Promising Teachers-to-be

                            

This afternoon, at the invitation of Ms. Lin (林麗芬教授), I went to NTNU as the judge for the simulated teacher screening.  

There were four participants.  The whole activity is divided into four sections.  First, the student teachers did demo teaching one after another, followed by my comments.  Then came the individual interview, also followed by comments from me.

All the four participants spoke fluent English and taught all in English.  Instead of teaching the reading text, they focused on post-teaching activities, kind of implementing the "flipped classroom" approach.  All the activities were intended to involve students in discussion, hence having them use English.

After their teaching, it was time for me to give feedback.  I praised their good points and pointed out where to improve.   From their smiling faces and attentiveness, I knew my message was gotten across.

The following are some of my suggestions about demo teaching:

1. Show your passion by being (very) energetic.

2. Speak as much English as possible.

3. Keep eye contact.

4. Avoid showing your back to the students.

5. Walk around instead of standing on the platform all the time.  Go to different students to elicit answers.

6. Do warm-up.

7. Besides going through activities, show how you teach reading, vocabulary, and/or grammar.

8. Every activity should be closely related to the topic of the lesson.

9. Be interactive.

10. Reading comprehension exercise/check should be done right after the  reading is done.

11. Mind mapping helps students organize what they learn.

12.  Competition encourages students to talk in English.

13. Relate what is learned to students' life.