Just as there are different methods to achieve a goal, there are different methods of learning. One method is not more effective than another, it just depends on the individual and what is most effective for them.
There are the Visual Learners, Auditory Learners, and Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners. To my experience, Tactile learning, commonly called hands-on learning, proven to be the most effective method for me. I learn by exploring the world around me and visual and audio contents are not enough for me. I need to have touched the very thing I am learning about to gain not only its visual and auditory characteristics, only then I gain the feeling of receiving a full understanding of the content.
Among these strategies, auditory learning is the less effective method for me. Just by listening, it is hard for me to paint the picture of the words. In my teaching, I would like all my students to be success. Therefore, when I plan for my lessons, I combine different learning styles. I make sure that my students have hands-on task, and they can have a direct picture about what we are learning and also they can listen to the language too. For example, when we learn house and furniture, I showed students pictures about different houses and their decoration, and then ask them to describe these houses. Also, I provide students with listening material so they can listen to it and find out the picture that matches the recording. Students love it because they can use this language to play a game and when they find the correct picture, they have the sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes, it is hard for a teacher to make sure all his/her students to reach the same level. But we can focus on inspiring students' interests, which leads students to become enthusiastic learners. Teachers should also encourage students on self-educating. Nowadays, if one learns the importance of self-education, he/she is able to have knowledge about different cultures, otherwise, he/she can easily be left behind. Therefore, light up students' motivation and help them to take self-education as a habit can prepare students to become a life-long learner.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Creativity Commons Image
By The Wolf
Michiel Jelijs
I will use this picture when I teach my students about Beijing Roasted Duck. When we learn Chinese cuisine, Beijing Roasted Duck is one feature dish from Beijing Area. Although it has the reputation of date-red, crispy skin and tender meat, it is better for students to see the picture themselves. Also, I can encourage them to try it out when they go to China town. Students will enjoy it very much!
From my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/70333509@N06/6386107997/?edited=1
PC Maintenance and Security
I watched the tutorial about the Craigslist Scam. And it shocked when I learned that they could use this to plan a murder.And I also found that for website like Ebay, there are scams also. Because towards me, Ebay has high reliability, and it brings me alert that if I want to buy things from any websites, I need to be a smart consumer and think through it before I make any deals. Also don't fall for the traps like free deals that are guaranteed.
Another useful tutorial is the phishing scam. I had had some similar experience before.There are many times that I received phone calls from a person and said that there were problems with my credit card. However, I do not have a credit card. I think phishing scam is kind of like this. People fall for their tricks because they scare people with false message such as their bank account is stolen. This tutorial increases my awareness for phishing scams and also it shows me some common traps that are used so I knew how to avoid them.
As much as I am aware of the importance of keeping my computer secure, I do not know how to do it. So "How to keep your computer secure" tutorial lays out a step-by-step procedure to help me do this. I have tried the browser security test and it tells the potential problem that my computer has, it helped me a lot and I would keep scanning my computer regularly.
These tutorial are all wonderful. Before I watched them, I thought that my computer has no problem. Honestly, I was wondering how important it is to learn PC maintenance and security but right now, I learned that there are so many things that we need to be aware of on the Internet. I am very thankful that I have this opportunity to learn about this.
Another useful tutorial is the phishing scam. I had had some similar experience before.There are many times that I received phone calls from a person and said that there were problems with my credit card. However, I do not have a credit card. I think phishing scam is kind of like this. People fall for their tricks because they scare people with false message such as their bank account is stolen. This tutorial increases my awareness for phishing scams and also it shows me some common traps that are used so I knew how to avoid them.
As much as I am aware of the importance of keeping my computer secure, I do not know how to do it. So "How to keep your computer secure" tutorial lays out a step-by-step procedure to help me do this. I have tried the browser security test and it tells the potential problem that my computer has, it helped me a lot and I would keep scanning my computer regularly.
These tutorial are all wonderful. Before I watched them, I thought that my computer has no problem. Honestly, I was wondering how important it is to learn PC maintenance and security but right now, I learned that there are so many things that we need to be aware of on the Internet. I am very thankful that I have this opportunity to learn about this.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Xiaochen's Substitute Lesson Plan
Ms. Song’s Substitute Lesson Plan for 5th grade students (37 min)
Topic of the week: Family Members
Objectives of the day: Learn how to address your relatives in Chinese
How to address your family member in Mandarin? (5 min)
First, teacher need to tell students the differences of addressing a relatives in Chinese and in English. In the United States, uncle and aunts are used for both father side of the family and mother side. As well as “grandma” and “grandpa”. In China, it is very different, for example, we have different names for grandpa in mother side and father side. Today, we are gonna introduce how to call your relatives if you are in China.
Use the family tree to introduce family members (See attachment “family tree”) (10 min)
As teacher introduce the family members, students read after the teacher. Do it twice so students can have a impression on the correct tone of the language.
Take Notes (10 min)
Give each student a empty family tree, and ask them to fill in the blanks with Chinese characters and Pinyin. Then they can highlight the family members they have. For example, if one student has 哥哥 (older brother), he will hightlight that in his family tree.
Survey (10 min)
Give each student a survey with two questions.
1. 你家几口人? (How many people are there in your family?)
2. 你家有谁?(Who do you have in your family?)
Students need to ask these questions to their classmates. Since they have learned numbers and family members, they are able to answer these questions in English. Then the next day, we are going to have an activity with students’ survey result.
