![\"Jacinda](\"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/Jacinda-Passmore-1-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Jacinda Passmore is an SAU graduate teaching in China.<\/p><\/div>\n
Her journey began by responding to College of Education travel fliers she had seen on the SAU campus prior to graduating in the spring of 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were advertising a trip to China, and I thought, \u2018this could be my graduation gift to myself.\u2019 The tour was through Education First, and I had wanted to go on a tour with this company since I was in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n
While on the trip, Passmore learned of the company\u2019s teaching opportunities in China, Indonesia and Russia \u2013 opportunities that matched her plans of using her bachelor\u2019s in Agriculture Education to teach agriculture in the classroom.<\/p>\n
She then applied to the Education First teaching program. \u201cI applied to work for the company in China. Only five days after applying, I landed a job there as an ESL teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n
She arrived in China on Thanksgiving Day and was given her choice of three cities in which to work: Beijing, Shanghai or Fuzhou.<\/p>\n
\u201cI chose Fuzhou because I had seen pictures with trees and a river, so it reminded me of home.\u201d Fuzhou is in the Fujian province of southern China. \u201cThe city is considered small, which blows my mind since its population is 7 million!\u201d<\/p>\n
She participated in the SINA competition, for teachers of English, math, music, science, and swimming. The contest took three months to complete and featured three rounds, with the final round taking her to Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Director of Studies at my (school) had mentioned this prestigious competition in February, and since I love education, I told myself I would try out,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know these contests existed so I was excited to compete in something that focused on my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contest began, with five Education First teachers from Fuzhou entering. \u201cWe have to make a short video that showed off our teaching styles and philosophy,\u201d Passmore said. \u201cI wholeheartedly believed there was no chance I would make it to the next round.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first round included 19 days of voting and took three weeks to complete. \u201cI had 527 social votes, the lowest number of votes of all the thousands of competitors who entered,\u201d she said. \u201cI still thank everyone for their support. My odds weren\u2019t looking so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, her score on her video was sufficient to pull her up in the ranks, and she advanced. \u201cIn round two, there was no voting, only judges who viewed a second video we created,\u201d she said. \u201cOnly two people from Fuzhou made it to this round \u2013 a local teacher from my school, and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third round in Beijing was three days long, with about 127 competitors. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe I had actually made it,\u201d Passmore said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t worried about winning, I was proud of this accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
She and her co-teacher from Fuzhou had four minutes to teach a mini-lesson \u201con any topic we wanted. I tend to be hard on myself so I believed I didn\u2019t get to fully show who I am as a teacher, but according to my friends, I did extremely well in the Q&A portion.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to an individual teaching section there was also a team-teaching session. Passmore and her co-teacher had eight minutes in which to teach a mini-lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I was in Beijing, I met so many amazing teachers, literally the best teachers in China, and learned so much from them,\u201d she said. \u201cI learned new classroom management techniques and new games to utilize in the classroom to spice up my normal routine. Everyone there was so supportive and very eager to watch each other\u2019s lessons to help them prepare and gave constructive feedback to make sure everyone was able to perform their absolute best.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winners of the competition were announced the night before the award ceremony \u201cand I was too scared to look at the results,\u201d Passmore said. \u201cMy co-teacher told me I had won and I could not believe it. How could I, a random American who had been here less than a year, win a teaching contest in China? My odds seemed slim.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was the first SINA winner from the Fuzhou region. \u201cIt was a fun yet stressful experience,\u201d she said. \u201cI never thought I would be teaching in China, I always saw myself teaching agriculture in a high school in Arkansas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passmore said that of all the Education First foreign teachers in Fuzhou, \u201cI am the only one certified and the only one who actually studied education in a university setting. I often train and mentor new teachers. Though I am certified to work with high school-age students, I typically work with elementary-age kids here in Fuzhou.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her education at SAU has played a vital role in her life as an educator in China. She understands child development, uses different approaches and methodologies to educate multiple students, and is able to communicate with parents on academic steps for their children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great knowing that my time and service with SAU is helping train and prepare new teachers and educating students in another country,\u201d Passmore said. \u201cThough I am more than 7,900 miles away, I am still a very passionate Mulerider!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A\u00a0lifelong passion for travel and a heartfelt desire to teach inspired Southern Arkansas University alumna Jacinda Passmore to reach out to students in China, where she has been teaching since Thanksgiving of 2018. Her hard work and dedication \u2013 as well as skills she gained as an Agriculture Education major at SAU \u2013 helped her… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":7668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[271,181,7753],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-education","9":"category-homepage","10":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}