Cultural Exchange with AIESEC Volunteers

I’ve been thinking about how to create a more authentic environment for my students to use the language. Today, two student volunteers from Holland and Australia, Noel and Chelsea, helped a lot with both language practice and cultural exchange. Working in groups, my students did a little presentation about windmills, floating houses, bicycles and the Anne Frank House in Holland.

Sharing International Video Conferencing with Teachers-To-Be at NTCU

By invitation of Professor Liaw from the National Taichung University of Education, I shared what I have learned along the way with these teachers-to-be at a workshop. My presentation was divided into three parts, For the Love of English, Embarking on a Fascinating Journey and The Project Will Flourish, because I wanted to create an atmosphere of storytelling so that the participants could be more engaged in it.

Teaching Demonstration at Chang Te

Overwhelmed with a heavy workload, I didn't have time to come up with a new lesson for this teaching demonstration at Chang Te. I made do with an old one. This is the sixth time that I taught students whom I've never met before, with all the English teachers sitting in the back as well. 

KuangMing and Seijo's International Video Conferencing Will Flourish

Akiko's flyer for recruiting students to participate in this project

Principal 栗原's blog entry on Seijo's homepage

They finally pulled this off yesterday and got the principal’s full support. Ten students and Akiko went to the principal’s office, and what those Japanese students did at the meeting was really extraordinary and unbelievably amazing. According to Akiko’s vivid description, one by one they expressed their thoughts and feeling about this project. One said he came to realize that he really enjoyed talking to Taiwanese friends at his age without worrying about his imperfect English. Another said he did not have time to worry about making any mistakes because he tried to respond as soon as possible. Still another said he felt so much more relaxed and was able to use the language with Taiwanese students compared to another program offered by the school in the summer, requiring him to talk to native speakers from Barkley California.

Teaching English in English

I’m a crazy English learner. I seldom let my mind wander. I always listen to some English even when I mop the floor, hang out the clothes, drive on the road and take a dump. I’m very eager to feed my brain with as much English input as I can, such as Taipei Times, Advanced, Biz, Harry Potter, The Kite Runner and so on.

A Close Bond of Friendship between Taiwan and Japan

I just found myself getting even more addicted to using English as a tool for expressing myself, getting to know each other and appreciating different cultures after Team Takashima’s visit. In these two days, I exchanged my ideas of the international video conferencing project, sought more opportunities of including more teachers and got helpful advice from those Japanese professors and English teachers. On top of that, on behalf of Junior High English Advisory Group of Taichung City, I explained how teacher training and professional development were cultivated at an official meeting between both parties at the Education Bureau. I seized every opportunity to use English, and for that I really felt great about myself.

KuangMing and Seijo's International Video Conferencing Round 2

Today, we got our students to talk about music for the second Skype session with their Japanese counterparts. Again, due to some unknown technical problem, two laptops were down right in the beginning of this video conferencing. It was quite chaotic and disorganized then, but immediately I decided to ignore it and made do with the rest three ones.

Collaborative Lesson Planning with Akiko and Bettie

Akiko, Bettie與Guo-jhen視訊空中共同備課:

1. 交換第一次視訊交流之心得及共同檢討問題缺失

2. 決定第二次交流主題及進行的流程

3. 共同發展學習單以利提供學生必要英語用法之鷹架

4. 再度確認二校學生交流之目標

Ever since Akiko and I determined to make this international video conferencing happen regardless of all the hurdles ahead of us this September, we have been doing “collaborative lesson planning” through Skype many times. Besides our passion and dedication to this project, the idea is that we need to come up with workable lesson plans, worksheets and other materials to meet the goal of effective communication between both sides.

Kuang Ming and Seijo's Skype Exchange

The purpose of learning a language is about not only how to get good grades on written tests but how to communicate with it in an authentic context. With the help of technology, now we can create such an environment for students to apply what they’ve learned from textbooks to communicating with their Japanese counterparts without leaving the country.

分組合作學習到校教學演示

mini whiteboards, markers, lesson plans, mind mapping materials, reading comprehension questions, textbook reading material .....

觀課的老師們也一起來當「老闆」，看著同學產出的心智圖摘要本課課文並報告給「客人」聽.....

mind mapping, gallery walk and peer evaluation

超好用、免費的線上畫圖網站: https://www.draw.io/。操作概念跟PPT很像但可儲存在Google Drive，輸出的格式也有.png, .jpg, pdf等等。有可供編輯的各種線條、圖案及文字，亦可挿入任何線上圖片。南一B3L5心智圖

Teaching Demonstration with TBL at Tan Show

Teaching Demonstration with TBL at Tan Show

Respect Different Cultures (B3L3 A Hard Lesson for Jason, Nan-I)

臺中市立光明國中李國禎

This class is aimed at demonstrating how incorporating a series of reading tasks and Cooperative Learning techniques can help engage students with the given text, “Respect Different Cultures”, and also develop some reading strategies, like predicting, questioning and summarizing.

