"Food for Thought"--A new class with GE 4!

Monday, June 30

This week I was assigned to help teachers in the GE4 class. This is an upper-intermediate level; therefore, the students in the class are self efficient in English communication. As a result, the classroom is more dynamic than the beginners class in regard to communicative activities performed in the classroom. There are 8 students in the classroom: Judy, Megumi, BoYoung, Yun, Stefono (Korean), Rachel, Saori (Japanese), and Oscar (Columbian). Aliki, the teacher, is Greek, but was born in Sydney and raised in Greece; she has been teaching for 20 years plus. She speaks two lanaguages Greek and English, thus, I guess, that makes it a bit different in terms of teaching. She is able to explain grammatical points explictely. Coming from another culture, she shares her cultural perspectives with the students. Since her students's English is competent, she has the opportunity to do more than just teach. "Food for Thought" is what she attempts to impart to her students. She often shares with them her belief in things and the things that important in life based on her past experiences in life. I really enjoy sharing it with her and the class as well.

Today, we had Integrated skills (2 hours), Language Lab (1 hour), Listening and Speaking (2 hours). In this level, they are using Cutting Edge textbook and this week's module is about communication. The teacher prefers to start her class with a warm-up activity, then gives them theorical framwork of a subject matters in the textbook. At the end of the class, she prefers to have them work on something more relaxing sine it's only one hour. The philosophy behind it, according to the teacher, is to get students ready to the lesson and to make sure that there will be no students who come in late whould be left behind from the rest of the class and create a relaxing classroom atmosphere. Hence, we started the class with a little catch up from the weekend. Then, we started off with their short story reading on Four Wedding and a Funeral (Penguin Readers). The teacher threw lots of questions about the story, so they had the same story background. Then, they watched the movie and this time the teacher asked questions again, but this time she asked them for opinions about the story and tried to mingle it with their own cultures.

Later on, we moved to the lab. The teacher paired them up from the main computer and gave them each the sheet of a phonetic activity. Students had to pronounce words to their partner from their headset and figure out the name combination. From my observation, students actively communicate with each other and they enjoyed helping and teaching each other on pronunciation.

Last but not least, after they came back from lunch, students practiced speaking and listening skills. They were given an article on Stranger than Fiction (a mysterous story). The story was very interesting since the activity covered great integrated skills. Students had to read, then analyze it and shared it with their partner. There's a lot of talking in the class. During the conversation, the teacher would write down new vocabulary words up on the board and often write down qestions and instructions as well.

The teaching style, as well as methodoloty, that I learned from the teacher today was signaficant. I picked up a bit of peices in teaching and will certainly adopt them with my class. Teachers here always keep track on their teaching activities and exercises daily and sometimes take notes if they are successfully done in the class, which, I found, very crucial.

Riverside Market and a Great Time with The Collyers

Sunday 29, 2008

Thai food at Thai Orchid restaurant was just what the doctor ordered on a Friday night. Judy her family and I had dinner for our get together after she came back from Thailand. The food, I thought, was good, but the atmosphere was even more incredible, I guess most of all it has to do with people you are having dinner with. The place was packed after we got there for about 10 minutes. The Thai Orchid Restaurant is on Logan Road, Upper Mt Gravatt not far from the University. The prices are resonable. The dishes we agreed that we liked the most were Orchid Prawns, deep fried coconut coated prawns served with their special sauce,
Spring Rolls, and Massaman. Until we met again on Sunday.

Waking up early while others are still snuggling in bed in the nippy morning, this is what I would call it heaven. Taking a walk has become my weekend routine and I just love doing it. Spending alone time with yourself permits you to be with yourself, to learn the Self within you , to allow yourself to be in the present, and to appreciate things around you when you slow down.

I walked for about half an hour before Judy and her family picked me up to go to the River Side Market. Once we got to the Centre City, we saw the march of warriors who just returned from the services in Iraq. Off we went to the market, it's very nice there with stores selling different kinds of things from food to clothing. We walked for a while and bought some bread and had a coffee on the deck over look the river. I purchased some gifts for friends. We spent some time there and we moved to another mall. Then, we visited Judy's parents at a nursing home. At the nursing home, it's very functional and homey. I wish we, Thai people, have better welfare and management regarding retirement plans and facilities for retired people. As the Sunset was approaching, we left Judy's parents' house after we finished catching up and afternoon tea. Grandma's baking was somewhat out-of-this-world. Generally speaking, most grandmas are great at treating their grandchildren and children. Too bad, I never have a chance to get to know all my grandparents, not even my own father! Fortunately, I have other great host families, grandparents and friends from pretty much around the world. We visited Aunt Sue, Judy's sister-in-law, to appreciate her beautiful garden filled with vegetables, flowers and native trees. I was aesthetic to see her garden and hoping that some day I would love to have my own little nuke with a nice garden, love, warmth and happiness.

