Last week saw Oundle School, one of our Confucius Classrooms, holding a teacher training event specifically for Chinese teachers. With workshops on the Pre U Culture Paper, using Ipads in the Mandarin Classroom, and Building a Mandarin Department, there was plenty of interesting presentations and opportunities for discussion amongst the participants.
We spoke to Mr Yan Hua, the Head of Mandarin and organiser of the event, about why he had decided to hold the event, and what was the feedback he received from participants. Here’s what he told us:
“Based on my experience of teaching Chinese in England from 2001 up to now, I strongly believe that efforts in at least three different aspects are absolutely essential to enable the healthy development of the Chinese subject in this country, namely, working closely with exam boards, updating Chinese textbooks and training Chinese teachers. We at Oundle School Confucius Classroom have made it a key part of the development plan to provide professionals from the region with training opportunities to share ideas on teaching practice.
As reflective practitioners ourselves, we have worked hard to identify what training demands Chinese teachers in England may have. Through the national email forum and the Wechat Group for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (微信‘海外中文教学群’) we have developed good contacts with leading practitioners in the UK and abroad. We are fortunate to have colleagues right from the local region who have developed excellent expertise and would like to share their ideas with other professionals.
The East Midlands Chinese teacher training event we held at Oundle School on 19th April 2016 was a great success. The feedback from participants has been positive without exception.
“Thank to you and all colleagues who contributed to such a well organised and productive workshop!”
“The speeches were enlightening and the attendees were friendly.”
“I learnt so much and it was great to meet colleagues who are all sharing their enthusiasm for Chinese language and culture. Also what a lovely campus you work on there in Oundle.”
“晏老师，您辛苦了，诚挚感谢您的细心安排和组织这么好的学习机会, 收获多多。”
“It was such a pleasure to see you again and to meet the rest of the colleagues. Thank you for organising this workshop and sharing the files and ideas with us. I am looking forward to seeing you in the near future.”
I am sure that Confucius Classrooms from other regions of the country have their own expertise to share. I would strongly recommend they hold similar events in their schools. All the hard work is worth it!”
The next big teacher development event is the UCL IOE 13th Annual Teaching Conference, 17-18 June. Find out more information here.
