2011年9月12日 星期一

2011年9月6日 星期二

Classroom Games 課堂小遊戲

Image copyright: Nick Benjaminsz,stock.xchng

Taiwanese English cream schools often require their teachers to be more entertaining for their students. The teachers often makes the classes more entertaining by playing games. Little by little, nowadays students are used to playing games during English classes. Students will even complain if there is no games. As a result, many cram schools even have workshops devoted to games.

台灣的兒童英語補習班常會要求老師們上課的時候盡量生動活潑,好吸引學生的學習動機。因此,老師們就會在課堂中穿插遊戲。漸漸的,對小朋友來說,上英語課就是玩遊戲,如果沒玩遊戲,小朋友就會抱怨。很多補習班甚至開設遊戲師資班。

Playing games is not enough, students also complain about playing the same games. Therefore as an English teacher, I spend a lot of time searching for new games.

不只要玩遊戲,遊戲還需要有變化。不然,小朋友也是會膩的。身為一個英語老師,我花很多時間尋找與開發新的遊戲。

Here are some websites that I turn to for game ideas:
以下是幾個我常用尋找遊戲靈感網站:

ESL kid stuff

Games for ESL

Do you have any good ideas for game? Please share with me!
你有什麼好的遊戲嗎? 請與我分享!

2011年9月5日 星期一

Project Day 勞作日

Credit to Parkway CC Org.



In the school that I taught, every Wednesday is "PROJECT DAY." Although the school provides lesson plan, my school manager often forgets to prepare the materials. As a result, I have to improvise a lot. If your school is like this, then you must wish to have millions of  tricks up in your sleeve to handle the situation.
在我之前待的學校,每個星期三是勞作日。雖然學校會給老師們勞作的教學計劃,但是我們學校的教學主管常會忘記準備材料,所以我總得隨機應變,以學校現有的材料製作勞作。如果你的學校也有同樣困擾,那麼你一定要有一些『口袋勞作』好應付。

My advice for this kind of craft related project was to keep it simple. Most of the time,your students will need you assistance. If you have a big sized class, you might not have the time to help/attend/finish every students. So if you keep it easy, students can execute it themselves and you don't have to intervene too much.
我對於這種勞作的建議是越簡單越好,因為大部分的學生會需要你的幫忙,假若你班上有很多學生,你會疲於奔命。所以,勞作越簡單,學生就可以自行操作,你也可有比較多的時間來注意學生的情形。
以下是一些我常用之勞作書與網頁,希望也能幫上你!

AEP's  The Complete Book of Arts and Crafts  is a great book with easy art to do. However, some of the material might be more difficult to obtain.


Amazing Mom has some easy-to-do, clean and great result project to do with kids!

Kaboose  is a great site to search for ideas. All the craft are themed related. Good for holiday or seasonal work. It also has "cooking" that you might try with your kids.

DLTK This is one of my favorite sites, it is filled with tons of craft ideas. Although some parts of it required membership in order to print or download, it still inspires me with lots of great ideas.




How do you find your craft source? Let me know!

2011年9月4日 星期日

Ghost Month Lesson Plan: Writing


Credit to tooxclusive.com


It's time to wrap Ghost Month up with writing.
Download this lesson plan and have fun with your students!


Ghost Month Lesson Plan: Writing

2011年9月1日 星期四

Positive Reinforcement 正向鼓勵


Credit to Razzy's Corner.


With the recent trend of low fertility rate, almost every single Taiwanese child was pampered by their parents and grand parents.I have few students who still can't wipe their bonbon after they finish at the age of 6.As a result, Taiwanese children nowadays are not used to negative comments and react differently. Instead of being motivated by it, they would reject and be offended. Therefore it is important for us teachers to communicate more subtlety and adopt the positive reinforcement method.

When I first started teaching, my supervisor taught me how to convey message. For example, instead of telling student that his/her performance is bad, tell student that he/she is doing really well AND if he/she tries harder, he/she will be top of the class. 

Credit to Harrison Company.

In my personal experience, instead of pointing out where they did wrong. It would be more effective to focus on what they did right and then move on to the wrong doing. For example, I have a student who constantly disturbs the class and cannot focus much. In the beginning, I asked him to be quiet and threaten him with more homework. It didn’t work. Later, instead of focusing on his disturbance, I verbally awarded him when ever he did something right such as raise his hand before talking. After a week, his behavior improved a lot and even his mother noticed the difference.

What’s your trick of dealing with students? Please share with me!