I finally submitted my field trip proposal to school. One of my students yelled out "You are an awesome teacher!" after I showed them the trip plan. Well, I was really honored to receive such compliment, but I have to say, without students' enthusiasm I wouldn't have pulled all these together.
At the end of last quarter, I introduced my hometown to my students, and some of them wished to see it by themselves, the idea of having the field trip to China just jumped in my mind, like thousands of other ideas which ended no where. But this time was different. Many of them kept asking me whether I started the plan or not, just like everyday I check their homework.
Nothing would have been done if they haven't pushed me so far. Now looking at the whole trip plan, I'm really proud and can't wait to go as if it's the first time for me to travel to China as well.
After the field trip, we will hold a Chinese week in school, in which students can show their work and share the experience with their peers. I'm sure it will be a wonderful experience for both me and my students.
Below is our field trip plan, I found an educational tour agency in Beijing called Wild China, I told them the places I want to visit, and they pulled everything together perfectly.
Day 1
Shanghai Le Tour Traveler’s Rest Youth Hostel
D
Afternoon: Arrive at Pudong International Airport;
take the Maglev train to terminal station;
ascend to the 100th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center;
enjoy a boat trip on the Huangpu River
Evening: Dinner; evening walk on Nanjing Road
Day 2
Shanghai – Hangzhou Emerald Hostel
B, L, D
Morning: Visit Yuyuan and explore Chenghuangmiao
Afternoon: Lunch; visit the Tianzifang neighborhood;
take train G7319 (1600/1645) to Hangzhou
Evening: Dinner at White Deer; visit local night market
Day 3
Hangzhou Emerald Hostel
B, L, D
Morning/Afternoon: School exchange; visit Hangzhou Silk Market
Evening: Dinner; Karaok in Kaige
Day 4
Hangzhou
Emerald Hostel
B, L, D
Morning: Bike riding at Xixi Wetlands
Afternoon: Transfer to Longjing tea village;
learn tea making process and tea tasting;
return to Hanghzou
Evening: Green tea dinner; Enjoy Impression West Lake
Day 5
Shanghai – Hangzhou N/A
B, L
Morning: Take train G7306 (0900/0945) to Shanghai;
transfer to Xintiandi; early lunch and free time
Afternoon: Transfer to Pudong International Airport; depart Shanghai
2010年12月16日星期四
Santa Claus is coming to town!
When we had a department meeting last month, some teachers suggested to have a informal Christmas song competition among all the foreign language classes. I wasn't a big fan of it. I am not a big Christmas fan, and I can't think of any Christmas song in Chinese........ Well, I admit I was too lazy.
French class was practicing the song "Santa clause is coming to town", our French teacher is beautiful and romantic, she even designed a cute dance to go with the song. One day before the exam week, one of my students who had given up on me finally found the same song in Chinese, and sent the youtube link to me.
Well, let's do it!
Yesterday after the big final exam, students all excited about the coming winter holiday. We only had 15 minutes to practice the song,I was really amazed by their enthusiasm, they nailed it!
We went to the French classroom, it is tiny and cozy, by the time we arrived there, there was another math class. We sang the song in French and Chinese, many of the French class students also study Chinese as well, so when we sang the Chinese version, they all joined in together. In the end, we all sang "The moon represents my heart" in Chinese, it's probably the most well known foreign song in our school.
More than 40 foreign students packed in a small classroom and sang the song in Chinese, it's absolutely one of the most beautiful things I ever seen in my life.
Thanks to the Santa Clause, I have decided next year we will sing the same song, and ask students to design their own dance.
It was really fun :))))))))))))
French class was practicing the song "Santa clause is coming to town", our French teacher is beautiful and romantic, she even designed a cute dance to go with the song. One day before the exam week, one of my students who had given up on me finally found the same song in Chinese, and sent the youtube link to me.
Well, let's do it!
Yesterday after the big final exam, students all excited about the coming winter holiday. We only had 15 minutes to practice the song,I was really amazed by their enthusiasm, they nailed it!
