Fina's Blog- flying high

Fina's blog has evolved. She had turned it to what it's supposed to be. she's using it for her TPD, posting reflective comments adds depth and character, but I think, it's when she reflects on things and events in her teaching that learning and development takes place. I'm proud of her. I hope there will be many other Finas out there waiting for their talents to be tapped and passion for learning to flourish. 

April's ideas

April responded to my previous email and she has outlined three important things that she would like to explore in her working/teaching environment. And this is what I sent her:

April,

This is good. Can you post this to our yahoogroup, Taiwanese yahoogroups and perhaps our invited teacher trainers, Arnold and elizabeth will share their ideas and opinions.

The topic, "How do kids really learn?" is quite broad. Maybe we could be specific about it. Learning- which skill are we talking about? There should also be a criteria or performance rubric to see how the students' ability have improved. For example, in reading, you could give a new reading material and ask the students to read it. See how many they know or don't know. Do it for a week or two and check again. See how many words have been learned and retained. If you put your observation in a table it would be easier to see the improvements. Which language skills are you interested in? Let me know and I'll give you a list of activities that could help you in your class.

Cheers.

Aiden

april wrote:
Dearest Aiden: Hi! How are you today? I think about some issue are related to teaching such as 1.how to communite with the parents-- I know most of the parents are too busy so they don't know how the English teacher teaches their childern and what do the kids learn, how much do they really leaen at the cram school? Some parents think they pay the money and the English teacher should take the whole responsobility for teaching.I mean if the kids don't learn English well, it would be the teacher's problem.2. How to have a good relationship with your coworker?3.Sholud the experienced teacher train the new teacher?--I know most of the teachers don't want to share their teaching mothod with the new teacher beacuse they think if I teach you how to teach the kids, maybe I will be replaced some day. I don't want to share the experience with anybody because "that" is my tool to survive in the area(at the cram school). I think those problems are happening to me in the past one month. I am still learning and I often question myself how to be a good teacher?

Meeting April's Employer

I received an email from April about a week ago but was too busy with school work that it got burried in my piles of unread messages. I had a chance to clean up my mail box the other day and responded to messages that badly needed attention. April's message was very encouraging, yes, at a time when I don't see the importance of continuing my studies. Depression hits hard. Anyways, I told April that I would love to meet her employer. I've heard good words about her, so I think it's about time to meet her in person. However, I told April that I'd like to do that and perhaps observe her class, too. She agreed. I think that trust has been established- and I think that April knows that other than the fact that I want to earn my degree, deep in my heart, I want to help- those who want to improve their teaching and most importantly- themselves. I think with April and Joy [Fina] I think I've accomplished my goal. Success here is intrinsic- but so powerful and I find it difficult to describe it- perhaps in due time.

Aiden