One of my jobs of late has been filming the TDC Teaching Methods workshops for Maths and Physics Department students. I enjoy it as it gets me away from the homeschool-children routine and it's a chance to get creative with the movie camera. The lesson pictured was co-taught by Lesley and Hou Wanxia, with a minimum of English, using methods-materials painstakingly translated into Chinese, backed up by subject-related content concocted by Lesley herself or provided by friends and College teachers. This area of work is something Lesley has wanted to do for some time now (especially as the English Department here are so useless and unwilling to cooperate), and is in fact one of the reasons we decided to stay on in Simao another year.
It was fantastic to watch Lesley and Wanxia working so well together - they each seem to know what the other is about to say or do. Lesley would be the first to admit her Chinese is far from perfect, but she seems to have a perfectly adequate command of classroom language to put over most of her points in Chinese - even cracking the odd joke! The students seemed to enjoy the workshops, even though they're so unused to the student-centred methods.
It's been a difficult and sometimes depressing time recently, so good to see Lesley on top form doing what shes loves. What has the problem been? Well, something to do with a string of job applications for teacher-training or straight ELT jobs around the globe all being rejected... Lesley has been so busy pushing forward education initiatives and training work here in Simao Prefecture that she's never got round to getting the all-important Diploma that many employers are asking for. Currently, obtaining this qualification is top priority. The only question is where. We have several irons (of varying temperatures) in the metaphorical fire...
It was fantastic to watch Lesley and Wanxia working so well together - they each seem to know what the other is about to say or do. Lesley would be the first to admit her Chinese is far from perfect, but she seems to have a perfectly adequate command of classroom language to put over most of her points in Chinese - even cracking the odd joke! The students seemed to enjoy the workshops, even though they're so unused to the student-centred methods.
It's been a difficult and sometimes depressing time recently, so good to see Lesley on top form doing what shes loves. What has the problem been? Well, something to do with a string of job applications for teacher-training or straight ELT jobs around the globe all being rejected... Lesley has been so busy pushing forward education initiatives and training work here in Simao Prefecture that she's never got round to getting the all-important Diploma that many employers are asking for. Currently, obtaining this qualification is top priority. The only question is where. We have several irons (of varying temperatures) in the metaphorical fire...
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