First of all, I have to say that I really admire the great courage of FHJH’s staff.  They dared to challenge the traditional teaching methods and applied what they think is really helpful to the students. They even started to design their own teaching materials, which is totally different from the schedule of all the other schools. The courage they show brings the staff’s innovation. The staff is willing to risk trying everything, as long as they consider it beneficial for the students. I found the basic principles of their design are nothing new, just those theories I read in the textbooks. However, they chose to approach those dull theories from a very creative perspective. For example, speaking out loud is very rare for students in other high schools. Since speaking is not a required item in the tests, many schools have chosen to ignore its significance. But for students in FHJH, expressing their thoughts in class is very natural. It seems that they are used to interacting with the teachers. I believe that in their past days in FHJH, the teachers must have used a very unique strategy to motivate students. From my observation, the students in FHJH want to learn English not because of some candies or high scores, but really WANT to learn. Motivating students from the bottom of their heart is the most difficult task for teachers. What’s more, the determination of FHJH staff deserves my respect. They would invest a huge amount of money only for the purpose of allowing four teachers pursuing further studies in the United States. It shows that once they make up their mind, they would spare no efforts to achieve their goal. With the above-mentioned features, the teachers can practice what they learned and students are usually the beneficiaries.

After today’s trip, I can understand why some many people praise FHJH profusely. In order to create an ideal environment of learning English, FHJH put all the efforts in triggering students to learn by themselves, including grouping by their own interests, installing some advanced technological equipment in the classrooms, teaching similar making appropriate changes to the material every year, and son on. Not only do they emphasize the importance of happy learning, but also the necessity of exams. Before the entrance exam, almost all the important grammar is taught for three times and a lot of extracurricular materials are covered. From such deliberate design of their English education, I can feel their passion to reproduce those ideal learning environments mentioned in the books and their desire to make dreams come true.

I admire the teaching philosophy of FHJH, although I do find problems with their mode of doing Q/A. I think it may deteriorate the students’ confidence in English. The students may feel ashamed of being forced to stand still and cultivate dislike for English hereafter. Although the idea of allowing the students to have more to think about the question is worthy of applause, the method may need to make some changes. For instance, group work would be a better way to lower students’ pressure down while answering questions.

 In a nutshell, the visit to FHJH was amazing and joyful. It made me understand the school more and confirmed the factuality of a lot of rumors about this school as well.

Take Hot Potatoes for example; I had used it to create several test papers but did not found it useful. So I quitted using the software. Therefore, I did not have a good impression on it until today. Miranda guided us to try every basic function patiently and gave us a rough idea about how it can be used effectively. Her presentation truly triggered my motivation to explore this software a little bit and give it another chance.

As for the part of IWiLL, I was in Dr. Wible’s class when I was a sophomore. At that time, the whole IWiLL project was at an initial stage and the functions were limited. Thus, my impression toward IWiLL was only discussion boards. Lisa’s brief introduction really shocked me. Through these years, IWiLL had many improvements and innovations. It allowed users to train their reading and writing skills. Through the interaction between learners and between learners and teachers, successful and enjoyable learning takes place. I would love to try IWiLL in my future teaching if I have a chance.

Yahoo Group is nothing new to me, since I’m quit familiar with the Chinese version. Yet, it never occurred to me that it could be utilized in the language classroom. The more I know its various functions, the more excited I get. Students nowadays consider Yahoo a powerful portal website, so they must be very curious to learn English by Yahoo Group, which was originally a tool for them to exchange their favorite idols’ latest information. They would be willing to know how could it be used to learn English. Then, my purpose of motivating is achieved. Thank you, Lynn!

 In a word, every part of today’s presentation is rather useful and enlightened as well. I heard some of my classmates even shouted, “Wow!! Amazing! I must go back and play with it!!” I believe ICT in ELT is a trend in today’s English learning environment, so it is better for us to be equipped with these skills advance.

 I truly had a good time today, not only because of the teacher’s (weird?) humor, but also the arrangement of the activities. Although I doubted the righteousness of using money as a reward, I think it would be a strong incentive for first-grader in junior high school. They would still compete for it, though the money is fake.

The arrangement of all the activities is worth praising, since I totally had no clue that I was learning how to write in the process. I think the ultimate goal of teaching something which the students dislike is to teach without making them aware of it. From an invitation card, the teacher taught us how to write an invitation letter. I especially like the idea of writing to my classmates. Even graduate students like us find this activity interesting, not to mention the junior high school students. I bet they would love to write to someone who you are familiar with but don’t know who he or she is while they are writing. They would put more efforts in writing the invitation and imagining the situation; thus, a perfect learning environment is created.

