5/16 School Visit 復興中小

The first impression of this visiting is: RICH. The second impression would be: students are at good language proficiency and most of them are highly motivated. The third impression is: some of the students are a little arrogant (I am sorry to say this but I really want to be honest).

The learning environment is surprisingly good in this school, and even the lighting in the classroom is different. The class I observed is seven graders. Everything in the classroom is clean, delicate, and well arranged. There are more than 50 students in this class, and I think this is the reason why it was little difficult for the teacher to quiet down the class at the beginning. Most of the lesson was lectured in English, and I was surprised that most of the students could understand well, and even more, they could answer questions in very fluent English.

The lesson they were learning that day was about city/country and landmark. The teacher prepared working sheets and powerpoint slides with pictures for students, which I think were good tools to facilitate students’ learning and understanding. While the activity was going on, I found that there were more than 15 students in this class have been traveled or lived abroad. Many of them seemed to have been to more than one country. When the teacher asked students to offer their answers of landmark of a particular city or country, some of them gave answers which could show those students were advanced learners, such as “Forbidden City”, “Opera House”, and “Sphynx”. In fact, I have to say I myself learned a lot from that day’s lesson.

All the students were very concentrated on learning, and most of them were enthusiastically raised their hands to provide different answers. Though they only stood up and said the names of the landmark instead of providing a complete sentence, I found their pronunciation was native-like.

However, it is impossible to have a class of students that are all high proficiency learners, and it is true in this class, too. I noticed that if the student who was singled out by name could not provide an answer to the question, she had to stand till she could think of one. Later, the teacher explained in the discussion after the class that she was trying to promote a cooperative atmosphere among students. She thought, in this way other students would help the standing girl to get an answer. This might really work, but this might make the student who was standing there feel stressed, too. And I believe that to be a slower leaner in this class has been very much stressed already.

Therefore, what happened next made me really angry. A girl who sitting in the first row could not make a complete sentence of “I have been to ~ (name of a country/city)”, so she stood there for a while. Then the teacher was trying to help her to come up with an answer, finally the student said: “I have been to Tainan”. I heard some students laughed, and at the moment I was just wondering that they were laughing because they thought it was interesting, funny, or they were taunting her because she never went abroad, there was a voice came out from the back of the classroom: “好爛喔”. I was shocked, and sad. Looked at the sight of the girl’s (who had difficult to answer the question) back, I started to imagine how stressful for her to be in this class, and then I found myself did not like this school as the moment I first entered it in this afternoon.

Stepped out of the gate of school, I finally realized what is significant to education. Comfortable and cozy learning environment, expensive high-tech equipments, various teaching and learning facilitations, and highly motivated and good language proficiency students, these are all essential elements toward successful learning, but what is success, eventually? Students who get good grades not necessarily know how to respect others, and this is enough to turn the so-called “success” meaningless. I think in this school rich in resources, how to teach students here being rich in their mind and spirit would be a more important lesson.

4/25 School Visit 中山女高

The class I observed was Stephanie's class, which is a math and science gifted class. It was a surprising experience which is far from my imagination, or say, my stereotypical impression. I used to believe that students who are good at math and science won’t be good at language learning, but what I used to believe is not true in Stephanie’s classroom.

At the moment I entered the classroom I could sense their friendly attitude and curiosity. We sat in the back of the classroom. The students turned to smile at us time after time, and this made us feel that we were welcomed.Stephanie asked us to introduce ourselves to the whole class before students give their presentation. It was a little funny, because we (student teachers) were shy and hesitated to go up stage to do the self introduction, instead, students are very breezy and curious about us that one of them even came to us and stretched out her hand to invite us! I was very impressive.

Next, Stephanie asked students to do their presentations. They were divided into several groups two weeks ago and started to do a lot of preparation work before they present it today. Each group had to choose a product and sell the product by auction online. Students took pictures of their product and designed powerpoint slides, and on the slides they listed the advantages of the product, the reasons why we should buy it, and the reasons why they make that price of their product. Finally, they had to go up to the stage and present it to the whole class in English.

As for their performances, first, I can see they really put a lot of efforts on this presentation. Each group had their own style of presenting their unique product. There is no need for them to emphasized how much time they spend on the preparation work, you just can tell from the design of their powerpoint slides, the funny and interesting elements they added in their performance, and the laughter and attention from other students as audience. They really did a great job!