By the time we got home, it was already dark and we all were drained of energy. We however did not hesitate to treat ourselves with a home-made apple pie. I baked apple pies on Saturday for the landlord's family and for us to have for dinner. It was a great day, we thought. We talked and exchanged opinions (more likely I learned a lot from Judy's extensive knowledge and experience)about working and other things.

Meeting with Suzanne and a Great Management!

Thursday 26 June 2008

Melinda and I had a difficult time explaining possessive "'s" to the students. We could tell from their responses. The teacher explained that some languages don't have possessive forms such as Spanish. She herself speaks four languages-Spanish, Japanese, English and another language. Anyway, she had to communicate with the Colombian students at times when they could not understand the subject matters. Unfortunately for the Arabic students, they dominate the class when none of us teachers don't know how the language. Here, I think it's beneficial for any teachers to be able to speak the same language as their students who are in a lower level (even just a bit) in order to get messages across and communicate more effectively.

We tried very hard to explain the differences between "'s" which refers to the possessive form and "'s" which refers to the contraction form for "is." Good thing we had a class of 8, so we were able to drill it and asked students one-on-one. Melinda even drew a family tree to explain one of the exercises about family that had possessive and possessive pronouns embedded in it. I thought that was good and I would have done the same. Students need to see the language in writing; it's more effective this way particularly with beginners.

In this class, I learned some helpful bit and pieces from the teacher's teaching style; for instance, she would never discourage her students in answering questions. For example, when she asked Student A to answer a question, but Student B interrupted and answered it for Student A, the teacher repeated the answer from Student B to Student A and moved on to the next question. I myself often find it irritating and impolite when students do such thing, so I try to stop them from doing so and to teach them to take turn. Melinda, on the other hand, would appreciated the contribution from Student B, then she threw a new question to him because, obviously, he showed his interest in participating the activity. I talked to her after class about the matter, and therefore I understood that it's important to encourage them to talk and support their doing. However, it's also crucial to explain the good manners in a classroom when the action gets out of hand. Students will become demotivated when they are stopped from expressing their opinions or their opinions are devalued or depreciated. In this case and level, we should put it into consideration that they are still new to the country and culture. It also depends on the teacher's discretion whether or not they deliver such action purposely. If so, the teacher might have to stop them and explain.

On Friday, the students were introduced to new grammar, which was preposition. Melinda found pictures that demonstrate the position with an object-"on", "in", "under", "next to", "in front of", etc. I suggested to some students I saw translating the words in their languages that they memorise them by the pictures. This way they did not have to depend on their dictionary or their mother language to translate the words. Then, students had a Grammar and Vocabulary test. My role here was explaining the answers to the students after they finished. Many of them were very frustrated since they could not finish the test in time. I thought perhaps they were right. A 25-minute test for 40 questions might not be adequate for beginners.

In the afternoon, I had a meeting with Suzanne, Marketing Manager, about the collaboration between SPU and GU. She said that she would try to tailor a program for our students, so they could perhaps come to study with GELI and travel. She also told me about meeting with Dr.Gloria and some faculty members from Liberal Arts. They also told her about their wishes as well in terms of collaboration. I think at least I have put my best foot forward, so when things go as plan we could just hit the ground running.

One of the thing, the best thing I thought, that I learned today was about a performance development/ performance reviews (or some people might rephrase it as "assessment"). I had a conversation with Judy, the Manager, about her day, and she explained that she had a couple meetings with her staff on their performances at work, their expectations, and problems at work. Judy would talk to them about the problems that they are having (mostly giving constructive criticism) or the organization is having, then she would ask them to post any productive ideas Taking for about half an hour talking to her staff one-on-one gave her the significant opportunity to help them improve their work performances and accomplish their goal. She interviewed each one of them what their plans for the future, their plans for career development or goals that they would like to accomplish, things that they have done and things that they have not done and yet to be accomplished in the near future. She found that it's vitally beneficial to both the organization and the staff themselves; therefore, she could provide the right assistance or solution. Discussing problems might seem a bit uncomfortable for both parties for some people; however, it sure is a half an hour worth of better understanding, better management, and productive progress! A two-way communication plays a dynamic role in a workplace indeed.