However, I’d like to offer some suggestions for this group. I think the instructions from the teacher could have been much clearer. For instance, the teacher could give all instructions before the students start to write. If the teacher gave students the instructions while they are writing, some of the students may miss them and some of the students may even choose to ignore them. Therefore, I usually offer activity instructions before the activity starts, and even before the handouts or working sheets were distributed. For junior high school students, sometimes I would list all the instructions on the blackboard, so that students can refer to them anytime they want. In this way, the teacher may save a lot of time in answering all kinds of questions about the instructions from the students.

Yet, I think the first reading out loud activity could be improved. Asking each student to read a sentence is not very practical in the real classroom setting, since the time may not be enough. As far as I am concerned, I would adopt a top-down approach in teaching reading. I would firstly ask my students to read for the first time, ignore the words they don’t know and ask them some comprehension questions. Once their comprehension is assured, I would ask them to read it for a second time and tell them to ask me any words or phrases they don’t know. I myself have applied this approach to one of my tutoring students. She is a fourth-grader in the elementary school and the reading text is from junior high school textbooks (second-grader). After teaching her the text, she memorized the unknown vocabulary quickly and comprehended the text fully. From then on, whenever she was assigned a reading text, she would automatically use top-down approach. I’m glad to see her reading happily and ask me questions voluntarily. Therefore, top-down approach becomes one of the models I would use to teach reading.

In the beginning, the principal gave me a strong impression by her succinct style in answering our questions. Instead of using the traditional way of introducing the school point-by-point, she asked us to raise questions. This shows her innovative mind in managing the school. She indeed had a distinct way of leading the whole school staff. From Alice’s experience of establishing ETS, I realized what difference could an unusual leader make to a school. I admire her determination and innovation to make each classroom equipped with a trinitron (單槍投影機?) and a digital platform. Not many principals have such courage and resolution to make such a big change to the school.

Second, the collaboration among all the teachers really struck me. The teachers’ cooperation certainly plays an essential role in writing all the shared teaching plans, creating the outstanding competition results and the students’ remarkable academic performances. I’ve seen a lot of teachers who compete for each other’s “position” at school and never work with their colleagues, and then the students would be the victims of the vicious competition. It is widely recognized that every person has his or her selfish motives and usually competition would occur among teachers; yet, no such feelings appear in CSGHS. I can only see collaborating atmosphere and all the teachers’ big appetite for knowledge, which is definitely beneficial to students.

Third, the class I observed conducted by Teacher Stephanie was quite enlightening. The class was very special not only because it is the gifted class but also because of the students’ creativity and automaticity. At first, we were asked (by the students) to introduce ourselves to the whole class, which would not happen in an ordinary class. I can feel that the students have extraordinarily high motivation in learning and a big thirst in knowing everything. Since Stephanie was so considerate to tell us beforehand what we would see in her class, it was easy for us to fit into the learning context quickly. Yet, I was totally amazed to realize that she wanted to make her students do the online bidding! This idea never came up to my mind before! I think it is for sure that this idea would stimulate students to actively learn the target language. In their presentations, I can tell that instead of setting a fixed format for the presentation, Stephanie let the details decided by the students. In this way, students can have the chance to show their ingenuity and make learning much more interesting in the process. This made me ponder on the possibility of applying this strategy in my own freshman English class. I always set lots of boundaries in giving students assignments, hoping they would hand in an “ideal” assignment. However, an error-free product may reduce the fun in learning and increase students’ frustration. Moreover, I noticed that the students were rather automatic in learning. It seemed natural for them to ask questions and react to the teacher’s inquiries. It is widely recognized that students’ automaticity is fundamental in language learning. I truly appreciate Stephanie’s efforts in creating this kind of open and free learning environment for them.

In addition, Stephanie mentioned that she tried not to rely too much on microphone, since technical problems occur from time to time. She said that we have to make ourselves acquainted with speaking out load, in case some accidents may happen. However, I have done an experiment that using a microphone indeed helps to focus students’ attention on the teacher. Therefore, whenever I need to announce something important, although I do have a loud voice, I would use the microphone. In this way, students could put their focus on the teacher effortlessly.

After visiting one of the most well known senior high schools on this island, it is not difficult for me to imagine why it remains in the top three high schools for such a long time. The spirit of “team work” and the atmosphere of encouraging any new ideas contribute to students’ distinguished academic performance. The trip to CSGHS triggers my expectation on my future school. I hope it could be as lively and warm as it is in CSGHS.

