Teaching Philosophy

Before 2002, I had no plan to be a teacher. Because I had to cover my cost of living in the university, I looked for a part-time job. Luckily, I got a job teaching a group of sweet, warm, earnest, and outgoing students who paid attention in class, put themselves into each lesson and every activity, and which helped me build my confidence and interest in English teaching. Through this experience, I developed my beliefs on English teaching.

In my teaching beliefs, one role for instructors is to impart knowledge to students, but another is to help them to create a lifelong process of learning. Imparting knowledge implies an active instructor role, but in order for a class to be successful there needs to be an active student role as well. Thus, I like to have a student-centered classroom. I believe that students should be encouraged to be creative, free-thinking, tolerant, and open-minded people. Besides that, students need to take some responsibility for presenting material and for choosing what material will be covered. Active roles allow students to have more control over the class, in a sense, making it what they want rather than strictly what I, as the instructor, might want. What I strive for in all of my teaching roles is to make my students feel the course is “hard”, but help them enjoy it and find it an interesting challenge and succeed at the finish line.

I am a pragmatist and believe that the best learning occurs when thinking and acting is one process. Thus, I believe what John Dewey says, “Learning is life itself.” I would like my students to understand the application and daily usage of the language rather than to memorize grammar rules.

English writing is a tough and difficult work for both English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and learners. In most Asian countries, EFL learners rarely have a chance to read through English literature or novels. Most of the time, in English writing students prepare for the English writing test. Thus, most students have rich experience on formal essay wriitng, but there are few chances for students to express their feelings, thoughts and beliefs into words. In addition, the only audience is their English Teacher! After a while, both students and teachers feel frustrated and upset during English class.

Therefore, my teaching style incorporates two dimensions: generating excitement regarding the learning process and emphasizing the use of personal tone, both from myself as an instructor and with the participation of my students. I always try to add some different activities to attract students’ attention and increase their learning motivation. For instance, I use authentic materials, video clips, movie trailers, etc., to help EFL students write in English.

In order to achieve this, I strive personally to be available outside of class, encourage discussion and critical thinking, and use humor in my lectures. While I aim for excitement and a personal tone, I do not believe in coddling students. Rather, I prefer to treat them with respect and challenge them intellectually. I believe that students have the right to do free-writing and choose their own audience. In addition, I think writer’s notebook will also encourage students to write down their stories, thoughts, feelings, beliefs and opinions. After working through conferences with students, I find that they respond positively to such treatments. They tell me that the class activities are helpful to improve their English abilities and increase their learning motivation. And they are willing to ask me questions when they face difficulties on English learning. When I see the smiles on their faces, I take pride in sharing their joy.

Nowadays, I enjoy English teaching and learning so much. I really appreciate that I met that group of sweet students in my first teaching experience.

Family

Every member in this family has different skin color

Pomelo dad has bright green

Grapefruit mommy has orange skin

Twins are lemon and lime;

One has yellow; the other has green

Their siblings are orange and tangerine

Both of them have orange skin like mom

This family work so hard

Sometimes they are in your water

Sometimes they show up after dinner with dessert

Sometimes they change into 100% juice

Sometimes they become a hat on Moon Festival

You taste sweet, sour, healthy from this family.



Strawberry

OMG…. Look at my coolest green hair though, there are dozens of pimples on my red face

Digital Story -- My Country Taiwan

Please click the link to enjoy my digital story


http://www.screencast.com/t/e1RCRrJjfqq

Top 10 - Revision

10 Revision is not just re-doing or re-wording, but re-writing, re-viewing and re-belief my claim and idea

9  Revision works on the theme, not playing vocabulary games

8 Revision is like a patient training for marathon

7 Revision leads a bright path toward being a good writer 
Probability!!!!

6 Revision provides a chance to have conference with experts

5 Revision gives an opportunity to destroy the rough draft

4 Revision tells me to think who my audience is

3 Revision reminds me to work hard on English
Read REad REAd READ

2 Google Wikipedia, revision is the process of revising. More specifically, it may refer to update, revision control, belief revision, reVision, the endless revision, final articles revision convention,

1 According to Sommers Nancy, revision as finding the form or shape of their argument

What She Could Do

Sweeping without leaving a particle of dust

making the tastiest Chinese food

Yummy! Yummy!

knitting the warmest scarf filled with love

singing from heaven

that melts this stony universe

Giving the warmest hug

when frustration or sorrow entwines me

advisably guiding me to the bright path all the time

absolutely supporting my decision and dream

also encouraging me to create my paradise

teaching me how to bravely face this complex world

acting as my best model and most intimate friend

Easily getting along with each person

and perfectly building interpersonal relationships

running our company brilliantly

being a wise manager

dealing with all sorts of complicated stuff

and solving each abstruse problem

 She is my Venus.

