TCLP Has Changed Us A Lot
These days I met several alumni of TCLP and when we talked about whether we have changed after we returned, we all agreed that we had changed a lot.
As we have talked about, the attitude towards our jobs changed lot. Most of us agree that we are much more positive than before at teaching in our host-schools and we all know to show our teeth with a smile all the time. Right now I feel it easy every day to do my teaching and never have I feel tired of my job. It's amazing that I can have such a feeling, but anyway it's fantastic.
Another thing I have to say is that I now know how to make it student-centered really. Before I became part of TCLP I wrote an essay about student-centered class in teaching English in China, but now I can feel how important it is. Actually till now most Chinese teachers don't know what is a real student-centered class. It's a problem of question skills. What Chinese teachers are doing in class right now are asking some questions about the text, mechanically. But a real student-centered class should be full of information questions about the students themselves, communicatively. Most Chinese teachers agree with the opinion that teaching should be student-centered, but they do not try to make it student-centered in their classroom. It seems that they have been tied to what they used to be and they don't want any change. I tried to advise some of my colleagues but failed. I consistently hold a lot of information questions about the students themselves and keep my lessons communicative. I found that my students are always doing activities with a smile of achievement together with me. It's really different when I compared this with what I used to be.
What's more, I found myself more professional. I treated myself a teacher before and now I found that I myself is tending to an educator. I took part in many teacher trainings after I returned. In most of these training I have to share my experience in America and in teaching. Because of this, I have to scan the days I was in America and things happened there in America showed like movies constantly in my eyes. At the same time I also have to read some books about teaching in China to learn about some new changes in teaching theories. In this way I pushed myself ahead. Right now, though I don't know what lies ahead, I do know that I will be more developed in teaching and education, especially in teaching English/Chinese as a second/foreign language.
I also learned how to design a project or curriculum in America. The school that host me in America doesn't have a designed Chinese teaching textbook, which forced me to design my own teaching plan and project. I must admit that it was the beginning that I have my tentative plan to design a curriculum. And right now I'm involved in several programs which aim to develop some new projects both on teaching English in China and teaching Chinese abroad.
Being open-minded is another gift that TCLP has given to me. I don't really know whether I was open-minded when I first stepped on the land of America, but I know I became open-minded when I came back. Right now I am very sensitive to everything new and understanding everything different. It's easier for me to learn something from others than before and actually I'm desiring to learn from other people. Whenever I say I need to learn from others, I am serious but not just walk it through. I feel that I'm always ready to change and such a situation had never existed before I became part of TCLP.
Of course I have some regret. My only regret is that I was not a good enough Chinese teacher when I first came to America. If I had a second chance to teach Chinese there, I'm sure I would be the best Chinese teacher they've ever had. Why? Because I know the development of curriculum, I know the question skills to make my class student-centered, and I know the practice skills to make the students learn in activities.
An Experience in an Earthquake
It's a good day today here in Palos Verdes, but it was cold a couple of days ago. The weather here these days seems crazy! It would be very cold and then would be so hot. I have to be careful all the time. And there was an earthquake the day before. When it happened, I was typing something on my laptop in bed. I heard some noise which is bizarre. Just as I was thinking what it was, I felt the bed that I was on begin to move left and right. Then I suddenly realized that it was an earthquake. I jumped out of the bed as quickly as possible, but I found that there was nothing followed. When I stepped out of my bedroom, I noticed that the host of my family was working at his computer. It seemed nothing had happened to him. The moment he saw me, he smiled and said, "There was an earthquake just now. Did it scare you?" I shrugged and said, "A little bit. It was my first experience." Amazing! I experienced an earthquake safely!
Why I Love Teaching In Lunada Bay
For a long time I'm thinking about this: Why do I love teaching in Lunada Bay? It seems a complicated question. The environment here is terrifically wonderful and the people here are extraordinarily kind to me. I have a relative full schedule here, but I tried to make myself busier. I can see with my own eyes that the teachers here are busier than me and they are working hard with a high spirit, so there is no reason for me to complain anything about my schedule. What I need to do is to do as American teachers do. The kids here are so cute and I enjoy talking with them and seeing their innocent and lovely smile and inexhaustible energy. But I don't think they are the correct answers, at least not the best answers. Personally, I appreciate receiving so much respect, understanding and support from all the people here. It is their respect, understanding and support that inspired me a lot.
