Wednesday/Thursday, Week 2 Zigen English Teacher Training Program, Shilou

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It's late Thursday night, July 29,at 2010. We're nearing the end of the 2nd week of the teacher training program. This week has been more manageable in many ways. I have a good idea of what my group of teachers can and cannot do. There are not new people coming in and out (well, maybe a couple) and they have some sense of who I am and what I want them to do. We are trying to focus on their English but at the same time focus on their teaching, particularly how they might use the book more creatively and at the same time meet the school's requirements that they cover the book and above all prepare the students to take the test. It's a tall order for the teachers.
We started the week off as I wrote about last time with a focus on reading skills. On Tuesday we looked at practicing structures - that is asking yes/no questions and then writing a story. We have also done some crosswords and some games like a board game reviewing comparatives. Today we did more on writing a story....we used that Grammar in Use book again...there's a strip story about The Robbery....a guy is in jail, and there's a flashback,....he and his girlfriend break into a jewelry store, he takes some jewelry but trips the alarm as he'sclimbing out...he gets out but the police siren is wailing inthe background...he tries to get away but the cop catches him as he's climbing over the fence...the girlfriend is nabbed along with him...and they are carted off to jail. EAch group created their own story and we reviewed them...writing exercise and then grammar correction...that was good...we have also looked at reading aloud...the idea that we read aloud to convey information...and when we as teachers read a story or text aloud it's to give the students information, not to be self-engaged with the text...so many of us look down at the text and get self-involved when reading aloud -- we like to hear ourselves reading aloud, but the real purpose for reading aloud in the real world is to read something to someone else...to convey some information to another person...so we practiced reading a story aloud...one of Tanya Rief's Timeless Tales -- Stone Soup.

Constance my TA also led the class in a game,English Bee, that she had prepared...there are 3 rounds and different teams of students. Each round is slightly different. There are 5 different types of questions -- 1 pt, 2pt, 3pt,4pt, and 5 pt questions...during the first round each group can choose a question fromone of the types of questions and try to answer it without penality if they get a wrong answer...in round 2 each group answers a question that they choose but they lost points if they don't get the right answer and in the last round, each group chooses a question for another group and the first group will get the points if the second group doesn't answer correctly...Constance included questions that reviewed some of the language we had been working onin class, including the country cue cards that we used in the information gap exercises.

Wednesday evening I was not feeling well...stomach problems...so I didn't go to dinner...I was in my room the entire time Trying to go online for a good part of fhe evening as well. I finally finished The Kichen God's Wife...Amy Tan is a great storyteller...although one major flaw of the book is that the story within the story is not well integrated to the story that frames it...there's no clear reason toframe the real story in the context of mother-daughter relations...but it was good to read while I'm in China.

This morning I went to class...still not feeling well...didn't go to breakfast...can't stand the odor of the dining room when my stomach is upet like this...and today after we did the robbery story and a crossword and an anagram exercise onoccupations, we looked atlesson plans...I'm trying to get the idea across that we are trying to present lessons each time that will get the students to be able to do something..the old aim idea in the Board of Ed ...and here in their textbook it's recognizing the functions of language...describing something or telling a story...or making introducitons...some of the teachers still don't get that we really want the students to be able to do something...not justwork through the textbook...

Their assignment now is to create a lesson plan for a unit in their textbook and then to prepare a 15-minute presentation of an exercise/activity from that unit as well as their plan to the class. We are going to try to videotape the lessons on Monday. Tomorrow they will work on their presentations inclass...this afternoon Tonya and Victoria did a presentation on what it was like growing up ABC inAmerica. It was a great presentation...I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This evening we went with XiuXia to some fields that are below the bridge that I walk across every day to go to the school..there is not much land but every square inch has been cultivated on this land....Her mother has cultivated part of it...it's amazing how much the people have grown on this land, particularly since rain has been so scarce in these parts this summer. She then took us to her house....she lives with her parents in a cave house although theirs is n ot 100 years old...it's only 10 years old...Her brother and his wifelivef in their compound but in another house. It was quite an expereince and on the way back we saw a man catching scorpions to sell, and then we went to the village square where people were line dancing...a great number of people were out...it'sbeen very hot today so people were trhying to get out to cool down.

This afternoon for lunch I went to JiaHuiChen's house and we made dumplings with her family. Judy and I both went, made the dumplings, ate and then fell asleep...we overslept and were late for the presenations...but we needed it...

I am now getting a cold...

It's been a full day.

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