Win - Win situations

Jiyoung teaching a class to native speakers!

On the weekends I teach a certification class to people that want to teach English in other countries. I have been doing this for 6 years and I think I do a pretty good job preparing my students to live and teach overseas. Each month I teach I try to find actual ESL students for the people that take my class to practice.

March 2010 class

The way this class is designed is I am supposed to tell people to teach,

Dong helping my student understand how ESL students think

but not necessarily give them practical experience. It is like the old movie, The Music Man where the guy sells them instruments and tells them how to play, but they never pick up their instruments and actually play. When I teach them how to teach they don't really learn it until they get out of their seats and actually teach a class.

showing off game pieces teaching brought

I spend a couple of hours a month trying to find people that are in the area to learn English and will volunteer to be a student for my student teachers. I had one friend from China that was living in the US to do computer work. He was a computer wizard and wanted to improve his English. Dong was in the USA for six months and he attended six of my classes. He would attend all six days for the full ten hours. He helped my students understand how people in China learn English and how they could improve their teaching style. Many of my students owe him a lot for his openness and willingness to share.

My daughter, Lindsey took my class in Aug 2011

One girl from Korea came to one month of classes and attended every class like Dong did. She really became part of the class so much that on the last day of class she taught a class herself and the class had prepared a certificate for her just like their certificates. She gave a class on how to write our names in Korean and my students learned something very interesting. Imagine a person coming to another country to learn their language and then teaching a class in the new language to native speakers. Jiyoung was fantastic!
I once had a married couple from Russia that came to many classes. They were very helpful in helping my students understand about teaching in Eastern Europe. It was nice to have someone from another region than Asia. I also have had a few of my old ESL students from Mexico that have attended many of my classes.

One student taught a class about reptiles

All of these people were heroes to me and my students. They all attended hoping to meet Americans and learn a little English and American culture. They were very thankful to me that I "allowed" them to attend my class. They thought the chance to attend my class was a "win" for them because they learned so much and had a lot of fun. They learned that English isn't a school subject, but just a way to communicate. My students couldn't thank the ESL students enough for helping them learn how to teach better. Every time I had an ESL student attend one of my classes it became a better class. One of the biggest complaints of the program I teach for is that the students don't get practical experience, so the "extra students I bring in helps with that weakness. My student "win" having these helpful people join them!

November 2009 class