Second, unlike my stereotypical impression of students in Taiwan, those kids were brave and willing to speak up English in front of their classmates, and especially for today, in front of a group of strangers (10 student teachers sitting in the back). Though there were some grammatical errors in their powerpoint slides and spoken language, those errors did not affect our understanding of their presentation. And Stephanie chose to ignore the errors so students could have their presentation not being interrupted. Averagely speaking, their pronunciation was pretty good, and I would say they speak English much better than our freshmen in Tamkang University. At least they were willing to take the risk, and this deserved to be encouraged!

Third, though there may be a lot of preparation work and a little stress for students, I thought they felt happy during the learning process. Every student was concentrated. I could tell from their facial expression that they expected to see other group’s product and performance, and meanwhile they also expected themselves to do a good presentation. They create a wonderful atmosphere for learning! While the presenting group were showing their product and persuading us to buy it, the rest of the students had to finish evaluation sheets to decide which product they want to buy the most. In this way, the best product and group was chosen.

After student’s presentation, Stephanie gave us a short demonstration how she started a new lesson. This new lesson was about Migration of Food. Stephanie raised several questions like: “What comes to your mind when we talk about French desert?”, or “How about American food?”. Students were willing to make a guess, and then Stephanie gradually led them to the topic they were going to learn in the following weeks. Actually, students were finding their way to what they are going to learn.

All in all, no matter it was students’ presentation or learning a new lesson under teacher’s guidance, this is a real student-centered classroom. I used to wonder how student-centered way of teaching can be practiced in a real classroom, and today, Stephanie proves it to me! I really learned a lot from this school visit!

4/11 School Visit 芳和國中

General Impression
Sitting in a school district, 芳和國中is surround by an elementary school, a high school, and lots of green and tall trees. Though the principal told us that the location of this school is actually at the frontier of Da-An district, I loved the environment here when I got off the bus and walked around. After the principal’s brief introduction of herself and this school, I understood that there are about 500 students in this school, so there are only 25 to 30 students per class, and this also make it possible for a teacher to take care of each student in a class. And then, I found myself like this school very much.

First, the principal’s philosophy of education was admirable and impressive. She understood that the school is old and small, but in other words, that means every child’s development could be well taken care of. She is not only aware of this, but takes actual action to put it into practice.

Second, she knew the history and environment of the school very well, as well as the general background of the students’ parents. She knew what are the disadvantages generated by an old school and parents from low social status, but she also realized what could be the advantages. Thought the parents don’t have enough time to deal with children’s learning, they are trying their best to cooperate with teachers. Thus, teacher’s profession could be brought into full play.

The communication among the principal, teachers, and administrators seems very good, too. Perhaps each member has different ways of teaching or practicing, but I can see that to facilitate students’ learning is their common goal.

Classroom Observation
There are about 30 students in the class I observed. The students are polite and vigorous. I could tell that the relationship between the teacher and the students are kind of friendship. The advantage of this is that the interaction and atmosphere are quiet good, but the disadvantage is that the students are a little bit out of control.

At the beginning of the class, the teacher led students to review some vocabularies they have learned in last class, and then started a quiz. The time for the review only lasted 3 minutes. The teacher read each vocabulary and asked students to repeat after her. However, only small number of students repeated. Most of them just talked or were restless with themselves. But the teacher seems to choose to ignore it.

Then the teacher started to review the sentence pattern (not only~ but also) they have learned in last class. They played 2 games to practice the sentence pattern. I think the design of the game is good because every individual had to participate. Even if only several students had to come up to the stage and write down the answer, but the rest of the members had to finish the sheet so their group could get the points. Most of the students could be concentrated on the whole-class tasks. Competition made them excited. Students were a little bit noisy but behaved.

The final teaching activity is pronunciation practice. Students have to distinguish /ju/ and /u/ in words such as duke and true. The game here is also very interesting, but I think it will be better if the teacher could explain why they (-u-e and -ue) pronounce differently in words and let students practice the pronunciation a little more.

All in all, I think the interaction between the teacher and students is harmonious, and thus can create a happy learning environment for students. And in fact, it is. I saw that most of the students were happily involved in the learning process, and none of them fell into sleep (which often happened in my times). However, I would like to suggest that the teacher could ask students read the text with her certainly but not ignore the situation that most of the students are not willing to open their mouth to read out loud. After all, speaking up is very important for any English learner.