Great inspirations!

Wednesday 25 June 2008.

Another day with Nora, I assisted her in running classroom activities and exercises. Today we had three hours of Integrated Skills, an hour of Reading & Writing, and an hour of SAC (Self Access Centre). We introduced the students a new grammar point-possessive "'s" in those three hours of Integrated Skills. Students were confused with instructions given by the teacher about what they did since the grammatical point was challenging to the students.

What we should have done differently is to write down instructions or examples on the board for them or prepare more exercises. Then, we should have drilled the grammar point by generating communicative activities.

In the afternoon, I had a meeting with Dr. Maria Dobrenov-Major (called as Dr. Maya) about the exchange program. Dr. Maya is a Program Convener for Graduate Certificate in Applied Linguistics, School of Education and Professional Studies, and she has made collaborations with three Vietnamese universities for her program. In the program, her graduate students need to fulfil the course requirement in practical teaching. Instead of having her students complete it in the country, she endeavours to have her students practice teaching abroad. With the needs to improve their students' English competency, three Vietnamese universities are willing to host those graduates. They offer them free accommodation and food as well as English classes for them to teach with the exchange of free teaching. Those students will pay for their own airfares and other expenses with some support from Griffith University. I could not help but thought that it would be ideal with our students if we could involve collaboration with Dr.Maya's program.

Dr. Maya and I chatted for at least two hours about other things and, of course, about Applied Linguistics. I was so much inspired by her to be able to speak many languages. She herself speaks about eight languages fluently since she is European. Beside, I was inspired by her to become a good teacher with endless energy and great spirit!

Prepare grammar lesson and activities

Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 June 2008

Today in the classroom with Nora, we started the class with Integrated Skills. The week's theme was Age, which concentrated on numbers, family, pronouns and possessive "s". Today, we only introduced them to numbers and pronunciation. Students did not have any major problems with the subject matters; however, they seemed to get confused at times with the instructions we provided. As I could see from their facial responses and the body language, they had difficulties understanding some words conveyed in the teacher's utterances. After checking the students' exercises, the teacher assigned more exercises to the students since they had a problem with spelling numbers. Some materials that were suggested in the course outline and given out to the students were a bit easy for them. Consequently, the teacher had to think on her feet and came up with an exercise for the writing skills in order to fill time.

In retrospect, what we would have done differently is to prepare extra exercises and attempt to provide clear instructions as well as adequate examples to them. In addition, we could have emphasised more on pronunciation or have them interact with one another after they had finished each exercise.

On Tuesday, I was given the opportunity to explain a grammar point on pronouns-it and they. After spending some time thinking and preparing for the task, I thought we rarely started our lesson with a warm-up activity. I therefore decided to run a game called "Pick Pocket" which I had learned from the PD session with Aaron at Sripatum University. I attempted to synchronize numbers, vocabulary and the grammar point in to the game. As the result, I thought I managed to run the task satisfactorily. Despite the ambiguous instructions that I delivered at the beginning, the students understood and tried very hard to compete with other teams. They had fun and leaned new vocabulary words. After we had the wining team, then, I had them say the name of each item, with me correcting their pronunciation. Simultaneously, I converted the items' names to the pronouns-"it" and "they"; for example, These are sunglasses; they are new. We did exercises on the pronouns in the textbook together after the warm-up activity ended. After that the teacher explained the grammar point. I thought the warm-up activity helped ease the theoretical explanation of the grammar point successfully.The activity generated great classroom communication and dynamic.

Nevertheless, what I would do a bit differently for the next time is to write down the names of the items as well as their pronouns on the board. I would also check the spelling with them one-on-one.

In the afternoon on the same day, I had a meeting with Camilla about the exchange program. We talked about our wishes and plans for collaboration. As for my wishes, I wish to see some Australian students volunteer to help teach some English courses and run activities for Liberal Arts. This way our students might become more motivated to better their English and become exposed to native speakers from different countries. So far, we have American and Japanese students volunteer to help teach in our faculty yearly; students have had great times learning English, making new friends and exploring different cultures. Many of them just loved it! Another wish, I would love to see our students are given an opportunity to study and travel in another country-let say during a summer semester. I am certain that it would be a great intensive to those students who want to improve their English skills.

Tranquil Weekend...

