As educators, what kind of people should we cultivate and what aspects of students should we pay attention to so as to make students adapt to this rapidly changing society? 

Two PYP English language teachers with excellent cross-cultural education ability give answers regarding using English in daily life and caring students' behavior and psychology. Let's have a look about their stories.

After I completed my teaching training at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore, and got my TEFL certificate from London Teacher Training Collage (LTTC), I worked in Singapore as an English teacher for about ten years before I decided to move to China and to continue teaching here. I started teaching in China since 2018 and worked in international schools as well as language training institutions in several cities. I am now the PYP English subject group leader of ASJ, teaching English as an additional language to our students.

Throughout my experience in China, I have realized that a large scale of students in China are struggling with their English learning - as a subject. The properties of English as an additional language, a tool for communication seemed to be neglected by most people. I joined ASJ with an ambitious plan - I wish to bring back the nature of English language to our young students, to reintroduce English to them as a tool for communication, a media for teaching and learning, and a channel for inquiring and exploring the world.

I tend to focus even more on the acquisition of basic English language skills for our PYP students in the upcoming school year, compared to what we have already done in the past. Exposing our students to the IB teaching philosophy would be the key, as I wish to bring our students forward from the traditional classroom where the teachers deliver and the students receive passively. I hope to encourage our students to explore the possibilities in English learning through all sorts of activities.

Diverse teaching in English will be my other focus for the next school year. We have students from very different backgrounds, and the level of English exposure they had were not even remotely close to each other. On top of that, all students learn and acquire new knowledge and skills at different paces, in different ways. We have a properly developed diverse teaching framework for English by placing students with similar language abilities in the same learning group, allowing every student to receive contents with appropriate amount of challenges. The framework worked well for the past year, and I intend to extend the framework further into a system within the school so it can be utilized by more students in the future.

I enjoyed working at ASJ, as I can sense that I have a team of passionate and capable colleagues working together to build a suitable learning environment for the students, and preparing them to go beyond the limits of school perimeter in the future.

I'm a grade-one homeroom teacher and PYP English teacher at ASJ. I am a Licensed Master Social Worker（LMSW）in the United States and have experience in mental health training and adolescent counseling. I'm very passionate about my education career, and I enjoy educating children. 

The teacher occupation takes love, patience, confidence and care to lead the class better. Low-grade students are not yet mentally mature and have a strong ability to imitate others. Teachers occupy very important positions in their hearts. Teachers should cultivate their sense of responsibility and justice, help them distinguish right from wrong so that students may have yardsticks for doing things. So make joint efforts with parents from various angles, and home-school communication so that students can become a person who loves life and the world in love and encouragement.

The outside world is very unfamiliar for children in the early grades, and children need more guidance. According to the cognitive state of students in the lower grades, timely encouragement and feedback from teachers are needed to guide students in their studies, school life, making friends and maintaining motivation for learning activities. Teachers also need to help them reap learning and achievement benefits, thus increasing their motivation for learning. 

According to Erikson's eight stages of life development, primary school students (6-12 years old) face conflicts between diligence and inferiority, and I believe that children can gain confidence in their studies and in life if the sense of diligence they acquire is over the sense of inferiority. Conversely, if students do not develop this sense of diligence, they may develop a sense of inferiority that causes them to lose confidence in being useful members of society.

Confidence plays a vital role in their growth. Low-grade students are not yet mentally mature and have strong abilities to imitate others. Teachers occupy very important positions in their hearts. I will encourage students to participate in class activities and speak actively in class. Take the students out of the classroom and explore what they have found to learn new things. Continuous encouragement will give them positive psychological cues and make them in a relatively stable state of self-affirmation and self-motivation. Confidence plays a vital role in their growth. 

I will instruct and encourage students to actively participate in class management. In the second semester of Grade 1, our class does not have a monitor, so that every student can participate in class management. In this process, students experience, make friends and communicate with each other. 

There is a very tacit understanding among the students, and they are very united. When things of a classmate are missing, everyone will actively help to find these things; students will bravely point out the incorrect behavior of other students; students will consciously queue up to distribute and receive meals, and everyone will remind one another to orderly and consciously participate in the flag-raising ceremony on Monday without the guidance of teachers. 

Cultivating good study and living habits requires a lot of patience and persistence. Behavior habits take time to develop slowly, in school through class classes and every morning meeting time, the use of all available space to remind and repeat. In the class meeting, students will be asked to review what progress has been made this week and what needs to be improved. For students with good performance, I will evaluate the stars of the day and the stars of the week, and reward and praise them regularly. 

The profession of teaching is very pure, and every day's work is to teach and educate people. Teachers are easily moved by students' innocence, vibrance and love. Students are the sunshine that can pierce the haze and can always keep people in a positive state. My experience at ASJ made me realize that accompanying students to grow up and watching them become the best of themselves will help me gain the recognition and support of students. I will also gain achievements and happiness from them.

