文/Konrad Kelly（美） 譯/張佳藝

本文作者Konrad Kelly

浙江省泰順縣地處偏僻，沿溫州西南方向駕駛3個小時方可進入其所在的山區(qū)。從內陸蒼南縣的沿海地帶到泰順縣的主要鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)羅陽，不勝枚舉的隧道與蜿蜒曲折的小路無懼高峻地帶，在此肆意穿行。

這里的生活節(jié)奏遠比中國新興大城市要慢得多。許多人在村里從事農業(yè)或是近年來頗為吸睛的生態(tài)旅游業(yè)?！爸袊笫鼓辍笔前采逃幕涣髋c教學項目，旨在將國外英語教師引進中國一些外國人稀少的農村。機緣巧合下，我跟隨這個項目來到泰順縣。正是這里讓我決心撥開迷霧，重新審視過往與今朝。智能手機為農民所常用，豪華轎車就停在傳統(tǒng)農家院旁。日新月異的發(fā)展有如從路邊裂縫中伸展而出的蒲公英，竭力發(fā)芽，努力生長。在新興中產階級身上，既有古老而傳統(tǒng)的美德，也有富足的物質條件和遠大的抱負。雖然地處偏遠，鄉(xiāng)村氣息濃厚，但泰順縣正穩(wěn)步完善自身，籌備復制全國各地類似的發(fā)展結構，如由羅馬柱子、歐式外墻、平板電視和大容冰箱搭配而成的公寓大樓，如流行音樂在大街小巷的泡茶店放聲。

作者Konrad Kelly（左二）和AYC 2017—2018年溫州地區(qū)所有外籍使者一起參加溫州教育局舉辦的送教下鄉(xiāng)活動

在泰順縣的十個月，我只在徒步旅行時偶遇到兩個外國人。那里大多數人都是當地人或來自福建的餐館老板。無論是學校附近的菜市場還是家族餐館，與我交談的人幾乎都講中文。盡管有語言壁壘、文化差異與地域偏遠等困難，但與三年級的教學任務相比，不過是小巫見大巫。在我剛任教的前兩周，除我以外尚且配備一位當地英語老師，以幫助孩子們過渡到新的學習環(huán)境。第三周，雖然她認為我可以獨自應付三年級的課程了，但我很快發(fā)現(xiàn)一連串的行為問題襲面而來。課堂上，學生們嘰嘰喳喳不斷，紙條、玩具和種種物件在教室里飛來飛去，有的男生還會突然站起來大笑大叫，分散全班對老師的注意力。喧喧嚷嚷大有野火燎原之勢。更糟糕的是，當時我的漢語水平和教學水平不高，我很難勸誡學生終止亂象。和我想象中相比，把學生注意力重新聚焦到講臺上可謂異常艱難。

第一學期，我在掙扎中前行。如同試水一般，我不知道自己的課程是否達標又或是否偏離。我的課程不似預想般多樣化或條理化，我所教的三年級學生也索然無趣，心不在焉。深知教書不易，但我卻未料有大把時光與情感都會隨之消逝。課程進展緩慢，時間卻在從課堂內容轉向課堂管理中消耗殆盡了。在充滿挑戰(zhàn)的第一學期結束后的那個春節(jié)月，我開始反思教學。每當我休息時，一種強烈的想法都會涌上心頭：摸索一套全新方法，自如應對可期未來。

接下來的一學期，我的確有所改進：走出課堂局限性，感受真切成就感，感受到學生的參與度有所增強。我的第二學期課表有了些許變化，校方問我是否愿意每周給四、五、六年級上一節(jié)英語會話課。而在那之前，我一直在教三個三年級班，周周如此。新課表雖然插入更多課程，但課程頻率有所降低。這讓我有充足時間提前備課并測評效用。樣本量增加，同一堂課便可以反復教授，學生的接受程度也由此得到檢驗。與第一學期以教科書為綱的教學不同，學生每天都有作業(yè)，所有材料與課程都必須從頭構建。這樣的方式雖然耗費更多時間，但卻贏得更好的教學效果。那年春天晚些時候，我有幸在僅有40個孩子的小學上公開課。我花了一個多月時間備課，其間換過三次課程主題，后來我覺得仍有很多地方值得修補完善，盡管如此，觀察員老師們仍祝賀我可以出色完成。最終，看到改進版教案試水成功后，我的教學信心大增。