Here I am relaxing tranquilly at home -watching the Sunday AFL match between Melbourne and Sydney Swans. Started my day early for a beautiful morning walk in the neighborhood, I ended up with a cup of coffee and a cookie at McDonald Cafe. The coffee was alright with the foamy steamed milk. It was not as robust as the one that I had at Romas. Then, I started food shopping as part of my Sunday routine at Sunny bank Plaza;it might not be exciting for others. As for me, it's such relaxing. In the afternoon, I went to Borders at Gardens City Center to read some books and check out bargains and things there. While looking through a number of books in the Psychology and Self Help section, I came across an interesting book, which explains many different crucial points that we seem to get dragged along in our life in the simple world. One section in "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff: simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life" by Richard Carlson, he talks about being in the present. He says,
"Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date.
It isn't. In fact, on one has a guarantee that he or she will be here
tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have
any control over. When over attention is in the present moment, we push
fear from our minds."
I could not help but totally agreed with what he said. These days, people seem to get trapped in either the past or the future. I myself have been trying (very hard)to be in the present. It's only that I had such great past experiences in my 20s so far. One of my past experiences will come back to me again. New Zealand that is! I was invited to visit my host family of 11 years before my visit terminates. Celebrating the 28th birthday with my host dad will be something that last in my memory for a life time. Back to the present,(see, how our mind can easily be taken away from the present)once I am in the present, I am fully in control of myself, in happiness and in love. I do love myself and people around me even more . Life has so much to offer...Less is More. By that means, we less cling on any thing and we become more happy and satisfied to life...However, in teaching, More is Great-more practice, more materials, more knowledge! I still have lots of things to take care before I return home. Starting to write a research proposal is yet one of the things that I have to undertake. Getting started is the hardest thing indeed.

On Saturday, I woke up early to get the house chores done before I went to a football match among English Language institutes in Queensland. There were 12 teams competing with each other. Our GELI team was there with 4 women including myself giving them a cheer. They did very well; however, I did not stay until the end. Instead, I took a City Cat to South bank to take a little walk downtown. I stopped for a coffee at Borders. Then, I caught a bus home and hoped to go to bed early since I had a long Friday and did not go to bed until almost one o'clock.

I helped teach all day today and attended a meeting until almost 5 p.m. Then, I went to Thailand Consulate-General, Brisbane. Khun Bill, Consul General, and his wife (as well as their "F.B.I. dogs") were very welcoming and loving people. Then, I walked around South bank to get a quick bite before the Queensland Orchestra performance started. I was invited to the concern at QPAC (Queensland Performance and Arts Convention by Sara, one of the teachers at GELI. I could not help but was momentarily breathless of how real the performance was actually right in front of me. Being in Philly in the States for two years, I always hoped to go see something like this since there are in abundance of well-known musicians and great performances. But here I was listening to Boris Berman, a well-known pianist from Moscow. He played Brahms tonight. The first half, the music was bogus. Sara informed that he broke her husband's piano, who works at QPAC and provided free tickets to us, while rehearsing. Queensland Orchestra was conducted by Pietari Inkinen that night. He is a brilliant 29 year-old conductor from Finland. Inkinen is also an accomplished violinist and at the Cologne Music Academy with Zakhar Bron (well I absolutely have no idea who he and his teacher are...these names occurred to me for the same time in my life!!!). It was a pleasant and productive weekend again!

P.S. I also baked Apple Pie, without measuring cups, to my friend's Dad's birthday dinner party. It came out splendidly, or else I had got to blame the Vanilla ice-cream we had with it...hahaha!

Assigned class for Beginners with Nora and Melinda..

Thursday 19 June 2008. I am now officially assigned a class to help teach. After had been observing classes, gathering research articles, searching for materials to co-write a Basic Reading textbook, I was assigned a class to help teach in the Beginners for this week and next week. Then, I will be assigned to help teach other levels. Thus, from now until then,I will be helping Nora (works from Mon.-Wed.) and Melinda (works from Thur. and Fri.) teach in four different skills: Integrated skills, Reading and Pronunciation skills, Listening and Speaking skills, Writing and Spelling. The class contains a group of 9 students: Mohammed, Yousef, Bander, Adel, Abdullah (from Saudi Arabia; Teresa, Khanh (from Columbia); Khanh and Tan (from Vietnam). The age range is from 20-35. Today,there were 4 courses-Integrated Skills, Listening & Speaking, Language Lab and Video (Speaking and Listening). In the Integrated Skills, we introduced them all the four English skills which are based around the week's theme in a book titled "Straightforward" The theme is about International School. The students learned days, colors and Verb to be. A couple of students have ZERO English background and the rest have difficulties in communication. Therefore, students worked on their own pace and did a lot of repetitions. Consequently, we had to go through the exercises slowly. While they were doing exercises, we stayed back to observe them and provided help to them individually. Then, students checked the answers with their partner, and we discussed the answers. Finally, we had them practice the exercises by role-playing and practicing dialogues in peers. The teacher prepared more exercises for the students to practice (just in case we had spare time). In Language Lab, we had them work on a software that was related to the book. Here, they reviewed all the four skills by themselves on the computer under the teacher's supervision. After coming back from lunch, we had Video class(speaking and listening);students watched a cartoon movie titled "Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out." We provided a worksheet of exercises (before watching and after watching exercises) for them to work on before they did more talking with their classmates about the video. We tried to get them to involve with each other as much as we could.

