1.The first English class I taught

At first I would like to share you my own experience.

I became an English teacher in 2006. I was very excited to give my first English class. The teaching content was Unit1 of Grade 3. In order to give a successful class, I designed my teaching plan carefully, and did a lot of preparation work, even some beautiful stickers. I would like the children to love my classes at the beginning. During the whole class, I was very busy talking almost all the time. In my opinion, the more clearly I explain; the better could the children grasp the content. To my surprise, it seemed that the students didn't understand at all, few of them would like to raise up their hands. After the class, they even couldn't read the new words proficiently, which made me feel very unsuccessful. I began to rethink of this class. Practice makes perfect. I talked too much, but left little time for the students to practice. As we know, we learn swimming by getting into the water and swimming. We learn to play football by going and kicking a ball. We learn English by using it to do things and not just by being told about it. When I prepare for the lesson, I only thought about myself, such as "What to do at first, what I should say next"

After my first unsuccessful class, I tried my best to give the students more practice. In my school, there are about 50 students in every class, so I use the group working method. I got them into small groups. During the group work, we teachers are the enablers.

In fact, there is a continuing discuss about the amount of time teachers should spend talking in class. TTT means Teacher talking time and STT means student talking time. Too much TTT and not enough STT are criticized, getting students to speak- to use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teacher's job. Students are the people who need the practice, in other words, not the teacher. A good teacher maximizes STT and minimizes TTT.A classroom where the teacher's voice drones on and on day after day where you hardly ever hear the students say anything is not one that most teachers and students would be approve of.

2. What makes a good English teacher?

First I ?d like you to think about the question: Do you become a teacher by chance? That?s what happened to me! English was my favorite subject when I was a middle school student. I felt so cool when I won the first prize of NEPCS in 1997. After that everyone said to me:“Hey,Why not become an English teacher?” So I did! Actually, I liked teaching very soon. I like teaching and learning with the children. Sometimes they are my students; sometimes they are my younger brothers or sisters. Sometimes they are even my fans because I can sing many pop songs in the class! But I have to say: to be an English teacher is not easy. Why? Teacher-centered controls, threats make no sense to students now! No one can be forced to learn without a desire to learn! I am so eager to find out a good way. But what are they? Nowadays, the use of tasks is commonplace. But I as well as other teachers is wondering: my syllabus is based on an

old-fashioned textbook and is also exam-driven. How do I structure lessons by using tasks? Should I tell my students: “Today your task is to listen to me" or “Your task is to finish part a on page 5".Everything is unchanged, isn?t it? What makes Task? A unit of grammar? No! A collection of lexical items? No! After a long time study, I begin to know that task is a means of learning the language by its real use! Now, I?d like to give an actual example for you. That is Unit 5 a letter in a bottle from New Way Book 3 I had this lesson in the internet-equipped classroom. Each student has a computer .The target language includes shall, let?s do, writing letters. Word competition and on-_line exercise are the pre-tasks. Next, three during-tasks. Task 1:group-work. Discuss a plan about where to go during the national day, practise the target language: shall. Task 2. Go to a teenager website to make foreign pen friends by the e-mail. Task 3: write a letter to the students of our school to call on them to donate to Project of Hope the post task comes last, Ss read English news about Wangpeng who lost his life in a hostage crisis in Pakistan, and write to Annan the U.N head to call for peace As you see, in this class, task-based method creates a student-centered learning environment and information technology plays an important part. We should try to be as flexible as possible in choosing the teaching techniques. Now, Dear friends, I would like you to think about our own task. What makes a good English teacher? Just years of little sleep, over-work? Just like the candle that burns out to help others? No! We should develop ourselves, both professionally and personally. Most importantly, we should love our students. In my heart, my students are the most powerful striving for me to work harder. I love my students! I love teaching! Before finishing my speech, I would like to say: to be an English teacher is the best choice in my life. I shall do all I can to be a good English teacher!That?s all. Thanks for your attention!

