Re: I don't kow how to teach

(Feburary 20, 2005) April said,

"I am teaching one class in my cream school now. The students are about 2~3 grade students who have been learning English for 2 years. Because their first teacher who has 10 years experience was fired by my boss so I replace her position. I have pressure when I teach English because the students get used to their first teacher's style already(very fast teaching style). Including my boss,they think the tempo of teaching English should be as fast as possible.Do you agree or not? They think when teacher's tempo of teaching is fast, the students can pay much attention to the class and also they can learn more .....Should I be like her or just be myself?"


Dear April,

I think it is more important for you to make sure that your students comprehend and learn well in the class. Whether you teach fast or slowly is less important.

If the ex-teacher was a good teacher, and your boss liked her way of teaching, how can she got fired? So maybe you want to find out what went wrong in the teacher’s class that made her loose this job and try to avoid making the same mistakes.

I do not agree that when you teach fast, then the students pay more attention. Actually, if you teach faster than the students can follow, they will get lost in your lessons easily and sooner or later they will stop listening to you because they can’t understand what you are saying.

One more thing, isn’t there a curriculum for you to follow? A good school should always have a curriculum for the books it’s using. Find it and look it up. Go with the curriculum, and if it’s a well-written one, then you should not have to decide what kind of path to go with for teaching this class.

PS. Don’t worry about teaching the class with your style, but do make sure you have a good/strong theory to explain why you are teaching them the way you are.

CJ/Joy aka Josifina

My “Perfect” Student and Her “Helpful” Parents

Mimi is one of the eight-year-old girl students in my beginner class. She has always been pretty good in class. She pays attention and responds to my questions quickly. Every time when she hands in her homework, it's always perfect. However, about a week ago, I got a phone call from the father, and he asked to schedule a time to talk to me.

The day came when the father and I met. I was shocked to find that Mimi has been having problems doing her homework at home. It turned out that it was Mimi's mother who actually finished the homework (meaning she helped and checked all the mistakes) before Mimi came to class every single time. After that appointment with the father, I sat Mimi down one on one to see how much she could actually comprehend with the reading/writing assignments I had given the class. It was about 70% without my help, and 90% with my assistance. (I didn't tell her the answers, but only gave her hints.)

Due to the fact that the class was formed with beginners, I did not ask the students to memorize the spellings of new vocabulary, yet I trained them to recognize the words by using Phonics rules. I have checked Mimi's Phonics skills and she got only maybe 2 or 3 of them confused sometimes. She was able to point out the words I read to her, but obviously had more difficulty in read some longer vocabulary by herself. (eg. Water bottle, handkerchief, penguin…).

Before this event, I would grade Mimi's performance 90% perfect, but now, only 70%. I was rather upset—not with her, but with myself—for not having noticed her problem earlier.

Two important things I earned from this incident:
1. It is usually a great thing that the parents will remind/help their children to review after class. However, when the parents “fix all the problems” in the homework for the kids before class, they will leave no trace for the teachers to discover the students’ problems.
2. A good student in class can also be a problem student under the surface. As a result, checking the students’ progress by giving quizzes is necessary—even with young beginners who don't have to memorize the spellings yet.

Re: Approaches to classroom investigation in teaching

Let's start with Journals [Blogs]
A journal is a teacher’s written response to teaching events. Keeping a journal serves two purposes:1. Events and ideas are recorded for the purposes of later reflection. 2. The process of writing itself helps trigger insights about teaching. Writing in this sense serves as a discovery process.

The following procedures are recommended for keeping a journal {Bailey, 1990; Porter et al 1990; Walker, 1985} 1. Make entries on a regular basis, such as once or twice a week or even daily if possible. It may be useful to spend five or ten minutes after a lesson to write about it or record it. 2. Review your journal entries regularly.

Ask yourself these questions: l.What do I do as a teacher? 2.What principles and beliefs inform my teaching?3.Why do I teach the way I do? 4.What roles do learners play in my classes? 5.Should I teach differently?


My Feedback:
Before Aiden asked me to create my blog, I always thought that teaching journals were not much different from “lesson plans”. After reading the above statement, I found that teaching journals are not simply about recording what the teaching activities I have done for each class. It is more about looking into the events taking place in class and discovering the meanings behind it. In other words, the journals reflect on the students learning as much as they reflect on teacher’s progress in teaching. From now on, when writing my journals, I will always keep these questions in mind.

