My dear fellows, I own you a BIG "Sorry" for having been away for such a long time!!! Life in Linfen(山西省) has been quite busy for me! I am so focused on training. There is a lot to learn about teaching and running a small orgnization. We are now part of a Junior Youth Education Program. It's a non-profit orgnization dedicated to help junior youth(young people aged between 11 to 16). We focus on the power of express and moral awareness. Basically, we use the cooperative learning (group learning) method to teach English. We divid any big class into small groups of 4. In a small group, there are 4 roles--one role for each student. For example, one of the roles is encouraging others which means that one of the 4 student is responsible to encourage other 3 students to participate in group discussion. Also the books we use have many meaningful stories and moral concepts. For example, the first book we use is about a 13-year-old girl who lives in a village. She thinks about some important quetions such as what her talent is and what she wants to do with her life and how she can make an effort. She also has many friends and they discuss these questions together. Their lives are starting to change... Students, as long as their English level allow them to understand the meaning of the book, just love these books and they love group learning! Our training are mainly divided into 3 parts: 1. Teaching (the use of the book, how to make lesson plan, classroom management ); 2. How to start a orgnization; 3. How to run orgnization; It's interesting that the theme of our first book is that "We should find out what our talents are, and make an effort to use them. This way, we will be confirmed and feel happy about our life. " My experience here helps me to understand the meaning our first book. In any job, there are difficulties to over come. There are skills and abilities that are required. In order to do the job well, we have to develop ourselves. We have to grow. In my previous job, I don't feel I have talents in computers. Therefore growing seems hopeless to me. I can do my job ok, but I never feel that I am good at it. But things are different here, there is a lot to learn to teach a class well. I never really sing songs publicly, but I have to sing in front of a class of more than 40 students and it's ok for me because that's the change I want to see in me. There are many more aspects that I want to develope as a teacher. The feeling is great! People working on this program are so dedicated. My bosses, Jeff and Tania are couples. Jeff is from American, Tania is from Austrilia. Because of what they believe is important for the youth, they come all the way from oversea to live in Linfen, the most polluted city in the world and worked very hard for 4 years. Sometimes it's hard for other people to understand. Even their parents had a difficult time to understand them. But because of their pure motivation as to help the youth, help the future of the world, and because of their constant effort, their parents finally come to live in Linfen with them as well! All other teachers are all very hard working. We met some other teachers who claim that they don't want to be teachers. That can make me feel as if teaching is not a good job. But being with teachers in this program, Chinese or foreigners, is a totally different experience. Everyone seems focused on and dedicated to improving our teaching skills systematically and constantly. They are trying to, as Jeff said, setting a model of excellence! Observing their classes, the only feeling in my mind is that teaching is noble job! Our training in Linfen will end in the middle of January. Then we will go to Shanhai for a one-week training with all the previous interns who have gone through the same training and who have started their own program back home. After that, I will go back home--Kunming to start my program. It's not going to be easy but it's exciting! Some photos: http://cn.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chinese_nick/album?.dir=bc40&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//cn.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos http://cn.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chinese_nick/album?.dir=eb17&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//cn.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos