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An Important Day of College Life

djjz — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:50:17 +0000

Wow, time goes so fast. It is really the time to say good-bye to my good friends in college life. I appreciated you guys always help me a lot. And we had lots of funny memories during this four years, including bad memories. But, it is all gone. We still need to go to the next part of our life. I wish everyonecan fulfill their dream in the following days. Good Luck for Everyone.

That was the important day of my college life, Graduate Ceremony. I gradyated from TKU happily.

I took a picture with Raquel.

I took the picture with the dean of college of Education, Kitty Kao. She will be my teacher in the following graduate school life in TKU. GOOD!!

(I will study the Educational Technology in TKU, graduate school)

Record: A Meaningful Question about Grouping From Alice

djjz — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:26:21 +0000

*Most teachers use the following learning arrangements depending on the kind of lesson they are teaching: (1) whole-class teaching, (2) individual work, (3) pair work, and (4) group work. Now, please answer the following questions about grouping arrangements:

What factors do you think influence choice of grouping arrangements?
What grouping arrangements do you typically use or expect to use in teaching? Why?
What if your students resist pair or group activities if they prefer to learn from the teacher rather than from another learner?

My answers:
(1) The space of classroom, class size, student’s level, equipments or materials, maintainning class order, time arrangement, task’s need.

(2) I prefer pair work and group work. The former is a good way to have each student do the small tasks because the two in one group must urge each other to finish their duty in time. No one can shirk his duty in this grouping way, or his or her partner will be encumbered. The later one is a common way to save time in the larger exercises or games. Using group work can train students to brainstorm together and realize the value of group work.

(3) In my opinion, if my students resist pair or group activities, I’ll find out any possible reasons: Do they think group work is troublesome? Perhaps they are just lazy or shy. Perhaps the task is not interesting enough. Maybe they don’t like their partners. Or they might think their language level is worse than their partners so that they are lack of confidence. Then, I will try to avoid those reasons and provoke student’s learning motives. For example, I’ll produce performing opportunities to my students, having them understand that they are also ‘somebody’ in the group. And then, I’d like to evaluate the group task in the coming course, thus my students will press themselves to participate in the discussion.

The Last Class From Alice (06/11，week 17)

djjz — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:27:16 +0000

Oh, today was the last class of this class of this semester. Some students finished the micro-teahing, and we took a final test in the third and fourth hours. Well, what I want to say is that I really learned a lot from Alice. Every time Alice always tried her best to sahre her teavhing experiences and had a discussion with us. I really appeciated that I had the opportunity to take Alice class. After a whole semester, I grow up a lot, especially getting some fresh ideas from this classs. I believed everyone has the same feeling as me.

I rememberd one sentence form Alice very clear: “As a English teacher, not onlt teach them the English knowledge, but also thier life philosophy. (moral and behavior)”

Thank you so much, my dear teacher, Alice. I hope I have the chance to learn more from you in the future.

What a wonderful night

djjz — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:07:03 +0000

Hello, everyone, I had a wonderful night yesterday, I went to 謝師宴 of English department. Do you believe it? Everyone wore their most beautiful clothes to join this banquet. Boys and girls are all super handsome and beautiful on that night. Of course, we also invited some teachers to have this happy night together. If you want to see how happy and crazy I was, you must link to the following address (another blog of mine, I often put my pictures there), http://www.wretch.cc/album/reasont

Oh, yeah, Raquel also joined the banquet that day. And I do take the pictures with her. Ha ha. What a happy, crazy, and wonderful night I ever have! GOOD^^

Reflection on my microteaching (06/04，week 16)

djjz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:52:16 +0000

I am so glad that I have the opportunity to do the microteaching. Of course, I was very nervous when I was on the stage. But, I told myself that there was nothing to be afraid and “just do it.” Then, I made it almost successfully. Though there were still some parts not did so good as I expexted, it was still a whole 20 minutes lesson.

Actually, I loved this kind of microteaching. That is because it was a perfect time for us to do the practice. We all want to be a professional teacher in the future, and it is of course for us to go through a lot of obstacles.

I liked the sentence that Alice you told us: “always prepare well in doing/facing everything.” (Always be a well-prepared person.)

My Reflection About My Unit8 Microteaching On May 21.

djjz — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:26:13 +0000

That was my second time standing on the stage and having microteaching in English. I still felt really nervous and shy enough on the stage because microteaching is really different from reporting which I am much more familiar with. Teaching is an art and a science for me, but I seldom have a chance to teach others English in the past so that I don’t have chace to reflect my own teaching situation. I just know that when I first stood on the stage, I was so nervous that I forgot what I must teach and did a very bad job feeling like an idiot on the spot. After that, I really learn a lot form Alice and other seniors who have tought English for years as a tutor. I learn many teaching approaches, designing lesson plans, being an observer, and teaching techniques. On May 21, I got the chance to ”try” my lesson plan on unit 8 and present my learning result to “myself”.