Having observed and helped the class and students, I found that there were a couple of students who are a bit slow and have started learning English from scratch. Juliette, who has been in the program for quite some time, has a bit of difficulties in expressing herself as well as a habit of misplacing capital letters in a sentence. However, as we pointed out the errors and tried to encourage her to learn from them, she tried very hard and became gradually better. With the assistance and support from the teacher, I found, students usually attempt to do better and work even harder. The teacher and I were very proud of them. On Friday, the students had a test on Grammar and Vocabulary. Prior to giving them the test, the teacher reviewed the main points they learned in the past week. After they finished, I discussed the answers with the students while the teacher was checking their papers.

After the test, we did some activity with them, which I found really interactive and communicative. I then understood that one of the traits that a teacher should possess is to think from the feet. The teacher recognized that they lack on saying date. Thus, she nailed that down by having them practice, practice and practice. They enjoyed playing the game (asking their peers for their birthday and age, then they had to line up in order) and most importantly, they learned to say dates correctly.

Using Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Patterns with Pronunciation and Spelling.

วันพุธนี้ตุ๊กได้เข้าไปนั่งดูการสอนของวิชาภาษาอังกฤษทั่วไปซึ่งนักเรียนมีทักษะภาษาอังกฤษอยู่ในขั้นดี วิชานี้นักเรียนจะได้เรียนการอ่าน เขียน พูด แกรมม่า และนอกจากนี้กิจกรรมอื่นๆ ก็มีเหมือนระดับ Beginner-GE 4 ซึ่งมีทั้งชั่วโมงการเรียนด้วยตนเองแต่อยู่ภายใต้การให้คำปรึกษาการเรียนจากอาจารย์ผู้สอน ชั่งโมงห้องแล็ป มีการเน้นการออกเสียง การสะกดคำ และคำศัพท์ การนำเอาสัญลักษณ์ทางภาษาศาสตร์มาสอนนักเรียนถือว่าเป็นประโยชน์ต่อนักเรียนในทุกระดับ เพราะนักเรียนจะสามารถพัฒนาการออกเสียงของเขาเอง ทำให้สำเนียงดีตามไปด้วย นอกจากนี้การสะกดคำจากการดูรูปแบบของคำยังเป็นเทคนิคที่น่าสนใจในการทำให้นักเรียนได้สามารถพัฒนาการสะกดคำได้ นักวิชาการที่นี่เชื่อกันว่าเทคนิคนี้ทำให้นักเรียนไม่ต้องท่องจำการสะกดคำ หรือการอ่านมากนัก นักเรียนสามารถหาคำศัพท์จาก dictionary (English-English) และอ่านได้ง่ายขึ้น ที่นี่เขาสนับสนุนให้นักเรียนใช้พจนานุกรมภาษาอังกฤษ-ภาษาอังกฤษ สำหรับนักเรียนที่มีทักษะภาษาอังกฤษระดับสูงหน่อย แต่ถ้าเป็นระดับเริ่มต้นก็จะอนุโลมให้ใช้พจนานุกรมสองภาษา

Wednesday 17 June 2008. In the afternoon, I observed and assisted a teacher in GE 5 level. This is an advanced level course which contains Integrated Skills, Reading and Writing, Speaking Listening, SAC, Language Lab and Computer Lab. Today, they had Spelling and Vocabulary and Spelling and Pronunciation lesson. Students had some vocabulary background on their week's theme based on the book titled .......so basically what we did in the class was introduce them to a new way of spelling and pronunciation.

