The Rainbow in Grandma's Eyes--"廖玉蕙／阿嬤的眼睛裡有彩虹"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7340/1154673-廖玉蕙／阿嬤的眼睛裡有彩虹

廖玉蕙／阿嬤的眼睛裡有彩虹

2015-08-30 02:31:18      聯合報 廖玉蕙（語文教育學者及散文作家）

二○一○年九月起，政府宣布每年八月的第四個星期天為祖父母節。這在老年人口驟增的時代，格外具有意義。

My comments: So this year, Grandparents' Day fell on August 23. Though a little late, I still wish all the grandparents a happy grandparents day.

 

301 Class Reunion

Time: 18:00, Aug. 30, 2015

Place: CaLACaLA

Class 301 was one of the three senior classes I taught in my last teaching year. These science majors graduated from NHSH in 2012, and now they are going on to their senior year in college in the coming fall. This evening, besides their "good funny days," our talk revolved around what they are going to do after college. Unlike seniors in high school who all have the same goal: To pass the college entrance exam(s) and go to a good college, seniors in college have diverse options. Many may feel like facing the crossroads in life, not knowing exactly what they really want. However, thinking of their upperclassmen who graduated long before them and are now around 32 years old, I don't worry about these students. I know whatever will be will be. What they can do is seize the day, work their best, and catch what life throws at them.

Another Gathering with Students

Mengzhe LINEd me the other day asking for a meet-up this weekend. He said he'd like to ask me some questions about going abroad for further studies. He invited his good friend Chungtze to join us.

Taiwan Students' Performance on 2014 TOEIC Speaking and Writing Tests --"多益說寫成績 台灣勝日韓"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/6904/1150262-%E5%A4%9A%E7%9B%8A%E8%AA%AA%E5%AF%AB%E6%88%90%E7%B8%BE-%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%8B%9D%E6%97%A5%E9%9F%93

多益說寫成績 台灣勝日韓

2015-08-28 08:16:24      聯合報 記者沈育如／台北報導

想要成為國際移動人才，語言是必要條件之一。根據ETS首度公布多為職場使用的多益口說與寫作測驗成績，台灣2014年口說平均分數134分，寫作147分，均較同年的日本、韓國成績均高，表現不俗。

Visit of Guangren

Guangren (彭光仁), a student I taught at Cheihshow Junior High School around 33 years ago, paid me a visit this late afternoon. He was 13 when I taught him, and now he is 46!

On Teachers' Working Hours--"把教育當志業 怎有工時問題"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7339/1148448-%E6%8A%8A%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E7%95%B6%E5%BF%97%E6%A5%AD-%E6%80%8E%E6%9C%89%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%82%E5%95%8F%E9%A1%8C

把教育當志業 怎有工時問題

2015-08-27 01:45:13      聯合報 馬惠娣／教育工作者（南投市）

最近教育現場最流行的話題就是「教師每日工時八小時，寒暑假到校兩天」，一位家長憤憤不平說：「老師要享勞工的權益，又要享受教師的福利，卻排除『與教學無關的工作』，還強調沒參加工會的老師不能享有協商條例，老師的尊嚴都不見了。」

My comments: This is not true. When I taught, Ususally, I got to school around 7:30am, left school around 6-6:30pm. After dinner, having finished housework, I went to my study and went on with my job, reading students' homework and preparing lessons for the next day, which included designing classroom activities, searching for supplementary materials, such as videos and articles, related to the lesson. I often worked until 11-11:30pm.

Jack, Happy Seeing You Again, and Good Luck!

Had an afternoon tea with Jack, a former student who graduated from NHSH in 2009. Last Thursday, he asked if I could go over his motivation letter for applying to a language school in Germany, though having a deadline to meet, I still did it promptly and offered him some revision suggestions. This afternoon, I read the revised letter and also gave him a mock interview in English. He's going to have the interview with someone from German Institute Taipei tomorrow.

"Relatively Speaking: 5 Strategies for Teaching Relative Clauses" (關係子句教學策略)--from Busy Teacher

When it comes to English grammar, relative clauses are nightmares to many learners. The modifying structure is totally different from that in Mandarin. In Mandarin, we put the modifying clause in front of the modified noun while in English, it follows the noun. A former colleague once told me when seeing her students' confused looks, she spent one hour re-teaching her senior class this grammar point, which was supposed to have been learned in 9th grade.

However, I find this grammar point intriguing and always had fun when teaching it. The following webpage deals with ways to teach relative clauses. A good reference.

http://busyteacher.org/18247-how-to-teach-relative-clauses-5-strategies.html

Relatively Speaking: 5 Strategies for Teaching Relative Clauses

"The 21 greatest graduation speeches of the last 50 years"--from Vox

I love to watch/listen to graduation speeches. A graduation speech is always spoken from the speaker's heart based on his/her precious lifetime experience. In my last year of teaching, I used excerpts of four such speeches in a final exam I wrote for high school seniors.