3. Develop with my students

6. How to make my class active and interactive?

Actually , when I stepped to the 3-foot platform to be an English teacher , I tried my best to make my students practice the patterns time after time , I hoped that they would get high marks in test .However , my students didn't car

e about it , they showed less attention to m clas

s. Until one day, a student had a talk with me. He said : ”I?m learning many

things that

are boring, useless and not valuable. So I?m tired of studying. Miss Ma , can you understan me? ”At that time, I felt my class was lack of active and intera

ctive patterns.

Then I gradually found that make class active and interactive is from active learning to interactive teaching.

First , we should be energetic and encouraging .Because our passion can make class want to learn English, they will act with nature and show more potential abilities. Also,we should praise in various ways. In our class we often say “good, very good”, the simple word not only make them active in class, but also foster their sense of achievement in future learing..

Secondly, we should make class meaningful and creative. In class, we can use the short and simple sentence, use the body language to communicate w

ith students .We should give students clear purpose and offer them opportunities to try, to create and allow them to fail. Make sure the class relaxing and interactive, be familiar to the feeling of English language.

Coming up next is organizing games and activities .You know, activity is the key part of class. Including paired work, competitions, role play, guessing game, TPR activities, and so on. Whatever I use , I should often change the way. From students and I; student and student ;to students and students. Make all class.

The last but not the least is helping the class feel comfortable with asking me questions and answering my questions. To do this, do not criticize any questions from students .This will insure that students will continue to ask questions. Do give more chance to students ask and answer , make students and ourselves learn interactively. So after class students can listen, read, write, think without force and pressure, keeping interests and motivation .

This is my talk from my experience, sharing with you today . Thank you for your attention!

7. My students enjoy my classes With social progress and scientific and technical development, knowing how to study and develop is a requirement in quality education. English is an important subject in middle and elementary schools, and that the

elementary-school stage is a key habit-forming period, on which a person?s life development depends. How to get ride of insipid words explanation and rote learning mode occurring in English teaching in elementary schools? I think the pupils can study English in a positive atmosphere only the teacher creates democratic teaching atmosphere, harmonious relationship between teacher and student, relaxed environment, open activity space and innovative passion. When considering pupils? characteristics and the content to be taught, how to design a teaching mode which they are interested in and can also promote them to study English actively more? According to my 7-year teaching practices, I will introduce my teaching experiences.

1. The English teaching in elementary schools emphasizes the pupils? interest development in English study. The English teaching in elementary

schools is the stage of English learning. At this stage, successful or failed

English teaching depends on whether pupils like and are strongly interested in English. In the English teaching practices in middle and elementary schools over past several years, I think combining knowledge teaching with

storytelling in classrooms is a good approach. For example, when having the class ?What Color is it?? I didn?t explain 7 colors simply, but I applied the colors to 7 objects with and in which pupils are familiar and interested instead, then organized them into a vivid and interesting story. As soon as the class began, I said: “pupils, I tell you a story now.” At that moment, there was a disturbance in the classroom. Kids showed curiosities. And then I took out a brown monkey picture and told my pupils the leading actor in the story --Monkey, a brown monkey. In this way, I guided them to study first color –Brown. Being curious about the story and the monkey, they learnt the word, brown. Then, I said:” The brown monkey is a fruit seller. Do you know what it sells?” They showed initiatives obviously to give their own answers actively. Some of them

answered in Chinese: apple, pear or watermelon. Others said in English: apple, banana… I affirmed them: Yes, he sells apples, bananas and water-melons while hanging apple, banana and watermelon pictures on the blackboard,

naturally leading to red apple , yellow banana, green water-melon. Of course, they easily learnt red, green, yellow colors. With the thief(white fox), police (black cat) and police car (blue car) appearing one after another, the pupils were attracted by the story development. In such relaxed and happy

atmosphere, the pupils were attracted by the story to remember 7 objects and their colors. On this wise, 7 color words being confused easily became material and clear, so achieving good teaching effect.

2. Usually, pupils like play. Let them play in study and study in play, and study English in games. However, the class should be under control, in other words, the teacher may organize the class in competitive mode . It is said that: Stone sounds if being hit by water and people march if being stimulated.

