That was an early morning. On the way to Li-Shan High School, I needed to transfer a bus at Long-Shan Temple. However, I got off at the wrong stop. So I just chose a bus which would get to Long-Shan Temple at random. Coincidentally, Shella was on that bus, too. But after we got off the bus in front of the intersection of Long-Shan Temple, it took us nearly twenty minutes to figure out where the exact direction was. How complicated!

        Finally, we arrived at Li-Shan Senior High School. The first sight came to our eyes was the sign of Microsoft. Then the next would be the so-cartoon stereo type of a school.

        Then I was assigned to observe teacher Mimi’s class. In fact, it’s amazing to see the interaction between the teacher and students in Li-Shan in a whole English class, which proves that the students weren’t scared to use this language in their daily life. I think that’s good.

In general, after observing these two classes, I found the both the teachers using the media in their teaching. One played the CD to have her students practice listening and filled in the blanks, and later she had them organize the structure of that lesson.

The other showed the PPT first to intrigue the student’s learning motivation to learn various body languages in different cultural background. Then, she asked the students to analyze and summarize the lesson. At the end of the class, the teacher played a short film of Mr. Bean as a material for students’ further discussion.

Besides, I learned more about this school in teacher Alice’s sharing. About the study project on the students, I thought the students in Li-Shan can really be so much more competitive than the others after having this training. And I thought those teachers in Li-Shan who join this program would be more devoted than the other teachers are. However, that’s something worth doing.

Last, the teaching demo did leave something important in my mind. Maybe I’m not good enough now to teach like that, but I’m trying to achieve that level. To set a goal, I think.

Thanks Alice to give us this opportunity to visit Li-Shan, that’s all.

        I went back to my alma mater, National San-Chong Senior High School. I planned to interview my junior homeroom teacher, but she was on business travel to check the route before the official graduation trip. So I changed my plan to hunt for the other teacher to interview.

Coincidentally, the teacher who was willing to be interviewed was an upper-class woman from TKU. Her name is Fong-Yi, Jien(簡鳳儀). She used to be a graduate student in English Teaching Group in TKU.

The Teacher’s Learning and Teaching Background.

        As I mentioned in the above paragraph, teacher Jien graduated from graduate school of English teaching group in TKU. Besides, she studied CALL.  

        I asked Teacher Jien if her learning background influenced her present teaching.

She answered, “Definitely, but it also depends on if a person works hard enough and one’s interest.” For example, when she was in college, she was a member of Guitar Club. So now, when it comes to teaching English songs, sometimes she adds the element “playing the guitar” to her teaching. In English learning domain, she thinks those poetry and literature she studies at university and interests in reading literature she built up do help her a lot in her later teaching. Whenever she wants to introduce some famous writer, poet, or literature works to her students, it becomes much easier for her. And in her teaching, she uses computer to design her teaching, too.

The Teacher’s Belief and Philosophy

        As a teacher, teacher Jien sees herself sort of as media to open the Door to the World for her students to boaden the world vision. She thinks English equals to the World, and she travels a lot during summer and winter vacations. In her journey, she usually takes a lot of pictures or shoots many short films. Then in class, she likes to share them with her students. It’s because to teach English is not only to teach a language, but to teach the whole culture, as she said.    

        On the other hand, she thinks nothing is more important than to cultivate students to have good personality. “I don’t want a student with good grades but with terrible personality, such as, selfish or arrogant.” “I think good attitude in treating people is more important. “She said.

    When I ask her if her teaching philosophy ever changes, she tells me that sometimes it does have to change with time and space. In her opinion, students in different locations usually makes different learning atmosphere, and students in San-Chong Senior High aren’t interested in learning that much. So she has to think all the time if there are activities she can do in class to intrigue their learning motivation. In our further discussion, she says that she especially likes to use PowerPoint to teach how the clauses combine, and to compare with the synonyms, antonyms, and some ambiguous words.

The Barriers and Supports She Faces in the Teaching Context

        She thinks the whole teaching team influences each teacher. Sometimes how a team works can be part of the problem in teaching. If teachers have divergent opinions in a team, conflicts come out. For example, she doesn’t focus on Grammar too much but the other teacher does. She thinks that have the whole class to be in all English environment is essential but the other doesn’t. Or, she emphasizes to teach with computer assistance, but the other is against. However, teacher Jien appreciates the great high-tech devices San-Chong Senior High provides for they supports her teaching a lot.

The Teacher’s Career Cycle and Professional Development

        Teacher Jien has been teaching for around six years since she graduated. But she mentioned that before she started her teaching experience in high schools, she used to teach in cram schools for four or five years when she was a college student. So in fact, she quite encourages us to go to cram school to practice how to teach and gets more opportunities to teach on the platform. And she worked in a private high school before she came to San-Chong Senior High.

        When asked how she keeps improving her English, she replies that to get along with foreign friends is her way. In college, she had been living with a couple of foreigners for years, and now she still keeps in touch with some. Also, she keeps diary in English or goes abroad to keep her updating.

My Reflection on the Interview

        Talking with the other, in other words, is the interaction of thoughts. I’m so inspired, every time, after talking with those who are more experienced. Not only this time, when I find some similar connections between the more experienced and me, I think there is power grown inside my body to support my ideal to keep going from falling. There were a lot of times indeed that I fall into deep thinking whether or not to give up teaching. For example, when I hear of the cram school part, it makes me introspect that maybe something that I’m doing isn’t that worthless.

As for the different part, there are always a lot can be learned from them, regardless of their attitude toward things, or angles to see through things. I believe they can be successful in some ways because they made efforts for it.

        And to my surprise, I get some “sparks” when the answers are different from what I expected before the interview. You know, people always have some mindset before they actually do it. I expected to get some old-school answers, I guessed wrong. The teacher I interviewed turns out to be a teacher who promotes to teach with ICT. Wow, I feel the new air flows at high school. After this interview, I really, really think there are still a lot more for me to explore, to learn, and to “kill” the old-school thoughts rooted in my heart.

                                                                               2008/04/15

Images of Animals

        In my teaching career in the future, I’d be more inclined to take Affective Humanistic, Audio-Lingualism, and also Grammar Translation as my approaches. You

might see it’s weird to put these three which might be against each other together for discussion , but I have my reasons.

The reason I choose Affective Humanistic is because I believe teacher’s attitude to each student can influence a student’s performance a lot. Every student would feel whether or not the teacher has high expectations on him or her. If yes, the student can do a great job; if no, he or she would have less confidence to achieve their works. This approach is also in accordance with my personality — I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. So I’m quite agree with some principles that mentioned in Affective Humanistic, “Respect is emphasized for the individual (each student , the teacher) and for his or her feelings.” “Class atmosphere is viewed as more important than materials and methods.”

As for Audio-Lingualism, I think to learn English in the very beginning starts from speaking and listening. After all, people learn English for communication.  There are some strategies to support my thoughts like, “ Lessons begin with Dialogues.” ”Imitation and memorization are used, based on the assumption that language is habit formation. “ I think the above way is the most natural way to pick up a language.

However, as for the English learning environment in Taiwan, I still think Grammar Translation should be taken. Most Taiwanese students still used comprehend lessons in their first language. Therefore, this approach is indispensible to meet some students’ needs.

These three are what I can picture of to the present. But the way of teaching is also a journey of teacher’s self-learning and ability-improving. Perhaps I would change my thoughts anytime. To change with times, and to change for students’ better learning.