Yummy~ 

Interesting game

Interesting game!

According to the tradition, school holds a big celebration every year on 12/8 since it's the anniversary day. However, my feelings this year was very different than before. I arrived school early in the morning in order to welcome all the important guests. But of course, I had to cheer for our students in their relay race. Personally, I don't care what the result will be, I think they're the best as long as they try their best. And they DID! When the result was announced, some students couldn't help but cry. To be honest, when seeing them cry, I felt like crying as well, not for the results but for their sadness. But I held myself because I'm no longer a little girl but their teacher now. I tried to comfort them but I didn't know if my words worked or not. Then, I joined the interesting game held for teachers. It was pretty funny and I found the picture very meaningful, especially for me. Both Maggie and Alice are my teachers and mentors. I feel like being a student whenever getting along with you two! (Just see how I look in that picture~~haha)

Joy's second class (12/7)

Due to my request, I went to Joy's class again. Since students already had background knowledge, the teacher first played two songs from the Phantom of the Opera and moved right to the reading of unit 10. Again, PPT was used during the class. According to my observation, besides the frequency of using PPT, the most different part was that Joy taught the vocabulary, grammar along with the reading text, but I prefer to teach them separately. After going to her class twice, I found that her teaching style is very different from mine. However, I don't think I'll follow her way. One of the main reasons is that I don't have the skill to do that fancy powerpoint. And the other is that though I've never learned the TESOL theory formally, in my opinion, computer should play an "assisted role" in CAI but not the main part of teaching. So to me, I'd spare most of my time creating some extension activities or small games to give students more opportunities to explore themselves. But I think it's great to have the chance to listen to other teachers' class as well as Alice's class. I'm also thinking to record myself when I teach again in Jan because that's the most direct and efficient way for me to know where my flaws are. I believe that as a teacher, I can teach my students something more at the same time when I teach them English. I've always been thinking what I can give my students and I know it will take a long time for me to get a definite and clear answer! But that's the experience I must have before knowing what kind of teacher I want to be, right? :)

Words from a teacher in Chiayi...(12/1)

About two weeks ago, I went back to Hsinchu for the regular monthly meeting. This time, the school invited some former students who are teachers now to share their experience with us. During lunch time, the English teacher from Chiayi kept reminding us the importance of computer-assisted teaching. More specifically, she told us that there are some useful tools attached with the textbook. She recommended us to make good use of the powerpoint of San-Min version. I was so excited and said that I know the teacher who came up with so many creative extension activities. She was surprised and asked, "You mean Alice Chiu? You know Alice Chiu?" I replied, "Yes, because she's my advisor." She asked me to bring her words back to Taipei and tell you that, "Thanks for providing us such useful tools. We've benefited a lot from them." Though the compliments were not on me, I felt EXTREMELY proud and excited!! Hahaha~~~:)

Joy's class - introduction of a new unit (12/6)

I got a chance to go to Joy's class on Monday. In the beginning of the class, Joy said hello to students and reminded them that there was a guest. However, due to the disfunction of the projector, the class was delayed for about 5 minutes. Then, the teacher started to play the PPT of unit 10. The PPT introduced the musical, Phantom of the Opera, with pictures, mp3 files and even with some film clips. After students had a general picture of what the story was about, the teacher played a game. She asked 10 questions about the musical, and students were really excited because according to the rule, the one who stood up last had to answer the question. In the very end of that class, several open questions were given to students for group discussion, like "What would you do in the end if you were Christine? Would you kiss the Phantom?" "Why did the phantom release Christine and Raoul finally?" Students' answers were creative and out of my expectation.
After attending this class, the first question was how much time did it cost for Joy to make the powerpoint. And also, when we teachers want to give a brief introduction to students in the first class of a new unit, to what level should we introduce? As a personal habit, I used to give brief introduction in the beginning, and I like to lead students to a more detail and innovative extension activity in the end of the whole unit. It reminds me that there are still plenty of alternatives to introduce a new unit. Also, I'm looking forward to see how Joy teaches the vocabulary and reading text in the next class.