NBA经历助我从容教学

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NBA

Jesse Barkin

Before coming to Gateway Language Village, and before getting my master’s degree in teaching English, I was a newspaper sportswriter covering NBA basketball in the United States. I got paid to watch Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant lead their teams to NBA titles. I watched from front-row seats how coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson molded teams into champions. It was a great job.

It was from those front-row seats and from countless hours watching practices that I learned that the best players and coaches are the ones who understand how to get the best out of their teammates or players. The best leaders were the ones who understood what motivated people, and that every player has his own style, and his own needs. They knew that it was more important to treat everyone fairly than it was to treat them identically.

I learned a lot from watching the best basketball players in the world, and I took those lessons into my next career as an English language teacher. Jack Richards, who wrote the textbooks we use at GLV, said that teaching well is to do more than stick to  “a set of rigid principles and procedures that the teacher must conform to. Rather it is a dynamic, creative, and exploratory process that begins anew each time the teacher encounters a group of learners” Every student is special, and every student comes to the classroom with his own style, and his own needs.

English language teachers play a variety of roles. We are teachers and coaches, facilitators and friends, advisors and authority figures. Most of all, we must have the awareness and flexibility to adjust our styles to the situation; we must discover both what our students want and also what they need. After all, we must understand that our students will only see us for a tiny fraction of their English-learning lives, and therefore, we teachers need to develop a game plan to best prepare our students for success in the real world.

I believe in doing what is best for my students, and I believe in putting my students’ needs first. Putting students first is what teachers should do.

NBA经历助我从容教学

Jesse Barkin

在来平和英语学校和取得对外英语教学硕士学位之前，我曾是一名报道美国NBA赛事的体育记者，也曾有幸在现场观看了乔丹和科比带领他们的球队取得NBA冠军的那场总决赛。那时候可以坐在前排感受菲尔.杰克逊和帕特.莱利教练指导球队的氛围，真的是一段非常特别的工作经历。

无论是在前排观看他们的正式比赛，还是更多时候在场边看球队的常规练习，我都体会到一点，那就是最好的球员和教练都是那些懂得如何使球队发挥到最佳状态的人。他们懂得如何调动每位球员的积极性，了解每位球员的个性，并知道他们真正需要的是什么。他们明白，根据球员特色分别对待每一个人比同一化地对待他们更重要。这与平和英语的教学理念不谋而合，平和教材编著者杰克.理查兹先生曾说：“一套适用于不同学生的，强有力、富有创造性和探索性的教学理念比一套让老师必须遵循的规章制度重要的多。”是啊，每一位学生都是特别的，他们都有着自己不同的个性和需求。

在现场观看全球顶级的赛事让我获益良多，而后我便把这些感悟融入到了我接下来的职业英语老师中。老师在其教学过程中也扮演着各种不同的角色，我们既是学生的老师、教练、服务者，也是他们的朋友、人生引路人和学术指导者。这便要求我们在教学过程中要根据学生的具体情况进行角色转换。这需要我们去发现学生真正想学的什么，真正需要的又是什么。而终究，学生在平和的学习经历只是他们整个英语学习过程中短暂的一段。作为老师，我们还必须考虑的是如何保证学生的在校学习环境与真实的语言环境接轨，以便能让他们在离开平和后成功融入社会，这就要求我们在备课中为其做好更加充分的准备。

我深信我所做的事都是最有益于学生的，也深信把学生需求放在首位是老师应尽的责任。