We went to the French classroom, it is tiny and cozy, by the time we arrived there, there was another math class. We sang the song in French and Chinese, many of the French class students also study Chinese as well, so when we sang the Chinese version, they all joined in together. In the end, we all sang "The moon represents my heart" in Chinese, it's probably the most well known foreign song in our school.
More than 40 foreign students packed in a small classroom and sang the song in Chinese, it's absolutely one of the most beautiful things I ever seen in my life.
Thanks to the Santa Clause, I have decided next year we will sing the same song, and ask students to design their own dance.
It was really fun :))))))))))))
2010年11月15日星期一
2010年10月26日星期二
Peony in love
Shame to say, but this is the first English book I have ever finished in four days. We were on a beautiful island called Phu Quoc. It was really nice and quiet, almost too quiet for me. I'm not a beach person,I can't really swim. Thankfully I brought this book with me, I spent most of the time reading this book.
It's a story about a girl named Peony who was well educated from a rich family in Hangzhou. The story sets at the beginning of Qing dynasty when girls and women started to get good education, write poems and even publish their work.
Peony loved the opera "The peony pavilion", she dreamed to meet a lover even though she had been betrothed. She met a handsome young poet by accident, they shared the same passion about the opera and fell in love. The love was so strong that she got lovesick, she spent most of her time on commenting the opera and died just before her wedding. She became a lonely ghost, only then she found out that her fiancé was the young poet she was in love with.
Her love wasn't dying with her body, she stayed and watched her husband getting married, she put all her love in the sister wife's body, and continued to finish the comment she was working on.The sister wife died during the child birth.She educated and trained another girl to match her husband.This young girl was brilliant and sensible.She found the comments that both wives have been working on and finally finished it. The book was published under these three wives' names. This was the first comment book ever been published in Chinese history.
It's a true story(except the ghost part). I was really fascinated by the author's writing, it's not just a breath taking love story, the exciting changes happened during that period of history were beautifully wove into the story.
One of my students recommended the book to me after I introduced Hangzhou in the class. This is the best feedback I got. By teaching you learn so much from students.
It's a story about a girl named Peony who was well educated from a rich family in Hangzhou. The story sets at the beginning of Qing dynasty when girls and women started to get good education, write poems and even publish their work.
Peony loved the opera "The peony pavilion", she dreamed to meet a lover even though she had been betrothed. She met a handsome young poet by accident, they shared the same passion about the opera and fell in love. The love was so strong that she got lovesick, she spent most of her time on commenting the opera and died just before her wedding. She became a lonely ghost, only then she found out that her fiancé was the young poet she was in love with.
Her love wasn't dying with her body, she stayed and watched her husband getting married, she put all her love in the sister wife's body, and continued to finish the comment she was working on.The sister wife died during the child birth.She educated and trained another girl to match her husband.This young girl was brilliant and sensible.She found the comments that both wives have been working on and finally finished it. The book was published under these three wives' names. This was the first comment book ever been published in Chinese history.
It's a true story(except the ghost part). I was really fascinated by the author's writing, it's not just a breath taking love story, the exciting changes happened during that period of history were beautifully wove into the story.
One of my students recommended the book to me after I introduced Hangzhou in the class. This is the best feedback I got. By teaching you learn so much from students.
Brain storm- some ideas about teaching writing
I found it's quite hard to teach writing at the early stage. Students don't have a lot of vocabulary, they can't think in Chinese. One of my students wrote a whole story in English and came to ask me the translation in Chinese.
I insist that my students should use the vocabulary they have learned when they write.It forces them to think in Chinese.But for writing, I really don't have good ideas. My colleague asks her students to keep diary everyday, it's a good idea.But at the same time, students don't really write about many topics except for complaining to much homework, being happy or not happy.
So how to make them thinking beyond the boxes? Our drama teacher gave me an idea. He gives students a word, asks them to sit together in groups and write down words which are related to each other.
It reminds me of a picture book I read in Hangzhou, each picture has a connection. For example, the picture of grass is related to man's beard.
I was teaching the lesson about seeing a doctor. I wrote "生病（get sick）" on the white board, and I wrote an example word "妈妈（mom)", I told them when I am sick, I think about my mom, and my mom always take care of me. I ask them to come to the white board and write down a word each. They have to tell me the connections. It's a good exercise for them to review the words and practice speaking as well. Some of the students are very creative, they came up with words like: apple,travel,party,weather,clothes. After that, I asked them to write a short story of being sick. Most of them took the ideas from the words they wrote on the board.
