The Canadian Visiter (11/19)

Last Friday, a visiter from Canada came to our school to observe Alice's teaching, and I was fortunate to be the "short-term" receptionist for about 15 minutes. Before I guided her to class 勤, we had a walk at campus. I introduced Yi-sun Building, Maple Walk, Sunshine Walk and our playground. The visiter, Jana, especially liked the shades. In addition, I introduced briefly the high school system in Taiwan. Then we went to Zhongshan building. To my surprise, students in class 勤 didn't act shy in front of the guest, perhaps because they had a really good time playing Monopoly. And I was happy to find that students asked me questions about the rules in English! Though it's nothing big or important, but I was really happy about it. :)

Relay Race (11/18)

Relay Race

The relay race was postponed from Tue to Thu due to the bad weather. Though the students didn't speak out, I could tell how much they want to win from their W.J. Alice got other things trapped and couldn't come to the race on that day. To be honest, I was a little bit panic because I had no idea what to say if they had lost the race. It was a competitive race, at first, our class was the first, however, in the middle of the race, we were exceeded by other two classes and became the third place. And in the last round, we became the second place. All of students almost burst into tears, and I was so touched! I felt like giving them a big hug~ however, I'm always the kind of person who don't know how to express my feelings face to face. Therefore, all I could do was taking pictures for them and with them. Some of the girls even got too excited to have lunch. I felt really proud of them and posting this paragraph in memory of the relay race~:P

Aerobic Competition (11/9)

Aerobic Competition After the basketball held in the beginning of this semester, aerobic competition was the second one which can make the whole class together. Personally, I like aerobic very much since I practiced it very often in the P.E. class during college. Therefore, when hearing that there would be an aerobic competition, I was excited about it. However, from students' journal and the reflections from the "teaching assistants", I realized that some students didn't take the competition serious at first. But in the very end, they all tried their best and that's the most important in my opinion. It recalled me the times we trained our cheering leaders in college, we were very strict and demanding because we wanted to show our best to everyone, to make our school and schoolmates feel proud of us. But I didn't require the students to that degree because I think the main goal for this competition was different from the "Mei-Chu Game" between NTHU and my school. Therefore, I didn't feel sad when knowing the result on that day. (because it was the same as I had predicted :P) But just felt a little depressed when seeing the disappointed expression in their face.

Some reflections for myself after the first teaching

After the two-week teaching, I'm taking a short break and have a chance to re-examine my own teaching. Following are some points I have to keep in mind and remind myself not making the same mistakes next time. 1.Time management-it is really important especially in the intensive schedule in high school. I should not take students' break time and it's my responsibility to be able to finish what I plan to teach in the class. Therefore, I'll try my best to control the time better. 2."Student-centered" method is more effective and beneficial than "teacher-centered" approach. But I have to admit student-centered approach takes more effort and time to prepare. So I'd better start prepare for the lessons earlier in the future. 3.Clear and direct instructions- no matter it's a big project or even a small homework, clear and direct instructions are needed. Students' potential can be evoked if they know exactly what their tasks are. 4.Attention catching in class- do have eye contact with EACH student in class and try to "bring them back to class" by various ways, such as asking questions. 5.Never forget the "visual aids"- during my teaching, I tended to forget how important visual aids can be at times. 6.Don't forget I'm talking to "students"-both Yu-ming and Hui-chuan had the same suggestion- I spoke too fast and the words I used in class were too difficult for my students. Therefore, I'd better think what I want to say in class in advance in case students' have a hard time understanding my talking. Because I have to keep in mind, the audience are high school students, not my classmates who listen to my presentation in college! 7.Prepare all the handouts and quiz sheet in advance- if I can prepare everything, including the handouts and quiz sheet in advance, then the same mistakes of handing a totally wrong answer of vocabulary quiz and making Alice embarrassed won't happen again. I felt really guilty about that. :( Here are the 7 points I concluded so far from the reflections I made for myself. I'd like you to give me advice if I miss anything. I'll be more than willing to know and try to correct these mistakes in my teaching next time!

