TESLnetHK

Forgetting everyday vocabulary

2005-09-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

When I go into a writing lesson, I always got stuck up with students' questions even though I had done some preparation beforehand.

Don't expect students would ask some very difficult vocabulary all the time (though it happens). In fact it is some very easy everyday words that they want to know. (Could you imagine the size of their vocabulary in their mind?!) Although I tried my best to answer them, I knew very well they were not the perfect words that the students were looking for. Even if you are sure that you know some words, you just can't recall them when you're asked! So discouraging!!!

With the dissatisfaction of not giving them the accurate words, I would look in the dictionaries, ask my colleagues and even search for related topics in an online encyclopedia to find the correct words.

Here are some words that I found out after using at least one of the above methods:
(the Chinese words are given)
1. 接送: to pick up/ drop off
2. 校車的保姆: escort (from the gov't website) (the NET at my school said it is not very suitable. "attendant" would be better)
3. 鬥雞: gamecock (the animal), cock fighting (the activity)
4. 鬥魚: (Siamese) fighting fish
5. 看門口: watch the door (though I am not sure about "the door", my colleague said so)
6. 給狗玩的飛碟: a flying disc, or a frisbee (but it is a brand)
7. 磨貓爪用的東西: a scratching post/ surface
8. 馬的烙印: brand (n./v.)
9. 導盲犬: a guide dog (I forgot and thought it was a guiding dog!)

Now I have become quite an expert of pets after reading a lot about them in an encyclopedia.
Why not share the most tricky words you have encountered???

To Start or Re-start?

2005-08-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

To start something is not easy, not to mention to re-start it. Restarting sth might mean that thing has already gone downhill and we are making effort to boost it again. As the Chinese saying goes, starting a business is difficult but to maintain it is even more challenging. As for our blog... I am highly grateful that Steven really took the initiative to "ignite" a little fire here so that i could take the role to fan it. I hope this fire can burn more fiercely, not with our "anger" as the fuel but our passion for education!!! Hence, your participation will certainly contribute to the re-start of this blog! :)

Reunion is a great thing for me... like an exhaust setup to release my "emotion" (hahhaa...; but since this is still a holiday i haven't got too much emotion :P) . It can also lift my spirit!!! This time 14 people got together, imagine how united we are!!! I feel that my engine is "restarted"--warmed up--to prepare for the new year. Hope this feeling could stay long with me and everyone!!! Steven is right, everyone looks good and no one is really depressed (I'm still ok, and of course better after the great meeting :D).

about our identity... have we lost it or have we gained some new ones? i have never thought of that... sometimes i feel teaching Geography can be interesting, but i have to confess that i failed to make it very interesting for students>.<. Some psychological/ literary ideas suggest that our identity starts from our names. Now our basic name is still "teacher" though there are some more attributive features. I certainly don't like being forced into a new attributive identity of a Geog teacher, but what if I acquire some new ones myself? and look for the interesting things in the new post and take them as my own possessions?? There may be some other subjects that i like and want to teach too~~~ oh, this paragraph seems to have complicated a little. to sum up, eh..., why not try to "start" a new identity??? Give yourself a new NAME right now!

Reunion and Revival

2005-08-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

The new school term is coming. That means TESLnetHK will have been here for a year soon. Some of the contributors met with other ex-classmates last week and had a good chat about everybody's "freshman's" experience in different schools. Some were obviously gaining confidence, in proportion to their acting skills :) while some other almost lost their identity, being arranged to teach Chinese language, Geography, etc. instead. (That's education in Hong Kong!) But, should I be surprised that no one seemed too frustrated after all by the "real" teaching environment, and nobody has got real depression?

Connie was very interested in drama-in-education and I told her about IDEA and their recent activity in Hong Kong, including the plan to have their next conference in 2007 here. She was actually considering some training more consistent like the course offered by The Art School. Too expensive and too long, I guess.

One of our classmates told us she never knew about TESLnetHK, dump me!! Then we talked about the possibility of the revival of it. In fact, we tried to think optimistically: people will have more courage (and perhaps time) to share their "anger" after the first year.

OK, but how shall we re-start?

Successful Course Blog Format

2005-05-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Freedom to Tinker describes his successful experiment using class blog which "worked out well". I think the "rule" can be applied to language class also:

"We required each of the twenty-five students in the course to post at least once a week. Each student was assigned a particular day of the week on which his or her entries were due. We divided the due dates evenly among the seven days of the week, to ensure an even flow of new posts, and to facilitate discussion among the students. The staggered due dates worked nicely, and had the unexpected benefit of evening out the instructors' and students' blog reading workload."

EdExchange

2005-04-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

A new initiative on-line to help schools and teachers find sponsors for different types of educational projects in Hong Kong.

No Homework & No Classroom

2005-01-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

I wrote the first entry about homework in my own blog two days ago. And Toby sent me yesterday this article claiming "Most classroom learning sucks" as a response.

