Gifts

Today is the last day of this semester.  As usual, we teachers have a meeting.  At the meeting, we got a box of cake from Losan (羅珊), a colleague and friend, and a book from our principal Mr. Wu (吳正東校長). 

Food for thought

This evening, while I was cleaning my study, I came across a note on my desk. I forgot when I jotted down the words; however, they can still serve as a guide to teaching:

不要盡想填滿學生的胃口，

而 要設法刺激他們的食慾。

Do not always want to fill the students' stomach.
Instead, try to stimulate their appetite.

"Ten Letters to New College Graduates"--5

Here is the 5th letter to new college graduates:

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=133636

I'm patiently waiting

I'm patiently waiting for my old blog to return to normal. The service system has been down for 2 days.

It's true that the computer has brought us human beings to a new era and made our lives so convenient, but when it "goes strike," most of us can't do anything about it. It just won't communicate with us. Is it possible that one day an unsolvable computer problem arises, which even the best of the best computer experts can't fix?

Things That Adults Can Learn from Children--a composition by a student

The following is a composition by my student in Class 306:

"Ten Letters to College Graduates"--Letters 3 & 4

Here are two more letters. You can either click http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=133156

"Ten Letters to New College Graduates"

Starting from June 24, the United Daily News ran a column "Ten Letters to New College Gradustes."  The following is the first letter, which was written by Mr. Yen, Chang-show (嚴長壽). 

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=87&f_SUB_ID=37&f_ART_ID=132822

Scroll that page down, and you can find more.

I copied and pasted the first two letters here in case some day they might be removed from the website.

Sample compositions on "Travel Is The Best Teacher" provided by CEEC

Recently many students wrote on the topic "Travel Is The Best Teacher," the writing task on the 2004 UEE. Here are some samples of different grading levels provided by CEEC:

http://www.ceec.edu.tw/CeecMag/articles/142-2.htm

Just scroll down until you see

指考英文作文評分樣例

Read instructions carefully and follow them exactly

After reading so many compositions, I found the most important thing in writing a composition on the exam is read the instructions carefully and follow them exactly. So circling the key words in the instructions is a must. If not, it's easy to forget what we are asked to do.

Take the 2004 UEE for example. The writing task is:

請以“Travel Is The Best Teacher”為主題，寫一篇至少120個字的英文作文。第一段針對文章主題，說明旅行的優點，並在第二段舉自己在國內或國外的旅行經驗，以印證第一段的說明。

Two places at the same time

On second thought, I decided to maintain two blogs, with almost the same contents. I say "almost," because if one of them crashes, the other will have one more entry.

Migration

Last night, with the help of Etta, I migrated my old blog from LifeType to Wordpress.  I miss LifeType.  Thanks to it, I have a record of my life since Dec. 3, 2008. 

Migration

With the help of Etta, I started my blog migration last night. Here is my migrated and new blog URL.

http://june.ettachou.com/

I moved, not because I don't like LifeType, but because I need a steadier place to put my blog. In fact, I like LifeType very much. Thanks to it, I have a record of the life since Dec. 3, 2008.

So far, I've moved the first 10 articles in Chicken Soup and My Dearest Students to Wordpress.

It's natural to feel nervous

For three days in a row, students in Class 316 called me at night. I know they are nervous now, with the UEE around the corner. I told them it's natrual to feel nervous. But understanding the reality might relieve them of some stress. The reality is that our life is not just determined by the four years of college. Life is long. Graduating from a prestigious university doesn't guarantee that one will succeed in life. What's important is the will to reach our dream.

Running a restaurant is not easy

This evening, I took my parents to my cousin and cousin-in-law's restaurant I Swear for dinner. It's a cozy place, making you feel at home, and the food is delicious! Listening to my cousin-in-law, I understood how tough it was to run a restaurant. You've got to take care of every detail. In fact, everything is like this. If we want to reach and maintain a certain standard, we've got to put great efforts into what we're doing. Then, whether we love it or not comes into play here.

Alzheimer's disease

My mom once said that the most formidable disease was Alzheimer's disease. Then I read The Notebook, a novel written by Nicholas Sparks.

Stay young

A short article in the June issue of Reader's Digest mentions that according to a study in Britain, generally speaking, people who are physically active may not only feel younger than those with sedentary lifestyles, but actually be younger.

So exercise regularly.

Do Cram Schools Help? --two compositions written by students

Do Cram Schools Help?

1.

In my opinion, going to cram school after class is useless. To a student who is very hard-working, it is unnecessary for him or her to go to a cram school, because he or she has already learned very well in class. On the other hand, if a student is absent-minded and never pays much attention to what the teachers say in class, then it will be useless for him or her to go to a cram school.

I did not go to a cram school in senior high school, but when I graduated from elementary school, I spent the summer vacation learning English phonetic symbols. The experience was not very good because there were too many students in a single class and the teacher could not listen carefully to the questions students asked. From this bad experience, I learned that cram schools did not help. (146 words)

Do Cram Schools Help? ---two compositions written by students

Do Cram Schools Help?