The 7th class in Unit8 - presentation day (11/10)

The last class in Unit8 was the presentation day. Each group had 3 minutes to promote their product or service on stage. In all of the three classes, students were busy discussing about their presentation when I walked into the classroom. Therefore, though I don't like to do it, I found myself speaking in a loud voice AGAIN! When they were all back to the seat, I passed the reflection form and explained what they had to do. After that, I gave them 5 minutes for final preparation. Almost each group presented more than 3 minutes, but I didn't interrupt them because I did enjoy their presentation and thought it would have been discouraging if I had stopped their presentation. To my surprise, their performance was terrific! They did much more than I expected. In the very end, I almost burst into teacher when Alice asked students to show their gratitude to me. At that moment, I felt so touched because I was the one who should say thanks! Thanks for Alice's trust and instruction, for students cooperation though my teaching was full of mistakes! :P

The 6th class in Unit8-Slogans! (11/9)

In order to reduce students' pressure and give them more time for preparation, in the 6th class, I prepared an extension activity and spare time for them to write the exercise in 百寶書 in class. The extension activity I had designed included the introduction to marketing, the strategies marketing specialist use to attract the attention of target customers, including slogan, package design, celebrity endorsement and exposure to the media. However, due to the limit of time, I extracted the slogan part because I found students had most difficulties with slogans from their group discussion the day before. Therefore, I introduced the definition, purpose and main spirit of slogan. Some impressive slogans were mentioned to attract students' attention in class. After the 20-minute activity, I left 30 minutes for them to finish Unit8 in 百寶書. The common problem they had was the usage of conditional clause, even if. Since conditional clause is the most significant part in unit7, Alice was so generous that she agreed to teach that for me. After this class, I was surprisingly found myself not nervous and panic when standing on stage. I think it's a positive sign, at least, keep my mind calm and clear is necessary for me to convey what's in my mind to the students. Besides, always come up with some tips to make students concentrated in class is important. When I asked them to write down the new words in their notebook, their attitude changed suddenly. I could tell they take the extension activity serious after hearing my requirement. Since there were only two things I needed to do in class today, therefore, the time management was much better. :)

The 5th class - group discussion in Multi-media Classroom (11/8)

The 5th class was the time I reserved for students to have group discussion because I intended to reduce their workload since they just finished a big project in Unit6. I borrowed the Multi-media Classroom because it's a better place for 42 students to discuss in groups. However, I realized some "little chaotic" situations from my teaching there. First, it took a long time for students to arrive there, and attention catching in that classroom was totally a challenge to me. I found I had to "yell" even when using the microphone to get students' attention. I felt embarrassed and honestly, I don't like to yell in class. :( Second, just like Alice's suggestion, students got distracted more easily in Multi-media Classroom, therefore, the visual aids were more indispensable. If I had projected the answers of grammar exercise on the screen or asked students to share their answers in the front, the situation might be better. Third, I should have required students to discuss IN ENGLISH in the beginning. Fourth, I should have reconfirmed if students understood what they had to do with the handouts or forms. If several students repeat the same questions, then announcing publicly again may be the best solution. But I found it's difficult to examine if students discuss diligently or not. What should I do if I realize students in certain group didn't do their job? Should I correct them immediately, or wait for their performance on presentation day? Because in my opinion, some students who are typically viewed as "naughty, absent-minded" may have inspiring creativity! So what's the better method for me to deal with the order maintaining in discussion class? Mmm...I have to think more about it...

The 4th class in Unit8-grammar teaching (11/4, 11/5)

Feeling depressed for two days, I forced myself to recover as soon as possible because I still had many classes left. Therefore, I reconsidered if the lesson plan I made for the 4th class suitable or not. Since passive voice was not new to our students, and the pattern "...so that..." was not too difficult either, I decided to teach the grammar with powerpoint. I introduced the usage of the pattern and showed example sentences. In addition, I included some "blank-filling translation" for students to practice right after teaching the grammar.
In the beginning of the 4th class, I played the CD of reading text in order to recall students' memory of the content. Then I used powerpoint to repeat the 8 marketing strategies used in supermarket and asked students if they could think of other strategies frequently used. Then I moved to grammar. At first, I could tell that students thought it's another lecture class. Though it WAS a lecture, I tried my best to have interaction with them. For example, I'd asked students to read the sample sentences, to translate sentences from Chinese to English and vice versa. Also, I instructed them to do the blank-filling practice together.
Since it was the last class before weekend, I passed out the instruction of the project-Design An Ad-and informed them the job required this time. Students of each group knew the product they had to promote, so their homework for the weekend was grammar exercise and create so ideas for product promotion.
To my surprise, students in the 3 classes responded actively during the class. From this class, I found that even though the grammar itself may be boring and tough, the example sentences I used could make a big difference. For example, the popular movies, daily news or topics did attract students' attention. When some students were distracted in class, asking questions or simply instructing her to read aloud might be a good way. After the 4th class, I found that I was not as depressed as the first several classes. It made me think of what Alice told me, "As long as we prepare hard and well, things won't go too wrong." Though I was not satisfied with my teaching in the first week, I hoped things didn't go too wrong. :)