Therefore, when teaching the words indicating action and order, I divided the pupils into 4 groups. Each group selected one representative to complete the action ordered by the teacher. For instance:

Touch your head ! Point to the window ! Show me your ruler ! Open the door ! Look at the blackboard ! Raise your left hand ! The winner got a small red flag. Finally, the group winner was rewarded. Such

competition stimulated the pupils? enthusiasm, but also they showed high and active interesting in English, thus remembering the words easily. A relaxed and happy learning environment and colorful games may attract kids? attention and inspire them with learning interesting. Because kids are full of curiosity and energetic, I designed various guessing games based on teaching contents. For example, design “listen sound to guess animals” game to study “Is it

a…?Yes/.No.It's a…”; “listen sound to guess person” game to study “Who's he /she ?”; “cover eyes to touch animals” game to study

“What is it ?” and so on. Hence, the pupils found out interesting from the studies and learnt knowledge in games.

3. Because language comes from daily life, everyone plays different roles in different communication environments. Introducing real life scenario into classroom shortens the distance between teaching in classroom and

realistic life, but also enables pupils to have real life sense. For example, when teaching language point “When do you…？” , I asked the pupils to interview

each other, including own group, other groups and friends. They were

enthusiastic to open mouth to express what they want. Consequently, they understood the language point effectively. This helped them consolidate phrases and apply the language vividly. They enjoy the study.

4. In English teaching exploration, I adopted a teaching approach –

hyperbole in teaching-pupils classrooms. Usually, its effect is “silence

surpasses sound”. Introducing hyperbole into elementary teaching classroom may change traditional language teaching mode. It accords with pupils? psychologic development characteristics, so they like it. (1) Hyperbole can

stimulate classroom atmosphere and enhance pupils? interest in English study. For example four words “long, short, tall and short”, I drew two lines, and one is as long as the blackboard and another is as short as chalk. Upon drawing, the pupils were interested in them. At that moment, I took advantage of this opportunity to guide them to learn: “long long long it?s so long ,

short short short it?s so short”. The pupils read the sentence while making the action . The classroom atmosphere was so up and doing that the pupils were impressed strongly. (2) The hyperbole makes learning content be visualized highly more and understood easily more. For example, when teaching the word “fly”, I simulated bird flying; when teaching “sing”, I clenched my right fist and pointed to my mouth to simulate singing; when teaching “sleep”, I clashed my hands to stimulate sleeping action. I used

hyperbolic actions to strengthen interesting sense and visualizability in words studying. Such hyperbolic performance makes pupils enjoy study process happily, but also understand and remember words and sentences. (4) Hyperbolic gesture, pose and body action can help the pupils enhance

understanding capacity and make them experience and enjoy studying process. For example, when teaching 26 letters, I created an imaginable and vivid letters exercise. In this way, the pupils remembered 26 letters easily. In my classes, I often attracted the pupils through appropriate, vivid and graceful body actions combining with sonorous doggerels, so they were relaxed and enjoyable.

As an English teacher, he/she should constantly inspirit and strengthen his/her students? interesting in English study and guide them to convert the interesting into stable study intention, hence they can have self-confidence and willpower, know their strengths and weaknesses, are willing to cooperate with others, and develop harmonious ad healthy personality. In my opinion, English education is introducing “happily study English” conception into

English teaching to create atmosphere and scenario, thus stimulating students? enthusiasm and promoting their energy and positive attitude to make them enjoy English studying process happily.

9. Teaching is learning 'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching' Published : August 20, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

In their book, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track,authors Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg point out that today's education system is seriously flawed -- it focuses on teaching rather than learning. "Why should children -- or adults -- be asked to do something computers and related

equipment can do much better than they can?" the authors ask in the following excerpt from the book. "Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?"

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught."

-- Oscar Wilde

Traditional education focuses on teaching, not

learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught.

