Program Impact and Vision

ETT greatly improved English teaching quality for Shin Shin primary schools. At the same time, the teachers were inspired by the teaching assistants from the United States, who brought in lively cultural atmosphere, changing their traditional rigid teaching mode. Inspirational education philosophy were applied to teaching, so that children's interest and interaction were improved.

The teachers from a Shin Shin school in Changde area participated in ETT, and their quality of teaching has been improved so much that eight students were sent to compete in the National Olympic English competition, all of them won awards (four received the national first prizes and second prizes and four received the regional first prizes), within only a year. They said that they were so surprised by such a wonderful result, thanks to ETT. Our volunteer teaching assistant also thought this as a special experience of a lifetime. After serving as a teaching assistant for ETT in 2011, Mr. Shawn Liu, a Canadian born Chinese and a former computer engineer, continued to stay in China and teach English as his new career.

Summing up the experiences over the years, ECTT made the following improvements and innovations:

First, ECTT absorbed human resources from the United States, and these teaching assistants from the United States have become a powerful teaching supplement to local teachers. In 2006 and 2007, all the nine teaching assistants had been living in the United States for more than a decade, fluent in English and understanding American culture and history. After a short training, they went to ECTT teaching conversational English, English songs, American culture, geography and history, and they also spent evening time in helping students study after class. In 2011, Shin Shin president Steve Ting and his wife served as ECTT assistants to offer personal guidance to the participants and help them learn to use lively teaching methods.

Second, ECTT adopted community-oriented National Public English Test System (PETS) standards, using the textbooks for PETS as reading materials, in order to lay the foundation for the students to pass PETS tests in the future.

Third, ECTT collected outstanding English teaching audio/video materials and distributed them to the participants, so that they can continue using these to teach students back to school.

Fourth, ECTT added “Teacher Empowerment Service” (TES) sessions, that aimed at giving students more confidence, encouraging teachers to be more passionate, so that they feel a sense of belonging, broaden their horizon, and develop team spirit.

We sincerely hope that Shin Shin's teacher training programs will inspire more people to care about the teachers in poor areas. Let us work together to make a difference through every single act of love and service! We would one day change these teachers' difficult circumstances, so that they could devote more into education, and the people in communities could better understand and respect the teachers! They are like a beacon of inspiration for all the children in poor areas, illuminating their road ahead.