Normally, students, in general, learn new vocabulary words and pronounce them by memorising; however, this new method is using phonetic symbols to enhance their pronunciation and using shapes of words to master their spelling. We covered some of the phonetic symbols for vowels and diphthongs sounds such as /e/(leg), /I/(sit), /u/(put),/ /(about),/e /(there), /eI/(play), /OI/(boy),/ u/(go), /aI/(my), and /au/(now). Here, we had students listen to the audio and then complete the exercise on matching words to the right phonetic symbols. Then, we had them added more words. What the students get out of the practice is that they are able to enunciate words clearly which help with their pronunciation and are able to read words in an English-English dictionary more productively and effectively. Then, another lesson was started. The teacher drew a shape of a word (or a box that goes the same shape as a word), then wrote 6 words on the board and had the students guess which word would fit in the shape. Once the students got the "feel," the teacher explained the concept (here the pattern of the practice goes engaging, studying then activating). We separated students into 2 groups (since there are only 6 students in the class, so we had a group of 3)and handed them 9 pieces of two different colored-papers each side (each student in one team had 3 pieces of paper with the same color). Then, they had to choose a word from their previous lesson for each paper and drew a shape on it. Once they finished, they gave their cards with the shapes or patterns of the words and had a member of the other team figure out the word that matches the shape. Here, students learned their spelling by using recognition of word's pattern and take a guess and acknowledged the word endings (put letters together and recognize that 'g' usually goes with 'y' or 's' usually goes with 't'). Also, they practiced their communicative skills by asking questions.
In conclusion, students have to think of combination of words that go together, the pattern of a word and how it looks, so students won't have to memorize the spelling of a word.

Here, I totally agree with the program creator. Introducing students to phonetic symbols and vocabulary pattern is certainly a tool for them to improve their pronunciation and spelling. It would be ideal if we employ this strategy/practice with all students across curriculum on campus

Different Strategies for Different Learning Purposes!

วันอังคารนี้ตุ๊กได้เข้าไปนั่งดูและช่วยสอนวิชาภาษาอังกฤษใน 2 ระดับที่แตกต่างกัน ในช่วงเช้าตุ๊กได้เข้าไปดูภาษาอังกฤษสำหรับนักเรียนที่ภาษาอังกฤษอยู่ขั้นดีมาก นักเรียนส่วนใหญ่ผ่านเข้ามาระดับนี้เพราะกำลังจะเรียนในระดับมหาวิทยาลัยอีกไม่กี่เดือนที่จะถึง นักเรียนส่วนใหญ่ฝึกฝนทักษะการคิด การเขียนในระดับมหาวิทยาลัย นักเรียนส่วนใหญ่กำลังจะเรียนในระดับปริญญาโท ปริญญาตรี และปริญญาเอก นักเรียนหลายคนคิดเห็นว่าโปรแกรมนี้ทำให้พวกเขาได้พัฒนาการเขียนขั้นสูงได้เป็นอย่างมาก ไม่กี่คนเท่านั้นที่คิดว่าตัวเองไม่ได้พัฒนาอะไรเลย ตรงนี้เองที่ตุ๊กขออนุญาตอาจารย์ผู้สอนเพื่ออธิบายเนื่องจากตุ๊กเคยมีประสบการณ์การเรียนในต่างประเทศมาก่อน แต่แตกต่างตรงที่ตุ๊กไม่ได้เรียนโปรแกรมเหมือนกับนักเรียนกลุ่มนี้เลย พวกเขาโชคดีมาก ตุ๊กอธิบายว่าตุ๊กต้องเรียนหนักกว่าคนอื่นถึง 3 เท่า การที่ได้เรียนเนื้อหาที่ได้เรียนมาแล้วนั้นใช่ว่าเราไม่ได้เรียนอะไรแล้ว แต่ที่จริงแล้วเรากำลังลับทักษะ และความรู้ของเราให้แหลมคมมากยิ่งขึ้น นักเรียนในชั้นหลายคนเห็นด้วย

การสอนของอาจารย์ที่สอนในรายวิชานี้ค่อนข้างจะเป็นแบบผู้ช่วยให้คำปรึกษาเท่านั้น อาจารย์จะอธิบายหลักการต้นชั่วโมงแล้วจะให้งานที่เตรียมมาให้นักเรียนทำ ให้นักเรียนคุยและปรึกษากันเอง ในขณะที่อาจารย์จะอยู่ห่างๆ คอยสำรวจว่าใครกำลังมีปัญหา เมื่อเห็นว่านักเรียนคนไหนมีปัญหาอาจารย์เขาก็จะเข้าไปนั่งคุยและให้คำอธิบาย สิ่งที่อาจารย์ท่านนี้ทำอย่างประจำคือเขียนลงบนบอร์ดว่าวันนี้เขาจะทำอะไรบ้างในห้องเรียน เพื่อที่นักเรียนจะได้ทราบว่าในวันนั้นจะเรียนเรื่องอะไรบ้าง ส่วนกิจกรรมที่ทำในห้องเรียนนั้น บางครั้งอาจารย์ก็จะเซอร์ไพรซ์นักเรียน

