Aihua

Upon arrival at Aihua, all foreign teachers will be given orientation before being asked to teach. The teacher is asked to be observant and proactive in preparing himself to be a teacher at Aihua. New teachers are welcome to observe the classes of experienced teachers, or any open classes and demo classes, or to view videos of sample classes. They are also asked to discover ways in which they may utilize their own personal advantages in class, to assimilate experiences, and to take advice and suggestion from students, parents, other teachers and management in assuring that their teaching is as good as it can be.

Make note of problems that occur in class (such as naughty or inattentive students, and sudden illness or accidents), and learn how to solve them properly.

Any teaching methods that are divergent from the standard methods employed by Aihua will only be approved after discussion with the Academic Director.

Prepare lesson with your Chinese co-teacher at least 1 day before the class. To be well-organized and successful in teaching, you should communicate with your co-teacher about class progress, and methods of teaching.

Carry out teaching research assigned. Employ creativity to make your classes active and interesting.

Teaching experience, methods and problems should be discussed openly at the weekly Teachers’ Meeting.

Participate in regular Teacher Training to make sure teaching skills, teaching approaches and research are well-founded, well-planned, and creative.

Take part in lesson plan evaluation. Every foreign teacher must prepare his lessons by writing lesson plans, and hand these over to DOS if requested.

Every foreign teacher is required to discuss teaching progress if requested to do so.

File all your teaching materials and teaching plans in an orderly fashion.

Take good care of all school property, and always keep the office clean and tidy.

Complete all temporary assignments, such as activities, promotions, English corners, etc.

Dress Code
For the most part, all staff members are expected to dress in a smart, casual style. Occasionally, such as for some adult classes or school events, a dress code may be imposed. A jacket will be made for arriving teachers within 2 weeks of their arrival. The teacher must cover the ____ cost of this. This jacket should be worn with a white shirt during occasions requiring formal dress. The teacher will also be asked to purchase an Aihua t-shirt at a cost of ___.

While in the Aihua building, traveling to and from off-sites, and teaching, teachers are expected to wear the Aihua name tag, which is provided in the welcome pack. If this is lost, another must be purchased at a cost of ___.

Lesson Plans
Coming soon

Foreign Teachers’ Meetings
Teachers’ Meetings are held once per week during our two full terms. For the convenience of the teachers these are scheduled for just before Teacher Training. Attendance is mandatory for full time and part time teachers without prior agreement from the Academic Director.

The meetings are lead by the DOS, and they should address any issues arising. Teachers should feel free to bring up any concerns that they may have during these meetings.

Placement Testing
Prior to the commencement of each of our 4 school terms, Aihua provides placement testing for new students. The DOS assigns foreign teachers to administer these. Teachers receive training in the administration of placement tests within the first week of their teaching.

Although most placement testing is done prior to the commencement of a term, students may need placement tests at any time during the terms.

For Placement Tests, a Chinese member of staff will bring the student to the teacher in an empty classroom. The Chinese staff member should give the teacher the Student’s Application Form. This form will indicate the level suggested by the Course Consultant. The Chinese staff member should remain in the room while the placement test is administered. For young learners, the parent should also be present in the room. After completion of the test, the foreign teacher should give a suggested level on the Student’s Application Form, and the Chinese staff member should take the parents and return this form to the Course Consultant.

We use one testing system for young learners, and another for adults. These are as follows:

Young Learners

Adults/High School

We occasionally use the ___ written test for larger groups of high school and adult students.

Issues that may arise with placement testing.

Exams and Progress Reports
During our two full terms we administer mid term and final exams for all of our on-site classes. Whether or not exams are required for offsite classes is dependent upon the administration of the particular public school in question, and this information should be conveyed to you in the Class Details Form which you should receive from the relevant Off Site School Coordinator upon commencement of the class.

During our summer and winter intensive terms, only final exams are administered.

Foreign teachers must prepare their own exams, in consultation with the Chinese co-teacher. They may consult past exam papers in the library. Once they have produced test papers, teachers must submit a hard copy to the library, and send an electronic copy to the DOS and the Academic Director.

(form of test: oral test, etc)

The Chinese co teacher and the foreign teacher should divide the responsibility for marking these exams. The Chinese co teacher will prepare a Progress Report Form for each student. Each form must include the student’s exam mark, stated as A, B, or C, and comments and signatures from both the Chinese and the foreign teacher. The Chinese teacher is responsible for delivering the completed Progress Report forms to the parents.

Open Classes
Open classes are classes in which parents of students may sit in on the class and see how we teach their children. During our two main terms, open classes will be scheduled for toward the middle of the term, usually after the mid-term exams and the parents’ receipt of progress reports. Whether or not we have open classes in our off-site classes is dependent upon the administration of each public school, but more often than not there are no open classes. In all of these cases, the foreign teacher should be given the dates of open classes in the Class Details Form received shortly after taking on a class.

Occasionally, if parents express concern about a new teacher, Aihua will arrange for an open class. In such cases the DOS and the Teacher Trainer will explain to the teacher in question the concerns raised about the class, and help the teacher to prepare the open class.

