Face-to-Face Week 2: Students Teaching
Daily Summery
07/10/2017
07/10/2017
Nian Gao team were very nervous yet excited to finally meet our volunteered students today. Our learning journey with these 11 students started after the speed dating activity. After the past 4 weeks of preparation, everyone was inspired by various teaching designs such as Can-Do statements, warm up activities, comprehnsible input, guided practice activities and tasks, etc. It was amazing to see all the teachers were able to use 90%+ of Chinese to work with students. In the afternoon, students were devided and rotated through four stations. There was one teacher at each station working with the students to review and practice what they learned in the morning. It provided an opportunity for the teachers to know each individual student better and also alllow the students to master the new knowledge. We are so looking forward to more learning opportunities for Nian Gao team teachers and students during the next 3 days! (Niangao team 17)
Today is the first day of micro teaching. We have three lessons today. In the morning we did two and one in the afternoon. Eight volunteer students of Moon Cake group were welcomed by our teachers at 9:50 a.m. Each student wrote their Chinese names on a green paper that was taped in the front of his/her own seat. Before master teacher taught the first lesson, she guided a ice break activity to let all students and teachers know each other. In the afternoon after the 3th lesson teaching we did a four station activity. The purpose of station activity is to let students review today's lessons. We did teaching reflection after student left the classroom. All teachers expressed that they have learned a lot from today's teaching. From online to onsite, now they have the change to practice their teaching in a REAL classroom. (Zongzi team 17)
The day to meet our volunteer students was finally here. Zongzi students were wonderful and motivated. All of the three micro-teachings went really well. It was a busy but productive day. The Zongzi teachers were so impressed how fast the students learned. On top of this all lessons were taught 100% in target language. Zongzi teachers decorated the classroom with lots of realia related to Chinese medicine and western medicine , used lots of pictures and gestures, and constantly checked for students' understanding during the lessons. Fifty minutes went by so fast that they forgot to "feel nervous". They were so into teaching and the class had lots of fun doing activities together. In the afternoon work stations, students and participant teachers worked in small groups (1 teacher to 2-3 students ratio) and did activities focusing on speaking, listening, writing, and reading. The stations not only allowed the teachers and students get to know each other better, but also were wonderful opportunities for the students to review and practice newly learned material today. It truly was a successful first day for the on-site week 2 program ! (Yuebing team 17)
07/11/2017
Nian Gao team had another busy yet fulfilling day with our volunteer students! After 4 + hours of effective learning yesterday, all students have shown their growth. They were able to present their daily life using the correct sentence order, ask and answer questions about other people's daily life, talk about their likes and dislikes, etc. We were excited to witness them speaking in the sentence level. The teachers were encouraged by students' progress and wanted to do more for them. During the cultural session, the teachers and students were dancing together with lots of laughter. We also had interviews with the site visitor as well. By 4 o'clock, everyone felt exaugusted but proud. Tonight all 4 teachers will finalize their co-teach lesson and run two more wonderful lessons tomorrow. Go! Go! Go! Nian Gao team! (niangao team 17)
Hooray! Another successful day! Today Zongzi teachers not only finished teaching 4th and 5th lessons, in the afternoon they taught the culture class, too. On top of the busy schedule, today was also site visitor day. Zongzi teachers handled all the tasks beautifully. As soon as they got off the meeting with the site visitor, they set up the herbal medicine station and the acupuncture and acupressure station and lead the students do hands on activities. Students practiced along with the teachers to do acupressure massage on the hands, head and eyes. They tried many acupressure tools. In the Chinese medicine station, students also had the opportunity to touch and smell many kinds of Chinese herbs. At the end students enjoyed home brewed fresh chrysanthemum and goji berry tea which help maintaining good eyesight. Everyone had so much fun doing the activities and at the same time learning about Chinese medicine. With only two more co-teaching lessons left to teach, the stress level is not so high now. Zongzi teachers are pretty much done with preparing teaching materials and making PPT slides. They can finally go back home tonight not worrying too much about planning lesson. Have a good night of rest, Zongzi teachers! ( Zongzi group 17 )
The teachers of the 4th and 5th period were so nervous today because the site visitors came to observe their teaching in the morning. The site visitors came into the classroom about 10:40. When they came into the classroom, The students worked for their "My Plate" project. Three visitors also observed the half of 5th period, then they interviewed three master teachers for over 40 minutes. In the afternoon, the culture lesson we introduced Chinese teas, including Gongfu Tea, Chinese herbal tea, etc. We separated into two groups of students to demonstrate how to serve traditional Chinese Gongfu tea. Most of them were the first time to experience this special tea ceremony. They also know that Chinese people also will drink som herbal tea to take care of their health, for example, goji, chrysanthemum. After students left at 3:15, our team did teaching reflection at once. Three visitors sat by our sides to listen to our group's reflection. In order to let all visitors can understand what we discussed, we use English only. We had a very busy and exciting day.