However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant. In most schools, memorization is mistaken for learning. Most

of what is remembered is remembered only for a short time, but then is quickly forgotten. (How many remember how to take a square root or ever have a need to?) Furthermore, even young children are aware of the fact that most of what is expected of them in school can better be done by computers, recording machines,

cameras, and so on. They are treated as poor surrogates for such machines and instruments. Why should children -- or adults, for that matter -- be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can? Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?

When those who have taught others are asked who in the classes learned most, virtually all of them say, "The teacher." It is apparent to those who have taught that teaching is a better way to learn than being

taught. Teaching enables the teacher to discover what one thinks about the subject being taught. Schools are upside down: Students should be teaching and faculty learning. After lecturing to undergraduates at a major university, I was accosted by a student who had attended

the lecture. After some complimentary remarks, he asked, "How long ago did you teach your first class?" I responded, "In September of 1941."

"Wow!" The student said. "You mean to say you have been teaching for more than 60 years?"

"Yes."

"When did you last teach a course in a subject that existed when you were a student?"

This difficult question required some thought. After a pause, I said, "September of 1951."

"Wow! You mean to say that everything you have taught in more than 50 years was not taught to you; you had to learn on your own?"

"Right."

"You must be a pretty good learner."

I modestly agreed.

The student then said, "What a shame you're not that good a teacher."

The student had it right; what most faculty members are good at, if anything, is learning rather than teaching. Recall that in the one-room schoolhouse, students taught students. The teacher served as a guide and a

resource but not as one who force-fed content into students' minds.

Ways of Learning

There are many different ways of learning; teaching is only one of them. We learn a great deal on our own, in independent study or play. We learn a great deal

interacting with others informally – sharing what we are learning with others and vice versa. We learn a great deal by doing, through trial and error. Long before there were schools as we know them, there was apprenticeship -- learning how to do something by trying it under the guidance of one who knows how. For example, one can learn more architecture by having to design and build one's own house than by taking any number of courses on the subject. When physicians are asked whether they leaned more in classes or during their internship, without exception they answer, "Internship." In the educational process, students should be offered a wide variety of ways to learn, among which they could choose or with which they could

experiment. They do not have to learn different things the same way. They should learn at a very early stage

of "schooling" that learning how to learn is largely their responsibility -- with the help they seek but that is not imposed on them.

The objective of education is learning, not teaching There are two ways that teaching is a powerful tool of learning. Let's abandon for the moment the loaded word teaching, which is unfortunately all too closely linked to the notion of "talking at" or "lecturing," and use instead the rather awkward phrase explaining something to someone else who wants to find out about it. One aspect of explaining something is getting yourself up to snuff on whatever it is that you are trying to explain. I can't very well explain to you how Newton accounted for planetary motion if I haven't boned up on my Newtonian mechanics first. This is a problem we all face all the time, when we are expected to explain something. (Wife asks, "How do we get to Valley Forge from home?" And husband,who does not want to admit he has no idea at all, excuses himself to go to the bathroom; he quickly Googles Mapquest to find out.) This is one sense in which the one who explains learns the most, because the person to whom the explanation is made can afford

to forget the explanation promptly in most cases; but the explainers will find it sticking in their minds a lot longer, because they struggled to gain an

understanding in the first place in a form clear enough to explain.

The second aspect of explaining something that leaves the explainer more enriched, and with a much deeper understanding of the subject, is this: To satisfy the person being addressed, to the point where that person can nod his head and say, "Ah, yes, now I understand!" explainers must not only get the matter to fit

comfortably into their own worldview, into their own personal frame of reference for understanding the world around them, they also have to figure out how to link their frame of reference to the worldview of the person receiving the explanation, so that the explanation can make sense to that person, too. This

involves an intense effort on the part of the explainer to get into the other person's mind, so to speak, and that exercise is at the heart of learning in general. For, by practicing repeatedly how to create links between my mind and another's, I am reaching the very

core of the art of learning from the ambient culture. Without that skill, I can only learn from direct experience; with that skill, I can learn from the experience of the whole world. Thus, whenever I struggle to explain something to someone else, and succeed in doing so, I am advancing my ability to learn from others, too.

