Reflections on the Visit to Lishan Junior high school
Although I have been a Taipei city dweller for about 20 years, I still do not know much about Neihu District. Last time I got lost on my way to Lishan Senior high school. Luckily I got a cab pretty soon, so I was not late that time. This time, I decided to ride my motorcycle to get there, and I looked up the map to find the way. But unluckily, the constructions of MRT lines confused me again, because many roads were blocked. Therefore, I could not take the road I planned to go. Fortunately, I found two engineers to show me the right direction before it’s too late. So, this time, I was still be there on time.
This time, we observed only one class, but the class is different from other oridinary classes very much. It is a class consisting of studnets with relatively better English competence. And it has only six students. If the students had not be in uniforms, I would have thought that I was coming to a cram school class. In the class, the teacher use English to communicate with the students and give instructions. I also noticed that there were some posters on the wall. Some English proverbs such as “Where there is a will, there is a way.” are printed on the posters. Those posters reminded me the technique used in the method of Desuggestopedia. It is argued that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. The power of so called peripheral learning is used here.
What also impressed me is that the studnets in that class are not only with relatively better competence, but also have strong motivation. They took pleasure to listening to the teacher’s teaching and finish their tasks happily. It seems that they love English class so much just like other kids love video games. I really think that the establishment of this class offers those special students an perfect environment. In the second hour, we saw some portofolios and English works by students there. Some of them are so delicate that people may think they are from college students. I always think the evaluation form is not supposed to be limited to tests only. I strongly recommend that teachers can ask students to make their own portofolios and use it as a kind of evaluation.
The observation this time makes my eyes widely open. Because I really saw someting beyond what I had expected to see. In this junior high school, I saw the new hope of English education. When leaving, we went through the playground. I saw the statue of ex-president CKS. Vincent Hsu and I saluted the statue and leave this lovely school…….
What an ideal class it is in LSJH, isn’t it? If all the students are as competent and motivated as those in the class we observed, we can really put all the ideas, strategies, and methods into practice successfully. Most of the classes are not as perfect, which makes our job quite challenging but exciting.
我姓辛名來陜