Embracing New Technology and Modern Classrooms at English 1

In the seven years that I've been with English 1, the number of centres and English schools in China has grown at an astounding rate. One of the main factors behind this growth is the ability to recognise and enthusiastically implement changes. This is due in no small part to equally quick changes in technology, as well as the need to introduce new courses to match students' study requirements. English 1 recognises that change is not just desirable, but vital for continual growth. It's safe to say that we have really been embracing new technology and modern classrooms in recent years.

When I first arrived at English 1 at the end of 2009, everything — from my school's appearance to the courses and ways of doing things — was very different. The classrooms had small whiteboards and standard computer monitors built into the walls. When it was time to watch a movie or a PowerPoint presentation, students would race their chairs to the front of the room so they wouldn’t have to crane their necks from the back row to see the screen. Progress reports were completed entirely by hand, and we relied solely on physical flashcards for High Flyer lessons, which took up a considerable amount of office space.

At the time I joined, we were in the process of transitioning from the Playway series to Small Stars, and we were still teaching the old, old Trailblazer series — the one before Ros, Nyomi, and the aliens (if you don’t know who they are, you will soon).

Of course, there have been many changes over the years. Whiteboards were replaced by IWBs (interactive whiteboards) connected to computers, which have now been superseded by touch-screen TVs with wireless keyboards in some centres. Progress reports are completed online, and the flashcards for the High Flyer series are now entirely digital. Small Stars 2.0 is an improvement on the previous Small Stars series, and we are now preparing to transition to Trailblazers 3.0. Our centre has been extensively renovated twice, making the old classrooms with their bright orange walls and grey carpets a distant memory.

That's a lot of change in such a short time, and if it has proven one thing, it's that change can be unsettling and inconvenient for a while, but it always works out for the better. A case in point was the recent renovation of my centre, carried out between July and October this year. The centre had to close, and we were constantly running between two locations to teach our classes. We have close to thirty teachers in GZ1, and space was so tight in one of the other centres that some classes were held in the kitchen due to a lack of available classrooms.

However, it was worth it in the end. The new centre is much brighter, the office is ten times more comfortable and spacious, and morale has improved significantly.

The old saying that "the only constant is change" is very true. It can be a little difficult at first to get used to teaching new courses and mastering new technology. However, I know that as the students enjoy using the iPads in the classroom, experience the almost cinematic quality of watching High Flyer videos in class, and lounge on the mini sofas while reading books from the new library, they probably couldn't imagine it any other way.