Vox presented the 21 best graduation speeches of the last 50 years. I don't know what the criteria are. However, it seems to have missed J.K. Rowling's at Harvard Commencement and Amazon founder & CEO Jeff Bezos's at Princeton University.

A Gathering with Mr. Wu, Former NHSH Principal

Mr. Wu, former NHSH principal, retired this past summer. Ms. Lai organized a dinner gathering for him and some retired teachers. Though retired from public school, Mr. Wu serves now at Taipei Kuei Shan School as principal. His second career. Knowing he enjoys the work very much, we were all happy for him.

 

Best Books of the Month_Amazon

Surfing the Net for some information, I came across this Amazon page entitled "Best Books of the Month." A good reference for those who are looking for books to feed their mind and/or heart.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Books-of-the-Month/b/ref=amb_link_431577422_3?ie=UTF8&node=390919011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo-books-atf&pf_rd_r=1QDK02TR886YF1YP6Z50&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=2069529942&pf_rd_i=0143038419

The following are books listed on this page. For further information of each book, please click the above link and check it out.

"Literature in ELT: Who’s Afraid of Literature?"--TESOL Bolg

http://blog.tesol.org/literature-in-elt-whos-afraid-of-literature/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Literature in ELT: Who’s Afraid of Literature?

Posted on 19 August 2015 by Guest Author   Sybil Marcus

I admit it—I’m passionate about using literature, especially short stories, for language learning. As I result, I take every opportunity to talk about this to teachers of intermediate to advanced-level ELLs. In a nutshell, I think literature is a great teaching tool for these reasons:

• It’s an opportunity to teach language skills in an authentic context.


• It’s a chance to practice critical thinking skills.


• It introduces a diverse array of social and cross-cultural topics.


• It gives rise to energetic class discussions.

4T in Flipped Classroom--"翻轉教室始祖 來台傳「4T」心法"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7314/1120760-%E7%BF%BB%E8%BD%89%E6%95%99%E5%AE%A4%E5%A7%8B%E7%A5%96-%E4%BE%86%E5%8F%B0%E5%82%B3%E3%80%8C4T%E3%80%8D%E5%BF%83%E6%B3%95

翻轉教室始祖 來台傳「4T」心法

2015-08-14 03:27:22      聯合報 記者林秀姿／台北報導

「翻轉教室」在台灣喊得震天價響，但到底什麼才是「翻轉」？讓學生玩遊戲學數學就是翻轉嗎？翻轉教室創始人強納森柏格曼（Jonathan Bergmann）首度來台現身說法，提出翻轉四Ｔ：Thinking（思想）、Training（訓練）、Time（時間）、Technology（科技），老師必須突破這四大要素才能完成翻轉。

My comments: Want to know more about Johnthan Bergmann and flipped classroom? Please read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bergmann

Stop and Smell the Roses with Mei-chu

Though I'm retired, my life is still kind of hectic. So today, with Mei-chu, a high school classmate, I escaped to the embrace of nature. Also, by inviting Mei-chu to lunch, I showed my gratitude to her for taking Ms. Lin, my high school teacher, home by taxi after my son's wedding banquet on May 30. We chatted over lunch and took photos.

Something To Learn from Students in Mainland China--"陸生求學狠如狼 台籍生看傻眼"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7331/1132946-%E9%99%B8%E7%94%9F%E6%B1%82%E5%AD%B8%E7%8B%A0%E5%A6%82%E7%8B%BC-%E5%8F%B0%E7%B1%8D%E7%94%9F%E7%9C%8B%E5%82%BB%E7%9C%BC

陸生求學狠如狼 台籍生看傻眼

2015-08-20 02:41:52      聯合報 記者郭玫君／台北報導

兩岸學生大不同，當台灣大學生還愛掛在臉書分享吃喝玩樂，上海復旦大學台籍生丁于珍發現她的網路社交圈上，多的是大陸同學發表政策看法、時事分析；積極認真造就的硬底子，讓她深感陸生狼性十足，每天都在充實自己，好機會一降臨就狠狠抓住。

My comments: They got it because they are ready. The other day, I was impressed by the title of a book "What do you do with your youth? (你拿青春做什麼?)"

A Gathering on Short Notice

This noon I had a gathering with my brother-in-law Simon, Jun-zhi, and Chun-zi. In fact, Jun-zhi and his wife Chun-zi  invited me via LINE yesterday evening. Although I had to pick up my sis-in-law at Taipei Veterans General Hospital at 3 this afternoon, unable to resist their sincerity, I, the catalyst of their friendship as Jun-zhi called, finally accepted their invitation.