I see being a teacher is REALLY difficult. How are you all? Still there?

References for new term

2005-01-12T23:21:00.000-08:00

Some stimulation for (re)starting:
1. An E-Journal for Teachers of Writing (via weblogg-ed)
2. A model of Cheat-proof Exam for English (Thanks, Toby)

3 months is about to pass...

2004-11-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

3 months is about to pass and i wonder how everyone is doing...

challenges come and leave every day and some just recurrent endlessly; some are just easy tasks that could be solved with some wit;

some Ss are slightly tamed and some are just getting worse...

and meanwhile, what have we become? substantially more fierce or incredibly more powerless? more popular among some Ss and/or more detested by the others? more money in the pocket and more pain on our shoulder and less sweet is our voice?? perhaps, or for sure, more wrinkles as we get older as another day passes. :)

perhaps, some of us are too tired to care about the world outside the school~
we should care about ourselves, our well-being!!!

Kind of homework given to Ss

2004-10-13T05:26:00.000-07:00

I really hope that one day i can let my Ss try using blog for their frequent writing!!! I wonder how i should carry it out. For example, what topic jor main area of discussion i should set for my Ss? Like Steven, you let your Ss talk about images/pictures/artpieces that they like. they are interested to talk about them. What are the topics that Ss have "longlasting" interests in?

The HW i give to my Ss have to be conformed to what is agreed by all Eng teachers. e.g. newspaper cutting, journal, sentence making, book reports (in Worksheet format)...
Lower form Ss usually get some guided WS for newspaper cutting...
There is one big challenge to Ss: many of them are extremely lazy and they just copy their HW from others!!! no matter which subject!!!

Luckily, there are still some Ss (in some better classes) willing to learn!!! This is already very satisfying!!!

The challenge to me is i just don't have enough time to mark all their work!!! The above mentioned is not all that i have to mark. since i have to Geog too, which may not be known to some of you perhaps, i need to mark the WB!!! now the test is coming and i just couldn't finish them. i just return the WB to Ss and give the answers to them...

Local English learners' blogs

2004-10-05T02:46:00.000-07:00

It's a bit disappointing TESLnet seems like struggling for its existence after only a month's experiment... especially when one reads Barbara saying she "can't remember what it felt like to teach without blogs." I am sure TESL contributors are all working hard with their innovative and unique teaching methods, which may not be ready to be shared in blogosphere.

Anyway, I am attempting to use blogging to help my younger friends in learning English with some results recently and would like to share with you. Usually they will post their entries first and I will copy the whole text to an email interface, and use coloured text to give my comments or suggestions. I try not to correct every error since that would make the experience less enjoyable by large. After their correction, I will give my comments to the blogs which is as important because it helps enhance the incentive for blogging.

Apparently they all like the idea, probably for the sense of satisfaction and the (authentic) purpose for writing in English is stronger than other classroom assignments. Here are their attempts if you are interested:

-Choochoo has started first and she is more or less used to the way we do it. Now I am asking her to do research on the internet and write summarising posts on her favourite subject, i.e. about famous artists.

-Nikita and Sai have just started just for about a week. They are more into posting interesting visuals now but I believe soon they will write more to explain about their "collected" items.

-Thanksgiving is an adult learner and I'll just give her comments on the blog basically. She has stronger purpose besides learning the language (i.e. to share her spiritual lessons), which is a catalyst rather than a hindrance. I will send her my comments on grammar only when she has repeating mistakes.

We Learners

2004-09-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Basically I still don't grasp what teaching is all about. I never buy a teacher should have in mind the big word "education" all the time while doing their job. On the contrary, I learn hard, as a person rather than a student, still, at an age people think you should spend time worrying about marriage or house or bank account perhaps. Yeah, let them have their own apartments with wifi, I will invest rather in my Taichi course, or piano lessons. Then in class I share what I think may be useful, how I understand things, to the people who have each a funny name called "student". (I can never utter something like "L is my student...") Whenever I start talking about my genuine experience, considering what may benefit a group of eager learners, I have a strong feeling of connection... That's why probably, somehow I knew on the site today they understood what I was talking about, at last, those "speeches" not included in the lesson plan. Their eyes simply tell you. I was touched.