I insist that my students should use the vocabulary they have learned when they write.It forces them to think in Chinese.But for writing, I really don't have good ideas. My colleague asks her students to keep diary everyday, it's a good idea.But at the same time, students don't really write about many topics except for complaining to much homework, being happy or not happy.
So how to make them thinking beyond the boxes? Our drama teacher gave me an idea. He gives students a word, asks them to sit together in groups and write down words which are related to each other.
It reminds me of a picture book I read in Hangzhou, each picture has a connection. For example, the picture of grass is related to man's beard.
I was teaching the lesson about seeing a doctor. I wrote "生病（get sick）" on the white board, and I wrote an example word "妈妈（mom)", I told them when I am sick, I think about my mom, and my mom always take care of me. I ask them to come to the white board and write down a word each. They have to tell me the connections. It's a good exercise for them to review the words and practice speaking as well. Some of the students are very creative, they came up with words like: apple,travel,party,weather,clothes. After that, I asked them to write a short story of being sick. Most of them took the ideas from the words they wrote on the board.
2010年10月15日星期五
I love Hangzhou!!
I really got sick of hearing people saying Hangzhou is the best city when I was at home.But now I got home sick after two months in Ho Chi Minh City!
I miss the beautiful west lake,the food,the tea mountains people hang out during the weekends,even though I hardly went out when I was in Hangzhou,I even miss the KTVs which I used to hate! Everything about Hangzhou seems so lovely right now. I can't wait to go home and show the most beautiful city to my students.
I got some videos and love stories online to show them,one of the stories is called 梁山伯和祝英台，this is like the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet; The other one is the White Snake lady,I'm going to do a reading project on this story with one of my classes. Both of the stories are quite popular in Vietnam.
I have four classes,three of them have a lot more girls than boys,they were fascinated by the stories and scenery;on the other hand,I have one class has 10 boys and 2 girls,they thought it was boring.It's interesting to see the fact,which made me wonder the different strategies or resources I might need to use for differentiation,I will discuss about that later.
Anyway, it felt really good that I could share something real important to me with my students,I asked them to collect videos,photos,songs,stories about Ho chi Minh or Vietnam during the autumn break,so I can share their love with them as well.I would like to know about this city and country more,it's an important chapter in my life too.
I'm really happy with my life now,I start to appreciate where I come from,I start to appreciate a lot more things than I ever did in my life! I feel alive and full of energy!
This is a popular show played on West lake every evening,I went to watch it before I left Hangzhou,it was absolutely stunning,the whole stage was built under the water surface,west lake is the natural perfect back ground,someone said it's the story about the white snake lady,someone said it's 梁山伯和祝英台，does it matter?
Below is the translation of the song I found online:
The rain is still falling, filling a lake of mist
Broken bridge, silken umbrella, from black to white,I miss you
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
A pen of promises, a paper filled with separation.
Rain ~~~ standing by the lake
Rain ~~~ gazing at the northern bank
The rain is still falling, filling a lake of mist
Broken bridge, silken umbrella,from black to white,I miss you
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
A pen of butterflies, a paper filled with separation.
My farewell, never ending
Upon the West Lake, again and again
White wings, flying over the years
A long sigh, from Heaven to Earth
The rain is still falling, drenching a thousand years
The lake water linked to Heaven, from Black to White our meeting
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
Let's talk about human，then talk about the country.
I miss the beautiful west lake,the food,the tea mountains people hang out during the weekends,even though I hardly went out when I was in Hangzhou,I even miss the KTVs which I used to hate! Everything about Hangzhou seems so lovely right now. I can't wait to go home and show the most beautiful city to my students.
I got some videos and love stories online to show them,one of the stories is called 梁山伯和祝英台，this is like the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet; The other one is the White Snake lady,I'm going to do a reading project on this story with one of my classes. Both of the stories are quite popular in Vietnam.
