Annie's corner

My magic board has installed for a couple of weeks. The brand name is Teamboard but currently I’m using the Smartboard software with it.

I’ve always been tech-savvy so having this IWB installed in my classroom is like getting a new Christmas toy! My first impression of Teamboard, however,  is not too good. Comparing with Smartboard, Teamboard is a little less “solid”, less intuitive, less “smart”…if I can put it that way. Fortunately, the board seems to go well with Smarboard Notebook(could that be a quirky selling point for Teamboard? haha) so I wouldn’t complain too much about it.

With IWB I can finally bring in my blog with my lesson. I get to introduce my English learning blog for my students and motivate them with hands-on experiences with the MAGIC BOARD.

I’ve set up my blog 潛龍玩英文 several years ago but have never really integrated it with my daily lesson. One of the reason is that kids don’t get the chance to come to the board and try out the content thus it’s comparatively less interesting for them to do it at home. Now  I connect my Notebook file with my blog and I have kids try out the tests and games in my blog in the class. I can see there are more and more kids willing to hook on the blog in their own time.

I heard them asking “Miss Tsai, where can I find this website?””Ah, I’ve tried that at home!!”Now talk about motivation!!

This week I showed “Rain, rain go away” chant to my 3rd graders and they love it!  I’ve included it in my subcategory”看影片學英語”. It is such a nice chant to go with the weather condition recently. 

Ah, and my recent review over Teamboard:

1. The board doesn’t seem very sensitive. Sometimes I actually have to punch the board to get it moving!

2. Where is the matching software? Smartboard has Notebook while Teamboard has…none?

3. The tool bar is bloody ANNONYING!! So far I still can’t figure out what activate the drawing pad and once the draw pad is activated it affects whatever program you are running…

Pictures below are the CD token mentioned in my prior post. Again, thanks Moji for this wonderful idea!

So we have an native English teacher comes fortnightly this semester. My 6th graders are pretty excited about the new teacher and so far things has been smooth.

I've heard/read a lot about the difficulties of working with these Native English teachers. May it be cultural misfit or a matter of different interpretation of job description, I believe that it is our job to engage children as much as we can in the process of learning while having some fun.

My first impression of L is 1. He doesn't smile much,  2. he seems going to have a heat stroke in any minute. 3. he doesn't seem very professional.

The first thing he asked was, " Do you have flashcards?" Then he popped the second silly one " So what do you want me to teach?"

I was thinking, “What?? Please don't tell me you show up without any preparation!!! This is your first session!!”

Luckily he kind of improvised the whole session without great difficulty. How come somebody like him can locate a teaching job in Taiwan, while people who have decent teaching certificate are still on the long waiting list? When is this myth,“Native speaker” teaches better, ever  going to be corrected or acknowledged by our superiors and education administrators?

(sigh)

Halloween has long past but I haven’t updated my Halloween activity this year. I had my first try of story telling for the 3rd graders this year. The book I chose is “Go away, big green monster”.

Picture from Lakeshorelearning

I have to admit I’m not very talented in story telling. But somehow sharing a book with a 3rd graders doesn’t seem that challenging.

I searched the teaching tool kit and decided to make the teaching tool kit myself.

Then here comes the part of book presentation. Usually teachers project picture books so that everyone can see. But then there is this lack of interaction when you use projectors without IWB. My goal is to have kids interact with the book since the authentic book offer such interface.

So I decided to make a BIG BOOK myself.

I did the measure, planning, sketching and finally finish the whole book with some helpful suggestions from dad. The finished product enable kids to move the monster pieces along with the story. Then I have a Go Away bag for kids to make those scary parts to disappear.

I used the story and took kit with my kids and the teaching demos in other schools. Then wrap the whole lesson up with the very cute youtube by SuperSimpleSongs.

I also introduced my kids a Halloween-themed song, Walk like a ghost,  from Dream English. They offer quite a few downloadable mp3s plus matching flashcards!!

The song is easy to sing and kids are really having fun while learning the vocabularies. Thanks to all the free online resources!!

Funny I suddenly felt the urge to review the memories in Czech. This is the picture taken in Telc, one of the many famous UNESCO town in Europe. It was a cold day in late January. The town was almost coved in white with snow and heavy fog. Not much to see since the castle was closed.

I came across a couple from Taiwan in my stay in Telc and fortunate enough to be neighbors with them for one night.

