A Visit by Former Students

Three former students paid me a visit today: Yi-wen, Chia-ling, and Chun-chieh.  They graduated 9 years ago and are pursuing their dreams in different fields now. 

To Etta

In response to my "Homosexuality" entry, Etta invited me to read an article written by her on her blog recently. It's her comments on a recent issue in the States "Yes on Prop. No. 8," which is intended to illegalize gay marriage. Here, Prop. stands for "proposition." If you are interested in this issue, please read her blog:

http://blog.ettachou.com/2008/10/26/california-prop-no-8/#comment-19330

After reading her article, I left my comments on her blog as follows:

Teaching Collocation

After the discussion of the reading, we finally came to vocabulary study today.   Now I don't avoid speaking Chinese.  Instead, I will say the Chinese chunk and ask students to find the English equivalent in the example sentence.  For example, the students see the following example sentence for the new word "resist" in their textbook:

The robber was hurt while resisting arrest.

Homosexuality

This morning in Class 313, when we came to the word "homosexual," I told them we should not have a bias against homosexuals.  When I was studying in the US, I watched a news report on TV and came to realize that homosexuality is biologically determined.  Those gays and lesbians are wired to be so before they are born, with something additional in their brains.  That news really impressed me because it totally changed my attitude toward homosexuality. 

An Essay by a Student

Students in Class 314 like to write extra compositions for me to read. Among them are some good works. Here is an example:

A Happy Encounter & Teaching English Through Songs

This afternoon I was invited to share my experience with members of Taipei County English Education Advisory Group at Chiang-Tsui Junior High Schol.  My topic was Teaching English Through Songs.  I talked about the reasons for using songs in class, what songs to teach, and how such an activity can be conducted. 

A Good Website for Teaching English Through Songs

I found a good website for teaching/learning English through songs.  The URL is a little bit scary, though.

http://www.ylsh.chc.edu.tw/%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E7%A7%91/%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%AD%8C%E6%9B%B2%E6%95%99%E5%AD%B8%E8%AC%9B%E7%BE%A9/%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%AD%8C%E6%9B%B2%E6%95%99%E5%AD%B8%E8%AC%9B%E7%BE%A9%E9%A6%96%E9%A0%81.htm

This website belongs to Yuanlin Senior High School.  It contains songs with their lyrics, Chinese translation, vocabulary, and sentence patterns.   Amazing!

An Interesting Website--Songs for Teaching

Last night, I found an amazing website, Songs for Teaching.  Though it's a commercial one, intended to sell CDs and books, it's worth visiting.  There you can find songs written to teach certain things, for example, character building, geography, math, classroom management, science, holidays and seasons, etc.  I even found a song for the 43 American presidents, another for the 50 states in the US with their capitals, and still another for Michelangelo's biography!  Here is the website URL. 

http://www.songsforteaching.com

 

 

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The Aim of Education--Part 2

"The aim of education is not knowledge, but action." I've kept thinking about the topic since yesterday. The following is what I wrote but didn't put on my blog yesterday:

The Aim of Education

Tracy told me this afternoon the topic of this year's citywide speech contest is "The Aim of Education Is Not Knowledge, but Action."  We discussed it and tried to define the topic.  

In my opinion, this idea is like the saying "Instead of giving someone a fish, teach him how to fish." 

What do you think?

Is Grammar Helpful or Harmful?

A student who is excellent in English told me this noon that she found her English has been getting worse since she started to pay more attention to grammar.  She used to use her intuition to tell if a sentence is correct or not, but now she will think about the grammatical analysis we do in class when she is taking a test.

Chit-chat & Memory Power

On today's test, there is a passage about how to improve our memory.  The sentence  "Now it's proved that it can be easily achieved simply by chatting ten minutes daily"  sounds quite shocking to me.  I've never associated such social activity with memory enhancement.  At the end of the passage, the writer suggested teachers do some chit-chat with their students before starting a lesson.  This is interesting and I'd like to give it a try.

You see what you want to see

I came across an envelope this morning when I was looking for one.   On the envelope was a line of words: 你的心，決定你所看見的。Seeing the sentence, I thought of a photo taken at Mr. Wei's wedding a few days ago.  Here is the photo:

At first sight in the camera, I was shocked because I coudln't tell what was behind me.  A man in black standing against the wall, with his arms crossed in front and no head?  

A Visit to the Palace Museum

Today I went to the Palace Museum with three high school classmates.  We spent most of our time  on three current exhibits: Masterpieces of Chin and T'ang Dynasty Calligraphy (晉唐法書名蹟), Tracing the Che School in Chinese Painting (追索浙派), and Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung Reign (華麗彩瓷).   Huai-su's (懷素) cursive script puzzled me because I could barely understand what he wrote.  Here is an example:

Can you recognize the words on the first line?

Advice from An-yu, a former student

Yesterday morning, An-yu （彭安愉), a former student who graduated 5 years ago came to visit me. We had a long chat until around 3pm. In our talk, she said it was not until she graduated from college and went to work that she realized how wonderful and easy it was to be a student.