สิ่งที่ได้เรียนรู้หลังจากที่ได้เปรียบเทียบการสอนในระดับสูง กับระดับต่ำลงมานั้นทำให้รู้ว่าคนที่เป็นอาจารย์ควรจะทราบว่านักเรียนของตนอยู่ในระดับใด เขาต้องการเรียนรู้และพัฒนาทักษะในส่วนใด ซึ่งอาจารย์ก็จะเตรียมกิจกรรมและเปลี่ยนแปลงการสอนของตนเองให้เหมาะสมกับความต้องการและจำเป็นกับตัวนักเรียน อย่างหนึ่งที่ต้องจำคือพยายามเซอร์ไพรซ์นักเรียนในการนำเสนอบทเรียน แตกต่างกันแล้วแต่ความเหมาะสม กับบรรยากาศของห้องเรียนในแต่ละครั้ง ที่สำคัญอีกอย่างคือต้องเตรียมกิจกรรม เอกสาร แบบฝึกหัดที่จะสอนเป็นอย่างดี พยายามเตรียมแบบฝึกหัดให้เยอะไว้ เพราะบางครั้งนักเรียนทำกิจกรรมหรือแบบฝึกหัดเสร็จก่อนหมดเวลาสนอ ดังนั้นต้องเตรียมเผื่อเอาไว้

นอกจากนี้วันนี้ในห้องพักอาจารย์ได้มีเจ้าหน้าที่นำเองกล่องสำหรับใส่กระดาษรีไซเคิลมาวางไว้ข้างๆโต๊ะอาจารย์ ตุ๊กคิดว่าเป็นความคิดที่ดีมาก ถ้าเรานำมาใช้ที่มหาวิทยาลัยศรีปทุมก็คงจะดีเพราะแม่บ้านจะได้ไม่ต้องเสียเวลามาแยกกระดาษให้กับอาจารย์ ที่นี่เขาให้ความสำคัญกับบรรยากาศในที่ทำงาน และพยายามรักษาสภาพแวดล้อมเป็นอย่างมาก

Tuesday 17 June 2008. Today I observed classes and assisted the teachers in two different levels. Obviously, I had a chance to compare the teaching styles, classroom environments and activities given to the students. My take for this is that a certain strategy/teaching style suits a certain group of students (their needs and the nature of learning) and the purposes of certain courses.

The first class was DEP (Direct Entry Program)-students placed in the this level are those who got an offer from the University, and yet with a condition to attend an academic program, or those who have a high placement score, yet the IELTS test is unsatisfatory. Thus, taking this program will enhance their academic skills and be able to enter the university when they pass the program's exit exams. Basically, this program is aimed to prompt students to academic learning as well as to mirror the Australian environment in a classroom setting.

Students practice their critical thinking, reading and writing and research preparation. Practically, there are 4 subjects that students have to take in this program (similar to real life academic learning). Today, students had Critical Thinking and Research Preparation subjects with Patricia, who invited me to join her class. In this class, the teacher totally works as a facilitator since the students are very advanced in their English skills. Throughout the class, she employed "Study" and "Activate" practice ("Engage" was less performed in the class among the teacher and the students. It's more like students and students engagement). She started the class by giving out a class schedule for the day, thus students acknowledged what would happen or what topics and activities would be covered. In the first two hours, Patricia and the students worked on an essay structure emphasised on Introduction and Synthesis. Since these students have a bit of prior knowledge from their previous levels;hence, she handed out a couple of sheets of introductions from different essays and had students individually identify the structure of each sample introduction. Later on, she asked them to discuss with their friends. Meanwhile, she observed their responses and reactions with their friends and visited each group for feedback. Here, I saw the dynamic of the classroom interaction among students. As a whole class, they analyzed the introductions and ask questions. I assisted the class a bit in summarizing the topic about writing an essay based on my previous experience as a graduate myself.

