Flavour of the Week

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What I thought was a teacher taking a photo of me teaching, turned out to be the Deputy Vice Principal, using his still camera to film my entire lesson. Afterwards, in the corridor, he shook my hand profusely and then explained who he was, that he was a Chinese teacher, and that he thought my lesson was fantastic because he could understand just about every word.

I have now taught five lessons this week, and always had at least one, and my record so far is five teachers observing. The teachers commonly observe each other here. They bring their own stool, sit quietly at the back like a row of sparrows on a fence and take notes in their programming / observation book. This is slightly inconvenient for my teaching style, as I do not stay at the front of the room on the platform, but move around the room. So my five sparrows had to move their stools against the wall. They twittered when I invited them to move about the room, and talk to the students as the kids were writing. All of teachers eventually got up, looked over students shoulders, and a couple of my colleagues even chatted to the kids and helped them to compose a discussion in English.

On the way to lunch, Meili waxed lyrical about how I expected the students to treat each other with respect, to listen to each other and to help their fellow class mates. These things were, for her the most outstanding things about my teaching, because Chinese teachers do not address such issues, and definitely never correct the students behaviour. Later that afternoon, Helen introduced me to a colleague who had been a teacher, but had been removed from her teaching post and made an archivist in school records, because the students complained about her teaching. I am unclear if there was a moral link between these two stories, or just a coincidence.

Affecting teacher practice is the main reason for my employment here. To this end I took Helen up on her offer to observe her classes this week, mark her students writing assignments and teach her Friday writing classes. It is very heartwarming to be greeted by a round of applause from Year 10 students every time I enter their classroom. I wonder if this will continue, now that I have subjected them to my Australian style lessons! Subsequently, two more English teachers have invited me to observe their classes next week. More frighteningly, Helen and I, in consultation with a teacher educator down the phone, have begun the process of doing an action research project (she gets to write the 10 page submission in Chinese), using her writing classes, and my elective classes as guinea pigs.

Flavour of the week, or the beginning of a landslide of genuine educational exchange, only time will tell, but it has begun.

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Comments

[jen]

thanks
thank you for your work in improving our world, Jacinta. One country at a time... enjoying your stories

[paid to travel]

Lotta work
There are such a lot of people here - I might not be able to get to them all in 4 months!

[Bronwyn Custance]

Outstanding Observations
So glad your expertise, skill and talent is being tapped and you are beginning to see the potential impact you can have there.