Project Type
Professional Development Project
Award Project Round
7
Deadline Date

Chen Jinyun, a 2013 Chinese alum from Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Campus, in Nanjing, China, received a CLP grant to organize TESL professional development for ESL teachers at her home school. The project included school community conferences, regional conferences and national conferences, faculty visits to other schools for English class observations, presentations at regional teaching events, teaching competitions, school-based training sessions, and international video conferences with Dracut High School (Ms. Chen’s host school). The project allowed Ms. Chen to share fresh ideas from her experience of teaching in the U.S. and inspire teachers to reflect on existing teaching methods and change them to be more interactive and engaging. Workshops directly helped teachers in devising curricula, designing lesson plans, giving differentiated instruction, making SMART objectives and assessments, and learning more student-centered teaching methods and class management strategies. Moreover, launching international video conferences with her host school in the U.S. was a new communicative experience for teachers, which provided them with more opportunities to ask questions and learn from others. Research seminars provided more teachers with opportunities to learn different assessment methods.