I found this on my desk this morning. Some of my 5th grade students are very artistic--and a bunch of them signed this picture! It's now displayed on my computer monitor facing the class. This is so cool! Definitely brightened up my morning!
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This past week we had the absolute best (and I really mean BEST) most inspiring and entertaining Professional Development EVER! We had a guest speaker named Caroline Lewis. Caroline Lewis is an Educational Strategist. She was a teacher for many years.
You can find out more about her at http://carolinelewiseducation.com/. She talked about the fact that we really hold the fate of our students in our hands. We have the ability to really be a positive influence on your students, or you can damage them (or give them an indelible memory that affects them years into adulthood). Ms. Lewis gave examples of both that have affected her life. She talked about 5 things Effective Teachers do. I LOVED that she didn't use a bunch of buzz words. She didn't bring up Marzano. She did talk about the fact that characteristics of effective teachers has been researched exhaustively. So she asked the question--why are we still talking about it? Below are some of my notes from her talk. Her stories were funny, poignant, and completely relevant to all of us. I hope the snippets of her talk that I was able to write down make sense and are helpful! Education not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. We are arsonists. LOL Teachers either lift us up or traumatize us. (She gave us examples of both from her own experiences) No matter what level, subject you teach, it is hard work. If you want to be a powerful teacher, remember you have the power to influence kids. You never know...(how what you do can influence a child for the long term) Think: what prevents you from flying? What prevents you from being effective? Be aware of your strengths and what happens when your buttons are pushed. For example, if we suffer from sleep deprivation, our patience wears thin much more quickly. (At this point we did an exercise where we selected our top 10 - 15 attributes. Then she showed us how the same attributes change (get magnified and altered in a negative way) when we are tired or otherwise agitated. Remember to have "Think time": the power of the pause. Don't let them answer until they formulate a complete answer. Ex: Don't answer until you paused for 10 seconds Ask more profound questions "Have a convince-able mind" Powerful Teaching is an interpersonal process: Reach them. Then you can teach them. Powerful Teaching is Interdisciplinary: gives meaning and context to learning and sustains learning. We need to do MORE Interdisciplinary/interdivision learning activities We need to make sure learning is open-ended. Find ways to engage your audiences. If all you look at is quantitative data, you are missing a lot. Value of the power of teaching 5 Categories of effective teaching: --high standards, big hearts : sensitivity to learners --communication and engagement -- requires them to have a voice Are you giving a grade buster or a grade booster? --pedagogy skills -- do you know the sequence of what you want to teach? What are you doing to organize your subject to teach? Mix it up a little. Develop learning modules in your mind's eye. Create MEANING. -- professionalism: you can't know everything but you need to model learning. Don't diss teachers/ teaching profession in front of students --create meaning through enthusiasm-- doesn't mean loud. Means passionate. Showing excitement for the subject area carries a lot of weight. How to evaluate yourself as a teacher-- We gravitate towards meaning You have to take care of the whole child. We are the grown ups so we need to cut the children some slack. We are the other person in the lives of our students & we need to teach them to believe in themselves. Give it your best shot! There's a great set of online videos for learning Chinese. These videos are less than 10 minutes each, but are entertaining, well-done, and more importantly, great for learning Chinese! Mike is American, but speaks with a perfectly accurate Mandarin Chinese accent! He has a goofy, off-beat style that is engaging and amusing at the same time, and teaches really good Chinese lessons. These videos are found at the website "Chinese With Mike." I had the good fortune to meet Mike Laoshi in Beijing, where we both attended the same Hanban workshop in November.