He's My Superman & Hero

Tea fragrance permeating the entire room

Gazing intently only on the invoices

Pressing each calculator key speedily

with deft finger

Named he is my Superman

Most dreadful news about

taking down abruptly passing into me

from a great distance away

Anxious, terrified, helpless around the world

the only thing workable is FLYING

Being patient, hopeful, positive

as an opening for each day

Our assignment such as

watching news and costume dramas

learning new phrases

listening to what people say

practicing speaking a completed sentences

shopping foods in the grocery

Besides that,

the most important thing we do is

exercising and laughing

Luckily having rebirth, relive, revival

return to this world

We build an impregnable connection

in our hearts

Never giving up is your motto

Looking the bright side is your law

No matter how long passes

Hero is always be your name

Is There a Hemingway in the House?

Jigsaw article summary

Key points:

- kinesthetic students think writing seems like an inefficient way to communicate-slower than talking and far more dangerous: when you speak, nobody notices where you put the commas; write and they’re after you with a red pencil.

- Great teachers wrestle with facts, struggle with details, and rework raw information into language that reaches their audience.

- Students need effective, bite-size opportunities to help those master writing skills.

- Warming up to writing activities which help students become real writers

Name	Purpose	Participants	Methods
Hand Writing	Kids know some words to use, and they don’t have to fumble for the correct spellings. Note: - Students will be staring at a wealth of words about the topic, clustered in such categories. - Powerful; stimulation and learn best when using larger muscles; helps visual/spatial learners to see related words organized in clumps àparagraph; participate in the activity.	- Grades 1-3 - Captures youthful imagination and uncovers a trove of rich voc - Kinesthetic learners	1.   Write on the finger (which no worries about spellings or penmanship) 2.   Teacher does comments and respond 3.   Write on the board & ease the words on their hands 4.   Repeat the reading-and-praising process and add the new words to the others on the board.
Skinny to Steroids	- Emphasizes adjective and adverbs. - challenge students to transform minimalist sentences into something more. Note: - It’s a stand-alone activity that you can do in two mins which can be worked before the bell rings and at the beginning of class. - Ask students to work in the small groups	- All class or groups	1.   Write a mind-bogglingly simple sentence on the board. e.g.: “The cat eats.” 2.   Leave big spaces between the words 3.   Ask students questions 4.   Give suggestions like “black” 5.   Continue asking for suggestions. 6.   Squeeze words in, put them on stilts above the sentence, and hook them on from below. 7.    Read aloud
Empty Your Head	Writing about a historic event, a character in a read-aloud book, creative topic, Note:    -Although all the words are related to the major topic, the linked words belong together in robust sentences or paragraphs. - Help visual/spatial and kinesthetic learners organize their ideas before starting writing.	-Prime students - Individual or groups - Visual/spatial, kinesthetic learners	1.   Outline of head (on board, chart, handout…) 2.   Ask students to write all the words that come to mind about the designed topic 3.   Keep writing until noting else comes out. 4.   As finishing, ask them to count their words and circle the most interesting ones. 5.   Give students a set of markers, reviewing the words, choosing one and drawing a line from it to all the words that go with it. 6.   Using different colored marker and link another set of words.
Annotated Drawing	To help students warm up for a writing assignment, have them sketch the topic’s main ideas. Note: - Similar to Empty Your Head, but it plays on the strength of visual learners.	- Visual learners who think in pictures.	1.   Giving a topic 2.   Have students surround each sketch with a halo of words that elaborates on it. 3.   The final product resembles a thought diagram that can be used as a starting point for constructing sentences, paragraph or a longer piece.
Listen and Draw	Helping students grasp the picture-making power of words		1.   Have students draw pictures that capture what they’re seeing in their heads as you read aloud. 2.   Make simple sketches, stick figures, abstract lines, shapes of emotions, sound or action or note taking. 3.   Read vivid material and ask students what they saw in their minds and what words the author used to make those pictures come alive 4.   When students cite a passage that created a picture for them, reread the relevant parts while they hold up their drawing. 5.   Write some words that the author used around the edge of their pictures to make a border or frame connecting the words to their images.
Writer’s Hats	Being playful about writing eases anxiety in reluctant writers and announces that this is a special time of day when creativity and individualism rule. Note: - Writing tool - Hats can block out visual distractions and focus young writers on the world of ideas inside their hat.		1.   Encourage students to bring in a favorite hat to wear whenever they write.
From Your Lips to Their Pens	Show students how to listen for the writer at work behind the words. Note: - Read-aloud session can be repeated - Search for literature rich in visual imagery and emotional content - Students improve their writing by listening to you read aloud because they hear new words in context, so their vocabulary grows. - They internalize the sentence fragments which the author used.		1.   Before starting reading, asking students to listen for excellent sentences or unusual words and to try to visualize pictures in their heads. 2.   After an exceptional passage, ask questions: what pictures did you see in your head?’ What words did the author use to make those pictures? What was your favorite part? Why? What was a great word that you heard? What phrase or sentence did you love?

