大學入學甄選：杭老師的演講 我的筆記--An Old Entry Reposted

Those NHSH students who are considering getting admitted to university earlier might find the information this entry provides helpful:

http://www.tiec.tp.edu.tw/lifetype/post/1130/18322

Li-hsin's wedding

Yesterday I went to my former student Li-hsin's wedding banquet at Taipei Imperial Hotel (華國大飯店）. I taught Li-hsin (張立欣) for two years at Chieh-show Junior High School right before I came to teach at NHSH. His mother was my colleague. At that time she was Dean of Academic Affairs. Here are some photos taken at the banquet. Those who graduated from Chieh-show could have a look at their dear teachers.

Making a Choice

The following is a poem which appeared on the 2nd mid-term:

 

Each of us begins with a garment of different weave and design,

Which in time's passage becomes worn, washed, wrinkled,

How One Looks When Taking an Exam

When I stand in front of a class, proctoring a test, I can always see clearly who has the intention to cheat.  It shows!  If there were a mirror before those cheaters, they would be shocked, even disgusted, by how they look at the attempt. 

On the other hand, those who behave well look different.  They look confident.  Fortunately, most students belong to this category. 

To Fei

I was thrilled to receive a response to "How Students Address Their Teachers" from Fei, a student I taught in Chieh-show Junior High School.   The following are the response copied from my Life Type blog (http://www.tiec.tp.edu.tw/lifetype/post/1130/28634#comments)

and my feedback to it.

How Students Address Their Teachers

How could students address their teachers besides calling them "Teacher" in Chinese?

I love/miss the way my former class 316 called me: Ms. Lee, and how some students in my former class 314 addressed me: 欣～～蓉～～.  Sweet!

A Way to Learn English

The other day, a student asked me about ways to learn English. I mentioned to her a way my former colleague used. She taught history but was quite interested in English. To polish her English up, she read the editorial of the China Post and translated it into Chinese. Then, she read her Chinese translation and then translated it back into English. Now, she could compare her English translation and the original editorial in the newspaper.

如何讓高中生寫出漂亮作文--郭岱宗教授演講‧我的筆記

演講題目：如何讓高中生寫出漂亮作文

講者：郭岱宗教授‧淡江大學英文系副教授

時間：2008年11月24日下午1:00~3:00

地點：本校A1大階梯教室

演講內容：

要寫出漂亮的作文，要從下面四點著手：

The Tail Is Wagging the Dog--An Essay by a Student

The following is an essay written by a student in Class 314:

The Tail Is Wagging the Dog

Buddha's Hand--a Masterpiece by Nature

This morning I picked a Buddha's Hand from the tree in my mother-in-law's garden for a colleague.  (I said sorry to the tree.)  It is in the first two photos. 







Isn't it amazing that Mother Nature can produce such a masterpiece?  

"Thank Buddha. Thank Dad and Mom" --an Article

The day before yesterday I read an article in the United Daily News.  The writer told his friend and his friend's wife a story of his to remind his friend not to take his wife for granted. 

Curiosity

A student in Class 310 asked me this afternoon why I didn't hold any negative attitude toward studies or tests when I was their age.  I told her because I have always been full of curiosity.   I just wanted to learn more, not only from the textbooks, my teachers, but from the mistakes I made on the tests. 

I remember when i was in high school, I spent a lot of my free time listening to classical music.  While I was listening, I would read the score of the music, because I couldn't just be satisfied with hearing the notes.  Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how the notes went up and down.  That's me.

Earning Grains of Rice for Hungry People

This evening, I got a mail from Konraad, a friend from the US.  He has always been enthusiastic about charitable activities.  The following is the mail:

Shopping Coupons

To boost economy, our government is going to distribute NT$3,600 worth of shopping coupons to each of the 23 million people next year.  

A Lesson from Someone Who Has a "Not-So-Perfect" Body

"I had the blues because I had no shoes,

Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet."

The Secret to Losing Weight

According to The Secret, those who want to lose weight should not dwell on the thought "I have to lose weight," because this would attract more I-have-to-lose-weight thought to them, and thus, they will always have to lose weight.  What would really help is to keep thinking about their perfect weight, about how they look with their perfect figures.  Then the dream will come true.  I like this mindset.  Very positive.

When You're Feeling Down--a Passage from The Secret

Last night before I went to sleep, I re-opened The Secret and read it. Here is a passage from the book that might help lift you up when you are feeling down.