I think I’ll visit there again, definitely in summer this time!!

I just came back from ETA book fair. This is probably the shortest ETA shopping day for me so far. However I still managed to spend over 3000 NT in 2 hours. I browsed through several major brand names in the market and also discovered some interesting new names , ie. Interactile Learning. I plan to use their Spelling Hive workbook for my winter remedial teaching class.

I bought several big books in Cats and MacKIDS. Learned that the teaching kit for Big green monster still costs 970 NT after discount. Well, I still prefer my DIY one made with felt. One of my pleasant discovery is MacKIDS’s CD collection for various major picture books(e.g.. Big green monster and Brown bear). Each comes in only 135 NT!!! What a save!!

It’s a shame that I just couldn’t stay long enough to join the free seminar offered by Union Ocean. Better wear sneakers next time!

After a tiring day in Taipei, nothing is more refreshing than a cup of tea.

I opened my notebook and try to write something I learned today in the discussion panel. Year after year, similar discussion panel was set up and year after year, we reported the same existing problems. English teachers don't have reasonable teaching hours to achieve satisfying learning result. We as the facilitators of professional development don't have reasonable time as well as resources to provide better service to teachers. As a result, English teachers burned out the passion to change and settle for reality.

After years of adjusting myself to fit in this seemingly quiet educational environment. I come to realize the best motivation for PD comes from sharing. Sharing your new teaching adventure with students and colleagues. Admiring kids' growing knowledge as well as feedback from like-minded teachers are the best reward.

As for expecting someone from the bureaucracy to improve the situation, well, self-help is always quicker.

Big universe is a really nice place to find e-book resources. Be sure to subscribe them to get free access to new books. Their recent free book "Counting in the city" is a great book to introduce/review city landscape and transportation. Note that the free access only last for a couple of days so be sure to back them up while you can. Hint: screen capture is our best friend...

Hmmmmm, what about taking this as the read-aloud material for kids?

Thinking ...

  Sometimes I wonder if it worth to spend so much time in classroom display. Would kids stop and read without teachers telling them to do so? My doubts were soon dissolved when I overheard kids discussing student works displayed outside of the classroom.I have set up a mini book fair there to showcase my prior students' works.(hmmm...maybe I should post it here next time)

This is one of the more cozy corner in the classroom. The sofa is basically only for show..well, I've never spent over 5 minutes on it. The foldable divider was donated by a retired dean at school. The sofa was left from a former colleague.

I wish I can have more time with kids and spend more time in books with them. SIGH...but recently I've been trying to keep up the schedule.

I've updated the back b.b.board to suit the Halloween theme. The letters are there for word haunt and categorizing. I intend to keep the tree until Christmas is over....

Wayne has told me that I have a short wick, meaning I'm definitely not a Ms. nice. I have problems with hypocrisy and bureaucracy. And I have major problems with authorities who only live up to cameras.

If I were a head teacher who has never trained to be a English teacher (let alone teach it), I wouldn't even dream to tell English teachers how to do their jobs. I'll consult them first then come up something with professional and practical concerns. I'll engage myself to the project before I public any policies.

With an ongoing so called " English experiment project" in my back, I'd put behind my 40-year-old insight in English teaching and seriously involve the project before I BLOODY SHOW UP IN FRONT OF THE PRESS!!

I'll definitely have a word with my English teaching crew before I come up with the "get-100-or-test-again" scheme and brag about the really INNOVATIVE spelling test to the press!!

Yes, I'm definitely not a Ms. nice and pardon me not to be one!!

I've made some changes this semester so far.

The classroom looks a bit nicer. We sing more songs. I spent more time to prepare lessons.

I trained myself to be more cheerful with those cranky adolescents.

All these changes are made possible for the start of our English Project. Though I have mixed feelings about the project yet I can't deny the positive changes it brings in. i.e. less teaching hours per week, more time to design lesson plans...

For the start of the 3rd graders-

I ask kids to write down their English and Chinese names on blank name cards. I asked them to leave the bottom space blank if they have trouble to write their own English names.

After collecting name cards from kids, I print out Name Trace worksheet from My moondrops. Considering the workload I have currently, I think that's a fair thing to do for each kid.