"Readers Theater: A Superfood for Oral Skills"

I heard of RT when I taught at high school, but never formally used it in my class.

http://blog.tesol.org/readers-theater-a-superfood-for-oral-skills/

Readers Theater: A Superfood for Oral Skills

Posted on 5 August 2015 by Karen Taylor de Caballero

When it comes to preparing courses and lessons, we all know we need to provide learners with a healthy diet of nutritious classroom activities that promote practice, improvement, and achievement.

My comments: Yes,  when it comes to language learning, practice counts most.

In this sense, Readers Theater (RT) is a superfood, an activity chock full of nutrients that every learner needs, including Vitamin R (which supports reading fluency) and Vitamin V (for a healthy vocabulary), while providing differentiated learning opportunities for students of varying abilities.

My comments: Vitamins! Haha! Good analogy.

Music Is the Best Medicine--林中斌／妙藥音樂--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7340/1126008

林中斌／妙藥音樂

2015-08-17 00:38:23      聯合報 林中斌

剛上計程車，便聽到前座優雅的音樂。

「是FM99.7嗎？」

「唉！開車壓馬路已經夠累了，還得受收音機裡口水戰的疲勞轟炸。話都沒營養，議題都無解，愈聽愈氣。幸虧有愛樂電台。」

Yu-chen Chen (陳宇辰), Bravo!

This afternoon, at my aunt Lily's invitation, I went to Chen, Yu-chen's violin recital at National Taipei University of Education with two junior high school friends. I was enthralled by Yu-chen's performance. In fact, months ago, I heard him play H. W. Ernst's "Die letzte Rose (夏日最後的玫瑰)" at a violin concerto and was very impressed. Today, he played for nearly three hours and it was really fascinating.

15 Great Songs You Might Have Missed This Summer

http://time.com/3998401/summer-music-playlist-songs/

15 Great Songs You Might Have Missed This Summer

Jason Lipshutz / Billboard Aug. 14, 2015

How to Remember Vocabulary--a VoiceTube Video

https://tw.voicetube.com/videos/8199

This around-6-minute VoiceTube video presents five ways to remember new words one is learning. Very useful tips. It's in British English and not fast.



Summary:

Gems of Wisdom

"Stars can't shine without darkness."

"There are billions of people. Don't get upset by any one of them."

These are sentences on two different T-shirts I saw this afternoon when shopping with my mom-in-law and niece at Giordano in Carrefour.

She Is the Master of the Art of Thankfulness

Annie, a lovely friend, knows the art of thankfulness, which, according to Dr. Randy Pausch in his book The Last Lecture, is a lost art. Annie never hesitates to show gratitude, even for just what a friend should do. Annie, thank you for your "Thank you."

Tips to Stay Away from Dementia--終於公布了！日本抗老化專家公布活百歲也不會癡呆的５大方法！！一定要學起來...

This webpage offers some ways to stay away from dementia.

http://www.life.com.tw/?app=view&no=303068

終於公布了！日本抗老化專家公布活百歲也不會癡呆的５大方法！！一定要學起來...

樂樂25003  2015-07-28

Since the words on this webpage cannot be copied and pasted, I'll list the five tips in English as follows:

1. Get up early.

1) Drink a glass of warm water right after getting up.

2) Drink vegetable/fruit juice three times a week.

3) Exposed yourself to the sun 15 minutes every day.

4) Eat dark chocolate.

"World's coolest bookstores"--from CNN

And an Eslite in Taiwan is one of them. Click the link and you'll see the pictures of these 18 cool bookstores. Here I'd ike to cite only the description of our Eslite.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/03/travel/worlds-coolest-bookstores-new/index.html

World's coolest bookstores

By Frances Cha, CNN

Updated 0131 GMT (0831 HKT) August 4, 2015

(CNN)—Bookstores seem to be dying faster than it takes to download the complete works of Shakespeare these days, so when one comes back from the grave it's a cause for celebration. 

My comments: Humorous comments.

"Popular Wrong Ways to Teach Writing"

This is an article I found while unpacking a box of my stuff tonight, which had been left in the basement of the apartment building since May.

Popular Wrong Ways to Teach Writing

by Curtis Kelly

Cambridge Connection May 2001

It always amazes me how many writing teachers--and writing books too, for that  matter—focus on grammar, vocabulary and language accuracy as the main objective of the writing class. I suppose we do this because, first and foremost, we are language teachers, but there are far more important things we should be teaching instead. In particular, I believe we should focus on teaching writing fluency and organization.