作为教育者，我们应该培养什么样的人，关注学生的什么方面，使学生适应这瞬息万变的社会？两位有着优秀的跨文化育人能力的小学部英语学科老师，从在日常生活中应用英语、关注学生行为与心理给出了答案。来听听他们的自述。

在完成了在新加坡国立教育学院(NIE)的教学培训，并获得了伦敦师范学院(LTTC)的TEFL证书后，我在新加坡当了大约十年的英语教师，接着决定移居中国，继续在这里任教。我从2018年开始在中国教书，并在几个城市的国际学校和语言培训机构工作。我现在是ASJ的PYP英语课题组组长，将英语作为一门额外的语言教授给我们的学生。

通过我在中国的经历，我意识到中国有很大一部分学生把英语当成一门学科，努力学习英语。英语作为一种额外的语言，一种交流的工具，其性质似乎被大多数人忽视了。我带着一个豪情壮志加入ASJ，我希望把英语的本质传递给我们的学生，重新向他们介绍英语作为一种交流工具，一种教学和学习的媒介，以及一种询问和探索世界的渠道。

与过去相比，我倾向于在即将到来的学年中更多地关注PYP学生基本英语语言技能的获得。让我们的学生接触IB教学理念将是关键，因为我希望将我们的学生从传统的教师授课和学生被动接受的课堂中带出来。我希望鼓励我们的学生通过各种活动来探索英语学习的可能性。

▲学生参加了各类的活动

多样化的英语教学将是我下一学年的另一个重点。我们的学生来自非常不同的背景，他们英语的水平大相径庭。最重要的是，所有学生以不同的速度、不同的方式学习和获得新的知识和技能。我们有一个适当发展的多样化的分层教学，将具有相似语言能力的学生放在同一个学习小组中，允许每个学生接受适当数量的挑战内容。在过去的一年里，这个方式运行得很好，我打算将这个方式进一步扩展到学校内部的一个系统中，这样将来就可以被更多的学生使用。

我喜欢在ASJ工作，因为我有一支充满激情和能力的同事团队，大家共同努力为学生建立一个合适的学习环境，铸造学生更好的未来。

我是ASJ小学一年级班主任和小学部英语老师，是一名美国注册硕士社会工作者并在美国有青少年生理、心理健康培训工作经历。回国后从事教育，我非常热衷于英文教学与孩子们一起学习。

作为老师要用爱心、耐心、信心和细心才能够更好地带领班级。低年级学生的心智尚未成熟，模仿能力很强，老师在他们心中占有很重要的地位，老师要培养他们的责任感和正义感，分清是非对错，心中有正确的衡量标准。从多个角度出发与家长共同努力，家校合作，让学生在爱和鼓励中成为一个热爱生活，热爱这个世界的人。

▲Julia老师和一年级学生们

对于低年级的孩子来说，外部世界是非常陌生的，他们需要更多的引导。根据低段孩子的认知状态，需要老师及时的鼓励和反馈，引导孩子在学习、校园生活、交朋友，保持对学习活动的动力，帮助他们收获学习上的乐趣和成就，从而增加他们对学习本身的动机。

根据埃里克森人生八阶段发展，小学生（6-12岁）所面临的是勤奋对自卑的冲突。我认为如果儿童获得的勤奋感胜过自卑感，可以获得在学习上、生活上的信心。如果儿童没有形成这种勤奋感，他们就会形成一种引起他们对成为社会有用成员的能力丧失信心的自卑感。

良好的信心对于每一个同学的成长十分重要。在课堂中，我会鼓励同学积极参与班级活动、鼓励同学课堂积极发言。带同学们走出课室，探究地去学习新的东西。持续的鼓励会带给他们积极的心理暗示，使他们处于一种较为稳定的自我肯定、自我激励状态。

在班级管理问题上，我会指导并鼓励同学们积极参与，在一年级第二学期中我们班没有设立班长，目的是让每一个同学都能够参与班级管理，在这个过程中同学们自己去体验、去交友、去沟通。同学之间是非常有默契的，他们非常团结。

有同学的东西不见了，大家会积极地帮忙寻找；他们会非常勇敢地指出其他同学不正确的行为；他们会自觉主动排队分发和领取课间餐、周一升旗仪式即使在没有老师的指导下大家都能相互提醒，有序自觉地参加升旗仪式。

培养良好的学习和生活习惯需要很多的耐心和坚持。在学校通过班会课还有每天晨会的时间，见缝插针提醒和重复。在班会课上会让同学们复盘这一周有哪些进步、有哪些需要改进的地方。对于表现好的同学，我会评选每日之星、每周之星，并定期地奖励和表扬这些同学。

▲班级评选每日之星、每周之星

教师这个行业很纯粹，教书育人，与天真烂漫、朝气蓬勃、活泼可爱的孩子在一起，老师自然而然地就会被感染，被熏陶。孩子们就是阳光，能刺透心中雾霾，让人永远保持积极向上的状态。在ASJ的经历让我深刻地体会到陪伴学生成长，看着他们成为最好的自己，获得学生的认可和支持，老师也能从中收获到成就和快乐。