Countdown to Christmas
on Tina's Journal (China), 23/Dec/2009 14:25, 34 days ago
The students who manage'English Corner' organised a Christmas Party this evening. English Corner is place where students go to do English speaking activities. It's a resource room within the college campus and students go there every Tuesday to chat in English. I have been an occasional visitor over the past year. Tonight we sang Christmas songs and were given various performances ranging from magic tricks to musical chairs. Tomorrow evening I'll go through the same thing with students from the English department. To be honest it is really nice that they are getting into the festive spirit and learning the traditional Christmas songs.I ran another workshop today for all the teachers in the English department. I am not really sure how useful they found it but I hope they got something from it. I find it very different doing any training courses with the teachers in the college compared to the teachers I meet in the middle schools. There is definitely a sense of superiority amongst them, perhaps because their level of English is much higher than the teachers in the countryside and they are more qualified. However, this does not necessarily mean that they know how to teach in a student-centred way. Some of the teachers still lecture the students and teach in that traditional Chinese way, which only gets results for the very best students. Even if they start working together more and sharing ideas it will be a step in the right direction.