Meng

Nanxi Meng

I am so grateful to be selected as one of the 12 teaching fellows in the 2017 UVA STARTALK program and spent 5 weeks online and offline with professor Tseng, all the teachers, program facilitators, assistants and lovely students. This program has enhanced my understanding of teaching theories and techniques, allowed me get the hands-on experience of online Chinese teaching, and gave me a deep understanding of how to run successful STARTALK programs for both teachers and students. I like the flipped classroom model designed for this program, enjoyed the group discussion for class preparation, the feeling of always have somebody got your back is so awesome! Just like I mentioned in my interview session with Angela, this is one of the best workshop/training/STARTALK program I’ve attended and I have referred UVA STARTALK to my Chinese teaching peers! I hope they could be luckily selected and become the future participants! I will use what I learned in the program to redesign my courses syllabi, involve the tools we used in the program in my everyday teaching, to grab the attention and interests of students, share the knowledge with peers in Dallas-Fort Worth area, and aiming at create STARTALK program for this area in the near future. Last but not least, I would like to express my appreciation to the content besides teaching and learning – the mindfulness and appreciative inquiry. Thanks for bringing the “slow down” moment back into my life so I could appreciate the joy of work and study even more.