Ever since I
decided to leave my previous position as full-time advisor of the English
Advisory Group and go back to KMJH to be a homeroom teacher again, I've turned
down many offers to share my English teaching at workshops because I can't just
take official leave that often as I used to. However, as soon as I got the
invitation to do "Teaching English in a Big Class with Mixed
Abilities" with native-speaking English teachers, I immediately said yes
because I got to speak lots of English.
With this second Skype exchange with Toshi’s students, we
experienced using English to introduce KMJH and Taichung, complete with a
section of Readers Theater performance and the viral PPAP from Japan. Also,
thanks to their counterparts’ hard work, we also got to know some fun facts
about Japanese sports day, school festivals and clubs.
My
students brainstormed some interesting topics to present, including Kuang
Ming’s brief history, stories of the cornerstone (奠基石) and the Land Temple (土地公廟), lunch menu and lunch break,
and even Principal Hu’s motto. They created mind maps to better materialize
what they wanted to present. Furthermore, they also came up with relevant key
vocab and expressions that were in line with their assigned topics and then
completed their scripts and PPT slides.
The
layout of my updated Skype turned out a bit messy. 10 minutes into the session,
I still couldn’t find the “Share Screen” icon and that really gave me a fright.
I was clueless and even more nervous after Skype crashed quite a few times. How
horrifying it was! Luckily, it went back to normal all of a sudden so that we
didn’t have to cancel it.
10
minutes before the end of the today’s meeting, I prompted my students to do a
bit of their RT performance. The Wicked Witch and the Narrator reluctantly came
to the camera because they were shy and blushed, but they did an amazing job by
bringing the character alive with their perfect English pronunciation and
intonation. Also, totally on a whim, I asked whether they would like to do PPAP
for their Japanese partners, and so they did. We were all amused.
Of
course, it still left a lot to be desired. For example, some students really
have to speak up, and some talked too fast. Also, some of them were just
reading their scripts. Despite all that, isn’t it the whole idea of this Skype
English exchange, to provide an authentic environment for students to speak
English and learn to appreciate cultural differences? For that, Toshi, let’s do
it again, shall we?
A gorgeous Russian
TV presenter and radio host visited KMJH and shared her secret to success. I
got to experience a bit of what it's like to be an interpreter. Of course, the
students once again learned to appreciate cultural differences through English.