All open classes should be carefully prepared for. A teacher training session will address the issues of preparing for open classes before their mid term occurrences. After the open class, the teacher should remain in the classroom with the Chinese co teacher for ten minutes to address the concerns of the parents.

Promotions and Demo Classes
Promotions and Demo Classes are organized by the Marketing Department. For these, they will request the assistance of the Teaching Department by delivering a completed Promotion and Demo Classes Form to the Chinese DOS. This application must be given with as much notice as possible, and the Chinese DOS should inform the foreign DOS of any requirements pertaining to foreign teachers immediately. The foreign DOS is responsible for assigning foreign teachers to these promotions and demo classes.

Organization of material and agendas for promotions and demo classes is the joint responsibility of the Teacher Trainer, the foreign DOS and the foreign teachers involved. Plans from past promotions and demo classes may be found in the Aihua Folder. Aihua/archives/promotions and demos.

Foreign Holidays
The following holidays are recognized at Aihua through decorations around the school and presentations in class. We welcome any suggestions regarding additional holidays that me be included:

Holiday activities. Decoration. List of recognized holidays which need to be recognized in class and in decorating school. Storage of materials in electronic form on Aihua/supplementary/______. Decorations etc stored by Maintenance, and a request should be made to have these materials available in advance.

Annual English Competition
Aihua runs an annual English competition for Shijingshan District, called Rising Stars. The competition typically starts in November, and the award ceremony is just before Christmas. This year (2008) is our seventh such competition, and over 2000 contestants will participate. The majority of the contestants are young learners, but high school and college students also compete. The students are divided into the following groups: _________.

The first round of the competition is held at our school, over two weekends in November. In the first round, the contestants first sit a reading and listening test, and then are taken for individual oral tests with our foreign teachers. We start with the youngest group of students, and work our way though to finish with the college students. After testing each group of students, the foreign teacher and the Chinese co-teacher may need to stand for a photo with the group.

Foreign teachers are asked to help us to write the questions used in the competition. To facilitate this, foreign teachers may consult past competition question, although we ask them not to use all the same questions as any previous year. Previous questions may be found in: Aihua/aihua archives/Rising Stars/questions. Foreign teachers are also asked to act as examiners in the oral test. The DOS is responsible for assigning teachers to provide questions and act as judges.

The final round of the competition occurs at our site over the course of one weekend in early December. On Saturday morning, we will bring in the two youngest groups, and work through 4 sessions to finish with the 2 eldest groups on Sunday afternoon. It is very important to follow a strict time limit for each contestant, and abide by this. The parents and the contestants will be present for this round of the competition, and students will come up singly to compete. The students will do a self introduction, answer questions directed at them by one of the judges, make a story from words or pictures, and give a performance. Our foreign teachers will act as judges for this, and the DOS is responsible for assigning teachers to judge at this competition.

The Rising Stars Award Ceremony is held just before Christmas, at one of the large venues in the district. At this, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place contestants receive awards, and performances are given by groups from the various participating schools. All of our teachers are asked to attend the awards ceremony, and the dinner that is held afterwards.

Teachers are asked to dress formally for each stage of the competition.

Graduation
Graduation ceremonies are held for all of our on site programs on the last day of each of our terms, including the summer and winter intensives. The Marketing Department and the Chinese Head of the Teaching Department will work out the timetable for these, but in general Saturday morning classes will graduate together on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon classes together on Saturday afternoon, etc. The parents of the students will attend these ceremonies. Teachers are asked to dress formally.

Foreign Teachers should help their students to prepare a performance for the graduation ceremony. This may be a song, a poem, a play, etc. Preparation should begin shortly after the mid term exams.

At the ceremony, foreign teachers give short speeches to the students and parents. These need to be prepared in advance and shown to the relevant Chinese co-teachers, as they need to translate these for the parents. The foreign teacher and the co-teacher together should choose one of the students to give a speech at the ceremony, and help this student to prepare the speech. It is very important that each portion of the award ceremonies, in particular the performances, abides by a strict time limit.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, students will be given a class photo, a Progress Report (including mark from final exam), and an Aihua Certificate. Teachers will be asked to stand with their students for a photograph.

Graduation Ceremonies typically follow the following procedures: (include last years.)

The Aihua Websites
Aihua has two websites, one in English, geared toward recruiting teachers, and one in Chinese, geared toward recruiting students. These websites share the intent of chronicling the life of our school, and building our school culture.

The address of the English site is www.english-aihua.com, and the address of the Chinese site is www.aihua-english.com.

Teachers may occasionally be asked to write an article for the foreign website, dealing with teaching or with life in China. Any other contributions that teachers may wish to make to our websites, in the forms of photos, films, etc, will be gratefully appreciated and respectfully acknowledged.

Although we have not done so yet, we may at some point ask foreign teachers to have some presence on the BBS attached to our Chinese website.

Aihua respects creativity and technology, and believes that together they can offer great advantages to both the teacher and the students. Again, any contributions that we receive from creative and technically savvy foreign teachers will be treated with the utmost of respect.