Topic of the week: Family Members
Objectives of the day: Learn how to address your relatives in Chinese
How to address your family member in Mandarin? (5 min)
First, teacher need to tell students the differences of addressing a relatives in Chinese and in English. In the United States, uncle and aunts are used for both father side of the family and mother side. As well as “grandma” and “grandpa”. In China, it is very different, for example, we have different names for grandpa in mother side and father side. Today, we are gonna introduce how to call your relatives if you are in China.
Use the family tree to introduce family members (See attachment “family tree”) (10 min)
As teacher introduce the family members, students read after the teacher. Do it twice so students can have a impression on the correct tone of the language.
Take Notes (10 min)
Give each student a empty family tree, and ask them to fill in the blanks with Chinese characters and Pinyin. Then they can highlight the family members they have. For example, if one student has 哥哥 (older brother), he will hightlight that in his family tree.
Survey (10 min)
Give each student a survey with two questions.
1. 你家几口人? (How many people are there in your family?)
2. 你家有谁?(Who do you have in your family?)
Students need to ask these questions to their classmates. Since they have learned numbers and family members, they are able to answer these questions in English. Then the next day, we are going to have an activity with students’ survey result.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Getting Things Done
First of all, I am a very disorganized person. I like to put things everywhere and then I forget where they are; I can think of a idea in this second and forget it in the next second. Therefore,
I really need some convenient method to help me organize my data. Unfortunately, I am still looking for it...
Right now, the way for me to organize my process was traditional-post it and pen, and a small calendar. When I prepare for my lesson plan, I like to do backward planning. For example, I write a list of the objective for a topic and then I prepare lesson that can accomplish these objectives. I always write down what I did today in class and what I am going to do next day on a post-it then I stick it to my laptop. So when I got home and open up my laptop, the note is right there.
I also carry a calendar in my purse, it is for my personal usage. Sometimes when a good idea hit me, I would like to write it down otherwise I forget it. Like I mentioned previously, I am not a very organized person so even though I am constantly writing things down, I still forget things sometimes. When I collect the information, I always feel anxious because looks like that I have lots of things to do. But when I accomplish the tasks, I felt great as I marked off them on my calendar. But sometimes, when I sit down and go over the "to-do list", I have finished everything although I still have a feeling that something is not done.
I will keep using this method to organize my process although I am trying to switch my notes on my phone so when some events are coming up, it can automatically remind me.
I really need some convenient method to help me organize my data. Unfortunately, I am still looking for it...
Right now, the way for me to organize my process was traditional-post it and pen, and a small calendar. When I prepare for my lesson plan, I like to do backward planning. For example, I write a list of the objective for a topic and then I prepare lesson that can accomplish these objectives. I always write down what I did today in class and what I am going to do next day on a post-it then I stick it to my laptop. So when I got home and open up my laptop, the note is right there.
I also carry a calendar in my purse, it is for my personal usage. Sometimes when a good idea hit me, I would like to write it down otherwise I forget it. Like I mentioned previously, I am not a very organized person so even though I am constantly writing things down, I still forget things sometimes. When I collect the information, I always feel anxious because looks like that I have lots of things to do. But when I accomplish the tasks, I felt great as I marked off them on my calendar. But sometimes, when I sit down and go over the "to-do list", I have finished everything although I still have a feeling that something is not done.
I will keep using this method to organize my process although I am trying to switch my notes on my phone so when some events are coming up, it can automatically remind me.
Social Networks
Right now, in most of the industries, the competition is getting increasingly competitive. Therefore, having a connection makes it much easier when we are searching for a career or further education. Take myself as an example. After I fulfilled my teaching in TN, I was looking for something new. The Confucius Institute introduced me to my new school district and I am enjoying it very much. Therefore, having networks makes our lives much easier and it gives us a feeling that out there, someone is supporting us, we do not feel alone anymore.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
RSS Page Reflection
Through RSS reader, I am able to collect more useful blogs and information more productively. The second picture in this page was a comment that I made when I followed a teacher's blog. She has many creative ideas on students' handcraft. I like the work that her students made because I think it is important when students are touching things and doing hands-on activities in their learning.
The first picture indicates some feeds that I collected in my google reader. There are feeds about education laws, how to use technology in teaching and also there are feeds about Chinese language teaching methods and ideas.
In these days, I checked my google reader very often. It really surprised me when I saw all the helpful information I got. I had stories about Chinese history or methods in teaching sentence structures. It has became my habit to checked the news in my google reader.
These materials inspire me for more ideas in teaching. Also, my RSS reader allows me to contact with people who are sharing the same experience with me. There are Chinese teachers, as well as students who learn Chinese. These students will write blog and talk about the strategies that help them in Chinese learning. Once, I read an article about using games in Chinese learning and the students recommended ZON. This is something new to me, but I am glad that I know this because I can in turn recommend it to my own students.
Moreover, there are teachers who upload their teaching material such as pictures, lesson plans and I can take what I need then make it my own.
The RSS reader broaden my vision in Chinese teaching and it also saved me lots of time and effort in looking for materials randomly online.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Discuss the differences between traditional web pages and blogs
This is my first blog although I have my facebook account and I write things there. :D According to me, I feel like that the traditional web pages are where we look for informations. Blogs allow the us to share things about ourselves. It is more like a space for interactive communication. Through blog, we can learn how our friends are doing, it minimize the limitation of time and space.
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