First of all, the principal introduced us the school. I was totally surprised at the small size of the class and of the school. I remembered that when I was in junior high, there were nearly 60 classes in each grade and each class was consisted of 55-60 students. Comparing to my old school, the scale of Funghe was indeed small. Yet, each teacher still did everything they could to assist and accompany the students. From what I saw in Funghe, I was extremely impressed with all the enthusiasm and care the teachers pay toward their students. All the staff, including the amiable principal to the teachers who are in the front line, seems to put students in the first place.

Second, I realized that theory could indeed be integrated into classroom teaching. Observing the experienced teachers conducting their classes made me keep recalling what I learned in class. All those teaching methodologies, approaches, or principles seemed to run through in my mind. A lot of old teachers complained that the theories on the book do not fit the real situation in the classroom, so it is useless to learn those theories. I have to admit that I was like those teachers previously. Although I was a graduate student in TESOL program, I always had doubt in practicing the theories in the real context. Yet, the school visit this time really made me to ponder on the possibility of implementing what I learned in class.

Third, I recognized the huge difference between an ideal learning environment and the real situation. When we discussed how can learning goals be best achieved, we usually tended to ignore the students. When I observed the class teaching, the whole class atmosphere was beyond my imagination. (I guess part of the reason is because they are low achievers.) Half of the students were active and talkative, so the teacher had to respond to almost five questions (and mostly unrelated to the course content) at the same time. The other half of the students were comparatively quiet and did not react to the teacher’s inquiry at all. I found that the students were used to a certain kind of mode that only part of the students were responsible for answering the teacher’s questions and the others just listened quietly. (or did not listen at all?) I didn’t expect this would happen before. Although I had two-year teaching experience in private language institute and am currently teaching freshman language drill class, I’ve never ran into situation like this before. I began to wonder what I would do if I encountered these students.

I think I would rearrange the seats in the beginning. I observed that those quieter students were mostly seated in the back. Although teachers sometimes would walk around, the students were still easily given peripheral attention. Thus, I think moving them to the front or simply rearranging the seats would be effective in solving this problem and changing the class atmosphere. Through the new seat arrangement, the low-achievers would be more focused on the course. Moreover, when asking questions, once they utter a response, I would do my best in encouraging them. I would secretly assign them to do some tasks in class to increase their confidence and motivation to learn.

Finally, the visit to Funghe enhances my belief that every student surely has something to be praised. Although the class I observed were mostly low-achievers, they were very polite. In addition, on my way to leave the school, I ran into two boys chatting and we were all about to go downstairs. Both of them simultaneously stopped and reminded each other that in order to show courtesy, they should let me go first. This may seem a trivial act or common sense to most people, though, I still regard it as an embodiment of successful moral education. I think perhaps they do not outperform others in schoolwork; they are still “teachable.” Thus, teachers should never give up any students.

All in all, being able to visit the school and actually be in the teaching environment is a really valuable experience. It allows me to step back and examine what I have learned or even have doubts toward the textbook. Now I start to look forward to our next school visit!

The experience of teaching demonstration this time made me understand how hard it is to design a lesson. The chart I designed took me a lot of time. I spent much time thinking how might the learners react to this part or that blank. I tried to see myself as learners (This is the most challenging part!) and answered all the blanks and then made changes or corrections to the chart.

As for adding more pictures in the PowerPoint, I didn’t expect to see such powerful influence of visual aids on learners. I think I’ll try to put more visual or even audial aids into my material. Second, I did pay extra attention when I chose the model of PowerPoint slides. However, I didn’t imagine that it’s another story if you see the projected image on the screen. The effect is totally different with what I saw on the screen of my computer at home. I’ll keep this in mind next time I do the PowerPoint presentation next time.

In a word, the presentation experience certainly taught me that teaching is not only putting theory into antual practice. It involves a lot more elements, and I really have to go through it by myself.

  On the other hand, learners should make themselves comfortable in being the focus of the classroom. In the past, all learners had to do in the classroom was note taking and repeated reading. They simply recited what teachers said and memorized every word mentioned. However, this kind of learning was proved to be not sufficient for communication. In the language classroom, they should express their opinions boldly and confidently, and sometimes even dominate the whole learning process. Learners are encouraged to ask questions, show their attitudes, or challenge the teachers. They should fight against their timidity, so that they can be equipped with better English proficiency. 

  All in all, the primary concern is the attitudes of both sides. As long as they hold correct attitudes, learner-centered paradigm is not as complicated as it seems.