Learning through Explanation

This aspect of learning through explanation has been overlooked by most commentators. And that is a shame, because both aspects of learning are what makes the age mixing that takes place in the world at large such a valuable educational tool. Younger kids are always seeking answers from older kids -- sometimes just slightly older kids (the seven-year old tapping the presumed life wisdom of the so-much-more-experienced nine year old), often much older kids. The older kids love it, and their abilities are exercised mightily in these interactions. They have to figure out what it is that they understand about the question being raised, and they have to figure out how to make their

understanding comprehensible to the younger kids. The

same process occurs over and over again in the world at large; this is why it is so important to keep communities multi-aged, and why it is so destructive to learning, and to the development of culture in general, to segregate certain ages (children, old people) from others. What went on in the one-room schoolhouse is much like what I have been talking about. In fact, I am not sure that the adult teacher in the one-room schoolhouse was always viewed as the best authority on any given subject! Long ago, I had an experience that illustrates that point perfectly. When our oldest son was eight years old, he hung around (and virtually worshiped) a very brilliant 13-year-old named Ernie, who loved science. Our son was curious about everything in the world. One day he asked me to explain some physical phenomenon that lay within the realm of what we have come to call "physics"; being a former professor of physics, I was considered a

reasonable person to ask. So, I gave him an answer -- the "right" answer, the one he would have found in books. He was greatly annoyed. "That's not right!" he shouted, and when I expressed surprise at his response, and asked

him why he would say so, his answer was immediate: "Ernie said so and so, which is totally different, and Ernie knows." It was an enlightening and delightful experience for me. It was clear that his faith in Ernie had been developed over a long time, from long

experience with Ernie's unfailing ability to build a bridge between their minds -- perhaps more successfully, at least in certain areas, than I had been. One might wonder how on earth learning came to be seen primarily a result of teaching. Until quite recently, the world's great teachers were understood to be people who had something fresh to say about something to people who were interested in hearing their message. Moses, Socrates, Aristotle, Jesus -- these were people who had original insights, and people came from far and wide to find out what those insights were. One can see most clearly in Plato's dialogues that people did not come to Socrates to "learn philosophy," but rather to hear Socrates' version of philosophy (and his wicked and witty attacks on other people's versions), just as they went to other philosophers to hear (and learn) their versions. In other words, teaching was understood as

public exposure of an individual's perspective, which anyone could take or leave, depending on whether they cared about it. No one in his right mind thought that the only way you could become a philosopher was by taking a course from one of those guys. On the contrary, you were expected to come up with your own original worldview if you aspired to the title of philosopher. This was true of any and every aspect of knowledge; you figured out how to learn it, and you exposed yourself to people who were willing to make their understanding public if you thought it could be a worthwhile part of your endeavor. That is the basis for the formation of universities in the Middle Ages -- places where

thinkers were willing to spend their time making their thoughts public. The only ones who got to stay were the ones whom other people ("students") found relevant enough to their own personal quests to make listening to them worthwhile. By the way, this attitude toward teaching has not disappeared. When quantum theory was being developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century, aspiring atomic physicists traveled to the various places where different theorists were

developing their thoughts, often in radically

different directions. Students traveled to Bohr's institute to find out how he viewed quantum theory, then to Heisenberg, to Einstein, to Schrodinger, to Dirac, and so on. What was true of physics was equally true of art, architecture...you name it. It is still true today. One does not go to Pei to learn "architecture"; one goes to learn how he does it -- that is, to see him "teach" by telling and showing you his approach.

Schools should enable people to go where they want to go, not where others want them to.

