Last summer I taught conversational English in Zhengzhou, China through the Orbis Institute. Before I ever entered my own classroom, the expectations were clear of how the students would be learning. While observing other classes I always saw the same thing. Students were in stadium-style seating with immovable chairs. Teachers were at the board as if they were professors at a large university. There was no room for interaction. No room for discussion. I saw teachers write something on the board – say, “Hello! How are you today? Would you like to go to the grocery store?” The teachers would then say the phrase on the board very deliberately, in the best English they could muster. The students, in unison, would respond, seven times out of ten, butchering the pronunciation. “Herro. How are yov tolay? Woul yov like to go to the grofery stove?”  Ugh.

I arrived at my classroom starry-eyed and idealistic with a lesson plan full of activities, games, and group work. I said to myself, I am not like these teachers. I am going to make class fun and interesting, while simultaneously helping them learn more than memorization could ever hope to accomplish. I said to myself, at no time would my classroom be simply an area for students to rehearse the language without ever interacting with it in a real way.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. It turns I could not find out which came first, the chicken (teachers) or the egg (students). It was not so much that the students were resistant or difficult to these games and activities – they just did not see the merit in learning language this way. These students had always learned one way, and here I was attempting to teach them another. The students were unfamiliar with the tasks, with the formatting of the lessons, with the usual responses I would be expecting in a western classroom, while I was completely unaccustomed to teaching their way.

I didn’t quite know what to do – there was very little mentoring or assistance, and so I did the only thing I could think of – I asked my students what they wanted. Every day after class, I asked my students what I could improve upon. I asked them: What can I do better?  What do you want in a classroom? What would you like to learn about?

Eventually we were able to reconcile our educational differences, and come to a happy medium. With a fair amount of modeling, (which I was not doing enough of at the beginning anyway), and a healthy supply of activities, I thought the students actually learned something, and had a little bit of fun while doing it.

What I take away from this story, more than anything is the how my students and I went from such opposite poles of educational philosophy to this, by most accounts, happy compromise. It was because I was willing to ask, they were willing to be honest, and we both were willing to compromise, that the summer turned out to be so successful.

I sure hope my students at Breakthrough are opinionated.