Tough and Happy Experience—Zhang Hua

I experienced a tough but happy training; a challenging but enjoyable training, in particular, attending Pat Luo's lectures. It was Pat Luo who led me to a new teaching approach, Immersion Teaching Approach. She presents us what the immersion program is and what we do with maths, science, social studies and literacy in Chinese using immersion teaching approach. The way of her delivering her lectures spontaneously enabled me to be immersed in what she presented and be willing to participate in the activities she arranged for us to do.

Initially, she introduced us how to create an effective teaching & learning environment and design effective activities. She did not just describe what an effective learning environment and activity is by PPT, but encouraged us to think first, work in pairs/groups second and share third. Based on our Think-Pair-Share, she shared her ideas and opinions with us and then showed us excellent and inappropriate examples, which could make us compare and benefit from positive and negative examples.

Additionally, she presented us the strategies and cases of classroom management in secondary and elementary schools in the U.S. At first, she showed us some cases happening in class, and then got us to discuss them in pairs or groups, analyzing and figuring out our strategies to coping with the cases. On the basis of our discussion, she provided some practical strategies of classroom management.

What's more, she presented us a totally new language program, immersion program. Thanks to the vivid and reasonable way of her delivering lectures, I have been aware of teaching maths, science, social studies and literacy in Chinese in elementary schools in the U.S., using the immersion teaching approach.

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from Pat Luo, especially a new concept, Immersion Teaching Approach. What she presented to me has aroused my awareness of the significance of creating an effective learning environment and designing effective activities in class. I indeed have experienced a tough and challenging training and at the same time I have had a happy and pleasant time.