On July the 2nd, we started the program---Summer Training for English teachers in Dongcheng District. I had no clue what we were going to learn and what awaited us ahead at that time, but when I joined the opening ceremony for it I realized it was gonna be awesome. We had ten excellent teachers from UCLA and the organizer of the program also gave us such an inspiring speech. Although this program came during the final exams when we teachers were overwhelmed by the barrage of work, this program began to grow on me deep down.

First of all, the teachers were all very dedicated and conscientious. They were well-prepared for their courses all the time and they could always find something useful/interesting to show us in the class. They always motivated us to think more and think differently instead of saying cliché about teaching.  When they brought a captivating warm-up game, they usually told us to modify or adapt it for our own teaching. When we had a different answer for certain questions, they would tell us they thought the same and taught us to challenge the standard answers and think independently.

In addition, their teaching also enlightened me in some way. To be candid, I was suffering sort of vocational lassitude, because I have been teaching for six years and I could not figure out a good way or method to teach elementary students. Indeed, I’m not that into our textbooks. While I was having courses here, I realized we teachers could really make a difference. We can find more intriguing games and more resources from authentic websites abroad and modify them for our own classes and we teachers are in charge of what our class is like. From next semester, I’m gonna teach students in Grade 5, and I can have more choices of activities to use or choose for them. I’m eager to give my old students a new class atmosphere and let them fall in love with my dynamic English class.

I still remember Franny would always say “This is one of my favorite games for my students” before she showed us various warm-up games in class and undoubtedly they were our favorite games, too.

I still remember Kristal’s pet phrase “Cool” whenever she gave us a comment. She really showed us much in her class, like using art/movie in class, DIY games, euphemisms, documentaries, poetry etc.

I still remember once KT told us that she could slow down the speed while speaking, but she just didn’t think it would be good for us because she didn’t want to hinder us.

I still remember what Julie told us in the last class: she wanted us to keep using and practicing our English and encouraged us to see movies or TV series without subtitles. As for our teaching, she motivated us to try challenging our students in our class and let us believe in our students’ potentials.

In a nutshell, I really learned a lot in this program. It’s about the diversified English knowledge and it’s far beyond that absolutely.