The Visit of Li-shan High School March 30, 2007

 

     Li-shan was a new name for me originally.  But, when I got there, there is a beautiful view greeting my eyes.  Later, I felt I was going to a labyrinth.  The complicated building structure as Alice said did open my eye and make me confused.  Back to the main topic, the first teacher we met is Miss Liu who is a senior teacher.  Before the lesson, Miss Liu recalled students’ memory first; then, start lesson 4 “Echo and Narcissus” with a CD to read the textbook.  According to what students have read, she asked them questions about the content.  For instance, Miss Liu asked them, “What did you see?”, “Why did he decide to do that?”, and so on in wh-questions.  I also found she repeated the questions constantly to students and asked one who didn’t concentrate on study.  After reading the text, she used the same way in listening activity.  Finally, vocabulary was the last learning focus.  Miss Liu wrote some vocabulary on blackboard and let students practice making sentences.  In the process of students’ production, Miss Liu gave appropriate hints to guide students when they had difficulties and praised them when they made progress.  With the bell ringing, the lesson was almost done.  I learned how Miss Liu taught effectively and how well she took control of her students.

     After taking a break, we were guided to the second classroom which is in third grade.  Miss Yuan (Cindy) is also a senior teacher, and she chose “Handling Stress” as a topic for the class.  First of all, she delivered handouts “Dialogue Poem” to students.  Students can brainstorm individually or discuss in pairs to complete the worksheets.  Cindy offered some examples to students and directed them.  The second activity was to search consultants for therapies.  Students shared their problems and gave positive advices with each other.  The third activity was to make a poem.  It’s turn to students’ demonstration.  Cindy printed good works from students in advance and invited other classmates to read them out in class.  She encouraged students to try to make a poem by following or imitating the good ones.  Again, the bell rang.  I appreciated that Cindy speaks English fluently and always with smiles.  Both of the two teachers gave me role models that how to have interactions with students and bring positive learning atmosphere to those teenagers.

     This visit not only gave me opportunities to see the real teaching situations and different teaching styles, but also let me acquire teaching is not the only job for teachers.  And, the more meaningful thing I learned is that you have to prepare well on professional abilities, mental construction, and career plan before you really want to teach.

GTM vs. Communicative Approach March 25, 2007

     Responses to “0321 Grammar Teaching”

◆ How can we make a compromise between the two extremes of a structured based curriculum and a purely communicative classroom when teaching grammar?

      Both of a structured based curriculum and a purely communicative classroom have their own advantages and shortcomings.  It is also difficult to make a good balance between grammar translation method and communicative approach on teaching grammar, but that will be great if the teacher can use both of them appropriately on teaching grammar.  For beginners of learning language, GTM might be used more than CA.  For advanced learners, it is possible to use CA completely in classroom.  However, it is necessary sometimes for students to use GTM to explain complicated structures or concepts.  Consequently, it doesn’t have clear rules to restrict teachers must adopt which method to teach grammar.  It depends on what conditions you meet and what requirement students need.

◆ In what way we can help transfer the rules/patterns learned from the classroom context to the outside world?

     Teachers can design and offer tasks with practical purpose or real situation to students to show what they learned from the classroom context and how they apply it into our daily life.  For example, give opportunities to let students make a role play or a drama by themselves and teachers just be facilitators aside.  Or, provide students work sheets with useful resources to interview foreigners, so that it can represent students’ learning condition responding to what the teacher taught is applicalbe or not.

Free Hugs March 23, 2007

~ When you need love, give a hug. ~

Novel Idea!

Touching Video!

Inspiring Story!

Feedback to Group 2 : Grammar Presentation March 21, 2007

 

     Today, I learned the grammar inductively and happily.  Through the cooperation of we group C, I found that grammar can not just be taught completely by teachers, but students learn it by themselves.  According to the clues and materials the teacher had given us, we discovered the rule of language and applied it to sentences.  Especially, we will acquire more different ideas and much fun in learning by activities or by groups.  In the presentation of group 2, I saw much interaction between teachers and students, including comfortable atmosphere because of many laughters during the process of learning.  Besides, the voice and volume of Shirley, Christine, and Cynthia are clear and loud enough without a microphone to students.  They made grammar teaching interesting and I can feel it exactly.  In addition, they changed the traditional way which is teacher-centered to teach grammar and encouraged students to observe and compare with the similarities and differences of sentence structure.  After all, the responsibility of learning should be the responsibility of students, and teachers just guide them to the promising future for them.

Three Teacher Characteristics March 18, 2007

     From Learning Teaching by J. Scrivener

     When I think back on my own experiences of being taught, it is the teaching techniques that I remember least.  I certainly remember teachers who made subject matter come alive, through their great knowledge and enthusiasm.  But the teacher I recall with most pleasure and respect was the one who listened to me, who encouraged me, who respected my own views and decisions.  Curiously this teacher who helped my most was the one who actually did least ‘teaching’ of the subject matter and was, seemingly, technique-free, being basically ‘himself’ in class.  My memories of his lessons are of what I did, rather than what he did, of my learning rather than his teaching.

