5 Icebreakers for English Interaction

http://blog.tesol.org/5-icebreakers-for-english-interaction/

5 Icebreakers for English Interaction

Posted on 24 August 2015 by Kristen Lindahl

In the United States, it’s that time of year again, when students and teachers excitedly (reluctantly?) return to the classroom after summer vacation. First and foremost, you’ll want to get your students talking to you and to each other!

"Taiwan's ETC system wins 2015 ITS World Congress Industry Award"

This morning, when reading the newspaper, I was attracted by the heading "十年磨一劍 交部：最難的是堅持."

(See http://udn.com/news/story/7314/1158364-ETC%E3%80%8C%E9%A9%9A%E8%B1%94%E5%85%A8%E7%90%83%E3%80%8D-%E5%9C%8B%E9%9A%9B%E7%8D%B2%E7%8D%8E )

On the same page was the good news about Taiwan's ETC got recogition from IBTTA and won an award. For people in Taiwan, this is a national pride.

(See http://udn.com/news/story/7314/1158328-台灣之光-ETC獲收費公路奧斯卡)

The following is the same news story reported in English.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201508190037.aspx

Taiwan's ETC system wins 2015 ITS World Congress Industry Award

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。」