What’s Right with Writing by Linda Rief

I think this paper embraces all of the writing perspective which has been mentioned in the articles we have read during these two weeks. As the author, Linda Rief, mentions that she did very well on all her writing, none of which included her beliefs, feelings, discoveries, opinions or stories (pp. 32), I have the same feeling like her before starting my writing work in NIWP. In the past, the most writing lectures and exercises I took are related to test-writing. In Taiwan, we do 5-paragraph essay writing which usually makes both students and teacher feel sad in class. Besides that, we seldom read English novels, literatures or even storybooks. All the reading stuff we work are made preparation for the reading comprehension tests. Thus, as time passes, both teachers and students lose the passions for English reading and writing. The only audience on students’ writing is their English teacher who usually doesn’t have time to do conference for individual kids. Most of time English teacher just writes some comments such as, “good job”, “grammatical errors”, “rewrite” etc or gives grade in red pen on the top corner of the paper. While I was a student, most of time I had no clearly ideas on revising my writing. As I taught my students, I tried very hard to do individual conference, however, be honestly, it’s really hard to work through. Thus, I usually collect students errors written on the broad and discuss with the whole class in my period. I am really glad that I have learned a lot teaching techniques on English writing during these two weeks. I really appreciate each fellow is open-minded to share experiences to others in class. While I go back to teacher later, I will let my kids know they have the right to choose their writing audiences. I will encourage them not only to choose English literature, novels or storybooks which they’re interested in and read together with them, but also to write down their feeling, thoughts, reflections, beliefs, opinions, experiences from what their views and lives. I will plan freewriting time to them in the end of each class, and I believe which will bring huge benefits on their English writing. I always believe that all of my kids are pretty much smarter than I; somehow they just haven’t found the interests and right way on English learning. Therefore, as a teacher, I want to help them keep writing and reading as habits in their life. In addition, I also want to offer them my best suggestion and explicit comments which help them become an enjoyable audience, writer and reader in English World.  

The key points from “What’s Right with Writing” by Linda Rief

What have we learned about writing and the teaching of writing?  (pp. 33 &34)

- Writing is thinking.

        Writing is one way of communication our understandings and misunderstandings of       ourselves and the world. Writing is about representing our experiences, our knowledge,      our opinions, our feelings.

- There is no one process that defines the way all writers write.

        Different writers use different processes and composing styles (purpose, audience) to    develop their pieces of writing.

- We learn to write by reading extensively and writing for real audiences.

        We need to give students ample opportunities to choose about topics which interest       them. When that happens, they do write, and they do read, thoughtfully and        thoroughly; in the process, they begin to recognize and craft more effective pieces of        writing.

- Writers need constructive response.

        Offering constructive comments while students are in the midst of writing helps them    become better writers.

- Evaluation of writing should highlight the strengths of process, content, and conventions, and give the writer the tools and techniques to strengthen the weaknesses.

        Process and product are equally important.

        Writers need places to collect their ides.

        Teachers must know their students well.

- Writing is reading.

        If we really want to teach kids to be strong readers, we need to teach them to be    stronger writers. When students write, they are engaged in a recursive process of         critical thinking. The short, quick, daily responses to literature push students to ask;         longer pieces of writing expand their range and depth.

Why does writing matter?    (pp.35)

- If we want children to become adults who are articulate, literate, and thoughtful citizens of the world, they must learn to think deeply and widely.

- Good writing lets writer and reader learn or think or feel something. Putting words on paper gives us voice-allows us to be heard. The best writing not only gives us voice, but is filled with voice. Tom Romano says, “Voice is the writer’s presence in a piece of writing…Voices have certain qualities in common: they deliver interesting information; employ techniques of narrative; exhibit perceptivity; offer surprising information and observations; demonstrate a sense of humor. (Romano, 2005, pp.7-8).

- Writing is about using our imaginations, our understandings, our questions, our creativity, our feelings, our humanity to work through our thinking about ourselves, about other, about the world in which we live.

The writing-drawing connection:  (pp. 37)

- Each one of these students writes compellingly, telling a story no matter the format, conveying strong perceptions of themselves and the world.

- Writing makes us think and feel and learn something. This is writing that gives kids voice.

What do our students need to help them write well?  (pp. 37)

- Time

        The best writing usually develops when students are given adequate time to consider     their topics, draft and redraft their ideas, and receive feedback while engaged in the   process of writing.

- Choice

        Writers need to care about, or be interested in, their topic in order to craft the       strongest writing. When writers care, they write with passion and with voice.

- Model

        Students need good models of writing-both professional and peer-written. Using others’         writing to mentor one’s own is reading as a writer.

        Writing to a test is a genre unto itself. We need to show students examples of that kind of writing, as well.

- Response

        Writers need constructive response that moves the writing forward and helps the   writer grow. Response through conferences is the most helpful, because the writer can       read her writing to the teacher and get immediate feedback.

What stands in the way of powerful writing instruction?  (pp. 37-38)

- Lack of tools

- Scripted lessons mandated for all students by all teachers at the same time.

- Lack of professional development and university courses focused as much on writing as on reading.

-Testing

Writing gives voice to the educators who know kids best, because we work with them every day. Our own writing lets us understand what we are asking our students to do. Writing puts energy back into our teaching lives because we have real reasons to write for a real audience.