Re: Mei's Observation & Diary

(February 14, 2005) Mei said,
“I changed their seating arrangement to three straight lines today...I noticed that they had less space to practice the things I taught in class because of the space limitation...The teaching activities were limited as well because of the space. Some of the students didn’t show their happy faces to me because they only could see the back of their classmates’ head and just like in the elementary school seating…For the younger kids, I think they need more space to move in order to practice the things they are going to learn in class.”


My feedback:

For most of the classes I have taught, I prefer the students sit in a U shape for it’s much easier to conduct group activities this way. However, I have also been to classrooms where there are only long tables and the students have to sit in rows. Students always seem more relaxed (sometimes too relaxed) with the U shape arrangement, yet there are also times when the students complain that they can’t see the whiteboard clearly (especially those students who sit on the two sides). I feel that the traditional seat arrangement is sometimes the better choice for older students. It gives them a stronger sense of “we are in a ‘class’ now so we’d not be fooling around.”

Re: buxiban teachers

(February 06, 2005) Joy Chou said,
“…of course, if you are willing to improve teaching skill you will a lot of way to know the information. but too busy,and exhausted are the reason to lose opportunities. And who can make up for your class when you are attend the activities…”

My feedback:

I agree that being too busy at work sometimes takes away the opportunities for teachers to achieve improvement in their profession. For example, many buxiban owners in Taiwan are not willing to see their teachers taking time off from work to attend workshops—even when the workshops can actually bring long-term benefits to the buxiban. It’s unfortunate to see some teachers have to work 40 hours a week and still have to find time on the weekend to attend workshops. Without the owners’ support, the desire and passion of buxiban teachers to improve their teaching/languages skills will eventually burn out.

Re:Models of teacher learning

Question to answer: Which is likely to be most effective? Or, how do teachers learn most effectively?What’s your opinion on this?

My opinion:
The reflective model > The applied science model > The craft model

The reasons:
I have experienced all the three models. I prefer the reflective model the most because I believe the only way to make a teacher a teacher is to teach in real classes. Making mistakes in classes, finding out solutions afterward, and trying to do things differently to correct the previously existed problems are the most direct, powerful and effective methods to learn how to be a (better) teacher.

The applied science model works quite well, too. It gives the trainee some ideas about how teaching is able/like before they have to handle a real class on their own. The craft model might have the similar effects. However, it is too risky for the trainees to copy the master’s work directly and apply it to their own lessons. Every lesson might have different focus and different target groups which it should be taught to, and whatever the master does might not always match the lesson’s needs. Also, every teacher has different personality and style in teaching. What the master demonstrates is not always the most suitable for every trainee.

In short:
Hands-on experience works the best. "Do" to believe!

Never too tired for professional advancement.

Question to answer: Buxiban teachers are too busy, too exhausted, over-worked yet underpaid? Should any of these be a stumbling block for your learning and professional advancement? Should you give yourselves a little nudge and say, 'It's darn hard, but I've gotta do it for myself'

First, I would like to point out the not ALL Chinese teachers in Buxiban are over-worked and underpaid, yet I agree that MANY teachers are put in that situation. I feel they choose to accept such unfair deals mainly because they lack confidence in themselves. They might think that they do not have much teaching experience and therefore it’s ok to start with lower pay when having to a lot of work that should not have been listed down on their job description as a “teacher”.

I used to be one of “them” when I started my first teaching job more than 5 years ago, but that fact that I was busy and exhausted all the time did not stop me from seeking self-improvement. In contrast, it motivated me to make myself a better and better teacher every year. I’ve realized since then: the only way to earn myself a better/more fair deal in the future is to prove to the schools that my work/performance is definitely worth the salary that I expect them to pay me.

Of course, higher salary/better treatment at work should not be the only reason for one to improve him/herself. As an English teacher, I see how important it is for children to keep progressing, and I believe it is equally important for the teachers to keep progressing—both in teaching skills or the language itself. Not only will this help the children’s learning be more effective, but also guarantee them better quality teachers.

Reach Higher

After the super busy two weeks of winter break, I finally found time to create my own blog. It's a brand new experience, just like being offer a place in an UK university. Not sure what to post yet, but hope that here will be a place where good things happen.