Towards the end of the class, Patricia spared some time for a discussion on the program so that the students and I could exchange feedback about the program. Also, I discussed with the teacher about her ways of teaching. She explained that she liked to step back while students discussed on an assigned task in peers or in groups;then she would observe, ask questions and explain the answers and subject matters being discussed. As for the students, many of them, who are from GE and EAP background found the program very useful and vital in terms of practicing their critical thinking and academic writing. In contrast, a few said that they hardly learned any thing from the class since they had prior knowledge from Pre-DEP class. My constructive inputs/criticism on the feedback from both sides were shared: (1) Based on my past experience, taking this course is most beneficial to them. I started my studies as the only international student with completely ZERO American environment including ZERO Literature, Teaching and Linguistics backgrounds. I had no preparation for academic studies and research writing. I was treated as one of the mainstreams and was assumed that I already knew how to write a 10-page paper. I had to learn every thing from scratch by myself and with the help of my best friend in the class. These students are fortunate to get exposed to the learning culture.
(2) As for those who thought they have learned a bit from the class, I tried to pinpoint that they are actually learning some thing and by being in the class working on their writing, they are sharpening their learning skills. Many students found that there were more interactions among peers in the class, compared to their previous classes in the lower levels, and less with the teacher and vice versa. They understand that it's because of the curricula and the purposes of the programs that have an impact on the classroom environment. As for me, in the lower levels (GE program), English language is to Study while the teacher is as an entertainer and a facilitator; versus the upper levels (such as DEP), language is a tool to help them in academic studies (they learn on how to learn or learning by doing) while the teacher is mainly a facilitator to guide on students.

What I get out from this class observation and participation are: students are informed each class what they will learn and do, teacher surprises them with activities and students produce a product towards the end of the course while the process of doing it is continuously introduced throughout the course. In brief, as for this particular level and program, the teaching is an act of guiding and facilitating--students build up their knowledge on prior experience.

(GE class experience to be continued on the next blog)

The "Fantastica," "Fantabulous" "Spectaculous" Third weekend!

Gee, no words can be uttered or described of how beeeeeautiful this weekend was. I slowly inhaled every single breath of the tranquil moment while taking my morning walks in the neighborhood and nearby. At least 20 miles I walked on Sat.and Sun. all together. I just loved every thing that I walked passed-houses, stores, trees, flowers and wild birds. Houses here are totally different from my favorite ones in Philly. That really made me become even more appreciated of the houses I saw in Philly. I missed my old times walking and looking at those old houses, especailly their unique structures, their gorgeous slate roofs, their stones and bricks. I was totally in an ecstasy of them. Here, there are either austere houses or modern ones which are nice, yet insignificant. Houses in Philly are more charming. However, I love it here so far and could not be any happier to be here!

At night on Saturday, I attended a party dinner which turned out to be a youth masquerade ball (did not anticipate to go to one. I thought it was just a party for a charity, nothing fancy). Apparently, I had got a pair of black pants and a top on without any mask! I went to the ball with the landlord and the family who are Filipinos. This event was initiated by Filipino Community Council of Queensland Inc Youth to support SOS Children's Villages Philippines. The party took place at Tattersalls Club on Queen Street. The ballroom was very nice, the food was great and every thing was just perfect. It's my first masquerade ball. Guests dressed up beautifully! The Consul General to Brisbane also came to the ball. It was an unexpected and unforgettable experience to me indeed! I was so very touched by the strength and love of the community they possess. They were very welcoming and I felt like one of them! Many of them even started talking to me in Tagalog because they assumed that I were one of them. That night I was very exshausted but I could not sleep. I had 4 cups of coffees that night since it's a bit cold. No wonder why I could not sleep! The weather here is getting colder. It's bearable though since they usually get mild Winter here in this part of the country. I still manage to survive and have my shower every day!!! :)

The next day, Kelly and I went to downtown Brisbane to just wander around and visited remarkable places here. We walked to Botanic Garden and visited places, shops, along Queen's Street, Elizabeth's Street (Borders Bookstore), Adelaide's Street (Krispy Kreme shop). I have to say that I was ecstatic to see Target, Boarders, Krispy Kreme here. They made me homesick really. I wished though they had got Manhatton Bagels (Toasted Everything Bagel with Creme Cheese or Eggs and Sausages and a cup of a Decaf Coffee!). Anyway, we stopped for a coffee in which I was recommended to try. The shop is called Aromas which is well known here in town. Then, we indulged ourselves in a Krispy Kreme donut each. I had Cinnamon Apple filled. IT WAS JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED! Ummm! Yumm! My day and weekend ended up at "Woolly" for groceries! What a surprise!!