I think that my microteaching was not really success at that time although I did rehearse for several times beforehand (especially for time-controlling). I knew I must give clear instructions to “my students,” but I was nervous, disarranging the order of my instructions or guidance in the beginning. So, I did see “my sudents” looking at me in confusion. Their facial expression remided me to repeat my guidance for them. However, things still went wrong! In fact, when I asked them to do the survey, the staff should not have their responsers see the questions; the responsers could just listen to the staff and speak. Just like Alice said,”Students might just exchange their survey worksheet and write the answers rather than share their ideas orally.” That was my fault! Although most of feedbacks from classmates presented that they like the design of the survey task, there was still one senoir asked me,”Is it just practice speacking?” Haha, of course not! Again, that’s my serious fault! It must be a practice both in listening and speaking.

The other careless mistake is typo, or misspelt word in my handout. “Breakfast” became “brackfast”! Gosh!! So embarrassed…. I hope that I won’t do such funny mistake in the future.

Thanks to Alice’s and other classmate’s feedbacks for my microteaching. I read them word by word and learn a lot from your suggestions. Several of you said that I improved a lot, and you like the survey task, but my voice was too small. I’ll try my best to practice more and accumulate my English teaching experiance and find my confidence on it. I enjoy this class very much. Thanks to all of you!

Jill’s Microteaching Lesson Plan

djjz — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:02:08 +0000

Lesson / Project Plan

Topic: Mother’s Day Gift Category: ____Craft__project__

Teacher	Jill Chuang
Purposes	Learning form doing, situated learning
Skills involved	Survey, speaking, listening, writing
Duration	15 min.
Teaching material	Textbook, worksheet, handout, paper, realia
Summary of activity implementation (Procedure) In the beginning, teacher provokes students’ memory of the text (story), asking one student to give the main idea of the story (2min). And then teacher guides the students to do the survey (totally 13 min. situated learning) about their own experiences in pair work, talking about what they did for their mothers on Mother’s day in the past and sharing their sad memory or argument with their mothers that made them feel regret afterward. ◎Situated learning 1. Background Teacher as the boss who needs the staff (students) to do a survey on the street (actually in the classroom) to make sure whether the company can produce a new Mother’s Day Product. The boss hopes that the new product will be very hot in the market so he/her designs two kinds of questionnaire, estimating two different kind of experiences of the target population: One is “What did you do for your mother on Mother’s Day,” the other is “Sad Memory with your mother.” The boss need to gather the survey and decide what kind of product is the best choice. 2. Procedure Divide the students into 2 big groups. The A group takes the first questionnaire, and the B group takes the second questionnaire. The groups can’ see the questions of each other. In the first run (4 min.), every group A member has to invite one member of group B to do the survey. First, try to explain your purpose and ask your candidate whether he/she accepts the survey or not. (Actually every one has to say yes in this class.) The candidates have to listen carefully to the staff’s questions and answer them or share something orally. The staff should take notes (words, phrases, sentences are available) for him/her. In the end of the interview, the staff has to say ‘thank you’ to your candidate. And then, it turns to the second run (4 min.) of group B as the staff and group A as the candidate. 3. After survey The teacher calls several students to share their survey and decides the new product of Mother’s Day gift, the Coupon Book (3min.). Then, the teacher passes the handout to the students and guides them how to make the useful Coupon Book as their assighment (2min.).
Final Product(/website/photo/report/ video/word files)		Coupon Book
Difficulties or Suggestions		Time controling is challenging.

Hints for survey (For those who has no idea to start)

Opening:

Hi, Miss/Sir. Sorry to bother you. My company needs a marketing research and analysis on Mother’s Day gift. Can you help me to do the survey?

Guiding:

Please listen to my guestions and answer them orally. I’ll take notes for you.

Ending:

Ok, that’s all. Thanks for your help. Have a nice day!

Practice makes perfect

djjz — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:20:29 +0000

Just back from HK!!!

H1N1 IS REALLY SERIOUS!! YOU CAN SEE PEOPLE WEARING MASKS AND WHENEVER YOU COUGH, PEOPLE WOULD JUST STEP ASIDE FROM YOU!!!!

When I got back TW, I went to the cram school where i have part time job, and got the paragraphs I gave my students as assignment!! I’m actually not really a good writer, so it’s a little difficult for me to teach writing. But after having lessons about writing, i immediately used some tips that i learned in class. And most of my students really like it and they improved a lot.

Now having this part time job

I can always practice and learn many things from this job and these kids(or people !? since the coverage of my students is from 2 ~50 years old)

Sometimes i would feel frustrations from the class, but I just keep telling myself these are the things that I need to conquer and hope I can keep improving and become the coolest and the best English teacher!!!!!!!

