The Battle Starts When the Bell Rings.

Recently, a teacher education institute in Hong Kong initiated a school attachment scheme. Lecturers were required to teach in a local primary school for a short period in order to obtain recent, relevant and successful classroom experience. This scheme is taken as part of professional development for the staff in the institute. This paper describes a lecturer's attachment experience in primary classrooms. The lecturer went back to school and approached the attachment as a learner. As a language educator in a tertiary institute, she was used to the paradigm of theory informing practice. This attachment, however, provided her with an opportunity to see the importance of practice informing theory. Through the teaching and participant observation, she was able to look at what was going on in the classroom from the perspective of a primary teacher. She was also able to identify some practical issues that she paid little attention to in her previous teaching. The attachment proved to be a valuable chance for her to reflect on the beliefs and perceptions she held about language teaching and learning in the context of real learners and real classrooms. It is the lecturer's belief that teacher education is a life-long experience of learning and professional development. In order to go forward, sometimes, educators need to go back to the school classroom, where educators can always find their insights, inspirations and incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]