On Teaching--"黃介正／「套餐」與「單點」"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7340/1105472-%E9%BB%83%E4%BB%8B%E6%AD%A3%EF%BC%8F%E3%80%8C%E5%A5%97%E9%A4%90%E3%80%8D%E8%88%87%E3%80%8C%E5%96%AE%E9%BB%9E%E3%80%8D

黃介正／「套餐」與「單點」

2015-08-07 02:29:33      聯合報 黃介正（淡江大學戰略研究所助理教授，戰略暨兵棋研究協會理事長）

通常我們造訪陌生地，又沒有朋友熟人領路，當肚子餓而進了家從未吃過的餐廳，可能最保險的做法，就是看菜單上的主廚推薦菜色，如果是一群人，最簡單的就是叫「套餐」（set menu），按照餐廳精心規畫好的菜色順序，享用一頓美食。如果是熟門熟路的客人，自然是「單點」（a la carte）自己最喜愛的餐點；倘若直接要求主廚在一定的金額內，做出菜單上沒有的菜色，才是更厲害的饕客。

我常提醒學生：上課完全聽老師準備的講義，只跟著做筆記，叫做吃套餐；而自己廣泛涉獵、勤於提問，則有如單點；而且最好點菜單上沒有的，考考老師的功力。因為廚藝越高的師傅，越不怕客人點菜的挑戰。

A Visit to Annie and Her Family

This morning, I visited Annie and her family. Annie is the one who's co-written with me many listening, reading, or CA practice books for junior high school students. Just pay a visit to her home, and you'll know what an avid reader she is. Not only is she interested in reading, writing, and teaching, she is also fond of cooking and taking pictures.

Dear Prof. Wu, We Miss You

(The two sides of the card handed to us attendees at the gate after we signed)

This morning I attended Prof. Wu's (Roseller Ortega Ing, 吳國賢教授) funeral at Holy Family Church Taipei. During the two hours, I got to know more about Prof Wu through the talk by his eldest son, his student Ms. Ho (何慧玲教授), his former colleague Ms. Shih (施玉惠教授), and his youngest sister on behalf of his wife.

When Teachers from Mainland China Meet Students in England--"陸師赴英教書 師生都抓狂"--from UDN

A kind of cultural shock.

http://udn.com/news/story/7331/1100465-%E9%99%B8%E5%B8%AB%E8%B5%B4%E8%8B%B1%E6%95%99%E6%9B%B8-%E5%B8%AB%E7%94%9F%E9%83%BD%E6%8A%93%E7%8B%82

陸師赴英教書 師生都抓狂

2015-08-05 03:15:12      聯合報 記者汪莉絹／綜合報導

英國廣播公司（ＢＢＣ）啟動一項教學試驗，邀請大陸教師到英國教書，結果師生都出現適應困難，學校和學生覺得中式教學麻木無趣，陸師則認為英國學生欠缺紀律。

My comments: An interesting experiment.

Gathering with Ali and Vicky

Time: 7pm, Aug. 4, 2015

Place: Mount Kao

Two weeks ago, Vicky suggested a gathering, and this evening, we enjoyed spending time together. Most of our chat revolved around relationship. In my opinion, what counts most in a relationship is whether both sides are happy. If not and neither endeavors to better the relationship, to me, that would not be worth maintaining.

"Developing Writing Skills Through Personal Journals: Part 2"--from tesol Blog

http://blog.tesol.org/developing-writing-skills-through-personal-journals-part-2/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Developing Writing Skills Through Personal Journals: Part 2

Posted on 24 July 2015 by Elena Shvidko

In today’s blog, I continue describing strategies for keeping a personal journal. In my last blog, I referred to personal journals as a tool for improving writing fluency and overcoming the problem of not knowing what to write about. As I also mentioned, I used this strategy at the suggestion of my writing teacher, and it helped me overcome my writing apprehension.

The Books of 2015 So Far Picked by TIME

http://time.com/3935938/best-books-2015-so-far/

Here Are the Best Books of 2015 So Far

TIME Staff   July 30, 2015

To offer a reading list for its readers, TIME picked 10 good books from the sea of publications as follows. "They span genre and form." Visit the webpage, and you can find description of the books.

1. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

She Works as a Volunteer During the Gap Year--高中畢業「空檔年」 德國女孩來台當志工--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7314/1092191-%E5%BE%B7%E5%A5%B3%E4%BE%86%E5%8F%B0%E7%95%B6%E5%BF%97%E5%B7%A5-%E7%95%B6%E6%85%A2%E9%A3%9B%E5%A4%A9%E4%BD%BF%E7%BF%85%E8%86%80

高中畢業「空檔年」 德國女孩來台當志工

2015-08-01 03:04:34      聯合報 記者曹馥年／台南報導

20歲德國女學生許婉珊（Sarah Schwarz）高中畢業後，透過台灣國際青年文化交流協會（ICYE）來台當志工，1年來在瑞復益智中心協助早療、智能障礙孩童打理生活，也學習基礎中文。

My comments: She did this during her gap year.