Wang Yung-ching, God of Management

Taiwan's God of Management, Mr. Wang Yung-ching, died in his sleep this Wednesday, Oct. 15, in New Jersey, at the age of 91.  He was definitely a respectable person.  His unequaled hard work took him from rags to riches.  I solute him from the bottom of my heart.  Here's a story about him I found in today's China Post: 

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2008/10/17/179042/Hard%2Dwork.htm

 

If

We were reviewing if-clauses today, which seem very complicated to students.  However, there is only one principle to follow:

Real or Unreal:

"I Have a Dream"--an old entry re-posted

I'd like to re-post an old entry for the lesson "I Have a Dream."

http://june.ettachou.com/2007/12/23/martin-luther-kings-famous-speech-i-have-a-dream/

Watch the video, and you'll be touched by the power of language. I remember a former student of mine told me that, while we were discussing this lesson last year, she went to the entry every time she turned on her computer. She then watched/listened to the speech and read along with Martin Luther King. She is now majoring in English at National Tsing Hua University.

The Carpenter: A Story

"The Carpenter" is a simple but inspiring story. It's worth reading and remembering for life.

Here is the story:

Perseverance

「過程中一定會很辛苦，但只要有決心，撐一下就過去了。」This was what one interviewee from NTU EMBA said in the news when asked how he felt about traveling around island in nine days on a bike. 

Words from Mr. Yang Chen-ning (楊振寧) and Mr. Chu Ching-wu (朱經武）

Mr. Yang Chen-ning, a Novel Physics Prize Winner, and Mr. Chu Ching-wu, President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, had a talk on the allure of physics yesterday.  The following is a news report by the Liberty Times:

Mr. Wei Kuang-liang's Wedding (魏光亮老師的婚禮)

Tonight I went to Kuang-liang's wedding. He is a very nice/good math teacher at our school. We taught the same class for two years--Class 316. Four of the girls went to the wedding too.

The upward spiral

It seems the approval of the American bailout plan didn't have any good effect on the world economy.  Now what can start the upward spiral? 

To Ms. Hung on how to spark enthusiasm for the English language and literature

Here is my response to Ms. Hung, who left a comment on my Oct. 8 entry Ithe Life Type blog) as follows:

Re:Enthusiasm

I have to find the enthusiasm of Foreign Language and Literature. God bless me. haha

Posted by hung at 10/10/2008, 11:34

Dear Ms. Hung,

Definitely, to enjoy your life now, you've got to love what you're doing. Remember Steve Job's "You've Got to Find What You Love"? He had every reason to tell those college graduates so, right?

SMART students

Today I got an article from our principal 吳正東先生 through his secretary by email.  The title is 協助孩子成為一位SMART學生, written by  Mr. Wu, Ching-shan （吳清山）, commissioner of the Department of Education, Taipei City Government. 

Here, SMART is the acronym of

Smile, Morality, Action, Respect, Tolerance.

The following is the article.

Enthusiasm

Yesterday when we came to the word "spark" in Unit 3, I told the students that without a spark of enthusiasm, one couldn't learn English well.  Then I mentioned a former student who is a junior at NTU now.  I told them about the passion she showed in learning English. 

Quotes from TIME on the virtue of thrift

Quotes from the essay by Nancy Gibbs, "Real Patriots Don't Spend," in the current issue of Time (October 13, 2008):

"'Thrift comes too late when you find it at the bottom of your purse.'"
~ from Nero's adviser Seneca

英語看圖說故事比賽注意事項 --Words from Brandon Bryant after the speech contest

This afternoon the school held the annual English contest, story-telling for the freshmen, picture-telling for the juniors, and composition for the seniors. I was a judge for the picture-telling contest. We had a guest judge from Studio Classroom, Mr. Brandon Bryant.

To Ben

In her response to my blog dated Oct. 2, "The Art of Leadership," Ben, a former student, showed her interest in reading the whole article.  Here is what she said:

Live on!

Today's United Daily News runs a column "自殺防治 用閱讀找回感動," intended to remind people of the meaning and value of life. 

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=152381

What It Takes to Be a Good Doctor

Last night, before I went to sleep, I read an article in Reader's Digest (Oct. 2008).  Its title is  "My Unexpected Teacher,"  with the subtitle: Sometimes the best thing a doctor can do is to listen.  It's a true story about the encounter of the writer, then a medical student, and a stroke patient in the hospital. 

To Ya-han

Ya-han (曾雅韓), a former student who graduated this summer, sent me a note through my LifeType blog, telling me that she missed me.  She is majoring in Engish at NTU. 

Here is my response to her:

The Art of Leadership

"A leader must stir people's blood, not appeal to their reason.  When times get tough, people don't want ot be told what went wrong, or lectured, or given a lot of complicated statistics and plans they don't understand.  People want to be excited, inspired, consoled, or uplifted; that is, they want to be led!"

This is an excerpt from Unit 3 "What It Takes to Be a Good Leader" in the Sanmin textbook, Book 5.  A very powerful passage.  It can serve as a reminder for all kinds of leaders.

 

A Simple But Inspiring Sentence

Today I introduced the book Harvard Style to Classes 313 and 310. And I read the following sentence from the book.

只要徹底盡到應盡的義務，往前跨一部就會比想像中更容易。

An Article to Read on Leadership

I once posted an entry in my blog about leadership.  That was after I read an article about Mandela "The Secrets of Leadership" in Time.  Since we are discussing Unit 3 "What It Takes to Be a Good Leader," I would like to re-post that entry here.  With a click on the URL offered in that entry, you can read the article in Time.

http://june.ettachou.com/2008/07/15/an-article-on-leadership/