This lesson plan mainly follows the framework of Task Based Learning, with three stages stated as follows.

MC of the Readers Theater Competition

.I have been assigned as a Master of Ceremonies for the fifth consecutive year. Five years ago, I developed the MC’s script both in Chinese and English and took part in Taichung’s Readers Theater Competition since then. Other members of the Advisory Group have also taken turns hosting this big event with the very same script since then. Probably I have sat through over 200 performances. Not every English teacher gets the chance as I did, which definitely will be an indelible memory in my career.

Cooperative Learning Workshop at Chung Lun

Sharing what I have learned about Cooperative Learning

Gorgeous campus of Chung Lun

Being invited to share my teaching practices with regard to Cooperative Learning many times, I got to sit through all the presentations of participants’ collaborative lesson planning for the very first time today. I picked up many brilliant ideas and definitely will give it a try in my class, and they are listed as follows.

Microteaching of Cooperative Learning and Reading Activities

Thanks to the event planner’s invitation, I got to travel to NNIEHS Tainan and TYJH, doing microteaching and introducing a series of intriguing reading activities that can motivate interest of learning and also benefit students in terms of reading strategies, such as making predictions, phrase match, Gallery Walk and so on. Based to the participants’ feedback and some detailed questions about teaching practices, I’m pretty sure I’ve made a positive impact.

Microteaching with TBL and Reading Strategeis at LMJH

It was totally my honor today to get invited by this well-established school which has achieved great success in Cooperative Learning. Principal Li took part in the workshop throughout the entire time and asked questions that indicated he himself is also an expert in this field.

Cooperative Learning Workshop at STJH

Today, I was given the most warming welcome from the event planner ever. Also thanks to her, two of the students actually greeted me in English, which I think it’s a good opportunity for them not only to show off their talent and hard work in English learning but use the language in an authentic setting.

English Advisory Group?

 Dear Akiko, 

There is an English Advisory group in each county/city all over Taiwan. It is comprised of several principals and teachers. We are funded by the Ministry of Education and the Education Bureau of Taichung City to organize workshops, English camps, English competitions and so on. I'm a full-time adviser, who takes care of the budget, plans and pretty much everything, so that's why I have only very few classes to teach a week. Imagine this. Those high-ranking officials from the MOE and Education Bureau sitting behind their desks all want to promote English Education policies, but they have very little knowledge and field experience about English teaching practices. So, what can they do?

分組合作學習到校教學演示

Lesson Plan

Doing a teaching demonstration at a school located in a relatively remote area in Changhwa County, I devised some tasks targeting strategies like making predictions, wording meaning in context, making inferences and so on. All in all, the activities worked well to serve their purpose, which is to help students be a more active reader and comprehend a given text in group work.

Lesson Plan for a Teaching Demonstration at TCJH

合作學習與閱讀活動

Teaching Demonstration with TBL and Cooperative Learning at TCJH

(B3L3 A Hard Lesson for Jason, Nan-I)

臺中市立光明國中李國禎

This class is aimed to demonstrate how incorporating reading tasks with Tasked Based Leaning and some Cooperative Learning techniques can help motivate and engage most of the students in terms of reading comprehension strategies.

I. Pre-Task

Objective 1: With some silly questions about Richard, students are willing to take a wild guess on the mini whiteboard by discussing with each other.

Activity 1: True or False

Assessment 1: Observation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Show and Tell and Hot Seat

Show and Tell has been one of my favorites because students get to introduce whatever they like in English, like their favorite comic books, novels and even video games. To do this right, students have to develop a draft for their oral presentation first, so writing skills are also involved. Next, during presentations, they need to pay attention in order to answer my questions about what just has been said. Thus, listening comprehension is incorporated as well. Prior to that, teacher’s demonstration is necessary because students will have a model to follow in terms of eye contact, volume, organization and so on. On top of that, I also showed my students how to use rubrics to examine each other’s performances so that they can do a better job next time.

Taking a first step toward ISA

International School Award of the British Council provides a comprehensive framework that helps schools integrate curriculum based on a global dimension, including international learning and global citizenship. Participants are required to summit action plans and project ideas to be approved by the Education Bureau and BC. Following that, the panel, comprised of at least three teachers in every school, will have to carry out the plans and get the successful results ready for inspection. Then, the school will be recognized by both institutions as a ISA winner. 

