VSO Shanyang Placement

Shanyang English Teacher Development Project

In conjunction with VSO Education Programme Objectives, the new project in Shanyang aims to deliver practical teacher training workshops and follow up support to middle school English teachers in Shanyang county.  

Initial project planning meetings between the volunteer and the Education Bureau in Oct 2008 highlighted important issues affecting students and English teachers countywide. Few teachers had received methodological language training and furthermore, many teachers were not fully up to speed with the changes in teaching and learning that the New Curriculum (introduced in 1999) requires. This was especially the case in remote towns and villages within the county. Education Bureau officials also stressed the impact this was having on students in terms of academic achievement and their attitude towards studying English.

A number of approaches were discussed at length. In the past VSO education volunteers in other project placements have commonly used a standard training model, working with a large number of teachers from a couple of locally selected schools. It was agreed that while this model has proven to be effective, it would not address the need, identified by the Bureau, for reaching out to teachers in remote parts of the county. As a result, an alternative wide-sweeping approach was devised targeting all middle schools in the county, delivering training to a relatively smaller number of English teachers (3 from each school in total).

Photo: Vol with primary school students, SeHe School.

Training Workshops

The first training workshop was held on 6th, 7th and 8th of December 2008. Since then training workshops have been held every month at Shanyang Vocational School, where the volunteer is based. Trainees attend two three-day workshops and must sit a final examination before they receive their Certificate of Achievement. So far, two training cycles have been successfully completed and 66 teachers have received full training. By mid June 2009 a third cycle should have been completed, training a total of 111 Junior Middle School Teachers.
Workshops are designed to give teachers practical help for teaching English communicatively. Amongst others, the workshops cover the following topics:

An Introduction to the New Curriculum, An Introduction to Communicative Methods, Teaching Dialogues Effectively, Teaching Vocabulary, Classroom Management, Using the Blackboard & other Visual Aids, Student Behaviour, Planning & Preparation, How to teach reading/ listening/ grammar communicatively. 

Photo: Teacher Training Workshop    

Photos L-R: Discussing the curriculum, Activity on giving instructions, Trainees working together, vol Mathilde O'Connell.

Follow-up Observations

Follow up observations are an important part of the project and are ongoing. On average the volunteer will spend a 7-14 days a month visiting teachers and schools around the county, observing lessons, giving feedback and setting trainees teaching objectives for further professional development. Observations are a great opportunity for the volunteer to see how teachers work and live in rural areas. They also offer trainees an opportunity to ask further questions and discuss any problems they may have in applying what they learn during workshops. Due to the remote location of some schools and bad road conditions the volunteer will occasionally have to spend night in some small towns and villages.    

Photo: Miss Lui, grade 8 teacher,Man Chuan Middle School

Photos L-R: ManChuan Middle School, Observation, Sts doing an experiment in English, Student dormitories, vol Kim from Shangluo with sts from ShiLi Middle School.

Shanyang Town

Shanyang town is the main town in Shanyang County and it is here that county government departments are based.  The town is small and can be explored easily on foot. There are three large supermarkets where most essentials can be bought and street vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables can be found almost everywhere. There are also plenty of restaurants where you can try the delicious local food.  The provincial capital Xi'an is 3 hours North-west of Shanyang and hourly buses run to the city seven days a week. 

Photos L-R: View over Shanyang from CanLong mountain, back street, Shanyang's first road markings!