English Language Fellow Christopher Ott led a teacher training workshop for 45 university and secondary teachers at the American Culture Center at XAIU in Xi’an China. The two workshops focused on developing vocabulary through reading and using personal narratives in the classroom.
The Fellow explained the theories behind each topic and allowed teachers to practice related activities so they could get a sense of how to employ these activities in their own classrooms. One aspect of the workshop included implementing the use of cellphones to supplement learning in the classroom. Teachers commented on how useful this was because many of their students already use cellphones, and now they can learn with them too.
This is the first workshop in a series of 5 teacher training workshops that will be held at XAIU this semester. Visiting Fellows from other locations in China will come and lead future workshops to provide a wide array of information. These teacher training workshops aim to reach as many teachers in the surrounding area as possible, providing them with new ways to teach and connect with their students.