I have four classes,three of them have a lot more girls than boys,they were fascinated by the stories and scenery;on the other hand,I have one class has 10 boys and 2 girls,they thought it was boring.It's interesting to see the fact,which made me wonder the different strategies or resources I might need to use for differentiation,I will discuss about that later.
Anyway, it felt really good that I could share something real important to me with my students,I asked them to collect videos,photos,songs,stories about Ho chi Minh or Vietnam during the autumn break,so I can share their love with them as well.I would like to know about this city and country more,it's an important chapter in my life too.
I'm really happy with my life now,I start to appreciate where I come from,I start to appreciate a lot more things than I ever did in my life! I feel alive and full of energy!
This is a popular show played on West lake every evening,I went to watch it before I left Hangzhou,it was absolutely stunning,the whole stage was built under the water surface,west lake is the natural perfect back ground,someone said it's the story about the white snake lady,someone said it's 梁山伯和祝英台，does it matter?
Below is the translation of the song I found online:
The rain is still falling, filling a lake of mist
Broken bridge, silken umbrella, from black to white,I miss you
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
A pen of promises, a paper filled with separation.
Rain ~~~ standing by the lake
Rain ~~~ gazing at the northern bank
The rain is still falling, filling a lake of mist
Broken bridge, silken umbrella,from black to white,I miss you
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
A pen of butterflies, a paper filled with separation.
My farewell, never ending
Upon the West Lake, again and again
White wings, flying over the years
A long sigh, from Heaven to Earth
The rain is still falling, drenching a thousand years
The lake water linked to Heaven, from Black to White our meeting
Who's on the boat? Writing my past?
Let's talk about human，then talk about the country.
2010年10月13日星期三
Make students talk
My school is an American international school for Vietnamese kids. Most of our students can speak real good English, because all the subjects are taught in English.
My kids take Mandarin everyday for 50 minutes,there is not much time for each single student to practice in the class when you try to fit teaching, practicing and assessments into one short period.
How to get these kids open their mouth to actually speak and practice Chinese? I gave them assignments of reading the texts at home, I knew they wouldn't do it though. Last month I started to learn about using Voicethread. I used it when I taught comparative sentences, I put 10 slides of contrast pictures, and asked my kids to leave their voice comments for each picture. It's hard to make them to get used to the new tool. But it really forced them to speak and gave me a better insight of what they have learned.
I did another project called "you are the fashion editor" after I taught them vocabulary about clothes. They have to describe and compare what the stars wearing on the pictures. Their work looked pretty impressive. I played it in the class, asked them to do peer study, listen to each others' comments and find out the good parts and parts need to be improved.
I'm not saying I have found the way, but Voice thread is a good tool to let students practice their speaking.
My kids take Mandarin everyday for 50 minutes,there is not much time for each single student to practice in the class when you try to fit teaching, practicing and assessments into one short period.
How to get these kids open their mouth to actually speak and practice Chinese? I gave them assignments of reading the texts at home, I knew they wouldn't do it though. Last month I started to learn about using Voicethread. I used it when I taught comparative sentences, I put 10 slides of contrast pictures, and asked my kids to leave their voice comments for each picture. It's hard to make them to get used to the new tool. But it really forced them to speak and gave me a better insight of what they have learned.
I did another project called "you are the fashion editor" after I taught them vocabulary about clothes. They have to describe and compare what the stars wearing on the pictures. Their work looked pretty impressive. I played it in the class, asked them to do peer study, listen to each others' comments and find out the good parts and parts need to be improved.
I'm not saying I have found the way, but Voice thread is a good tool to let students practice their speaking.
2010年10月12日星期二
More or less
This is the last week of first quarter, I gave all my students a test to summarize what they have learned in the first two months.
We learned three important grammar:
1，Complement of state —— known as "得" sentence, ex: 她吃得很多。
2，“把” sentence, ex: 我把他的蛋糕吃了。
3, Comparative sentence —— known as "比" sentence, ex: 我比他吃得多。
In the test I ask them to write a short essay about "my friend", they have to apply these grammar in their work. A is one of my top students, he always challenges himself by making complicated and interesting sentences. B is one of the students I worried about. He seems lazy, and always give these simple example sentences as his homework. But in this writing task, B's work was simple, interesting, fluent without any grammar mistake. A's work is still interesting, but his sentences were too complicated to understand,unable to understand in the other word.