(Yuebing Group 17)
(Yuebing Group 17)
07/12/2017
Nian Gao team had our last but not least two lessons and students were activly participating by speaking a lot of Chines. Co-teaching is nice way for teachers to double the joy and reduce the stress. We were also very proud of our students because they have shown so much growth since day 1. The afternoon station activities were everyone's favorite because students got to play fun learning activities and the teachers provided full attention to work with students. The final presentational and interpersonal tasks are going to be phenomenal. (Niangao team 17)
Entering the third day of the on-site week 2, Zongzi teachers’ microteaching got better and better! There’re so many good teaching practices in today’s lessons. Zongzi teachers really took the feedbacks from peers and mentor teacher and made sure to simplify language when doing comprehensible input. Activities were engaging and there’s no dull moment in class. In the afternoon, students started their presentation task and worked hard on their flu prevention and allergy management posters. The afternoon workstations again were very successful. Students had so much fun playing board game, Eggspert and paper fly swatter game. They also read authentic Chinese medicine usage direction and picked out learned words and phrases. Zongzi teachers were so impressed by how fast and how much the students have learned in just 3 days. What are left will be the final performance tasks. We can't wait to see every group's performance. We all look forward to the big day tomorrow. (Zongzi group 17 )
Today is the 8th day of the on-site program. We had the 6th and 7th co-teach lesson in the morning. both of the classes are co-teaching, so our teacher participants didn't have much stress today. Both of their classes were doing very well. They helped each other and knew how to support each other. What a good team! In order to prepare for tomorrow's presentation, Yue Bing teacher participants helped our students in the whole afternoon. We separated as three group by level for projects. The beginner will present "Comparing of breakfast of Chinese students and American students". Another group prepared "My Plate" and the students of high level will present a healthy brochure.
(Yuebing group 17 )
(Yuebing group 17 )
07/13/2017
What a wonderful day it was! Proud teachers were helping students prepare for their afternoon's showcase as soon as students arrived. By groups, teachers were walking around each station and enjoying students' presentation and Q & A. Everyone is involved including our director, Dr. Kwoh. Lots of noise and laughters combining with Chinese langage in the air. Teachers were wiping off their tears when the video during graduation ceremony was playing. We had so much fun memories. Although 2017 Berkeley STARTALK Camp has come to an end for our volunteer students but we are sure their Chinese learning journey will go on...... (Niangao 2017)
Kudos to all the 2017 Berkeley STARTALK teacher participants and volunteer students! What a fantastic job they did in today's final presentation. Although there's no lesson planned for today, every teacher worked hard to guide the volunteer students to work on their final presentation. Volunteer students also tried their best to get ready for afternoon’s presentation. During downtime, Zongzi students kicked Chinese foot shuttlecocks and tasted Xiaoyi Laoshi’s homebrewed Chinese Hawthorn fruit tea for aiding digestion and regaining energy. Zongzi teachers worked alongside the students to rehearse and practice presenting their posters. The team work and collaboration between Zongzi teachers are just amazing! It's such a honor to be able to work with these dedicated teachers. During final presentation participant teachers had the opportunity to go around each group’s stations to listen to students’ presentation and did Q & A with each individual student. All the teachers were blown away by how much the students had learned in such a short time. Everyone had a wonderful time today! (Zongzi group 2017 )
We just need to hang on there for the last day of students' coming to the classroom. We had two hours in the morning to support our students to present their work. All three groups worked so hard to show their best presentation and we did. We kept taking photos in the morning, not mentioned during the ceremony of Graduation. We had a touching moment in the afternoon. one of our students, 葛贝思, lead some students and teachers to dance "Little Apple". That was an interesting activity. We needed some exercise because the food was so good for the last eight days. Thanks to our program director, Dr. Kowh. She arranged every meal for us, breakfast, lunch, and fruits in the afternoon. All of us agreed that we need to be on diets after this program. (Yuebing Group 2017 )
07/14/2017
We did it! On the last day, we celebrated the success of 2017 Berkeley STARTALK Program by having 3 mini PDs and all participating teachers were regrouped and happily sharing their teaching ideas with enthusiasm. Everyone was chatting with excitement and a bit sadness during our last day. Lots of hugs in the afternoon ceremony. Farewell evryone! Wish you the best on your teaching journey and we look forward to seeinng ebveryone duirng the reunion in January, 2018! (Niangao 2017)
It’s hard to believe that 2017 Berkeley STARTALK is drawing to an end today. With no lesson planning and volunteer students to look after, every teacher was able to focus on professional development and had the time to really discuss and reflect their learning and teaching in the past few weeks. This year every teacher worked really well together and their growth is evident. No matter in lesson planning and delivery or comprehensible input, they all made huge improvement. Congratulation to all of the 2017 Berkeley STARTALK teachers! You did it and you did a wonderful job. Happy teaching! (Yuanxiao team, 2017)
Today is the last day of on site program. We had several workshops for our teacher participants, including using pictures in a classroom, using authentic teaching materials and the strategies of teaching vocabulary. Ms. Lu introduced how to choose the appropriate pictures for class and how to stimulate students' critical thinking by using pictures. Authentic materials are important for language teaching. Master teachers designed a hand on workshop for teachers to work cooperatively. Teachers work in groups of three to create performance tasks, including interpersonal, interpretive and presentational. In the afternoon, we had two more workshops. They were "how to teach vocabulary" and "credential program". Teacher participants, the group of three, discussed how to teach vocabularies by using a variety of activities, for example, "萝卜蹲“、“比手划脚” After Dr. Kwoh introduced the credential program, the graduation ceremony was followed. We took pictures and said good bye each other. We will miss each other because we have been working so hard for the past four weeks. (Zongzi group 2017)