Aihua English School offers a two week training course before your first term and there are a lot of great things about this course. First of all, the course is 3-6 hours a day four days a week for two weeks. It goes over every topic you might have questions on about Aihua and their teaching style. Some topics include lesson planning, working with Chinese teachers, introductions to the course books and much much more.
The teaching style here at Aihua is centered on learning through having fun. This is the same teaching style you will receive in training. It’s not a lecture for three hours where you sit and take notes. You are having pair discussions, group discussions and group activities. You will also participate in the same style games you will use in your own classroom. Honestly, as a person who has never taught before I felt completely confident to enter the classroom after this training.
I also found that it was useful to teachers who had taught before. They said they picked up a lot of great games and learned about the books used at Aihua. But that’s just the format for the training. The true benefits of the training are getting to know your co-workers and acclimating into your new environment. I built a very close relationship with the teachers I did training with and it’s a great basis for our friendship for the rest of the year.
Every day we would come to training and talk about our daily triumphs and misfortunes in China and we were always giving out advice to each other on great places to eat or crazy shopping experiences.
A lot of English schools in China don’t offer a training course and they throw you into a classroom with no resources or support. Aihua not only provides a solid foundation for your teaching rapport, it also creates a friendly environment and you quickly accept your new coworkers as your family.