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My Micro-teaching Feedback from Alice

Leo — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:22:41 +0000

Teacher: Leo		Date: 2008. 5. 27

Teaching materials: San-min Book 2 Unit 8
Opening (6 min)
How did the teacher start the lesson? Did the teacher state the intended lesson objectives clearly? Did the teacher keep students informed of lesson procedures and activities in the beginning? 1. The teacher did exactly state the lesson objectives and procedures. 2. He used the “brainstorming” strategy to invite students to discuss the question, “What do you do on Mother’s Day.” During the brainstorming session, there was little interaction. 3. Then, he shifted the discussion to “What part of your mother impresses you the most?” This time, the interaction was intense and interesting.
Body
List of main learning activities in the time order. Identify the sequence (sub-activities) and mark the patterns of interaction in each learning activity. Mother’s Hands: 1. What do Mother’s hands do for us? 2. What do you think of your mother’s hands? 3. How did you feel when you did something impolite to your mother (when you were rude to your mom)? ¨ Sequencing (such as presentation, practice, production or pre-reading, while- reading, post reading) Brainstorming, discussions, ¨ Patterns of interaction (teacher-led /individual work / pair work / group work) Mostly teacher-led activities (post-reading activities, focusing on listening and speaking) ¨ Pacing: time allocated to each learning activity; time management The transitions are OK. But there didn’t seem to have a strong focus. Sometimes, the lesson appeared to be sluggish.
Closure (1 min)
How did the teacher end the lesson? Was there any evaluation of the lesson? Did the teacher give any summary of the lesson or assignment to the students? 1. Giving assignment in the end
Feedback Qs 1. How do you think of my presentation? 2. Do you think the assignment is reasonable? Is there any suggestion to make it better?

Introspection on Micro-teaching (Unit 8: Mother’s Hands, 5/27)

Leo — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:08:49 +0000

First, it was my pleasure to have the opportunity for micro-teaching this time. Because I was asked to draw a lot, Unit 8 was my lesson and I had to confront my destiny. Nevertheless, I thought it was a coincidence that we just had Mother’s Day before long; therefore, I had prepared the mind map and the artificial carnation for the micro-teaching. Generally speaking, I made a carnation a hint to induce students’ thoughts about it. With my correct expectation, the carnation reminded them of Mother’s Day. Next, I inquired the students about what they would do on Mother’s Day. For this part, I confessed that I didn’t do much well because most of the time I’d written the items on the board without facing them, which was also the suggestion from some of the peers. Then, I told the students that the things they would do on Mother’s Day were superficial and trivial; in that way, I directed them into another aspect: Which part of your mother’s body impresses you the most? In regard to this question, students had different answers: eyes, face, mouth, and hands. That’s it! Hands! That was what I wanted. Furthermore, I requested the students to roughly describe their mothers’ hands, and then I cited the passage from the text and asked them if the speaker’s behavior to her mom was accurate. What’s more, students shall simulate a situation that how they apologized to their mothers after doing something “malicious.” Notwithstanding, I as well spent too much time on this part. When it comes to the assignment, my peers unanimously thought it was reasonable and creative; however, it was a pity that I was running out of time and got only 1 minute for the instruction. In that part, I should have regulated the sentence pattern in the letter writing; therefore, the grammatical concept could be taught with students’ take-home practice. Overall, I felt that my listeners were a little bit indifferent and vacillating before asking my questions. In fact, I assume that some of my questions might not be appealing to them, which urged me to ameliorate my question. Having paused among sentences, I received Zachary’s opinion that halting sentences made him impatient and bustling; consequently, I suppose it had something to do with my transition/sequencing for more improvement. Besides, I should have avoided looking at the mind map while writing the items on the board, for it was so time-consuming that students might lose their momentum in the process. In conclusion, I have come up with three principles for my advanced teaching: (1)Don’t let students wait for me and only see my back, (2) Heed my time management, and (3)Reduce the times of interactions with students because in state interview teachers-to-be cannot talk to the judges just for their responses.