The 3rd class in Unit8-teaching the reading text (11/3)

First of all, I have to confess and I felt so sorry for class 廉 on the 3rd class since they were the first lesson I taught on that day. First, I asked the whole class to read the reading text together and after reading, some students were chosen to write the important idioms and phrases they found in each paragraph. Then, I explained the idioms and phrases. The whole procedure seemed to have nothing wrong, however, I would never blame the students for feeling bored and asleep in that class because even myself felt like finishing it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. After the chaotic class, Alice asked me, "How do you think of your teaching this class? " Totally depressed and panic, I answered, "I totally lost control of the class. I felt like running down from the stage immediately" But escaping is never a good way, I have to teach class捷 in 5 minutes, generous Alice AGAIN saved my life. Therefore, in 5 minutes, I informed students that they have to look for the 8 marketing strategies used in supermarket before they read the text. After reading, each group was required to write down the strategies they found on the blackboard. Students seemed to enjoy the "mini activity" and the atmosphere was much better than the previous class. After I led some discussion about the marketing strategies in the textbook, we moved to the important idioms and phrases in each paragraph. I also gave them homework to get the main idea of each paragraph. In the later half of the class, I felt that the class was under my control, so I didn't feel afraid and nervous gradually. And to my surprise, Alice didn't go to the third class on that day. Here, I got to say the words I've said many times AGAIN, "Thanks for trusting me!" It was another challenge for me to teach a whole class by myself. Frankly speaking, I felt "extremely depressed" in the 2nd and 3rd class. I kept reminding myself: 1. Control the time well, 2. Try to use "student-centered" method as much as possible, 3. Don't feel panic and look at Alice all the time in class. 4. Not to be too nervous, otherwise I 'd make the class a chaos :(

The 2nd class-vocabulary teaching (11/2)

According to my lesson plan,I taught vocabulary of this unit in the 2nd class. In the beginning of class, I asked students to answer the three questions in their homework. First, compare the difference between hypermarket, supermarket, convenient store and grocery store. Second, do you agree that supermarket should be blamed? Third, think of other slogans for supermarket besides "Pile it high; sell it low." In the first class勤, I just threw the three questions to students, however, they seemed to have a hard time answering right to the point. Therefore, Alice suggested me to instruct students to compare hypermarket, supermarket, grocery store and convenient store in three aspects: price, space and the variety of products available. Students in class 廉 and 捷 could get the answer I want immediately according to the hint. I realized that we teachers should give students DIRECT and CLEAR instructions, and if possible, some hints because after all, the students are freshman in high school. The more teacher guides them, the easier they reach the target we set for them. Then, I introduced the positive and negative discussion about supermarkets. I heard the murmuring from certain students, they couldn't understand why this kind of topic would evoke so many discussions in European countries. After class, I found perhaps I'm too greedy because according to my personal experience, the ability of "critical thinking" is really important and helpful for everyone. However, it has been neglected for a long time. Even myself was trained after going to college, being an Enlish major student. Therefore, I intended to introduce the notion in my teaching. I could tell students had a hard time dealing with these open questions because over half students didn't do their homework in each class. To be honest, I felt a little discouraged at that moment, but I don't think I'll give up the training in my experimental teaching in the future. But perhaps I'll slow down the pace and guide them step by step next time. As to vocabulary teaching, I found when I kept lecturing on stage without asking them to write on the blackboard, students seemed to get bored and distracted. Therefore, in the other two classes, I picked students to write on stage and leave more time for asking questions, giving students the chance to share what they've found. The situation turned to be better. I have to keep Alice's advice in mind: I don't have to explain EVERY DETAIL for our students! I should have more confidence in their preview. Besides, I found time management is really important. I didn't manage the time well because I spent more than 1/3 of the whole class dealing with the open questions, and didn't have enough time to teach vocabulary thoroughly. The side dish takes over the place of main dish, which was a serious mistakes happened in my teaching on the 2nd day. Though feeling depressed on the 2nd day, I knew I had more important things to do-to prepare better for the following classes and try to improve myself from the poor teaching method.