Anyhow, fast forward to this semester, where I have a new batch of students to teach (I teach half of the Lower School -- PK3 - 5th grade--students the first semester, and the other half the second semester, which began at the beginning of January). I had spent about three weeks last semester teaching Pinyin to my students at the beginning of the class, but realized that it was a mostly wasted effort, because there was almost no retention, and students didn't ever use their pinyin initials sheet and pinyin finals sheet as pronunciation guides again. This semester, I decided not to use precious class time to focus on learning proper Pinyin. It's not that I think it's not important (it is important) but that I think it can be learned without spending a lot of classtime on it. However, the videos provide a perfect way for students to still learn...from someone else...and thus expanding the class beyond the walls of the classroom! I assigned videos from Chinese With Mike as part of my classes! I have given my 4th and 5th graders homework – to watch his Chapter 2 (pinyin initials) video, and fill out a pinyin initials pronunciation guide. I asked my fourth graders for feedback—and they said you Mike Laoshi was very entertaining, really enjoyed watching his video! In fact, several students asked if they would be assigned more of your videos to watch for homework. When I said “yes,” I saw several fistpumps followed by “YES!” I played Chapter 2 in the class for the students that didn’t have a chance to see his video yet, and the class began repeating the pinyin sounds along with the video, and even said it louder when Mike Laoshi said “I can’t hear you…” ;-) (though one of them commented that there’s no way you’d be able to hear them anyhow…LOL) The fifth graders who watched the video really enjoyed it too! ! I only got pushback from one student last week who complained that a 10 minute video was too long. <sigh> The video game generation…attention spans that have a hard time lasting 10 minutes…Funny though--he might have complained, but then did admit that he had watched the video after all! So he was able to sit through a WHOLE 10 minutes and watch Mike Laoshi's video after all! I think 10 minutes is a perfect length for video lessons, by the way. And…I’ve shown his video to the 3rd grade class as well. We’ll see how they respond to my pinyin assignment. I’m anticipating a few “I don’t get it…what am I supposed to do?” questions. We’ll see… Later on in the semester, I will plan on showing some of my photos from China—and now that my 4th and 5th graders know Mike Laoshi's videos, I’ll show them the photos I had taken with Mike Laoshi in China! The students think he's kind of a celebrity now. Not quite rock star status…yet but give it time! ;-) I have my classroom currently decorated for Chinese New Year. I decided to take some photos of my classroom in its festive state, before I take down a bunch of the New Year decorations. I am also including photos of our bulletin boards and one wall (I share the classroom with the Spanish teacher) and we have multilingual decorations. :-) We hang a dragon from the ceiling, but for Chinese New Year I also have a big banner and lots of hanging things. There's a couple paper lanterns and some pretend bunches of firecrackers too! The fire marshall told us we couldn't have curtains on the windows anymore. Other schools are no longer able to hang things from the ceiling either (fire marshall restrictions. I sure hope that's not going to be the case! We have two bulletin boards at the back of our classroom. I have one, and the other one is the Spanish teacher's board. Above my bulletin board is a timeline of the history of China. Obviously the events are not to scale on the timeline...but it is pretty cool to have it all there. I added in the Chinese names of the dynasties as well. The image of the Great Wall was made by the daughter of another Spanish teacher that I shared a classroom with when I first started teaching. Her daughter is very talented! Our classroom mascot. Several years before I started teaching here, the art teacher and some of her students made this dragon. It even has fabric to make up the body. They supposedly did a dragon dance with it. He sat guard over the cafeteria for several year, and then I volunteered to take custody of it. I suppose I should have a contest to name the dragon. I just call him "hong long" (紅龍) for "red dragon." He silently sits and watches over our classroom. My daughters attend Chinese School on Saturday afternoons. I got my start in teaching when I started teaching my older daughter's class at Chinese School. However, when I began teaching full-time, I realized that I was so spent from teaching all week that I really didn't have enough energy left for my Chinese School students on Saturdays. I could tell I wasn't giving them my best...and it wasn't fair to them. That, and my husband said he would like to have his wife back again on the weekends! ;-)