Who would you like to chat with in real life? Probably B. Language is a tool to communicate after all. I was really surprised. It makes me wonder, did I do something wrong as well?
In my early years of teaching, I found language is like math, very logical and strict. For example, every "把" sentence is structured like:
Subject+ 把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements
And the negative form and Y/N question form will be:
Subject+ (不要/没有) 把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements
Subject+ (要不要/有没有)把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements (or you put 了吗 in the end)
It worked with adults. But not so much with my high school students. I try to recall how I was in high school, I hated boring English grammar just like this. If I just asked my students to practice the simplest way to use the grammar like B did with his homework, using all the extra time to teach them interesting words or talk about more interesting topic, would that be more effective?
Me colleague Mei is using the "Chinese made easy" for her IB students. She was saying there are much more vocabulary and much less grammar in that book. I haven't used that book yet, but it will be interesting to compare which way will benefits students more.
Here is one example how I taught comparative sentence with verb in a more and less way.
I listed below structure in the first class:
A+（Object+Verb+得）+比+B+（Object+ Verb+得）+Adjective+ Other Elements
I didn't understand why my students kept making wrong sentences even when I displayed the structure in front of them. Now I realize how confused they were.
The second class I asked them how to say "I eat fast." Because they have learned "得" sentence, and they are good at it.
I got the answer "我吃得很快" and I wrote it on the white board.
Then I told them how to say "I ate faster than him", simply combine "我比他" （I compare to him）with "吃得快" （“得” sentence without “很”）“我比他吃得快”, they also notice clearly that they can not say “很” in a comparative sentence.
I gave more examples like that in the class, they started to understand the structure instead of memorizing the grammar words.
We learned three important grammar:
1，Complement of state —— known as "得" sentence, ex: 她吃得很多。
2，“把” sentence, ex: 我把他的蛋糕吃了。
3, Comparative sentence —— known as "比" sentence, ex: 我比他吃得多。
In the test I ask them to write a short essay about "my friend", they have to apply these grammar in their work. A is one of my top students, he always challenges himself by making complicated and interesting sentences. B is one of the students I worried about. He seems lazy, and always give these simple example sentences as his homework. But in this writing task, B's work was simple, interesting, fluent without any grammar mistake. A's work is still interesting, but his sentences were too complicated to understand,unable to understand in the other word.
Who would you like to chat with in real life? Probably B. Language is a tool to communicate after all. I was really surprised. It makes me wonder, did I do something wrong as well?
In my early years of teaching, I found language is like math, very logical and strict. For example, every "把" sentence is structured like:
Subject+ 把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements
And the negative form and Y/N question form will be:
Subject+ (不要/没有) 把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements
Subject+ (要不要/有没有)把 + Object + Verb+ Other elements (or you put 了吗 in the end)
It worked with adults. But not so much with my high school students. I try to recall how I was in high school, I hated boring English grammar just like this. If I just asked my students to practice the simplest way to use the grammar like B did with his homework, using all the extra time to teach them interesting words or talk about more interesting topic, would that be more effective?
Me colleague Mei is using the "Chinese made easy" for her IB students. She was saying there are much more vocabulary and much less grammar in that book. I haven't used that book yet, but it will be interesting to compare which way will benefits students more.
Here is one example how I taught comparative sentence with verb in a more and less way.
I listed below structure in the first class:
A+（Object+Verb+得）+比+B+（Object+ Verb+得）+Adjective+ Other Elements
I didn't understand why my students kept making wrong sentences even when I displayed the structure in front of them. Now I realize how confused they were.
The second class I asked them how to say "I eat fast." Because they have learned "得" sentence, and they are good at it.
I got the answer "我吃得很快" and I wrote it on the white board.
Then I told them how to say "I ate faster than him", simply combine "我比他" （I compare to him）with "吃得快" （“得” sentence without “很”）“我比他吃得快”, they also notice clearly that they can not say “很” in a comparative sentence.
I gave more examples like that in the class, they started to understand the structure instead of memorizing the grammar words.
