In this article, the author, a recently retired teacher, found himself in a very unfamiliar setting--teaching a four-week English immersion course in Badaling, China. His students, all teachers of English in their own elementary schools, enrolled in this class to improve their English skills, particularly their ability to speak and understand spoken English, and to learn new and innovative teaching methods. This article relates the author's struggles to find the appropriate curriculum and teaching methods for his adult Chinese students. He found that using children's literature, shorter story segments, repetitive choral readings, role-playing, and PowerPoint visuals substantially improved his instruction. His students also began to understand that student-to-student interaction and assisting one another accelerated individual learning. They accepted that daily active learning could enhance the education of their own students, who learned best by performing actions and talking about what they had learned. The program ended with small-group presentations in which each group taught a lesson demonstrating what they had learned. The presentations centered on a chosen children's story and required the students to use examples of active learning strategies.