一些分享

2004-09-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

最近聽到劉德華的新歌，覺得很有意思，
不期然想到一位演唱者和教師也有其共通之處。
演唱者想專心為觀眾獻唱，教師又何嘗不想為學生帶來最大的幸福？

無須擔心中傷無須擔心掛上死相
人無須這樣時時亦有不安的動向
望習以為常
無須多擔心愚人技倆
誰人亦可以唱無用禮讓
隨緣唱最理想
每首歌跟至愛分享
無須逼觀眾拍掌無須逼觀眾景仰
無須逼觀眾無情情心癢
能搖動他的心窗隨時可再次登場
要永遠發亮求專心的唱
無須多追究報章無須多追究方向
無須多追究如何能怎麼可每次獲獎
不必動用心細意參詳
我太幸運為你一生都可獻唱獻唱
用盡我力量包起於我身上 Oh-
能為你在台中央毫無顧忌去高聲唱有你在
令我可輕鬆的去唱

如果所有教師都無須擔心中傷和愚人技倆，也不用擔心學生幾時可以獲獎，只用心的去「教」，那會是多有意義的一件事啊﹗
要以生命影響生命，實在需要極大的勇氣，才可以屹立不倒，專心發光發亮。要恆常保持信心呢，因為我們應該相信明天會有一番新氣象。謹與每位有志之士分享。

加油啊﹗

Teresa

Theatre in Schools

2004-09-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Since some of you expressed interest in the use of drama in teaching, this new book and subject talk organised by International Association of Theatre Critics may be helpful for you:

第五屆「國際戲劇/劇場與教育會議」(IDEA 2004)剛於今年七月在加拿大渥太華舉行，香港共有三十多位戲劇/劇場教育工作者參與，透過論文發表、演出、研討等活動，與世界各地的同工分享並交流經驗和心得。下屆IDEA會議將於2007年由香港主辦，從現在邁向2007年，香港的戲劇教育需要作出怎樣的裝備？預期會有怎樣的發展？

是次分享會邀請了幾位渥太華會議的參與者與大家分享在會議中的一些觀察和經驗，並從劇場、學校、社區三方面發表對香港戲劇教育的展望。

「戲劇在校園2002會議」中的多篇精采發言及討論均收錄在剛出版的《釋放中的潛能》一書中。本書由香港教育劇場論壇（TEFO）及國際演藝評論家協會（香港分會）聯合出版，發佈會上將有本書的內容介紹，歡迎各位對戲劇／劇場教育有興趣的人仕參加。

《釋放中的潛能－－戲劇在校園2002會議文集》新書發佈會

暨

「國際戲劇/劇場與教育會議」經驗分享及展望

嘉賓：吳家禧（赫墾坊劇團藝術總監）、舒志義（教統局戲劇教學藝術家）、楊秉基（好戲量藝術總監）

日期：2004年9月25日(星期六)
時間：14:30 - 16:30
地點：香港藝術中心二樓「紅與書」藝術書店

免費入場　名額三十人

留座請致電2974 0542（紅與書藝術書店）或電郵至 iatc@iatc.com.hk

Hello

2004-09-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

The first week

I guess it is not easy to be a teacher, but that doesn't mean it is "mission impossible". As a class teacher, the responsibility is even greater on us. The most challenging task is to teach as well as to nurture. Students nowadays are more "inch" and impolite, so it is really important to educate them and help them understand what is the right thing to do. We do need time and helpful mentors to guide us (but of course in some schools the situation is worse...). Most importantly, it is the heart that counts. That may be times when we are frustrated, but just as Patrick has said, "The reward of teaching cannot be readily seen." So please believe in the value of the job we're doing.

For those who are having a good time at school, congratulations!
For those who are having a hard time, it is only natural, but we can always prepare for the worst and hope for the best!
Please don't lose your faith and hope.
GOOD LUCK!

Teresa :>

tiring......

2004-09-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

hello classmates!!! where are you ah??? don't hide yourself, as i really want to see sb showing up!!!
at the moment, there are only a few active contributors. How are you doing??? let's share our experience... this is a place for "releasing anger and tiredness" ma... :) 消消氣和打打氣o麻~~
these days i always have meetings after school (the result of not having any meeting during the summer, which has made me very angry). I had to leave the school late. Also, one of the classes is particularly noisy. I really need to do sth to stop the problem from worsening. My panel kept reminding me that the teacher whom i replace got fired because she couldn't manage the discipline in class. mmmm..... so troublesome..........

The first day in school

2004-09-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have to write it in a hurry, probably in a summary...
Today i found that my class was extremely noisy. All the boys are the sons of some vendors, perhaps :P. (no intention of insult) They like shouting a lot. only very few of them know what manner is. This situation haven't really discouraged me, fortunately. I told myself that if I want to survive, I have to insist. I have to insist on the implementation of rules, on being strict, on being fair...
If so many teachers can survive, they must have their own tricks. I decided to devise my own tricks.

Trick number 1: Tomorrow I will praise 2 students whom I found had good behaviour today.
Trick number 2: I will thank the 2 monitors who were kind of forced to become the monitors.

One lucky thing, I have another teacher to be the class teacher with me. however, there won't be another teacher in every lesson of mine. So, have to depend on myself.
Everybody, Trust yourself and insist!!!