My Teaching Material─Time Capsule(教學媒體與操作)

Leo — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:21:07 +0000

Time Capsule Poster Time Capsule Powerpoint

Graphic Organizer─Unit 5: The Trojan War

Leo — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:58:09 +0000

graphic-organizer-the-trojan-war1

Lishan Senior High School Visit Report (麗山高中教學觀摩報告)

Leo — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:19:59 +0000

Having visited Lishan High School this Tuesday, I suppose that in terms of its environment and creative pedagogies, Lishan could be the canon of the contemporary education in Taiwan. Unlike other renowned high schools, Lishan has set up a paradise for those who can sufficiently give their flairs into full play and find out what they really prefer. Students there in Lishan can take on different physical and chemical researches; furthermore, they can make people understand their efforts and caliber in the scientific expositions, which really gives these students more confidence that they can surpass the stusdents in some famous schools. In addition to the scientific productions, what impresses me the most is that the exchange student program in Lishan. I insist that very few high schools here in Taiwan promote such a program for students with exceptional English ability and other talents. Speaking only for myself, those students, who can go abroad for study during high school time, are the most blessed ones; besides, they can definitely learn and grow up a lot overseas. As for the class visits, I was very impressed with the 100% English in class. Even though some students responded to teacher’s questions in Chinese, the teacher still managed to explain her accounts in English. In fact, I really admired the teacher’s perseverance and involvement. If I were she, I would consider how to URGE the students to speak up in English during the session. Apart from the 100% English teaching, the application of media in class was another breakthrough. For example, Miss Doo’s(杜昭瑩老師) “Body Language” lesson was fairly suitable for slide show with students’ pictures on it, which can get students’ common resonance in class. Finally, with beautiful campus and prominent educators, Lishan is a promising school filled with various possibilities. Nothing is impossible, to Lishan!

Lesson Plan Viewing

Leo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:04:57 +0000

Last week after viewing Alice’s and her colleague’s lesson plans, I really admired their dedications to every lesson and wonder how long it had taken for them to cogitate these activities. The diversity of these extracurricular activities, including role description, presentation, ad designing, and survey conducting, indeed enriches the lesson contents. Not feeling tedious in class, the students must have learned a lot from these activities. Generally speaking, every lesson plan is quite complete, systematic, and adherent to students’ learning demands. However, I got a question for Alice. In spite of these delicate activities for your students, what are their parents’ responses? Do they agree or disagree with you? And how do you justify yourself? Besides, if your students plunge all their efforts on these activities, how do they strike a balance between the activities and their exams? Will you spare some time to review the lessons for them? Or you’ve already integrated the knowledge into these activities, and students needn’t spend extra time reviewing?

Long-man Junior High School Visit Report (龍門國中教學觀摩報告)

Leo — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:14:01 +0000

This Tuesday, I called at Long-man Junior High School. My first impression on the school is that it must be new-founded and beautiful. After entering the school, I was really obsessed with the multi-layered buildings and the most cutting-edge facilities such as swimming complex with SPA, studio, and laboratories located on campus. By means of Mr. Yang’s explicit and systematic introduction of the school, I think students who have learned here are the most blessed ones. Despite the fact that Long-man may be called “aristocratic school,” I definitely approve that every teacher at the school manages to dedicate their best part to the school’s development and students’ multilateral capacities. Besides, I suppose that the design of the counselling rooms are fairly warm and pleasant; therefore, I truly agree that students can get satisfying solutions to their learning problems. Generally speaking, the equipment there can fulfill most students’ demands; however, I as well suggest that the school authority in time plan how to function some classrooms like the theater where students rehearse their performances. As for the class visit, I cannot agree that both the teacher and the students are quite hardworking for their own works. Miss Huang is undoubtedly a conscientious teacher who conducted her lesson very clearly and made the handout for students’ further practices; on the other hand, even though they were a little bit naughty, the students were basically cute and they could alleviate the tension in class. Eventually, from the visit I realize that there exists a drastic competition among these high schools in Taipei City because every school founder would like to get a foothold for survival in the educational system. What I want to say is that educators have to sacrifice and contribute a lot to their works if they would like to reap something in return to their teaching.

