Changhua County Chengkung High School Enrichment

This morning I was asked to teach three demonstrative lessons at a local junior high school. I hope there are teachers there to take some notes on pedagogy or it will merely mean three well-paid substitute classes for me.

  I taught three model lessons at a middle/high school in Chang-Hua yesterday. The students in this rural school benefit from a teacher who cared enough to ask the publisher to have me come. I demonstrated word pictures, sky-earth-water, and CVC vocabulary review to the first class.

A helix grammar pattern review contest to the second class.

An on-board competition of reported speech review after introducing the concept to the class and school to the third class.

 The teacher there was inspired; she had never done any of the above before, indeed, had probably never seen on-board or any other cooperative learning activities or contests in any classes at all. I know the students enjoyed and were challenged by the matrix I introduced. Now it is up to the teachers there to carry the torch.

 Yesterday I taught as many classes as I had in my heyday at FDR H.S., and more 46- minute periods than ever; seven. Of course, I'm not counting the regular twelve-hour teaching days I spent from 1984-89 in the Taipei colleges, Dominican School, Joy, and my own American School English Center. I did my time and don't ever want to go back there.