The 3 most important things

2004-08-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

What would you put as the first 3 prioritized preparations for tomorrow? No, no, not the birthday party for the Virgos! I am talking about the beginning of your teaching career!

My list is:
1. The first lesson plan (which means intructions for various games here)
2. Rules to talk about :-(
3. My digital camera (from Rob Lucas)

Natural Voice Reader

2004-08-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Natural Voice Reader (NVR) reminds me of something I've encountered several years ago. The NVR is one of the software that reads text (not single word) aloud on your computer. A more famous one is called lingsoft parrot. If you type "Natural Voice Reader" in the yahoo search engine, you can get some sites that seems to offer the NVR for free. TruVoice also carries the same funciton. If you visit the website of the school page that i've worked for four years ago, go to the speaking function section and you can surely download the TruVoice text-to-speech engine for free. You may think it helpful in self-learning. Well...would a cold machine "read" more beautiful than a professional teacher who reads with meaning? Try it first before telling it to the students.

Have fun.

-Carol

Teachers' Post from HKedcity

2004-08-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hi~~~ :)
I'm not sure if all of u subscribe to the news from HK Ed city, but I do. Here are some articles for teachers about the preparation for the new school year. See if they are of your interest or not.

http://www.hkedcity.net/article/qualityedu/040825-011/ (開學熱身 Go Go Go)
http://www.hkedcity.net/article/develop/040827-003/ (老師身心健康上學去)
http://www.hkedcity.net/article/newcomers/040826-005/ (每天給自己3個快樂的理由)
http://www.hkedcity.net/article/resources_pick/040825-009/ (資源中心)

Some advice from PTU

2004-08-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hi~~
I have just found some simple advice from the Professional Teachers' Union for new teachers. Although it is just some brief notes, they can serve as a good reminder. You can also check them out from http://www.hkptu.org/

Here are some lines from PTU's website:

A. 開學的第一個月－與學生的關係
很多同事會教新老師惡些　　
要視乎自己性格；有些人罵人也罵不過三句　
惡老師其實不易為：公正（一視同惡）　　
判斷力強（解決學生紛爭）　　
表達力清晰（絕不拖泥帶水或猶疑不決）　　
「有料」（備課充足）　　
懂得在適當時懷柔，徒惡只能與學生勢成水火-->甚麼也做不到　　
學生只服好的惡老師及好的好人老師
2. 關心學生　　
惡也要關心（不喜歡學生就不如及早轉行）
3. 個別面談　　
可增加與問題學生的溝通
4. 切莫偏心　　
應特別照顧成績差的學生
5. 切莫期望過高　　
勿以自己為標準，應以學生的起步點為依據
B. 開學的第一個月－教學上的問題 (I think most of you can do this part
well)
1. 備課一定要充足──即使看來很淺的東西也會出現問題
2. 不懂的要去查清楚才告訴學生──勿將自己扮成萬能博士
3. 勇於承認錯誤──錯了死充　-->惹學生反感　-->令學生得到錯誤訊息
4. 不恥下問──向同事請教課程內容不應自覺羞恥
5. 適當地引用課外話題能增加趣味

Things to do in new school year

2004-08-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

Steven has given us some useful information on the greater issues in education, which I appreciate very much. But now I want to talk about some urgent matters.

Next Wednesday will be the first day of the new school year. i am a bit nervous about that. It seems that i am completely new to an organization and not very sure how the things are run. What do u think we should do in the first few days? We need to go to different classes and we'll be the class teacher of one of those. Now i think i'm going into the real world, which is very different from that during my TP.

The questions sound a bit silly, perhaps. But the theories that we learn are really theories, how we should put them into practice is another matter.

Life Education Seminar

2004-08-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

EMB and Mingpao are co-organising a seminar on "Life Education". This is not about English teaching, but the biased curriculum of existing education in general has largely affected the overall quality of students so much that we should pay some attention to successful "alternative" approach.

It will be held this Saturday. Reservation is required but if you have subscribed Mingpaonews.com, you can easily reserve your seat for the secondary session.

-Steven

Weblogging for Teaching/ Learning

2004-08-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Weblogging becomes so powerful for self-learning on the Internet for myself after I've started my blog for a while. Finding more and more inspiring educators' blogs, I am thrilled to introduce the platform to you who are in the profession, to use weblog for their teaching, and learning. I raised an example from Weblogg-ed yesterday:

Elizabeth Fullerton has her students using Weblogs in groups to report and comments about sports, music, movies, reality television and news. I always think it's interesting to look at how students' writing voices become so audience oriented when they start blogging. These are no exception.

Today, it's in the paper that electronic books will be introduced this coming semester in one primary school in Hong Kong for teaching English, supported by a project funded by QEF. Of course it's just the beginning.... Technology is definitely NOT the saviour, but a tool yet fully explored and utilised constructively.

Hope this blog will facilitate the discussion and sharing of our thoughts and best practices!!

-Steven