I was at a work conference at the weekend. In it they ran a bunch of sessions aimed at making you a better teacher in the “Chinese Environment.” A lot of it’s common sense, but I go and “give it some” at those sessions because “Da Management” is always watching you, it’s nice to have an idea what works in other classrooms, and what they’re looking for when they come into yours.
Anyhow, they had this Chinese teacher come to one of our sessions. Now the Chinese in general aren’t naturally forthright, and this guy looked about 12 and a half. In short you could tell he’d be a wallflower if you didn’t involve him. Yet I watched group after group pretty much ignore the guy, and that irritated me. I mean he wasn’t prefect, but they could have done better.
To make matters worse, they have quality control managers working at my company. They pretty much assess teacher quality, and the husband of one of these quality controls was in this session. The manager has always impressed me as someone who knew her stuff, but this guy couldn’t have made any more effort NOT to involve the guy if he tried.
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