2017年10月13日，作者Konrad Kelly（后排右六）和AYC 2017—2018年溫州地區(qū)所有外籍使者一起參加甌北小學新生入隊儀式

無論是課程還是學生，抑或是發(fā)展機會，都自成一派，各有千秋。例如，五年級某班成員很喜歡小組作業(yè)和小品表演，擅長小組合作，攜手共進、不懈參與、互相成就。反觀另外一個班卻對此不感興趣。后來我從另一位老師那里得知，該班英語成績墊底，學生們都缺乏信心。那個學期，我總是試圖統(tǒng)一兩班的教學計劃，但收效甚微。沮喪、困惑，我對現(xiàn)狀的改進束手無策。最后幾周，期末考試與暑假迫近，我增加了一些個性化十足的作業(yè)，以求使學生將時間投放到語法、詞匯與翻譯中去。很快，我便注意到因這類活動與學生水平更為接近，學生對此表示更容易接受。那些善于分析、寡言少語的學生也喜歡這類活動。令我欣慰的是，為了更好地解決問題，這些學生齊心協(xié)力，合作學習。在第二學期，我意識到作為一名教師，教學活動的選擇務必要基于學生興趣，做到因材施教。

打開教學之門的另一把密鑰是處事沉著。有時我也會犯錯誤，時而過于嚴厲，時而放任自流。作為老師，我在學生面前會有些失衡。從某一天開始，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己傾向于盡量抑制隨時可能迸發(fā)的吵鬧與粗暴，但我卻錯在將這種抑制轉化為沮喪并表達出來，這也是讓我深感懊悔的。責罵學生往往會使結果適得其反，甚至會在課堂上煽動引發(fā)更多不良行為的火苗。有一次，我和一位老師討論教學問題，她提醒我就算有時上課會倍感壓力，也要牢記教師切不可對學生發(fā)脾氣。找兩個“托兒”，請他們在課堂上隨時附和，以建設性方式給予他們正能量（如表演小品或閱讀對話），讓他們帶頭做課堂游戲，這些都不失為好辦法。根據學生個性，找到合適的表達方式，一個活躍和諧的課堂便會躍然眼前；理解學生的思與行，尊重學生的創(chuàng)造力，而非限制其體內燃燒的年輕活力，教學成果便會頗有成效。

同學生建立好融洽關系，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)他們早已熟知要如何進行自我調節(jié)。在意課堂的學生們，會站出來勸誡干擾制造者安靜下來。作為一名教師，要知道學生性格各異，班級和而不同。教師是一種富有創(chuàng)造力、交流性和回應度的職業(yè)，請打好有準備之仗，更好地融入這個角色。

（Konrad Kelly在中國浙江省泰順縣第二實驗小學任教，安生教育AYC項目2017—2018年度教育大使。）

Taishun is a little remote of a place. Tucked away in the mountains three hours southwest from the city of Wenzhou.There are many tunnels and winding roads that traverse higher in elevation from the coastal city of Cangnan inland towards Taishun’s main country-town, Luoyang.

There, the pace of life is much slower than that of China’s emerging megacities. Many of the people who work in the countryside work in agriculture or, in recent years,ecotourism. I came to the county through a cultural exchange and teaching program called, “Ambassador Year in China.”The idea of the program is to bring foreign English teachers to China’s countryside, where foreigners are few and far between. Being out in this part of the country, allowed me to see a landscape blurred somewhere in the past and present.Farmers used smartphones and posh cars are parked beside traditional farm-style-houses. It seemed as if aspects of development were sprouting up and entangling itself like dandelions do when unwinding out of roadside cracks.The old and traditional complimentary standing beside the appliances and aspirations of an ever well-to-do and moneyfocused emerging middle-class. Taishun is a place that despite its remoteness and countryside feel is steadily growing and reproducing similar structures to the development seen across the country. Tall apartment buildings with roman pillars, European facades, flat screen TVs, big refrigerators,and bubble tea shops blasting pop music out onto the street.