Microteaching Feedback form Alice

djjz — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:03:28 +0000

Opening
1. The warm-up is short but clear.
2. The students were a bit confused in the beginning of the task. How to improve it?

Body
1. The pair work is very successful. However, in reality, students might just exchange their survey worksheet and write the answers rather than share their ideas orally. How to avoid this?
2. teacher-led→ pair work→whole group→ class and individual answering the questions

Closure
1. Peer evaluation is provided.
2. Assignment is mentioned.

Feedback
1. I suggest you give ss through guidance about how to conduct a survey. Since you’ve designed a very good piece of handout “Hints for survey,” make the most of it.
2. It’s very student-centered. However, how to make sure every student makes equal efforts? How to evaluate their understanding and accuracy?
3. I like the way you show the result of the survey. But you can put this part into a group worksheet so that they can do the calculation on their own.

That’s my microteaching plan (05/21，week 14)

djjz — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:43:14 +0000

Lesson Plan (Book 2, Unit 2)

Topic: Hey, Thanks!

Teacher		Daniel Tsai 蔡易倫
Purposes		Review the story plot and the summary of the article together. Complete the worksheet – put the sentences (story plot) in a correct order. Share their feelings about the importance of friendship with peers. Enhance their ability of organizing information.
Skills involved		Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing
Duration		20 mins
Students’ background knowledge		(1) After three lessons for the unit two, students could totally comprehend the meaning of the article, and could use idioms and vocabularies in the correct way.(2) From affective aspect, students could understand the importance of friendship.
Teaching material		textbook, worksheet * 3(1) worksheet (summary / story order)(2) worksheet (for homework)(3) Text book
Summary of activity implementation (Procedure)(1) In the opening, teacher introduces what we are going to do today. Telling students the purpose of the following 20 minutes is that we are going to review the unit two together. (2) Then, teacher asks students to express their idea about friendship since they have already learned three lessons of unit two. (3) Next, teacher hangs out the worksheet I, and teacher would divide students into four groups (group A、B、C、D). (4) Teacher tells student how to do the following activity by explaining the procedure. (5) Each group need to read a paragraph together, and the next group should choose the best description for paragraph from the worksheet, and the group should say their answer loudly. (6) There are eight paragraphs in this unit, group A read first paragraph, and group B should find the best description. Then group B read second paragraph, and group C should find the best description. Follow the above rules, and finish the worksheet together. (7) Teacher should make sure students get the correct order/answer. (8) After that, teacher delivers worksheet II (Graphic Organizer) for students and tell them how to finish it. Of course, telling students that they can put more details into it. (9) By the way, telling students that those two worksheets are useful for them when preparing for the examination. (10) In the end, teacher should give students the assignment, that is, the worksheet III (about your best friend). (11) Deliver worksheet III (about your best friend) for students and tell them how to finish it. (12) Finally, students should bring their assignment next time, and they will have to share it to their classmates.
Final Product	In this lesson, students can finish two worksheets and they can get more understanding about unit 2. Of course, the process of this activity will enhance their ability of organizing information. During this activity, students have opportunity to say something and have some listening input. Also, we can cover the reading skill and writing skill.

Worksheet I: Book 2 Unit 2 Hey, Thanks!

Name:

Student Number:

Date:

Class:

How to do this worksheet:

Read the story and put the following sentences in a correct order.

Kyle became a handsome and popular young man when we were seniors.
Kyle took the opportunity to thank those who had helped him make it through thr tough years.
On the last day of high school, Kyle gave a speech. He gave me a familiar smile before stepping up to the stage.
He revealed an unbelievable story: he wanted to kill himself on the very day he met me.
When I helped and comforted him after he was bullied by a group of boys, he expressed his appreciation with a smile.
Years ago as a high school freshman, one day on my way home, I met a new classmate, Kyle, whom I thought to be a nerd.
Kyle’s parents showed their grateful smile that made me realize that how much I had helped him when we walked home for the first time.
When we walked home together afterwards, I invited him to play football over the weekend. Soon we became best friends.

1. → 2. → 3. → 4. → 5. → 6. →

7. → 8.

Worksheet III: (About Your Best Friend)

Name:

Student Number:

Date:

Class:

How to do this worksheet:

I. Work in pairs. Ask each other to write down answers to the following questions.

1. Who is your best friend?

2. When was the first time your met your best friend?

3. What makes the person your best friends?

4. How long have you been your best friend?

5. What’s the most unforgettable thing that your best friend has done for you?

II. Now, complete the following paragraph according to your partner’s answer.

‘s best friend is . When they were , they met each other for the first time. likes because

. And that makes him/her the best friend of . They have been friends for . The most unforgettable thing that has done for is that

Congratulation! You finished the worksheet. Remember to bring this worksheet to the class next time. If you want, you can draw a picture or put a photo in the following blank space. Good for you!

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