First Year Reflection
My goal as a teacher of Mandarin Chinese is to develop students’ ability to use the target language in real-world situations. I believe that leaning a second language should not only happen in a classroom, but also outside of a classroom. Since this will be difficult for first graders, I created a class website where I upload our daily agenda, homework assignments, videos of the classroom, and other useful resources to aid the students/parents in learning. This website primarily helps the parents to know what’s going on in the classroom and to let the parents help their students in learning and reviewing Chinese without knowing the language, using the English translations I provide.
Towards the beginning of the year, I found that using 100% Chinese in the classroom was difficult and something I did not think I would be able to achieve; however, with language teacher training and some other teachers’ examples of their students succeeding in doing so, I followed through with using all Chinese and noticed remarkable process in the students’ performances. Students were able to pick up Chinese quicker than I had imagined.
Throughout the year, I have been shocked by some students’ high level of performance in all areas of Chinese (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). When I asked their parents how their students learn the language at home, the parents replied to me that they have been working closely with the students utilizing our class website. For example, I provide links to a dictionary for each Chinese word on the website that shows the radical, stroke orders, and other information. Utilizing the website at home, students were able to practice more with the language and grasp a stronger understanding for it. Another noticeable example of this is from a transferred student. This student switched into my class from another state midway through the school year (around December), and before he moved here, his parents communicated with me and I provided them with my class website. The transferred student and his parents followed closely with the class website of what we’re doing in class and practiced with all the homework and activities I put on the webpage. Now, he is one of the highest performing student of my class despite transferring in midway through and not being as exposed to the language as other students in the classroom. This matches my goal that learning the language and culture is beyond the classroom.
After teaching for almost a school year, I noticed that even though preparing lesson plans is important, classroom management is far more important. Without a managed classroom, the lesson plans would not be able to come to live. I realized that misbehavior spread easily, and it is important to stop any problems when it’s just small. If a teacher doesn’t stop small problems, it would expand and become a bigger problem from one person to a section of the classroom to eventually the most of classroom.
I’ve learned the importance of communicating with the parents and how to adapt with the differences with the classroom setting’s culture. Growing up in a different culture, I learned through firsthand experience this year the American classroom culture, and I am thankful for having such cooperative parents in helping me adapt to these differences. An example of which is how I give out daily homework, and after a while, I realized that this isn’t common in the United States. After realizing this culture difference, I worked closely with the parents and asked individually how long it takes for their students to complete their homework assignment. Parents of advanced level students have students who can complete their homework speedily. When it takes longer than 30 minutes, I came up with different strategies to solve this problem. Some strategies include giving out rewards if they can complete their work in 20 minutes for essential level students since they simply lack focus or telling them they only have to finish the first half of their assignment if it can be done in say, 15 minutes for adapted level students. The reason I do differentiation for adapted students is because they spend too much time on their homework to the point that they get tired of the work and learn very little, so if they can actually focus and get motivated for the first 15 or so minutes, they would actually be learning more than if they’re dragging out their homework assignments. Once students are motivated, they would be able to learn more effectively and for longer term memory.
I would write an update email at least once a week to communicate with the parents. Also, I would contact parents individually if their students are struggling in certain areas or ask them to pay closer attention to their student’s homework. On students’ homework, I can see eraser marks and how the parents would help their students on their homework assignment. I’ve thoroughly realized that teaching is a three way effort, on the teacher, students, and the parents.
________________________________________
http://chinese1415.weebly.com/