After The Observation
Frankly speaking, 芳和國中made a very good impression on me, and I hope we also made a good impression on them. Though they only have 5-6 English teachers in charge of all the 500 students’ leaning, they are trying their best. Each teacher has their own teaching philosophy and belief, and they put their belief into practice as possible as they can. Some of them are experienced, and some of them not. But the same thing is that all of them care so much about their students, and never give up anyone in their class. They have shown me that dreams are not only dreams. They can come true if we put some efforts!

Never, never give up.

I have a part time job in Jordan’s Language School in Tamshui. I have been an English teacher there for about one month, and I have noticed that one of my girls in the class, Rita, sometimes glances at peers’ answer when we have exams or exercises in class, and she doesn’t seem to like English. And another junior high boy, Harry, is always late for our class because he wants to stay at school to play basketball with his friends. I am not particularly angry at Rita for cheating in the exam and at Harry for his being late, because I think it is understandable that kids who went to a cram school might not to be really interested in learning English (it’s possible that their parents forced them to join an extra class after school). However, I still want to make some efforts to help these two kids to feel interested or a little bit happier in learning. Hence, I made two phone calls to their parents respectively last Wednesday to try to understand these kids’ learning situation, and I felt so sad after I talked to those parents.

Both of them (Rita and Harry’s moms) told me that they are too busy to pay attention to their kids. To be angry with kids’ grades will be harmful to their health. The tone they talked was so desperate and indifferent, like they have already given up their children. “No. Never, never give up.” I said to them. And this is the only thing I could say to them because I was so angry at that time.

I can not image this! If the attitude of the parents was so negative, how could we ask their children to be positive! Now, it’s only language learning, but after, it’s their life. Are they going to lead their life without any enthusiasm? Are they going to look at the world dispiritedly? I am worried.

I haven’t come up with a perfect idea to solve this problem, but I am trying. For kids, I think I will set a good example with my own conduct, for instance, to show students that learning can be fun and meaningful. But how? I have to think about it and plan it carefully. Besides, communication with parents would be necessary, too. I know I am not good at talking to parents, therefore, I need more time to convince them that their children can be good and confident if parents can approve their children and help children to build up confidence.
Anyway, no one should give up things that they even have not tried. Do your best, then you feel no qualm upon yourselves, no matter for students, parents, or teachers.

Teacher-centered to Learner-centered

From teacher’s perspective, the teacher may have to spend more time on the teaching and learning process because he or she has to help students to figure out what they want to learn by themselves. Hence, we can see that making your classroom learner-centered doesn’t mean that the teacher does less work or preparation for their class. Instead, how to involve students to participate in their own learning will be a complex and challenging task.
In other hand, I think students who used to be in a teacher-centered classroom may step back if the teacher suddenly ask them to speak up and take control over their own learning. Therefore, to cultivate students’ sense of responsibility and courage to speak out their ideas are also important.

Reflection on my presentation

Although I have had several experiences of presenting a lesson during the last two years, I still felt a little bit nervous on stage this time. After all, I was presenting a lesson in front of a group of experts. Once this thought pumped in my mind, I found myself speeded up the teaching procedure unconsciously, and hence, missed lots of important steps in the teaching process.
For example, sometimes I presented the flash cards with the spelling of the vocabulary, but sometimes not. This might confuse students. The better way to do it is to invite students to spell the vocabulary while I presented the flash cards.
As for the conversation practice, actually I should try to motivate students to volunteer to do the role-playing with me instead of picking up some particular students to provide the answer. I guess I couldn’t stand that if I ask students to volunteer but no one was willing to take a risk, so I just singled out some students by name. And it would be better if we read the conversation out loud together after we finished the role-playing exercise.
Finally, I think the game could be more interesting if we could design more challenging questions for students and gave a clearer instruction on how to play the game.

What kind of teacher do you want to be? And why?

I want to be a studious teacher so I can always teach new stuff and introduce not only one particular language but also the amazing world to my students. I want to be a teacher who can always use humor to attract students' attention, and more importantly, to turn the textbooks into an interesting window of knowledge. I want to be a teacher who enjoys life and has a positive attitude towards learning, because I believe that a teacher's way of living has a great impact on students. I deem that any kind of learning should be pleasant, meaningful, and free from anxiety, and that's why I want to be such a teacher.