I also adopted Moji's classroom management idea. I recycled heaps of CDs as tokens. So far it has motivated kids greatly and encourage each member of the team to help each other to earn points. In my second session with class 304 even the well-known 阿賓(I learnt his name in the first ten minutes of our first session) is sober enough to make comment!! I'd like to thank Moji for this great idea. I also apply this tally system in grade 6 and it still works:-) Well, maybe I'm still in the honey moon phase with kids. I hope it lasts!

I bought this pocket chart from yahoo with 80 dollars only. I use it to organize name cards of each class. It's a great way to remember student names in a short time.

I also tried to start the semester with "Hey Jude" with my 6 graders. Lots of stories have been said about this song but I love the one of Paul MacCartney and Lennon's son Jules best.

Excerpt from Wiki

In 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon separated due to his affair with Yoko Ono. Soon afterwards, Paul McCartney drove out to visit Cynthia and Julian, her son with Lennon. "We'd been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life," McCartney said.^[3] Later, Cynthia Lennon recalled, "I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare.... On the journey down he composed 'Hey Jude' in the car. I will never forget Paul's gesture of care and concern in coming to see us."

I start the song with Stephan and David Tao's MTV. Stephanie's KTV version is also a great version for kids to sing along.

I'll play some earlier version of Hey Jude in the future and hoping I can smuggle in some language input in the mean time!

Gosh Paul MacCartney is still as cute as ever!

These cute flashcards are from one of those Dollar Shop in Sydney. 2.5 AUD per pack. They are really eye catching and I just love it!

A local stationery shop owner recommended me this 3M super 90 and the test result is super! It saves tons of time and work over dealing with double sided tape!!! Just spray and paste. Mom reminds me to wear mask while using it though.

I'm going to test spray this tomorrow on the ceramic wall and see if it works good.

I love this "Welcome to my classroom" sign by Jan Brett (just love her book The Hat!!) There are signs both for male and female teachers. :-)

The picture of the smiling owl is from Flicker and I use blockposter to print out the poster. I know非常好色can do the same work but I prefer blockposter's interface:-)

Now I have to work on more with the interior....more work...but it pays to spice up the space where you literally spend 8 hours within!!

How do you turn a eye soaring classroom with leaking problem, badly-pilling walls and prior tape marks here and there into a presentable place?

I have sat on this problem for too long and this year I decided to make a face-lift.

Start with Obama-

I then put on a string across the ugly bars with prior student works.

and two string of flags, just to add a little "international" touch...

The sole purpose for this poster is to cover up  the ugly marks on the back door.

I bought the apple-shaped flashcards in a dollar shop in Sydney. I found them quite eye-catching:-)

I was meant to put on a world map but was some how end up putting on the Asia one....

I know I still have a lot to go....and I'll get there, bit by bit...

Where I found my inspiration:

Learning parade

Classroom displays

All kinds of labels

back-to-school

Where you can print out free map

收到敦煌營業部寄來的文章連結淺談字母拼讀法的教學及應用,原本以為又是針對phonics老調重彈的新書介紹,細讀之後發現作者應該是親上教學現場有實際教學經驗的老師.她點出了很多phonics教學在EFL背景大班級環境下的諸多挑戰並提出一些可行的建議.

以下為部份摘要-

"另外，教學者需要了解在教授發音課程時，其重點在於「聲音」；而字母拼「讀」的教學目的則是在介紹字母與發音間的對應規則。因此，需要了解有時候學生能掌握發音規則並不代表有良好的發音。因為有可能一個學生拼讀的規則記得很好，能夠聽音拼字，但發音品質不佳。因此，在教學上不論是拼讀規則或發音品質，都有賴於老師幫助學生分別練習並加以整合，讓學生能夠充分熟悉發音規則並也能發出正確的發音。"

"市面上常見的發音教材，通常是幾個習題帶過就進入另一個單元，聽、說練習嚴重不足。學生在這樣的學習過程中往往囫圇吞棗，不知其然更不知其所以然！因此，在教學的過程中，老師除了使用教材中的題型外，建議多補充練習活動，如：在白板上寫出不同的題組，讓學生聽音辨字，選出正確的字（如：pin和bin），接著再請學生唸誦該字詞，分辨其不同處。"

"學生應該多嘗試模仿句子的唸誦語調。由於台灣學生習慣團體班的上課方式，唸誦句子總是拖得長長的完全不似英語的語調。因此，筆者建議從一開始就鼓勵（要求）學生注意CD中的發音及語調唸誦方式並努力模仿。"