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"My vision for the future was in Africa. The children all had food, clothing, and a safe environment. They were happy and safe,” the teacher-student reported into the microphone after we had opened our eyes from the envisioning exercise of the symposium. It was the second day of not really knowing if I was getting the message across or not. “You got it,” I choked out. The rest of the 53 teacher-students clapped their hands and nodded their heads in agreement.
Here I was back in Hangzhou again, where I had taught English from 2006-2007, but this time I was using the ATD Symposium as the content for a two-day teachers’ training given during a two-week continuing education session at Hangzhou Normal University. My students had been selected as “the best” of the primary and secondary teachers in the district surrounding Hangzhou, China.
Facilitating the Symposium in China to non-native English speakers is a challenge. By the end of the first morning I knew that something had to change. Many of the teachers were not engaged. With the help of the young man taking care of the audiovisual equipment, we were able to engage the students by stopping the video often for explanations and discussions. By the end of the first day, the teachers were more interested in what I was presenting and writing about “unexamined assumptions” for homework.
The rewards far outweighing the challenges, I look forward to presenting ATD in China as the opportunities present themselves. I am in a unique position to do so because I worked as a flight attendant for many years and have pass privileges. I have been going to China since 1983 and I am proud to have participated in four friendship tours for US-China Peoples Friendship Association.
By Mary Klug, Massachusetts
