Brenton老师，上海诺科学校英语组明星教师，美国北卡罗莱纳州立大学工商管理学士;雄厚的专业背景——拥有七年英语教学经验，曾先后任上海交通大学、华东师范大学英语讲师。

Brenton老师个性谦和、乐于助人，课堂风格活泼高效，课后辅导尽心尽力，深受学生喜爱;在教学中积极倡导培养学生的创造性思维和批判性思维，以及英语语言应用能力。

上海诺科学校Brenton老师

Q：您在平时如何协调**和家庭的关系，还有您的业余爱好是什么?

A:Balancing life and work is one of the toughest things for a teacher. I try to balance my life and work by committing certain times to work and certain times to the pleasures of life. It also helps that my wife is very understanding and hardworking as well. She knows that teaching takes a lot of commitment. Besides teaching, there are many other things I enjoy.

Some hobbies I commit a lot of time to include: listening to podcasts and doing anything related to American football. I love listening to dozens of podcasts, in particular NPR podcasts tend to be my favorite. My other major hobby is a multitude of things related to American football. I watch it, play it, follow its news, and everything else. My favorite team is my hometown team, the Carolina Panthers, and I can’t get enough of them.

参考译文：对于教师来说，平衡**和生活是最困难的事情之一。我努力实现两者间的平衡，会在特定时间投入**，也会在其他时间享受生活的乐趣。我妻子本身**努力、也很善解人意，这对我很有帮助。她明白教学需要投入许多时间和精力。除了教书，我还有很多其他爱好。

我投入了大量时间在这些爱好上，比如：听播客、参与美式足球相关的活动。我喜欢听许多播客，对NPR尤为喜爱。我的另一个爱好主要是围绕美式足球展开的，比如：观看比赛、自己打比赛、关注相关新闻，以及其他所有与美式足球相关的活动。我的家乡球队卡罗来纳黑豹队是我的最爱，我对他们真的百看不厌。

Q：您对学生有什么建议?

A:For students, I believe the most important thing is to take risks. As a student, it’s perfectly okay to take chances and be wrong. If students make a mistake in the classroom, the teacher is there to guide them to the right answer. The student will learn how to solve a problem through trial and error. A part of succeeding is failing, and that may be failing many times. As long as you learn from your failures, you’re always moving forward. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb in one attempt, he tried a multitude of times, but he didn’t think quit because of his failures. Edison is quoted as saying, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." If one of the smartest men in history failed so many times, why do we often expect ourselves, our children, and our students to never fail? Failure isn’t the end of the world.

参考译文：对学生而言，我认为最重要的是冒险精神。学生的各种尝试和错误是完全可以被接受的。假如学生在课堂上犯错，老师会引导他们找到正确答案。学生也会通过反复的试验和犯错**如何解决问题。成功的一部分就是失败，甚至是失败许多次。只要你从失败中吸取教训，便会始终向前跃进。托马斯·爱迪生并非通过一次尝试就发明了灯泡，他试验了很多次，且从未因失败而放弃。爱迪生说过:“我未曾失败1000次，而灯泡是一项需要1000个步骤才能研制成功的发明。”假如历史上最聪明的人都失败了那么多次，那我们为什么总是期望自己、孩子和学生永远不会失败?失败并非世界末日。

Q：您觉得怎样才算一名好老师?

A:A good teacher understands that students need to learn about more than just the subject they’re studying. A good teacher teaches students how to be decent human beings – to care for others and understand how their individual actions have impacts on those around them. A good teacher doesn’t simply teach the answer to problems, but instead guides students as they search for answers to questions in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Most importantly, a good teacher isn’t afraid to say they don’t know an answer. That good teacher will then go find an answer or encourage the student to find the answer and share their findings.

参考译文：一名优秀的教师懂得学生需要学习的不仅是课堂知识，他们会教导学生如何成为一个正派的人——关爱他人，了解自己的行为对周遭的影响;一名优秀的教师不会仅仅向学生传授问题的答案，他们会引导学生在课堂内外探寻问题的答案;最重要的是，一名优秀的教师不会惧怕承认自己不清楚某个问题的答案，而后他们会自己寻求答案，或是鼓励学生进行探索并分享他们的成果。

Q：您对自己最满意的一节课是哪一节?为什么?

