|
|||
|
|
The American Language Teachers’ Training Workshop
Report Response From Session A For Elementary School Teachers To American International Education Foundation I’m writing this mainly because my heart is beating like a drum and it keeps on urging me to broadcast the thoughts and wits Dr. Barbara Hawkins and Professor Kathy Trump had so generously spread and the process of how they had encouraged each of us to find the talents of ourselves. We all felt being supported and endorsed in the long and tiresome quest of teaching expedition, knowing that we are not lonely. Barbara and Kathy took the 16 Elementary English teachers from all parts of Taiwan on a two-day trip to the future land where children are ensured to be on the right track of education of English. This workshop itself was carried on like a cinema. The tone began with a subtle touch of the first light of the dawn and ended with a sweet dream a satisfied child could have ever made in his/her life. We walked in on a cold, damp Friday morning, frowning with the ends of our mouths bending down. When we got out on the Saturday afternoon, sun shone gently on our smiling face. (Prof. Trump would immediately give us a lecture of how the vocabulary goes if she spots my poor writing : the continuum from sadness to happiness. She is a living thesaurus. She could have carried on the speech for days about tons of knowledge inside her brain about the right usage of words, but she simply told us that the black box is for ourselves to fill up. She told us that learning can never be effective unless it is relevant to the child’s real life situation. So she picked up “smile”, “giggle”, “chuckle”, “laugh” and Barbara added “guffaw” to present a vocabulary domain. She apologized for not being able to draw and sing, but she had transferred to us a refined quality and a subtle touch that a supreme teacher should possess: calmness, cuteness and confidence, which is required for a long-termed business in education. ) She said, “English is a world language serving the purpose to communicate within human being. Don’t you ever under-estimate your ability of teaching English even though you don’t have the native speakers’ accent. Accurate pronunciation teaching can be always achieved through media, but your wits and creation can never be replaced.” Time flew by quickly in a cozy room with giggling sounds starting to come out from a bunch of shy Taiwanese teachers’ mouths at the moment when the lid of a magic box was opened up by Dr. Hawkins. She escorted us to a land called paradise where teaching of reading is turned from an experience of ordeal to pleasure. She swung her magic wand and empowered every one of us the skills of effective language teaching, and helped us discover our hidden talents. Her compassion to mankind is expressed and generously given through the educational viewpoints she accumulated throughout the years. She said, “Life is a story. And everyone has a story. Let the children construct their own story, through which they find their pride and privilege, and meaning of life.” Even time was so limited, she had successfully demonstrated the TPR method with Prof. Trump, and inspired us the 4 phases of Language Experience Approach (LEA), the phonics rules, genres discussion, tips of grammar instruction (a very unique investigation), concepts associated with reading, etc. Our memory box (a theme in one of the significant books Dr. Hawkins introduced) now is filled with knowledge, gratitude, vitamins and joys. What we can repay to them both and most importantly, to the American International Education Foundation, who made our adventure possible, is to put all these experiences into practice in our classroom and make the children’s future a promising one. All the rest of the participants at this workshop join me with a word “Thanks!” from the bottom of our heart. However, while we benefit so much from the course, we feel that it is so much a waste that thousands of English teachers around this island were not properly informed of this news. Is it possible that Ministry of Education can notify all schools about this seminar and issue a leave for the teachers to attend such a fruitful occasion should there be next one in the future?
Again, thank you for your good deeds, good will, time and huge money spent for us.
|
||
