June+15,+2011

REFLECTIONS

Yinsan Isabel Hsu It was astonished to learn from the Russian teachers also the reflection given by both Chinese and Russian teachers were beneficial. Dr Met provided a overview and summary of what we have learn so far. That helped me put the big picture together.

Shaohua Chen Glad to join the big group today. Dr. Met mentioned that teaching plan should emphasize on what students will be doing, as students learn by doing. Also she stressed that duration of the activities should equal the age of the child plus 2, that is very interesting. I also enjoyed the micro teaching, although I did not really learn any Russian.

Han Wei Today is a productive day. Dr Met breezes through lesson planning with us and equips us with the theories and strategies in a systematic way. It is much more helpful for the Russian teachers and Chinese teachers to change their roles to teach each other in an immersion way, which is a win-win way for us to share with each other butterfly life cycle in the different language and learn from each other. In the afternoon we meet with the Day group members and Letter group members to settle the lesson plan.

Louisa Yu An important thing I learned from Dr. Met is comprehension input. Although I Idid not teach in imersion class before, I reflect my lessons I have taught, Do I really think about students understood what I teach? They can read the chinese books and do the sentences patterns exercise, do they really understand what they read and what they write? I should ask me this question when I design my lesson plan in the furture teaching days.

Yewei Jiang Yes, it was a fantastic activity for Russian and Chinese teachers to teach each other. We found quite a few weaknesses in our lesson plan after that. Also, I did not have much confidence in the effect of Immersion Teaching before, but right now I will say that it is really works! I have learned at least 3 Russian words today, even though I didn't know any Russian before!

I-Chi Wang This morning we got a chance to teach the Russian teachers and vice versa. It was great to learn other teachers merits. It also helped us as teachers to see where we were flawed and improve them. In the afternoon the letter group discussed how to manage next week's activity; it enabled me to finish my teaching plans.

Chunyan Wang: Getting more clear about how to do lesson plan and what to teach to the students and how to teach them.Like the activity (Russian teachers and Chinese teacher to teach each other),I learned a lot from Russian teachers ,they are like a mirror to us, we know what to improve on our lesson plan.it was a great day!!

Fanghong Yu This morning we did a reflection on what we learned from Ms Met. I like the idea of comparing teaching with driving from Denver to Miami. In the afternoon, we worked in groups as usual and we had a very prolific afternoonwe decorated our classroom with the pictures we made, butterflies, caterpillars and the life cycle of a butterfly. Tomorrow we will go on decorate the classroom and planning our lessons. Today I made a song with the tune of "Wheels on the Bus". Here is the lyrics " 蝴蝶， 蝴蝶，蝴蝶， 飞飞飞， 飞飞飞，飞飞飞. 毛毛虫，毛毛虫，毛毛虫， 爬爬爬， 爬爬爬， 爬爬爬. 蛹蛹蛹蛹， 睡睡睡，睡睡睡， 睡睡睡.  蛋蛋蛋蛋，滚滚滚，滚滚滚，滚滚滚.  You can change the order and you are welcome to borrow this.

Sherry Chao, This morning Russian and Chinese teachers practiced teaching each other in the target language. I found learning the second language is not really easy. Don't teach too much for each time. The afternoon we got the field trip procedures, I am kid of excited and nervous. My group is almost already for next week.

Shuo Chen We finished to discussion the topic of lesson plan. Dr. Met taught us that the center of class is student, and teachers have to know that what student can learn, not what can teach them. We and Russion teachers also learned from each other through the practice. They prepared very well because they will begin to teach tomorrow. the material that they used in class give us the inspiration.

Ruihong wu Everyday is new and unique! Because tomorrow is the time for Russian teachers to present real lessons for kids who participated summer camp, so Chinese teachers became their first novice level low students to learn Russian. Russian teachers did great jobs.! I leraned merits from other Russian teachers. The most important was repeated key words over and over again, meanwhile must arrange some active games to ensure that leraner focus on the teacher and lesson.

Zhang Xiaohong Dr Mimi introduced some essentials that we need to pay attention to when we are teaching immersion class such as we have to avoid using target language and making the language input comprehensible. I benefited a lot from the part in which the Russian teachers and Chinese teachers teach each other on the life cycle of butterfly. Since it's the first time for me to be an immersion teacher, it's really very helpful to put myself in the shoes of a student who has never learned any Chinese if I want to teach them in immersion Cninese programme.

Mo Geng After the demo with Russian teachers I learned a lot today. From exchange teaching, we found which parts we need to improve, and which parts we need more to repeat and explain to learners. Russian teachers prepare a lot of different materials, which gave us deep inspiration to create our group’s teaching materials.

CAO Yongxin

Today I have a such wonderful experices that we tought some Russian teacher Chinese for a little while, which make us know how difficult it is to teach novice students Chinese, and the most important thing is that we know how to improve our instruction. For example, as an immersion teacher who teach novice students, speaking pace is so important. That means, I must speak slowly. Another one is that we should use many activities to make students have an meaningful input. Meaningful input is a key way to avoid the boring instruction.

Jade Jiang Clayton It was an effective way to teach russian teachers about butterfly life cycle. The feedback form the Russian teachers were very helpful. I will speak slowly to my novice students on day 1. Practice makes perfect. I valued the opportunity we had today. Dr. Met told us learning is a thinking process which pinpointed the important aspect of teaching method.

Gu Xitao

We are coming into more details about our teaching plan through discussion with teachers in our group. This morning we had something like a rehearsal teaching. Russian teachers and Chinese teachers take turns to play the role of students and teachers, teaching each other Chinese and Russian. It really gives me a real feeling about what it feels like to be an immersion teacher and what strategies we need to adopt in order to make the language input comprehensible to students who have never learned the target language and make the class as effective as possible.

Bella(Wei Yang)

It was a wonderful experience having Russian teachers give a demo class to us. They showed a good teamwork and everyone of us enjoyed in it! Thanks for Ms. Mimi's lectures during the week. She is such a professional, passionate teacher. I've learnt how to teach Chinese a lot in her class.

Tracy Peng One of the great ideas I learned from Dr. Met is "Do not teach too much each time". Learning a language is a gradual process. If you push the students to learn too much each time, they will feel dull. And if they can't remember what you have told them, they will get lost and find a way to fill the time. This is very helpful in our lesson plan. The Russian and Chinese teachers changed roles to teach each other in an immersion way. We learned a lot from other. And I am deeply impressed by the Russian teacher's good preparation for their class. In the afternoon we continue met in groups to continue our lesson plan.