At Aihua, teachers enjoy learning from their students as much as they enjoy teaching them, and every so often we get the chance to be creative and do an artsy project in class to show off our skills along with our students.
Although not the only books and course taught at Aihua, the Backpack course (a seven-level program for early learners) is quite popular among and enjoyed by both students and teachers.
Aihua’s Backpack students have the opportunity to learn through catchy songs and chants, sticker assignments, games and total physical response (TPR) activities. Probably my favourite part of teaching Backpack is the hands-on project activity that students get to do during the last lesson of a unit.
These projects integrate the vocabulary, grammar and skills that the students were taught during the rest of the unit. At Aihua a Backpack unit is taught over 6 or 7 lessons – that’s typically 3 or 4 weeks.
As much as the students enjoy being creative and showing off their skills learned throughout the unit leading up to the project class, during the project class Aihua teachers also have the opportunity to join in the fun by working with their students to make colorful posters, lanterns, dice, flashcards or whatever the Backpack book has in store for that unit.
There’s nothing so rewarding as seeing your class have fun implementing and using the language and skills you taught them in a fun, English class environment – and it’s even better if you can join in and have a beautiful artwork to show off at the end of the day!
– Janus de Villiers