There around 50 English teachers in the 4 primary schools in Quannan, Jiangxi and all but a few of them signed up for the free teacher training sessions from me and my colleague, Norman. We split the group into two and I gave them workshops on getting the children speaking and communicating in class. There was an excitement about the group, and they hung on my every word, writing down the content of my presentation and throwing themselves into the activities with gusto. 
These teachers are used to classes of around 70 children and for them, it’s difficult to think of activities other than reciting from the text book or copying the teacher. I don’t blame them, I found it hard to think of activities too. But after 5 sessions of training I felt they had benefited from working together and sharing ideas and at least had a renewed enthusiasm for their subject.
The culmination of the training was four lessons taught by the teachers from each school using some of the new ideas they had learnt. I told them not to go to a lot of trouble planning the lesson but without exception they went to a whole load of trouble making masks, drawing pictures and planning the activities. What great fun they had dressing up as animals, putting on a fashion show and personifying countries.
I don’t really know if any of the ideas I gave them will work in classes of 70 but at least they became a closer team in each school and had fun. and I had fun too – treated like a VIP for a week.
