2019 UVa STARTALK Chinese Teacher Program has been a true learning journey for me professionally and socially. During this 5 weeks’ training, I built close connections with my students and shared my personal interests and goals with them. We communicated using target language at all time and were immersed in a motivated learning environment. Together we talked, laughed, sang, and read, and we learned a lot from each other. My fellow teachers gave me endless inspirations throughout the planning, co-teaching, and reflection activities. Prof. Tseng and three master teachers have offered me countless advices from their years of experience. By the end of the program, I feel confident to say that a true student centered language class with 100% target language can be accomplished, and can be accomplished online. It is definitely not an easy task. It takes careful planning, detailed consideration and rehearsals, and most importantly, the team work.