In my ten months in Taishun, I only came across two other foreigners while hiking. Most people there are locals or restaurant owners from Fujian province. Whether walking into a wet market nearby my school or a family owned restaurant, almost everyone I spoke with was in Chinese.And although aspects of this new environment such as the language barrier, cultural differences and remoteness of the place presented unique challenges, all of these seemed trivial in comparison to the task of teaching third-graders. For thefirst two weeks of teaching I had another English teacher and Taishun local whose presence helped keep the kids at bay.Though by the third week when she felt I was good enough to handle the third-grade classes by myself, I quickly began to notice a string of behavioral problems unfold. There was chatter and throwing of paper, toys, and miscellaneous objects.A boy would stand up laughing or yelling and capture the whole class' attention away from me. Rowdiness would then spread like wildfire. On top of that, back then it was harder for me to tell the kids to stop as both my Chinese language and teaching skills were low. Reorienting these youngsters back to the front class was harder than I had imagined.

Thatfirst semester was a struggle. I felt like I was testing the waters and often didn’t know if my lessons had hit the mark or landed way off. My classes were not as varied or structured as I would in hindsight have wanted and my third graders seemed bored and inattentive. I knew teaching was going to be hard, but not how much it can take away from you both in time and emotionally. My classes seemed to inch along at a snail’s pace while time was expended away from the lesson towards classroom management problems. It was during the month of Chinese New Years after that challenging first semester that got me re fl ecting on my teaching. While I rested,I felt a strong determination to find new approaches and do better for what came ahead.

In that following semester I did improve. I was able to walk out of more classes feeling genuinely accomplished and I could sense that the students were engaged. My second schedule semester was also quite different, the school had asked if I wanted to teach every fourth,fifth, and sixth-grade class an English conversational class per week. Before that, I had been teaching three third-grade classes consecutively throughout the week. With the new schedule, however, I saw more classes but each with less frequency. This experience gave me more time to prepare lessons in advance and experiment their effectiveness. Having a bigger sample size, you can enact the same lesson many times and see how receptive students are to it. Unlike thefirst semester where I was teaching from a textbook and the students had daily assignments in their workbooks, all the materials and lessons had to be built from scratch. This took more time but resulted in better lessons.Later that spring I had an opportunity to give an open lesson at an elementary school of forty kids! I spent over a month preparing that lesson and switched the lesson theme three times, and even though afterwards I kept on thinking of ways to tinker it the observing teachers congratulated and reminded me that I had done a good job. It was ultimately by seeing the progress made from improving lesson plans that I began to feel more confident in teaching.

Classes are not homogeneous; each has unique personalities and presents different opportunities. For example, I had a fifth-grade class whose ability to work synchronously in groups, stay engaged, and support one another was outstanding. This class really enjoyed group work and presenting skits. Another class, on the other hand, did not like presentations or group work as much. Later on I learned from another teacher that this class was scoring the lowest in English and seemed to lack confidence in it. For most of that semester I tried using the same style of lesson plans to no avail and felt both frustrated and confused about how to improve the situation. Then in the last weeks as finals and summer break were approaching, I made more individualized and pair assignments and had them to spend most of the time working on grammar, vocabulary,and translation. I soon noticed the students were more receptive to these kinds of activities as it was closer to their level. The students who were more analytical and quieter also enjoyed this. To my joy I saw students collaborate on solving problems. I realized in that second semester that it is important, as a teacher, tofind activities that attune to the interests of particular class.

Another key aspect to teaching is composure. At times, I would made the mistake of on some days being too strict and at other times letting things go. Thus my personality as teacher appeared to my students as unbalanced. On one day I could feel inclined to try to continuously stamp out rowdy behavior wherever it would pop up. But my mistake and what I regret was in expressing frustration. Scolding students is counterproductive and often fans the flames of more behavioral issues in class. One time when I was talking about teaching with a teacher, she told me that even though teaching grade school can be stressful at times,we must keep in mind as teachers not to get mad at your students. Take two “talkers” and give them the opportunity to chime in on something related to the lesson. Direct their energy in a constructive way, such as in acting a skit or reading a dialogue. Let them head a classroom game. Offer ways for your student's personalities tofind expression and you will have a much more engaged classroom. I found that in being compassionate towards and creative with students,we were able to accomplish more rather than if I had attempted to restrict their inherent and youthful energy.

Build rapport with your class and you will often find that they already know how to self-regulate themselves.Students who care about your class will tell the one’s making distractions to quiet down. As a teacher, one sifts through a river bed of personalities and each class is different. It is a creative, communicative, and responsive endeavor. Be prepared to continuously work and learn your way into this role .