Once upon a time, it was believed that there was such a piece of treasure called “The Scroll Of Language Teaching”, whose owner would be bestowed the magical power of teaching a foreign language with greater efficiency. This summer, I, together with thirteen other very fortunate teachers from all around the nation, was given a treasure map that would lead us to the treasure. We followed the map and reached Chamber 410, where we met our Omnibenevolent mentors Dr. Tseng, Alice Lin, and Ya-ching Hsu, who showed us the path through The Jungle of Confusing Theories, and helped us build our own arsenal of Student-Centered Classroom Management Techniques and Communicative Activities so that we were able to break even the hardest communication wall standing between us and our students. Winning all these battles would not be possible without the two lovely Guardian Angels named Jane Hegeler and Regan Wu – led by the Almighty Wu Sir – who took care of all the logistics.

Reminiscence: 

“At the end of the day, did you find the precious Scroll Of Language Teaching?” so you ask. We sure did, my friend, we sure did. It turns out that there is no such thing as THE “one-fits-all” Scroll, as Dr. Tseng had shown us. Every teacher is capable of and SHOULD forge his/her own Scroll Of Language Teaching to suit the needs and interests of their students; it's just a matter of how, and the Virginia STARTALK Chinese Teacher Academy has shown us the way. Thank you very much, UVa!