Count your blessings

For the past three days, I've been suffering from a hurt toe. It was not unitl I found walking difficult that I understood I had taken walking easily for granted for so long. Hmm, now I have one more thing to be grateful for.

A hero: Rick Rescorla

Yesterday before I went to sleep I read the latest issue of TIME. In the cover story "How to Survive a Disaster," I learned that some people survive disasters because they respond more appropriately and that drills, though some might think it a waste of time and money, are a must.

Caged Bird--a poem

Annie (詹麗馨老師) introduced to me a wonderful poem "Caged Bird," written by an American poet Maya Angelou. The following is the first stanza, which describes a free bird.

"A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky."

Study tips for geography and history

This article offers study tips on geography for the UEE. If you scroll downward, you can find another article on how to prepare for the history test.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=131169

Is this true?

I came across this statment in the June issue of Reader's Digest:

"A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory."

--Steven Wright

I don't quite agree with this statment. Since Wright is a comedian, he might just have been kidding when he said this. This proves something: Anything out of context is questionable.

Reading for reading purpose

Yesterday noon, I had lunch with Angel, Anna, and Mei-yun. We talked about some reading activities. The following are some:

 

1. Let junior students choose one article they like to read every week and they write their afterthought/reflection in Chinese.

2. Give students the same article to read. The next day they have to take a 5-minute open-book quiz. The quiz contains some reading comprehension questions and vocabulary items.

3. Students get the same article. They are divided into several groups. Each group has to translate a part of the article into Chinese. Then the translations will be put up on the bulletin board. Finally the students take a quiz on the article.

Though these activities are used to ensure most students will read, I still have a dream that one day all students read for pleasure, out of their own will, but not for the test.

Tips on how to prepare for the math test on the UEE

At this webpage, you can find suggestions from a senior high school teacher on how to prepare for the math test on the UEE.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=12&f_SUB_ID=31&f_ART_ID=131059

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

To Etta and Chia-ling

Dear Etta and Chia-ling,

What a small world! It's even smaller than before blog appeared.

Tips on how to prepare for the UEE

Here at the United Daily News website, you can find some tips on preparing for the UEE, including some for the English test on the UEE.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=12&f_SUB_ID=29&f_ART_ID=130839

To Chia-ling

Dear Chia-ling

Can you believe it? You are the first one who flashed into my mind when I saw the message. I recalled your face, but forgot your complete name at that moment, just remembering the word "靈" in your name.

How have you been since you graduated from junior high? If you don't want to have your story discussed in public, you might like to send me a mail.

My E-mail address: june0626@gmail.com

An article on learning English

I came across this article on the Net. It offers some good tips from NTU Prof. Hsi (奚永慧) on English learning, including some on taking the English test on the UEE.

http://www.youthwant.com.tw/column/index.php?d=0306231

 

To Tracy

Dear Tracy,

Thank you for your feedback. In fact, I believe you will be a very conscientious teacher because of your concern about what is really good for your students. You care.

To 20年前的因緣

Dear 20年前的因緣:

Of course you can write to me in any language you feel comfortable with. What counts is what you say, not how you say it.

However, I still don't know who you are. I visited your blog and still couldn't get any clue. Would you please let me know your real name?

"Right Here Waiting" is a beautiful song. I still teach my senior high school students this song and they love it, both the lyrics and the melody.

Thank you for leaving me the message.

Reading, or vocabulary and grammar?

This evening I had a talk with a practice-teacher-to-be. She told me that usually students expect their English teacher to supply them with a lot of vocabulary words and analyze the text sentence by sentence, focusing on the sentence pattern, instead of discussing the content of a reading text. I told her that students in Taiwan are conditioned by cram school, where they are crammed with lots of new words and phrases.

Food for thought

"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses."

--Tom Wilson

To Etta

Dear Etta,

I had my hair cut about 10 cm long around 1 month ago. If I had watched the hair donation program, I would have kept and donated the cut hair. Watching TV seems not that bad.

What is education?

Here's another quote by Albert Einstein, which might evoke some thought about education.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."

Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

This is a quote I came across while I was searching for an article by Albert Einstein. I can't agree more. It was imagination that brought us cellphones, iPods, arts, etc. As an English teacher, how can I cultivate students' imagination?

To take it or not to take it?

This morning, the dean of academic affairs asked me if I could teach the third-year students again next semester. I told him that I had to think it over for a few days. Hmm, I'd like to help, but I've promised a practice- teacher-to-be to be her supervisor. Besides, I've planned to take a trip this summer vacation. Here is a dilemma.

The dean told me if I agreed, he would arrange for another teacher to supervise the practice teacher. So this seems easy to solve. But the summer class...

Yesterday's entry about the graduation ceremony

This is where I kept yesterday's entry blog:

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!Bg7HgvOYBRkzGeSay8m92M.mshBOd7IWAF4-

Teach with' your heart

I'm reading the book Teach with Your Heart. It's the Chinese version because I haven't bought the original. It's about how a practice teacher led a group of "impossible" students to love learning. I just started and reached the part in which the teacher guided the students to read great literary works, such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (梅岡城故事) and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (麥田捕手). She made it! They listened and were willing to say something about the story.