The first class-warm-up activities (11/1)

11/1 was the first "official teaching" for me. I decided not to go directly to the textbook in the beginning. Instead, I designed a small warm-up activity. I asked students how often they go to the supermarket and who do they usually go with, but I found they were not good questions because I could tell from their facial expression, saying "Why are you asking this questions? Don't you think they are boring?" Therefore, I turned to asked them what products they usually buy in the supermarket and passed the handout, typical merchandise of supermarket. I felt sorry for class 捷 because if I had read the items and asked them to repeat before they started to look up the meaning, it would have been easier for them. Thanks for Alice's reminding, the tip really worked and made the process of teaching handout1 more smoothly.
I was glad that they doubted the definition of so-called "typical merchandise" because that's the result I want. I moved on and passed the 2nd handout, What is supermarket, and divided students into groups to read the article. The matching of main ideas of each paragraph helped them understand the article easily and I was intended to introduce and emphasize on "main idea" in this unit because from my observation of their "novel-reading project", some students had difficulties catching the general picture of their novel. I also gave them three questions as homework. The first question was to compare hypermarket, supermarket, convenience store and grocery store. The second was to express personal opinion, "Should supermarkets be blamed?" This question was designed to train their critical thinking ability, to inform them that for certain questions or topic, there is no "correct answer"! You can express your personal opinion as long as it makes sense. The third question was to think of another slogan for supermarket besides "Pile ot high, sell it low." It was also designed on purpose because they would be required to do another project related to slogans in the extension activity.
After the first class, I was extremely nervous because I found that the situations were not the same as I expected. But the first teaching in class廉 and 勤 was better because I followed Alice's suggestion. I found some fatal problems with my teaching on the 1st day.
1. Clear instructions: Sometimes, I forgot to give students clear instructions before they start, or I announced the instruction in an inappropriate timing, such as the middle of their discussion. If I can remember to announce in advance, then students could know clearly what they had to do becuase only few students would listen to the teacher if they were concentrating on their discussion.
2. Bad time management. I was surprised to realize I finish class at "sharp 9" in the first class simply because I was really nervous and had nothing to say. As to the other two class on that day, I felt not that panic and was able to control the class, but one serious problem was.... I FORGOT THE TIME!!! It's students' right to have break and in my opinion, it's the teacher's obligation to finish class in time, though I didn't make it.
I was a little bit frustrated to find that I couldn't control the situation in class on the first day but I always hope that things will be better as long as I try my best. Besides, I also went to Yu-ming's class, and I was impressed with her organized explaination and teaching vocabulary with powerpoint because personally, I prefer using powerpoint for extention activities. But it is always exciting to know different methods of teaching!

Thank you dear Alice!! (11/10)

Dear Alice, I'd like to show my most and SINCERE gratitude to you! First of all, you were so considerate to reply my last post the day right before I started my first teaching of unit. Though I didn't read that in time, I still felt highly encouraged when reading your reply. I know it's a little bit strange for me to post my feedback of the last day first, but I have to do it now because I was extremely touched today. To my surprise, you asked students to give a big hand to me in the very end of the class, honestly, I felt like crying and you seemed to know exactly what's in my mind. I was a little bit confused becuase a student came to me and asked why do I have so many activities for them; she has been under great pressure since going to high school. I tried to convince her but after leaving the classroom, I asked myself, "Should I rearrange the schedule of this lesson plan?" "Should I delete some activities?" But after watching their presentation today, I was surprised with their creativity and found that they did more than I expected. I agree what you told them in the very end, it's the right decision to give them the chance to express themselves on stage. We never know we have the potential until we take action and do it. Thank you for supporting me in every aspect! I'll keep posting my feedbacks of the past two weeks in the following days. But I have to thank you for giving me the chance to teach on stage, tolerant my mistakes in teaching and trust me totally! I have to admit that in the first two days, I felt nervous when seeing you in the back of classroom, but later on, whenever I saw you sitting in the back and observing my teaching, I felt encouraged, inspired and touched. :)