2010年9月28日星期二
The moon represents my heart- lyrics
你问我爱你有多深 Ni wen wo aini you duoshen you ask me how deep I love you
我爱你有几分 wo aini you jifen how much I love you
我的情也真 wode qing ye zhen My emotion is real
我的爱也真 wode ai ye zhen My love is real
月亮代表我的心 yueliang daibiao wode xin The moon represents my heart
你问我爱你有多深 Ni wen wo aini you duoshen you ask me how deep I love you
我爱你有几分 wo aini you jifen how much I love you
我的情不移 wode qing buyi My emotion won't move
我的爱不变 wode ai bubian My love won't change
月亮代表我的心 yueliang daibiao wode xin The moon represents my heart
轻轻的一个吻 qingqing de yige wen one soft kiss
已经打动我的心 yijing dadong wode xin already touched my heart
深深的一段情 shenshen de yiduan qing a period of deep love
叫我思念到如今 jiao wo sinian dao rujin made me miss it until today
你问我爱你有多深 ni wen wo aini you duoshen you ask me how deep I love you
我爱你有几分 wo aini you jifen how much I love you
你去想一想 ni qu xiangyixiang you go to think about it
你去看一看 ni qu kanyikan you go to have a look
月亮代表我的心 yueliang daibiao wode xin the moon represents my heart
2010年9月25日星期六
The moon represents my heart
I taught my students this song for the Mid-Autumn day. I was really surprised how much they enjoyed learning and singing this song. Because most of them are big Jay Chou fans or Korean music fans, I was worried that this is an old song, it might not seem cool enough to them. Once again it proves this is a truly classic song.
Most of my students loved it, especially the girls, I explained the meaning of the song, and they think it's very sweet. The lyric is really simple; there is no complicated grammar or complicated words. The whole song has only four short paragraphs, each paragraph starts with "You ask me how deep I love you, how much I love you", and ends with "The moon represents my heart". The music is rather simple and catchy as well.
I wish all my students could remember the characters as fast as they remember the song. I did an experiment with one of my higher level class. I divided them into two groups with four each and asked them to make a love story using the song. It was really interesting to see that they went completely opposite ways. One is very realistic; the other is more fairy tale style. Both of them are pretty cool.
The realistic one:
月亮代表我的心 之一
The moon represents my heart 1
三年前，爱林和力波在火车站认识。力波要回家参加（过）圣诞节，爱林去旅行。他们一见钟情，他们约定圣诞节以后再见面。
Ailin and Libo met 3 years ago at train station. Libo was going home for Christmas, Ailin was travelling. They fell in love at first sight. They promised to see each other again after Christmas( this part reminds me of the movie "before the sun rise", very romantic)
一个月前，爱林知道力波有小三，她很不高兴，跟力波说话，她要知道力波爱她有多深。
A month ago, Ailin found out Libo was having an affair. She was very unhappy, talked to Libo, she wanted to know how deep he loves her.
力波告诉她：“我的情也真，我的爱也真，我的情不移，我的爱不变。”
Libo told her:" my emotion is real, my love is real, my emotion won't move, my love won't change."
“我不信你。”
I don't trust you.
“你知不知道你轻轻的一个吻已经打动我的心，我真对不起，但是我很爱你。”
Do you know that your soft kiss already touched my heart, I'm really sorry, but I love you very much.
“但是你还有小三吗？”
Are you still having an affair?
“以前我有，现在我没有，你信我吧！月亮代表我的心，你去想一想，你去看一看。”
I had before, but I don't have it anymore, trust me, the moon represents my heart, you go to think about it, you go to have a look.
“真的吗？” Really?
“真的，爱林，我很爱你。”力波吻爱林。
"Yes, it's real, Ailin, I love you very much." Libo kissed Ailin. ( A good story always ended by a kiss)
月亮代表我的心 之二
The moon represents my heart 2
在中国，丁力波是英国人。两年前，他去了商场买东西。小云是山上的小鸟，她（在）商场飞飞。丁力波看一个小鸟，他说：“这个小鸟应该很好吃。”他拿小云回家。
Dinglibo is an English man in China. ( You wonder why the male character both named Libo, because he is the main character in our Mandarin book, same is Xiaoyun, faint!!) He went shopping in the shopping mall ( we just learned shopping mall, faint!!!). Xiaoyun is a bird living on the mountain, she flied in the shopping mall ( great imagination). Dinglibo saw a bird, he said:” this bird must be delicious!" ( I'm totally lost my mind here!!!) He took Xiaoyun back home.