A:If I had to choose one lesson that I was very satisfied with, it would have to be the final lesson of Pre1-A and Pre1-B. We had spent the entire year working on learning various kinds of English vocabulary, grammar, syntax, pronunciation, and intonation – and at the end of the semester we completed a project using as much of these skills as possible. Students worked in groups to build characters, a setting, and a storyline to perform in front of the class. Over the course of a month students excelled at this task. Not only did they far exceed my expectations for the final product, but they thoroughly enjoyed the entire process. They were able to incorporate skills learned in class with their own creativity.

参考译文：假如一定要让我选出一节自己非常满意的课，那一定是Pre1-A和Pre1-B班的最后一节课了。我们花了整整一年时间来学习各种英语词汇、语法、句法、语音和语调;学期末，同学们完成了一个学习项目，尽可能多地使用到了他们学习到的这些知识和技能。大家分组创作人物、场景和故事情节，在全班面前表演。在一个月的时间里，同学们出色地完成了这项任务。他们的作品不仅远远超出了我对于最终成品的期望，而且他们非常享受整个过程，也能将课堂上学习到的技能与自己的创造力结合起来。

Q：您是如何看待后进生的?

A:Some students may not be the best in our current form of an education system, but they can still be contributing members of society. You don’t have to be the smartest person to have integrity, or to help someone accomplish a task, or to work hard. Weak students may be slower than others but they can still progress. In my opinion, a weak student who works hard to progress is a thousand times better than a strong student who believes they know everything.

参考译文：在我们现有的教育体制中，有些学生可能不是比较好的，但他们仍然能为社会做出贡献。你不需要成为最聪明的人，就能做个正直的人，或是帮助他人完成任务，亦或努力**。薄弱生也许会比其他人进步慢一些，但他们仍会不断向前。在我看来，一个努力学习的薄弱生比一个自命不凡的优秀生要好上千倍。

Q：您对学习英语和托福考试准备，有什么好的建议和方法可以跟学生分享?

A:For Chinese students in English learning environments, they have to understand that the process of searching for an answer is far more important than the answer itself. While having the right answer is what’s going to get you the grade, knowing how to find the right answer is what’s going to make you successful in life. Many of today’s wealthiest people weren’t the best students, Jack Ma, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk just to name a few. These people didn’t become billionaires because they knew the answers to a test, they were successful because they knew how to find solutions to problems.

The TOEFL isn’t just a test, it’s a measure of a student’s ability to function in English. Ability to function in a language can’t be learned in a classroom. It can’t be studied, memorized, and regurgitated. It has to be practiced repeatedly, inside and outside of the classroom. For your average student, the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to do it in small increments over a long period of time. You speak your native tongue because you’ve used it and learned it over a long period of time, the same applies to a second language – you have to use it consistently and learn it over a long period of time.

参考译文：对于身处英语学习环境的中国学生来说，他们需要明白，寻求答案的过程远比答案本身更重要。知道正确答案可以加分，而懂得如何找出正确答案能让你终身受益。当今世界的许多富豪，如：马云、奥普拉·温弗瑞、杰夫·贝佐斯和埃隆·马斯克等，过去都不算是好学生。他们之所以能成为富豪，也并非由于他们会答试卷，而是因为他们知道如何寻求解决问题的方法。

对于普通学生而言，准备托福考试比较好的方法就是坚持循序渐进地练习、提高。我们能够熟练运用母语正是因为长时间的学习和使用。二外学习也是大同小异的——你必须坚持积累和练习。

Q：在教学过程中，最让您感动的是什么?

A:One thing that really pulled on my heartstrings as a teacher was when one of my students told me that he loved me. He is one of my favorite people on this planet and he’s very thoughtful. He enjoys bringing me small gifts and I love hearing his voice when he shouts “Hello Mr. Reid”. My life has been made 10,000 times better by simply knowing him.

参考译文：当老师以来特别打动我的一件事，大概就是我的学生告诉我他喜欢我。恰巧这名学生也是个思虑周全的孩子，同样深得我心。他喜欢给我带些小礼物，我也喜欢听到他大声问候“你好，Reid先生”的声音。仅仅因为认识这样一名学生，我的生活就已经美好了一万倍。

上海诺科学校报名、校园参观及了解招生动态，请： ，或通过下方报名通道登记。