Reading comprehension exercise from Sanmin

Sanmin emailed me a reading comprehension exercise, with explicit explanations of the words and a Chinese translation.  It's about the recent global economic chaos. Those who are interested in this issue or who would like to test their reading ability may download it.

reading-comprehension-1

 

A Way to Get Students to Speak English

When I finish discussing and teaching a paragraph, I usually have the students do the read-look up-and-say activity in pairs.  Then I ask them to tell me from their memory the language items they have learned from that paragraph.  This is an exciting moment. 

An Interesting Letter Written by a Student

The following is a letter written by a student. The writing task requires students to write a letter to someone in the past or in a story.

Modal Verbs--Two Old Entries

For those who want to learn more about modal verbs, here are two old entries which might help you have a better understanding of these confusing words:

http://www.tiec.tp.edu.tw/lifetype/post/1130/25216

http://www.tiec.tp.edu.tw/lifetype/post/1130/25254

The best way to master them is to make sentences with them.

To Varren

The following are Varren's response to my yesterday's entry "We Never Told Him He Couldn't Do It" and my feedback to her:

Varren's comments on "A Powerful Sentence"

Varren emailed me her response to the Nov. 8 entry "A Powerful Sentence" for fear that it might take up too much space on my blog.  With her permission, I put her comments here because some of her points are really good.

Varren: 

It is too much to post on yout blog, so...here it is

"We Never Told Him He Couldn't Do It"

This afternoon, after finishing Unit 6 "Body Imperfect," I had the 314 students read an article together.  The title was "We Never Told Him He Couldn't Do It."  It was about how a boy born with club feet acted as normal children and finally even made the cross-country team when he was in seventh grade. It happened because his parents never told him he couldn't do what other children could do. 

The Parallel Structure

Parallel structures make a speech more powerful. We find many in Dr. King's "I Have a Dream." In Obama's speech in Chicago after winning the presidency, we can find some more examples. Here I'd like to list two:

"A Serious Mistake"--student's essay

The following is an essay by a student from Class 314:

                              A Serious Mistake

Former Students and I--Reunion on School Founding Anniversary

School Anniversary: the Race and the Garden Party

 

To Varren

Here is the reponse to Etta from Varren, both of whom are my former students. This response was posted on my Life Type blog.

To Etta

Dear Etta,

Of course, there are police who commit crime. Then they should also be put into jail.

I just don't like to see violence. You know how blacks were treated by the KKK members, some of whom lynced black people and got away with it, under cover of some White police. However, Dr. King still insisted on "nonviolent resistance."

A Powerful Sentence

Today I wrapped up Unit 5 "I Have a Dream" by re-mentioning the sentence from the Alchemist:

"When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true."

How I love this sentence!

Nonviolent Protest, Please

Watching "Yellow-Ribbon Siege" organized by the DPP turning into violence, I turned off the TV, with Martin Luther King's words echoing in my mind:

"We must meet hatred with love."

"Darkeness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Lunch with Tracy

* This photo is put on my blog with Tracy's permission. Respecting students' privacy, normally, I don't post students' individual photos.

This noon I had lunch with Tracy, an NHSH graduate who is practicing teaching English in the school. She was not in my class, but we got to know each other somehow.

In our conversation, I could feel her love for students and her passion for teaching. She told me she enjoyed sharing her thoughts with students. That was why she chose teaching as her career instead of doing research. I believe she will be an excellent teacher. Tracy, a born teacher.

New USA President

Obama won the election and became the first African-American to sit in the White House. I like the sentences in the Internation Herald Tribune (Wed, Nov. 5):

"Even during the darkest hours of his presidential campaign, Barack Obama held on to his improbable, unshakable conviction that America was ready to step across the color line.

On Tuesday, America leaped....

Interlanguage--> Target Language

I found the way for students to go from an interlanguage to the target langauge seems quite long.  For example, in this morning's quiz, there was a translation item:

交通安全的重要性再怎麼強調也不為過...

Food Nutrition

Want to know the nutrition quality of different kinds of food?  At the following webpage you can find an interesting list made by Yale University, which appeared in the United Daily News (Oct. 26, 2008):

http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=211&f_SUB_ID=1404&f_ART_ID=156200

The Egret

Here are three photos I took of an egret at the Pihu Park yesterday afternoon.  I was attracted to its elegance.

To Chun-chieh

Dear Chun-chieh,

Though your mother called the other day and told me that you'd like to visit me, I was still very surprised when seeing you.  It's been nine years since I last saw you, right?  I still remember how you made 317 laugh when you studied at NHSH.

Yes. I agree with you that "keeping learning may lead another dream to come true in the next decade."  Is that the belief which prompted you to pursue a master's degree in Museum Studies in Britain after you taught elementary school for only a few years?   Who knows?  Some day, you might be working in a museum.