I arrived in Beijing in 2009 with a teaching qualification, a suitcase, and a level of optimism that the city would test in ways I had not anticipated. What followed was eight months of searching for a teaching job in one of the world's most competi...

Reflections from a Grade 2 Classroom in Beijing, 2011   When I arrived at Zhongguan Sun Weiguo Yi Xuexiao in Beijing in 2011 as a foreign Black teacher, I stepped into a classroom of bright-eyed Grade 2 learners who had never spoken to a native...

The first day they brought me kindergarten learners was, without question, the most hilarious, humbling, and quietly unforgettable day of my entire time in Beijing. I had been warned that teaching young children in China would be different. My coor...

In the diverse landscape of language education, understanding the different kinds of learners is crucial for effective teaching. Each student possesses unique preferences and strengths that influence how they absorb and process information. By ident...

Seven years, forty million hand gestures, and one very confused foreign teacher Nobody warned me that the most important skill I would need for seven years of teaching in Beijing had nothing to do with lesson plans, phonics charts, or classroom mana...