Hey Fish - While reading an article in the TESL Journal today I was harkened back to our recent exchanges here in the forum. I've pasted an excerpt for your perusal:

"At this company the Old Chinese saying was born out: "there are no teachers, only students". This is the basic belief of Taoism, the oldest Chinese philosophy, which I had seen in operation many times while I did consulting in Beijing for five years. Tao teaches us to pay attention, keep our eyes and ears open, to be patient, tolerant, and always expect change. It means we may have to "give up control", of our pet methodology and to get off some of the latest methodology bandwagons. We need to adjust to the student, to let him take charge of his own learning."
(by Izabella Horvath)

So true isn't it? I've seen a lot of teachers during my three years in China that arrive with their heads full of pedagogy and methodology only to discover that it is their instinctual feel for the classroom and their innate creativity that really makes them successful and well appreciated teachers. (If indeed they are successful and/or appreciated.)In fact,I've been in that situation myself.

This is not to say that we need to somehow purge ourselves of what we have learned through our studies of ESL/EFL; only that whatever it is that drives us to be teachers, and makes us feel as though we are in our element when we walk into the classroom, is far more important than the foundational elements we have received in our training. My own personal mantra, "adapt and relax," is one I often repeat to myself while walking to my classes. It really helps, especially on those days when I feel as though I haven't a creative bone in my body and that I couldn't write a decent lesson plan if my life depended on it.

Well anyway, hope all is going well for you fish and that you continue to enjoy your students.