Response to Ch.3 Focus on the learner

Leo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:32:14 +0000

For the presentation last Tuesday, the group mentioned the term “ideology” applied in the natural pronunciation. However, I don’t agree with the pertinence of term use here. We must recount the definition of “ideology.” “Ideology” means a communal consensus induced by a group of people in a nation, especially for political consciousness. Therefore, I dissent that the australians’ native articulation is a sort of “ideology” because their ancestors hadn’t held a congregation and proposed that their pronunciation shall be different from the one of the US and the UK. Instead, I suppose it’s a “intrinsic habit” for the australians to pronounce peculiarly. Specifically speaking, such a pronunciation derives from the segregated accents scattered in diverse sectors of Australia. As a result, multiple pronunciations are formed in the country. Like in China, Mandarin has been split into a few dialects and accents. Put them in all aspects, We cannot stipulate that the Chinese predecessors asked their progeny to establish an “ideology” to speak Mandarin with specific accents. Moreover, we cannot deprecate that many a Taiwanese student has poor English pronunciation, and teachers’ responsibility is to rectify their inveterate fallacious pronunciation. By what ways? I think every teacher has his or her mechanisms. As a matter of fact, K.K. symbols are very helpful for students’ pronunciation; nevertheless, many students still cannot correctly articulate and teachers just have no patience to care about them. Finally, they have lost faith in learning English well piece by piece and completely given up after attending college. What a shame! Teachers should realize the significance of pronunciation, shouldn’t they? Pronunciation is the primal step to learn a foreign language, and I don’t approve that everyone should ignore it.

Response to Ch.2: Exploring Teacher’s Beliefs

Leo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:44:03 +0000

After delving into the topic about teacher’s beliefs, I suppose that they really matter in terms of the sequence/progression of a lesson. Apart from teacher’s pedagogies, I can’t agree more that their instrinsic experiences like the way they had been taught account for the one they teach their pupils. In fact, many teachers tend to withhold the stereotype on students. For example, a few teachers are so authoritative and arbitrary that students dare not have a say in class, resulting from that conventional teachers are textbook-oriented and stern. Therefore, modern teachers have to be more liberal and negotiable; most of all, being students’ learning partner and respecting what they express even if you disagree with them have become a consensus in the new educational environment. So, there goes the proverb, “Teaching is learning.” As for the issue of whether teaching is a profession, I think there’s no denying that “IT IS!” Even though many a man alleged having studied abroad comes back to Taiwan and teaches English, it’s more of a case that they have gone to all lengths to get several “part-time” jobs in every language cram school. Due to the lack of certificate for professional teaching training, these people cannot become formal teachers at schools; as a result, they have to make a living harder than do the formal teachers thanks to very scarce salary.

In summary, teaching is a very sacred career I think. If you really live in your dream, you have to plunge lots of passion and faith into the work. Don’t make teaching a tool for your livelihood, or you’ll feel pressured and distressed if you don’t really love the job. I’m serious!

Lesson Plan for Lesson One(Book 2, Shan-ming)

Leo — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:54:14 +0000

A. Learning Goal: 1. Students can recognize the images of different animals and further name them.

2. Students can become familiar with the grammatical usage of “seem.”

3. Students can understand the precise usage of “dative verbs.”

B. Teaching Procedure (Tentative): 1. Vocabulary, Idioms, and Phrases: 10 mins (Quiz offered in the first class: dictation)

2. Warm-up: 5 mins (Students’ assignment: Check students’ answers)

3. Sentence Patterns: 10 mins (Students’ assignment: Check students’ answers)

4. Reading (Text Part): 25 mins (Divided into two or three days if necessary)

C. Activities: 1. Post-reading: Reading Comprehension & Topics for Discussion

2. Expansion: More Animal-related Expressions & Nursery Rhyme (With audio CD broadcasting)

3. Writing Practice (1 Paragraph, 15 mins, peer editing)