小云说：“我是天上的人（神仙），你不可以吃我。小云很漂亮，他们一起住力波的家。她唱歌唱得很好，她（他）们常常唱。一天，她回家，问力波：“你爱我有多少？”力波喜欢小云，他说：“我的情和爱也真。”
Xiaoyun said: " I'm a human live on the sky( they were trying to say fairy), you can't eat me. " They lived together at Libo's home. She sang very well. They often sang together. One day, she went back home ( I didn't know she has a job ^_^) asked Libo:" How much you love me?" Libo likes Xiaoyun, he said:" My emotion and love are real."
“真的吗？”她给力波一个吻。他很高兴。
" Really? " She gave Libo a kiss, he was very happy.
“我还是不信你。”
"I still don't believe you" (Girls are so mean!)
力波说：“你去想一想，你去看一看，今天月亮代表我的心。”
Libo said:" You go to think about it, you go to have a look, today's moon represents my heart." (They were very smart to catch the weak point in the song, only the moon on Mid-autumn festival is the biggest and fullest)
他们生活得很高兴。They lived happily. ( What a nice fairy tale!)
Mid-Autumn day!
I'm not a big festival person, but Mid-Autumn festival is one of the biggest traditional festivals in China as well as in many other Asian countries, like Vietnam! We don't have a day off for this holiday, but you do see there are a lot of moon cake stands everywhere on the streets of HCMC. Our cleaning lady was really happy when we gave her a box of moon cakes.
Well, you can't escape from this topic if you are a Mandarin teacher. I copied some stories, poems and gave them to my Mandarin 3 kids one week before the Mid-autumn day, the worst thing ever can happen is when kids yelling out:" Our teacher gave them to us last year!" Bummer~~~~~~~~~~
So what can I do? Change plans.
"Well, in that case, I will ask you to remember that poem! In addition, you need to learn a song and make a lantern!" I wasn't very confident, I should have asked their last year teacher what they did, I learned my lesson, but I still need to do my job as best as I can.
I picked the famous poem 静夜思, and the song 月亮代表我的心，I have taught my mandarin 2 kids this song, they loved it, it's simple and sweet. Make a lantern is not as hard as it sounds( see the pictures above). I divided the kids into groups with 4, the assignment was a team performance on Mid- autumn day, they have to work together.
I have to say, my kids rocked! Their performance were awesome, I regret I didn't have my camera that day, it would be great if I filmed the whole performance. Thankfully I got all the lanterns hung up in my room, they looked awesome! This is the best mid-autumn day I ever had!
Ps: my colleague Mei asked her students to interview other teachers about Mid-autumn festival. It's really interesting, because teachers in our school come from many different countries, the original story had a lot of crazy and amazing versions in the west, which we have never heard of. It will be interesting to collect them one day.
2010年9月22日星期三
Teach calendar
这个数字代表我最喜欢的团体。这个团体有13个人。13 represents the group I like, there are 13 members in this group.
我很喜欢这个数字因为这是我的特别的日子。I like this number because this is my special date.
我喜欢9号因为9是永远。今天8号，明天是9号，我希望明天来。和明天是我和我男朋友一个星期纪念日。 I like number 9 because 9 is forever. Today is 8th, tomorrow is 9th, I wish tomorrow come(soon). Tomorrow is one week anniversary day of me and my boyfriend.
9月3号是星期五。我很喜欢星期五，因为我没有课第二天。三号还是我的喜欢号。我常常有幸运事儿。September 3rd is Friday, I like Friday, because I don't have school the next dat. Number 3 is also my favorite number. I always have lucky things.