As an exchange teacher, I came here with a fully different culture background and did not have the same custom as the people do here in America. I don't think I could escape any conflict in language or custom caused by different culture background, even if I did everything gingerly. Fortunately, whenever such things happened, people here would showed their understanding and respect to me and tried to do something to help me get used to it. Even though I had no change and kept on doing something according to my own culture, they would show their interest in my culture, but not tried to correct me. Maybe California itself is a state with so many different cultures mixed together and people have been used to accepting such culture conflicts sometimes, but as a foreigner coming here for not a long time, I did appreciate all people did for me, their respect, their understanding and their support.
I think this helped me a lot in my teaching. As a foreign teacher teaching in a foreign country, knowing more about the culture he/she stays in will support his/her teaching in maximum.
Another thing that makes me like working here is that the respect, understanding and support I received from people here kept me in a high spirit everyday. I can't imagine what my teaching would be like if I were in a depression most of the time.
I have to thank Ms Joan Romano, my principal, who arranged for me a reasonable schedule, which allowed me to have enough time to prepare for my next classes after a back-to-back teaching or go to a high school nearby as an observer. She's really a great principal, which I can feel from her fast walking full of energy. Also she is really consideration. After three years with the TCLP program, she has gain a lot of experience of developing such a program and I know she's always thinking about improving this program in Lunada Bay further. I'm sure that TCLP will have a booming achievement if they keep on sending Chinese teachers here to Lunada Bay. It's just like sowing some seeds to a fertile ground. Now they're bringing up large numbers of substantive potential Chinese learners for middle schools and high schools. The reason why I have such a feeling is that Ms Romano made a really considerable arrangement for my life. She made the decision from several options for my homestay, which considered almost everything and made me really convenient the first days I was here. And now she even has chosen a really good homestay for the next Chinese teacher. Whenever Ms Romano had a good idea or wanted to make a decision on the Chinese program, she would talk with me and ask my opinions, which showed her respect to me, a Chinese teacher. She also showed her understanding and support when I put forward a some-day off. She knew clearly that I need to experience more American cultures through traveling, which will improve my teaching here. I'm lucky that I met an open-minded principal.
I have to thank Ms Rosemary Claire, who is a venerable retired teacher, a warmhearted Chinese culture spreader. She devoted herself to spreading Chinese culture and Chinese language teaching. She thinks a lot about helping Americans students in Palos Verdes learn more Chinese and Chinese culture. She's really a person who does everything effective and will always put forward some good ideas in teaching Chinese. I benefited so much from the teaching materials she bought for the kids in Lunada Bay.
I have to thank Ms Susan A. Liberati, who will always be thinking about taking me here and there to experience some special American cultures. I was shocked the first days I was here when she picked me up to a library picnic. There for the first time I made sense of what a real American picnic was like. She and her husband took me to an American professional soccer game and there I got to know how most Americans treat a game as an entertainment. They also invited me to a ballet, from which I realized how Americans incubate kids' all-around skills. Even on the Whale's Day together with her family, I sighed with emotion by American's Education all around. She's also a person interested in Chinese culture. It's in her house that I have showed off my Chinese cooking for the first time to some Americans.
I have to thank Ms Shannon Bogart. She's a nice mentor with consideration and responsibility. I can't forget the volleyball game in Peninsula High School. She took me there and for the first time I have to marvel at the highly skills of the American high school girls. I can't forget that she even persuaded her husband to come and help me when once my car died on my way home. They helped me save a couple of hundred dollars that time, which afford two or three nights during my trip experiencing American culture around California. Whenever I need help, I will first think about Shannon without any hesitation, which I joked that I was a trouble of her. Shannon also taught me some American slang. She would always took chances talking with me and helped me to improve my English. She tried to do something to support my teaching and made some cards to help the kids in her classroom review what they had learned.
I have to thank all the teachers and parents in Lunada Bay. Every morning I received "Good morning." "How are you doing?" and "Good-bye." "Have a good day." together with their smile. But that's not the most important. I do appreciate having their respect and support in my teaching. Every time I entered a classroom, the teacher will help me to make the kids organized ready for Chinese. They would sometimes gave me some good suggestions on my teaching and showed their support by learning Chinese together with the kids or explaining something in English. They are terrifically friendly to me and will sometimes make some jokes. Every time I finished teaching and leave their classroom, I will be in a pleasant mood. Parents here will sometime greet me in Chinese "Ni Hao". Parents from PTA will invite me to dinner once a month here and I'm lucky enough to have the honor to taste foods from different countries. They also select some special days for the dinner so that I can experience some American cultures such as Halloween at the same time.
