Some of you may be wondering why I'm even out here in China, and currently Chong qing. Well, it would seem that these Chinese state school teachers get a variety of in-service training courses and one which some educational bureaux / bureaus have signed up for is the Cambridge TKT (Teacher's Knowledge Test). For those about to switch off at this point, don't worry, I'll keep it short, as time itself is for me today because of a visit by the British Council ("All hail the BC!"). More on them another time. I'm also sleepy.
So there's this TKT thing and to pass it they need to know and be able to do certain things, and that's where International House (who I work for) and General Plan (a Shanghai company, not a military coup leader) come in. They run the training and I am one of the foot soldiers who help deliver it. You can see me in action during a group task in this wonderful photo. PowerPoint, too! 'Interactive whiteboards', you say?
'Goodness!', I reply.So we end up with teachers coming in from their holidays for a week or so to learn about this test, which they then follow up online, in a beautiful display on distance learning with a few weeks of face-to-face sessions and lesson observations. There are more Education Bureaux / Bureaus (EB) signing up for this thing so the demand for trainers looks likely to increase. Yet more chances to explore China for my colleagues and me.
The trouble is, a lot of these teachers don't want to do the TKT - they're just being forced to do it by their bosses. Because of this, attendance could be said to be low, but those that do come are a hardy bunch of enthusiastic sorts, a kind of hard-rump-core, who really do want to learn new stuff. The excitement in their eyes when we got onto connected speech today is something I won't attempt to describe. Indeedngton. Some might say it's my teaching that causes less than 50% of the class to turn up, but as this the same number as on my first day, I'll try not to take it personally. Luckily it's not just me. Either way, fewer are better.
That's it for now as I need to sleep before a banquet tonight with the BC ("All hail the BC!") and the local EB. If I don't get a nap in, I think my mind will go outside, dig a hole in the garden, lie down in it and bury itself alive. Not a pleasant thought, especially after a Chinese breakfast and lunch. Topics to come include toilets, hacking and breakfast. It doesn't get much better than this, tell me it doesn't.