Well, it turns out that the teacher that currently teaches the class level I used to teach is having all 4 of her wisdom teeth pulled out next week. (!) Needless to say, she was strongly advised to rest instead of trying to teach next week's class. The principal of the school asked me if I would substitute for her, and I was happy to do it, as I actually did not have to attend class next week. I also had this week off of classes, so I went to Chinese School with my husband and girls, and sat in on her class. (I also took the opportunity to log 2 hours of observations out of the required 15 for my field experience class). While watching her teach her class, an idea began to percolate. I have always wanted to try "centers." Many activities that I would like to use in class work much better in smaller groups. However, almost all of my classes at school during the week are only 25 minutes long, and I only see the students twice a week. I haven't been able to figure out how to make centers work in such a sThe room that the teacher has class in is a pretty good size, and I started to map out how I could set up centers, and which ones I could do. The great thing about the way Chinese School classes are set up is that there are 2 fifty-minute periods. So...I can spend the first period on content and review, and after the break, have the centers set up for the students to rotate through. Her class has 18 registered students, but usually only 13-16 come to class at any one time. So I thought that 4 centers would give nice sized groups. Also, with 4 centers, then we can take 5 minutes to orient and explain the centers and transition procedures (see? My classroom mangement class and Dr. Wong is working)! ;-) Then we can spend 10 minutes on each center (which is probably the ideal length of any single activity for most 4-5 year olds) and then 5 minutes to wrap-up and do a closing/dismissal. So, I'm thinking of focusing on reviewing colors and numbers with the centers activities. I have the game "Twister" which is great for reviewing body parts and colors. I also have color bingo and number bingo. I can put together a fun color craft (or a simple one--where the students make color flash cards using label stock and construction paper). Finally, I have these giant dice--the students can roll them and count the dots and then say the numbers in Chinese. Even better--for this class, because many of the students are so young, there are several parents that stay in the class with their children. I can enlist their help to supervise the centers to keep them running smoothly! It definitely has a LOT of potential and I'm so excited to be trying it! I've also run the idea by the current teacher and she's not only OK with it--she's very excited about it too! She told me that if it works, she may want to try it as well! So...I'll let you know how it works! I just love that what I sometimes viewed as a chore (having to teach on Saturdays) is now a really cool opportunity. I love having that shift in perspective. :-) I'll let you know how it works! At school, we have all been asked to write an academic focus for the subject or grade that we teach. We were given a sample overview for foreign language that briefly discussed the grade levels taught, a general list of the units and skills covered at each level. I initially wrote my academic focus from that model. Then I started reflecting on the 5 Cs for Foreign Language Education: Communication, Culture, Comparisons, Connections, and Community. I started to incorporate the 5 Cs into my academic focus statement, and ended up rewrite the whole thing with the 5 Cs as the cornerstone. I haven't gotten feedback on it from the folks at school yet, but thought I would post it here -- and please feel free to let me know what you think! Keep in mind, also, that I will be teaching each student for one semester, or half a year, and have 50 minutes each week with each class (a total of about 18 hours per student, per year).
By the way, I realized that in preparing this academic focus document, I am also getting better at organizing and planning my lessons more deliberately, and am being much more intentional about making sure what I teach address the standards. Academic Focus In teaching Mandarin Chinese, we are guided by the “The 5 Cs”: Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities, which form the core of World Language instruction as established by the National Standards for Foreign Language Education. Even our youngest students are taught within this framework. Communication: In Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade, students will begin to build their foundation for learning Chinese language with simple greetings and responses, as well as basic vocabulary for family, numbers, animals, classroom words, and food. We use the series “My First Chinese Words” from Better Chinese, which includes many online resources that work well with interactive whiteboards. We will introduce the concept that Chinese characters represent words, but the emphasis at this level is on speaking Chinese and developing a natural ear for pronunciation and recognizing the four tones in Mandarin Chinese. In Second Grade, we will expand the foundation of basic Chinese from the primary grades and learn additional vocabulary and commonly used sentences and phrases. They will also continue to use “My First Chinese Words”, including the resources that can be used on Interactive Whiteboards. Some basic Chinese characters are introduced, especially the words which are also radicals (the building blocks of more complex characters in Chinese). In Third through Fifth Grades, we will learn more conversational skills, using more complex sentences and additional vocabulary. The students will use the textbook series “My First Chinese Reader”, which teaches a series of dialogues in each chapter, and incorporates previous vocabulary as well as new vocabulary for each chapter. These include greetings, names (introductions), numbers (age), family members, numbers (day/dates), nationalities, and