I'm always saying that I'm a lucky dog who came to the right place at the right time. I have experienced a lot of American cultures, traveled to a lot of places, known a lot of American friends here in Palos Verdes. I have received a lot of generosity, respect, understanding and support. I think people here are doing something right to support such a wonderful program - TCLP. Their generosity, their respect, their understanding and their support to an exchange Chinese teacher should and must get something for return. Even though I will have to go back in four months, I will value this memory forever.
Yifan\'s prattle
After a day's rest coming back from Hawaii, I started teaching once again. It seemed that everything went well. The kids in Lunada Bay learned to speak Chinese for a lot of things these several weeks, which I think you can see from the pictures I uploaded. Also I presented at several community activities. I went to Norris Theatre and watched a ballet performance there, which was my first ballet experience. And last weekend I went to a church here. There I met some Chinese and experienced a church musical presentation for Christmas and a big Chinese dinner before that. As usual, I went to Peninsula High School playing basketball together with some local Americans every Sunday morning. After that, I would go to a Jamba-Juice to have a big cup of fresh juice and chat with two of my American friends.
Rosemary, Joan and some people of ED Foundation came to observe my teaching last week. I think they should be satisfied with my teaching and Rosemary was even involved in it, which you can see from a picture I uploaded. As well, for the reason of the coming holiday, Lunada Bay had a lot of performance these days at MPR. I went there when I had time and was shocked by the kids wonderful performance. Some of them I think must be born dancers or actors.
Perhaps things happened here are common but to me unusual all the time. But goodness and badness will always be twins. My car was dead on my way back home on the night when I went for the ballet performance. It was about 10:30 in the night. You can imagine how I felt at that time. I nearly got crazy. But luckliy I calmed down in a short time and called my friend Kevin to pick me up. I parked my car on the side of the road and the next day it was towed to a garage nearby. Thank goodness! It's nothing serious but a problem of distributor assembly. For a car of 1994, I think it's time to change a new one. I'm glad that now it works well again. But to tell you the truth, I felt happy actually after that. After all, it was not dead on a freeway. Or else it would be scary.
Now I plan to drive to San Francisco during the holiday break and then drive back along PCH to enjoy the beautiful Pacific and some well-known places of interest, Stanford University included. It would be a trip of 10 days around.
Some qualities needed to be an exchange teacher in America
It's hard to say what quality is the most important. Many qualities will be required to work here in America as an exchange teacher.
A positive attitude to everything is necessary and important. Some guys in our group now complained that we talked too much about good things when we were in Beijing and didn't have enough preparation in mind to the many difficulties. And when we have to face some difficulty, they don't know what to do with it.
In America, we have to keep in touch with each other and the American Councils by the Internet. So a master of computer will be needed. But actually some guys in our group don't know much about the Internet and the computer, so they had more difficulties in the first two months than we did.
The communication skill is also a necessity. When you can communicate well with Americans, most of the things will get easier. I personally don't think that a good English speaker is surely to be a good communicater. But of course a good English speaker will sometimes make it easier. A guy who can ask for help when it is necessary and can make friends positively will keep himself/herself busy.
A character of tenacity is very important. The first two months living here you will have to face many different kinds of difficulties, of which you can't predict all. You may have to face homesick. Or you may get puzzled about your English, just because the first two weeks here in Washington DC you have to take part in an orientation, when you have to face the challenge of a huge number of academic words. You may feel that no one here care about you, because the first days you are at your camp are holidays. You may lose yourself when you are thinking about having a travel, because you don't know how to make you travel plan, how to book your tickets and hotel. You may ......In order to put up with all these, you need to be brave and patient. And at the same time you need to be smart. You have to get used to managing all these by yourself.
Teaching experience of course is very very important. Teaching Chinese here is not difficult to some guys who are creative. They know to use some different methods or tricks to make their class smooth and active. Also they know how to make their classroom organised. In some way, American students are the same with Chinese students. They also know to be respectful, but that depends. A skilled teacher will know how to deal with it when they are facing an unorganised classroom. They can take suitable measures to solve such a problem. I can't agree more that teaching is an art. Different people will have different opinions on the same teaching resources, and different effect on the class followed.
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