Dates are very confusing, especially when you ask what's the date( 今天几号？）and what's the day of the week today( 今天星期几？）It's hard because there are a lot of numbers involved as well.I used our school calendar to introduce different days and dates, it didn't work very well, and students got a bit lost in the end with information overwelmed.I saw a woman did an amazing calendar online; she draws beautiful pictures for individual dates. I decided to use similar ideas in class, make it simple, clear and fun. I prepared a bunch of half A4 size papers with different colors. I asked students to pick a date and a piece of color paper they like. They have to draw the date big and clear, then they need to write something special about it in Mandarin, ex: Sep 22nd this year is mid-autumn day, so kid who picked the date needs to write that on her paper. Most of them wrote something like: this is my lucky number, this is my birthday number, etc. Some kids really surprised me with their ideas.
Kids built a strong feeling about different dates while they do the art work; the dates start to become meaningful to them. I asked them to put all the dates in order by the white board. I used it a lot during and after that unit by simply ask them questions like: What's the date today（今天几号）? Whose date is it today（今天是谁的）? Who has Mondays（谁有星期一）? This Tuesday is whose（这个星期二是谁）? etc.
I have to say there are many girls in these two mandarin 2 classes, they love doing art work, I'm not very sure whether it will apply to boys as much as it does to girls.
Week one in school (2)
There are things that you think weren't important, they are the things which make big differences. A month after the school year started, I realized why it's so important to set up classroom rules and what I will do differently next year.
Ex:
1 I should have asked students to prepare 2 notebooks for homework, they are still handing a piece of paper to me once a while :(
2, Dictation on every Monday, quiz every two or three weeks, depends on how long each lesson takes (by the way I'm using the new practical Chinese reader), students should learn to manage their study efficiently by given a clear schedule.
3, Students need to get used to record their readings or other oral assignments. I'm studying how to apply Voki or some other ICT programs into classroom.
4, No homework or other classes’ work during the class period.
5, Always correct homework, dictation and quizzes.
I'm sure the list will be getting longer in the end of the year……
Ex:
1 I should have asked students to prepare 2 notebooks for homework, they are still handing a piece of paper to me once a while :(
2, Dictation on every Monday, quiz every two or three weeks, depends on how long each lesson takes (by the way I'm using the new practical Chinese reader), students should learn to manage their study efficiently by given a clear schedule.
3, Students need to get used to record their readings or other oral assignments. I'm studying how to apply Voki or some other ICT programs into classroom.
4, No homework or other classes’ work during the class period.
5, Always correct homework, dictation and quizzes.
I'm sure the list will be getting longer in the end of the year……
2010年9月20日星期一
Week one in school
First week is always hard, especially for the new teachers. This year is my first year teaching overseas, and my first year teaching high school kids. I had no idea about who they are, how their Chinese is, the first week is for them to decide whether they like you or not.
It was tough, I did a lot of research online, but how to emerge other teachers' experience into my classroom, there is no right answer.
I did a PowerPoint about myself, showed some of my pictures, and had a short story about myself on the first day; I think it's a good way to introduce you as a new teacher.
From the second day on, I started this newspaper project with my students. I don't know the person, who originally came up with this idea, but this is an awesome project, my husband uses it for his Grade2 kids every year. But it's also good for language classes.
The newspaper includes five different parts:
The inside scoop: some basic information about yourself, like name, age, likes and dislikes, etc,
My exclusive story: I gave students some topics to choose from, like their birthday parties, travel stories, experience of going to see a doctor, I chose from the lesson they have studied last year,
Meet my hero: describe a person they like and admire, most of them chose their dad or mom.
An awesome ad for a movie & a book review: this is simple, just write one or two short sentences about the book and movie they like.
It is a big project for them in the first week back to school, they think it's too hard at the beginning. I divided the whole assignment into four days. Pre-work is really important, give the examples, ideas and your expection clearly, check their work and provide your help while they are doing it. They were proud to show me their work at the end of the week. I was proud of them too. My kids put their work on the wall after I marked them. They looked awesome.
But this is not the only reason I'm doing it. You learned a lot about your students, their family and their personality. You should be able to tell which level they are at by this stage as well. I changed my original plan and decided to review last year's book with my Mandarin 2 class after this, my kids are happy with this decision.
订阅：
评论 (Atom)