2013年1月30日 星期三

2013年1月28日 星期一

2013年1月26日 星期六

"What Makes a Great Teacher"--an ABC News Video

In Have a Little Faith, a book by Mitch Albom which I was reading this afternoon, is a poignant passage that kept me deep in thought.  The author wrote about how he felt on his way out of a crumbling church for the homeless on a chilly winter day.

"On my way out, I took one last peek into the gym. I heard the steady hum of the blowers and saw the shadowy bumps under blankets, some lying still, some tossing slightly. It's hard to express what hit me then, except the thought that every one of those bumps was a man, every man once a child, every child once held by his mother, and now this: a cold gym floor at the bottom of the world." (p. 174)

The words broke my heart when the images flashed through my mind.  What if these people had met a great teacher in their life? Would it have made a difference or were they destined to suffer?

Then this evening I came across this enlightening video for all teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bIQ4-3XSxU

What Makes a Great Teacher

ABC News  02-26-2010

2013年1月13日 星期日

Activities for Teaching the Future Tense

This evening, my dear friend Annie told me about an activity a colleague of hers used when teaching the future tense.  She asked her students to write a letter to their future self five years from now.  It souned interesting.  Then online I found the same activity used not to teach the language pattern, but as a self-monitoring, goal-setting exercise.

http://personalexcellence.co/blog/writing-a-letter-to-your-future-self/

If you cannot get linked to the website, part of the article can be found at the end of this blog entry.

2013年1月12日 星期六

Tips for Overall Preparation for the SAT--溫故勝於知新 調整作息應考

This year's SAT is on Jan. 27 and 28.  The UDN offered the examinees tips for overall preparation during the two weeks before the test.  Click the link, and dyou will not only read the article but also find articles giving preparation tips for indiviual subjects.

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=12&f_SUB_ID=611&f_ART_ID=435063

溫故勝於知新 調整作息應考

【聯合報╱本報記者沈育如】2013/01/10

2013年1月8日 星期二

"21 Emotions for Which There Are No English Words"--an Online Article

I once asked a relative who grew up in the States how we say 嫵媚 in English, and she told me she couldn't think of a proper word.  The following article from POPSCI deals with a similar problem in the English language.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/emotions-which-there-are-no-english-words-infographic

21 Emotions For Which There Are No English Words [Infographic]

That sort of painful, sort of bittersweet, sort of wistful feeling you get looking out the window or driving at night or listening to a far-off train whistle? There's a word for that in Japanese.
By Emily ElertPosted 01.04.2013 at 5:01 pm

2013年1月5日 星期六

Teaching English as a Skill, Rather Than a Subject

Yesterday I said in my blog that English should be used in English class as a tool of communication, which I tried my best to do when I was teaching. The effect may not be seen soon, but it will reach far.  Here is a text message I got late last night from the former angel student who, as I mentioned in yesterday's blog, was fresh from college and got a new job, along with the other two.

2013年1月1日 星期二

Happy New Year!--"New year revellers welcome 2013 with fireworks"--A BBC News Report

Happy New Year!

The news report given by BBC as follows comes along with a video presenting fireworks display in different places around the globe: Auckland, Sydney, Pyongyang, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Moscow, Dubai, Berlin, Edingburgh, London, Rio de Jeneiro, and New York.  Among all these, my favorites are the ones in Hong Kong (01:54), London (04:48), and Rio de Janeiro (05:17).  The display in Dubai (03:26) looks like the one in Taipei 101.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20873877

New year revellers welcome 2013 with fireworks

1 January 2013 Last updated at 11:11 GMT