A Tour to Morrison Academy Taichung

On behalf of the Education Bureau, Principal Syu, Daniel and I went to the Morrison Academy this afternoon to visit Mr. Myburgh, the Elementary/Middle School Principal, and discussed some future cooperation plans between both parties in cultural and English teaching exchange. After briefing him on how the English Advisory Group of Taichung City promotes English teachers’ professional development, he immediately recommended some of the teachers there based on their expertise to do teaching demonstrations, like cooperative learning, flipped classroom and so on, for our visit next time as the first step. Then, Judy kindly gave us a campus tour and introduced some teachers for us as well. As the main event organizer, I especially would like to tap into resources from this school for some potential workshops. 

Cooperative Learning Workshop at ELJH

如果昨天是80分，今天我給自己95分 kiki 表情符號

Receiving the event planner’s recognition right after my presentation, I got invited to do another one, but I volunteered to do a teaching demonstration instead, which really helps me put recent bureaucracy and red tape behind and move on with what I really love to do. 

Cooperative Learning Workshop at TCJH

Catering to the teachers’ need, I focused on more authentic application in the classroom and shared some valuable learning experience along the way. Nothing can motivate me more than being able to speak English at a workshop and showcase what makes me different from others. Also, I’m going to do a teaching demonstration with students I’ve never met before at the very school in three weeks, which is exactly the main driving force to keep me going no matter what because I get to push myself out of comfort zone. This time it’ll be much more challenging, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Who am I fooling?

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I can see you've incorporated some important features from both links I sent to you. They will definitely serve as very good topics for discussion, providing some food for thought for the teachers to really reflect on why new approaches like cooperative learning, alternative assessment, differentiated teaching and so on are the key to success.

「有效教學教案甄選」審查會議

104年度國中英語輔導小組「有效教學教案甄選」審查會議

審查結果公告

為了符應年度重要政策，「教師專業社群」與「教師共同備課」，我們規畫了一系列的二階段實踐反省型式之工作坊與有效教學教案甄選及分享等活動，希望藉此提昇教學設計的動能與具體落實以社群型式運作之專業發展。

海外華裔青年英語服務營訪視:

10天的浸潤式全英語課程是如何產生的？答案是需要學校領導層級的理念及全校行政與教師全方位的支援，包含食宿、接送、課程與教學、休閒及軟硬體等。沒有鐘點、沒有交通補助、犧牲假日及自行墊錢與自掏腰包補貼等等。問為什麼要這麼辛苦？答說因為孩子們可以受惠、可以自然的講英文。

What makes a good teaching demonstration?

Being invited to be a judge for teaching demonstration for the fifth time, I’d like to share some of my humble opinions when taking the ultimate test of becoming a qualified English teacher in public junior high schools:

全英語授課英語資優營

Getting students to give an oral report in English step by step:

Introduction to the text and task, contemplation of their thoughts, discussion with team members, content organization with mind mapping and presentation with Gallery Walk

The English Camp with English Only Policy: 

分組合作學習到校教學演示: 觀課與議課

分組合作學習到校教學演示: 觀課與議課

Teaching Demonstration at HKJH:

Receiving warm welcome and positive feedback from the teachers, this is exactly the driving force that keeps me going no matter what. On top of that, students were engaged and really using the language throughout the whole class.

Microteaching at SGJH

Microteaching at SGJH

A virtuous circle: 邀約-->備課-->到A校微型教學-->省思與修正-->到B校教學演示-->擷取二次上課的經驗-->到C校分享示例

DMSH分組合作學習到校教學演示

Teaching Demonstration at DMSH
分組合作學習到校教學演示

原先設計的Building rapport活動都還沒用到，結果一進班上學生就說老師很帥，雖說已是中年大叔了，但還是讓我原本有點緊張的心情立刻穩定下來。

Microteaching with TBL and Cooperative Learning at MLJH

Microteaching with TBL and Cooperative Learning at MLJH
A lesson learned. Using only Classroom English is better than EOP.
明天的合作學習到校教學演示，相同的課本、文本、活動及學習單等，在今天下午老師們已經和我演練過一遍。

Microteaching at JJJH

This is the second time that I got invited and shared Cooperative Learning at this school. Actually, it didn't go very well last time. The participants were comprised of a variety of subject teachers, which made it difficult for most of them to understand what I was talking about because the presentation was made in English. On top of that, I lectured throughout the entire workshop. 

全英語口說能力增能工作坊

Secret to becoming fluent in English? 
今天的研習講了這麼多，其實可以濃縮成簡單的二句話就好。
到底要怎麼樣不用出國也能說一口流利的英語、用全英語上課、用全英語簡報？很簡單，那就是「持續地」大量的聽跟讀(input)以及一對一線上英語即可。

Teaching Demonstration with Cooperative Learning and TBL at CGSH

Teaching Demonstration at CGSH

With Lesson 6 already covered by the original teacher, this class is aimed at demonstrating how incorporating authentic application of the language and some cooperative learning activity techniques can help motivate and engage students with intriguing learning tasks.