop out after middle school to go work in the city or help their parents on the farm. Many of them don’t see a use for learning English and their classes are so boring they don’t care to try. It can be hard to find ways for students to practice their English, but we encouraged them to speak as much as they can to their teachers and peers.
Hopefully, CWEF can continue to work with this school and provide English lessons and teaching excursions to encourage these students to study and work hard so they can get into college.
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