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I used my TESOL training recently for the first time. I went to China for 2 months, taught 1st through 6th graders and 18 to 20 year olds for the first month (September, 2007) at the Nanshan Bilingual School near Yantai in Shandong Province, then travelled all over China for the month of October. Everything went very well. The people at the school could not have been nicer to me. Inadvertently got myself involved in a local charity to help poor children in a rural school and was on TV and in the Newspapers. Had many luncheons and dinners in my honor, as well as spending some quality time with a lovely 18 year old English young woman, who was there on her gap year, who was able to work in their Kindergarten. |
| It was a completely amazing and satisfying experience, apart from the air pollution that I think contributed to me losing my voice at the end. I already have some asthma, so it didn't help, but I was able to teach throughout my time there. Since I already have a Masters in Teaching and was a curriculum writer and have taught teachers in the past, they honored me with letting me teach their teachers a training workshop one day a week, which they all seemed to enjoy. I worked with them on allowing their students more hands on experiences.
At the end of my time there, I decided to offer them something that I thought would be a way of making the learning of English more relevant to their students, so even though there were 3,000 students, I asked for a "handpicked" group of approx. 30 students who might like to have American pen pals. They were thrilled at the opportunity and wrote beautiful letters in English and Chinese and gave them to me to take home with me. I guarded those letters like a mother hen for the next month as I travelled the Yangzte River, to Guilin and through Yunnan Province. As soon as I arrived back in Miami I began my search for the perfect school to be their pen pals. I was amazed to find that right in my own backyard was a Charter School, with much in common with my former Chinese students. They were both Bilingual schools, only this school is English/Spanish, due to being in Miami.
As soon as I met their Teacher, a young woman from Southampton, England, I knew that it was going to work. I have visited their classroom twice now, showing them photos of the school and students in China, played recorded conversation in Chinese, Chinese Music and shared lots of stories about my time in China. The last time I visited I even took the hugh, very colourful Tibetan coat that I brought back from China with me. The Miami students have already written their return letters and their packet was received in China, to much excitement several weeks ago. I am now awaiting the return packet of letters from China, as I am invited back to the school here when I have the packet in hand. I have a real relationship both with the people who were so kind to me in China and now with this class in Miami.
Could you please forward this letter to the folks at GVN and say Hello to Colin for me. I told him quite a few years ago that when I retired I would definitely do something with GVN, but had no idea that it would change my life. Thank you again for all your help in my success with TESOL.
You can see some pictures of Vicki's teaching and experiences in China below. |