     Teachers and trainers often comment on the importance of ‘rapport’ between teachers and students.  The problem with rapport is that, whereas it clearly is important, it is also notoriously difficult to define or quantify.  It often seems to be the magical ingredient that makes a teacher a teacher-or not.  I think rapport is to do with the personal atmosphere a teacher creates in the classroom; the difference, say, between a room where people are defensive and anxious or a room where people feel able to be honest and take risks…

     Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, suggested that there are three core teacher characteristics that help to create an effective learning environment.  These are respect ( a positive and non-judgmental regard for another person), empathy ( being able to see things from the other person’s perspective, as if looking through their eyes) and authenticity ( being oneself without hiding behind job titles, roles or masks).

     When a teacher has these three qualities, the relationships within the classroom are likely to be stronger and deeper and communication between people much more open and honest.  The educational climate becomes positive, forward-looking and supportive.  The learners are able to work with less fear of taking risks or facing challenges.  In doing this they increase their own self-esteem and self-understanding, gradually taking more and more of the responsibility for their own learning themselves rather than assuming that it is someone else’s job.

     Carl Rogers considered that, out of these three teacher characteristics, authenticity was the most important.  To be yourself.  Not to play the role of a teacher but to take the risk of being vulnerable and human and honest.  Gaie Houston has written that “The foundation of rapport is to learn yourself enough that you know what style you have and when you are being truthful to yourself.”

     Rapport is not a skill or a technique that you can mimic.  It is not something you do to other people.  It is you and your moment-by-moment relationship with other human beings.  Similarly, ‘respect’ or ‘empathy’ or ‘authenticity’ are not clothes to put on as you walk into the classroom, not temporary characteristics that you take on for the duration of your lesson.  You cannot role play ‘respect’ – or any of the other qualities.  On the contrary, they are rooted at the level of your genuine intentions.

     In order to improve the quality of our own relationship in the classroom we do not need to learn new techniques; we need to look closely at what we really want for our students, how we really feel about them.  It is our attitude and intentions rather than our methodology that we may need to work on.

◆ Please note the response!

Feedback to Group 1 ： Vocabulary Presentation March 15, 2007

 ◆ Which part do you like?

      I like the video most because it shows the real situation vividly and lively.  Secondly, the games such as spelling the comparative and heart attack are interesting reviews of learning activities.  Besides, group 1 gave us a good example to make teaching presentation like using different teaching materials and activities (PPT, video, blackboard, flashcards, and games).

◆ Which part do you think we have to modify?

     As a whole, group 1 prepared the presentation very well.  It’s hard to prepare those details within one week, so even making mistakes is permitted and taken for granted.  As we discussed in classroom after the presentation of group 1, the flashcards should be prepared completely and arranged organizely for the convenience of display, and part of answers of blanks ought to be set in adavance, too.  But, those small mistakes are not enough to compare with the whole presentation.  In a word, the presentation of group1 was over my anticipation and made me impressed.

Craft or Science March 10, 2007

     Responses to “0307 Our first meeting”

◆ Is teaching a craft or a science?

      In general, people may regard teaching as a science because not every person can engage in teaching jobs.  Teachers must have their own specialized field, so that they can contribute knowledge to the people who cannot provide.  In addition, teaching skills are basic surely.  So, that’s the reason I assume that teaching is a science in terms of other people.

      However, for some teachers, teaching becomes a craft owing to being bored in teaching.  Repetition turns into routine, and they just repeat the same content again and again.  Take one of my high school teachers for example, he teaches biology in 11 classes; naturally, the same teaching content, the same words, and the same jokes occurred in the same 11 classes.  Finally, he cannot stand it anymore, so he told us that he wants to record the tape in advance to broadcast the subject to students in classroom.  Of course, he was kidding.

      For me, teaching seems a craft or may be a science.  But, it must be a kind of art.  During the period of taking the program of Secondary Teacher Education, I realized gradually that a qualified teacher is like an artist.  (I don’t intend to use the adjectives ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ to describe a teacher, because it is subjective and depends on what characteristics you appreciate.)  Undoubtedly, he or she needs to have endless creativity and make progress constantly in teaching, just like a popular artist always strives for perfection to give audience the marvelous performance.

◆ What areas of “scientific knowledge” do you think teachers of a foreign language ought to be familiar with?

      Being teachers of a foreign language should be familiar with three kinds of scientific knowledge:

      First of all, the teachers have to master the foreign language they teach.  If not so, how can they convince other people that they are professional?  And, if they don’t know the foreign language better than others, do they suit with the title of a teacher?

      Second, the teachers must know all kinds of teaching methods.  Furthermore, plenty of teaching experience will help teachers deal with any problems in teaching.  Otherwise, a teacher who is knowledgeable but won’t teach is a scholar at best.

      Third, the teachers equipped with linguistics background are superior to who are not. Because they know language development of a man, it assists them what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach in the process of learning language.

      In conclusion, the teachers of a foreign language should be familiar with the language, teaching skills, and linguistics.

My Teaching Philosophy and Beliefs March 7, 2007

     To a beginner, learning foreign languages natuarlly like learning mother tongue will help students learn the target language well.  After all, learning is to learn how to learn.  I hope students can learn foreign language spontaneously and actively.  Moreover, I will offer them a relaxing environment to learn language, because I don’t want my students to be frustrated at the beginning of learning language.  Learning language should be pleasant and wonderful to communicate with more different people.  Therefore, students learn language happily and meaningfully is what I really desire.

Welcome to Clare’s Blog! March 7, 2007

     Welcome to visit my blog, and hope you will enjoy it.

                  Also, I’m glad to have your replies.