school/classroom words. These materials are also accessible online and will be used in class with an interactive whiteboard. There is more emphasis on learning characters, with a focus on recognizing radicals. This is an important skill that is necessary in order to learn to use a Chinese dictionary and look up new characters. Culture: Chinese culture is rich in traditions that span millennia. Students in all grades will learn about the major Chinese Festivals, including the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival), the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival, and the Dragon Boat Festival. They will hear the stories and learn about the myths that form the basis of some of the customs and traditions that are practiced for each holiday. The associated activities may include songs, stories, and crafts. Connections: When teaching Chinese, we continually make connections between what is learned in Chinese class to what is taught in other classes. These connections in curriculum and activities include mathematics, sentence structure, story analysis, science, and a variety of unit topics that are being taught in the contained classrooms. Comparisons: When learning about a Chinese holiday or festival, we will compare various aspects of the festival to more familiar Western holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day). We will discuss the major festivals and Holidays celebrated in China. We will make comparisons between Chinese traditions and customs and those traditions and customs that we follow at home or with our families. We also make comparisons between Chinese and other languages and cultures when discussing family, names, titles and occupations, sentence structure, and grammar. Communities: The greater Orlando area also has a strong Asian community including shops, schools, and organizations. This provides many opportunities for people in the Orlando area to participate in festivals and celebrations. Through these festivals and celebrations, we are able to expand the language learning experience beyond the walls of the school. We are also fortunate to have many students in our own school community that are from China, providing many opportunities for cross-cultural interaction. Let me just say...I have a mortal hatred for buzzwords. Too many people in too many disciplines (especially business) like throwing around the buzzword du jour. Often, it seems, they use the buzzwords to sound like they have something interesting to say, when really, they're not saying much of consequence at all. To read some of the most popular buzzwords currently flying around the conference rooms, check out this hilarious article from Forbes.
Now, I also find acronyms moderately annoying--too many places use acronyms that are unwieldy and make sense only to those special people who are "in" and are privy to their meaning. Of course, there are places that thrive on acronyms, like the Military, but acronyms are so ingrained in their culture that acronyms are a way of life...and probably always will be. Then again, texting has brought a whole new life to acronyms...and so their use is no longer the exclusive domain of war rooms and board rooms. Anyhow, back to buzzwords...while taking a class in instructional strategies, I discovered I was having tremendous difficulty staying awake and comprehending the textbook we were using. It took me several failed attempts to learn anything of consequence from the book when I realized that it was because I kept tripping over the many educational buzzwords that were generously sprinkled throughout every paragraph. The other thing I discovered is in educational scholarship, it is very important to cite the many researchers and their theories of learning and teaching. Now, I totally understand how important it is to learn from other researchers and psychologists about how effective teachers teach and how students learn. I get that. However, as a teacher in the trenches, I (1) don't have time to learn about all the theories, (2) am not really interested in who made the discoveries, and (3) just want to know how I can apply what I learn to how I teach in the classroom. There are some amazing researchers who have come up with some amazing theories. Some of them are even worthwhile. ;-) However, I'm more practical. How can I use this in my classroom? What specifically can I do to apply this? That's why I have to recommend an awesome book full of practical, tangible suggestions that I can really apply...without being contaminated with educational buzzwords. It's by Dr. Harry Wong, called "The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher" This is the most awesome book on classroom management, (and was our textbook for our Classroom Management class) and is priced reasonably (less than $20 from Amazon.com) and even includes a DVD of a series of presentations by Harry Wong. Practical applications. That's exactly what I need. Otherwise I may have to go ideate on some best practices involving the psychomotor domain. <gack> OK, maybe not. I know I'm keeping Harry Wong's book, but I think I'm going to sell back my buzzword-filled volume back to Amazon.com. |
About MeChristina has been a Chinese language teacher for the last 5 years and now teaches "Think Tank," a Critical Thinking class to elementary students. She is also mom to two amazing girls, wife to a wonderful husband, violinist, and Christian (not necessarily in that order). Archives
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