Team Teaching

Teaching others is great for teaching the teacher too. Right now I'm having a go at teaching our Level 1 class at university with our regular teacher (Mr Top Kim Long).

We have just finished the text book and have more than two weeks until the end of the semester. Our options were to begin the Level 2 text or revise Level 1. Most of the students were eager to do some revision- particularly focusing on speaking, listening and remembering the material. So I have been preparing some easy games this week.

We had our first try yesterday afternoon. I was quite confident that students would enjoy some more interactive learning, but I wasn't sure how our teacher would take it. Mr Top Kim Long is in his sixties. He speaks slowly and clearly for beginner students and is very kind. He also always teaches in the traditional 'learn by rote' style. So I was really touched when he said in yesterday's class, "Oh! This is very good! I can also learn to teach by playing games." At the end of the lesson Mr Top Kim Long said, "Thank you for your.... [long pause as he searched for the right word]...innovation." Aww...thank you, Sir!