Hi Everyone,

I'm a retired community college teacher living in Tucson, AZ. For the past 5 years I've been invited to Guang Dong, China to facilitate 2 week training sessions for English teachers. Topics presented include American Culture, some pedagogy, non-lecture teaching methodologies, practicing English with a native speaker, etc.

I found out about WBT last year while googling for classroom management ideas. I showed some of the videos to last summer's class, then, for fun, used the "Class - Yes" and a few of the other techniques just the see how they'd go over. We all had a good time with it. This year I thought I'd introduce it again a little more seriously.

One comment/suggestion might be a class rule for cellphones. Maybe something like;
"Use cellphones only during breaks."

I understand one of the latest student practices is to use very high-frequency ring tones that the (older) teachers might not hear. However, this certainly would distract the other students.

I be very interested in sharing experiences with others who have taught in China.

Cheers,
Dan Davidson

Hi Dan,
I completely agree with your cell phone comment. I'm a high school math teacher. That is going to be one of my rules this coming year. I plan to make up some sort of gesture to go with it! Fortunately, I am still able to hear those high-frequency ring tones... but I'm sure my time is limited when it comes to that! Best wishes as you continue to use the WBT techniques in China. Hopefully you will get some responses from others who have taught in China.
~Kristin

Hi Kristin,

Thanks for your comments. Perhaps the accompanying gesture for the cell phone rule could be the cell phone gesture while rotating the wrist back and forth.

Best,
Dan