Malaise of Mass Education

The trouble began when mass education was introduced. It was necessary to decide what skills and knowledge everyone has to have to be a productive citizen of a developed country in the industrial age To make sure the way this information is defined and standardized, to fit into the standardization required by the

industrial culture To develop the means of describing and communicating the standardized information

(textbooks, curricula) To train people to comprehend the standardized material and master the means of

transmitting it (teacher training, pedagogy) To create places where the trainees (children) and the trainers (unfortunately called teachers, which gives them a status they do not deserve) can meet -- so-called schools (again a term stolen from a much different milieu, endowing these new institutions with a dignity they also do not deserve) And, to provide the coercive backing necessary to carry out this major cultural and social upheaval In keeping with all historic attempts to revolutionize the social order, the elite leaders who formulated the strategy, and those who implemented it, perverted the language, using terms that had attracted a great deal of respect in new ways that turned their meanings upside down, but helped make the new order palatable to a public that didn't quite catch on. Every word -- teacher, student, school, discipline, and so on – took on meanings diametrically opposed to what they had originally meant.

Consider this one example from my recent experience. I attended a conference of school counselors, where the latest ideas in the realm of student counseling were being presented. I went to a session on the development

of self-discipline and responsibility, wondering what these concepts mean to people embedded in traditional schooling. To me, self-discipline means the ability to pursue one's goals without outside coercion;

responsibility means taking appropriate action on one's own initiative, without being goaded by others. To the people presenting the session, both concepts had to do solely with the child's ability to do his or her assigned class work. They explained that a guidance counselor's proper function was to get students to understand that responsible behavior meant doing their homework in a timely and

effective manner, as prescribed, and self-discipline meant the determination to get that homework done. George Orwell was winking in the back of the room. Today, there are two worlds that use the word education with opposite meanings: one world consists of the schools and colleges (and even graduate schools) of our

education complex, in which standardization prevails. In that world, an industrial training mega-structure strives to turn out identical replicas of a product called "people educated for the twenty-first century";

the second is the world of information, knowledge, and wisdom, in which the real population of the world

resides when not incarcerated in schools. In that world, learning takes place like it always did, and teaching consists of imparting one's wisdom, among other things, to voluntary listeners.

10. The teacher’s roles in the classroom

The role played by primary school English teacher and the teacher-student relationship is very important in teaching. I think a teacher should play the

following roles well:

一、Be a fatherly mother

Yeshengtao said that be a teacher, should kindness, treat students like our own baby. English teacher of primary school should play as a mother well. At the beginning of studying English, some students are shamed to speak, some are made mistakes when speak, some are pronounced bad. At this time, teacher should even more encourage them like their mother. “Don’t worry, try again. You’ll be the best.”if I said “No” or “Sit down”, it must break their passion of English studying. During my career I met a child who was performed an operation on his lip, so it is not clearly when he speaking English. He was shamed to speak when in the class, because he was afraid other students will laugh at him. For this reason, every time, after he answered a question, I always said “Very good” to him loudly. After several times his confidence was strengthen and he tried to answer questions actively. A “No” or

a “It’s wrong” of you may destroy a good translator. For all above, teacher shall lead children’s first English studying with mother’s love, help them to establish

confidence, arouse their interest of English studying.

二、Be a good actor

If in English class of primary school, the teacher is the leader and students just a listener as it’s in junior and senior school, the way of teaching only include students read follow the teacher, then read in collectivity, in groups and in person. It can destroy the interest of studying of students at all. “Interest is the best teacher”, no interest no desire for studying, and the effect of it can not be too good. So the English teacher in primary school should be a actor, and use their acting (e.g. kinds of body language) to cooperate with oral language. Such as some directive language: Stand up、Sit down、Come、Open your book、One by one and so on, you can cooperate with gesticulations. Another example,

some words for praise and encourage, you can use different kinds of

expression not only the gesticulations e.g. OK gesticulation with smile, Very good nod with smile, Great show your thumb and praise, Try your best make a

fist and drop-down etc.

三、Be a intimate friend

English books are very interesting and full of characteristics of children, like Let’s play、Let’s do、Let’s chant、Let’s sing etc. The teacher should be friend of students, you should sing with them, play with them as a person with the same age of them. When performance a dialogues, teacher can play with students as a role. In part let’s sing teacher always singing and playing together with students, as time passes, the children will make the teacher as a friend of

them, it’s good for teaching.

Anyway, English is not only a science but also a kind of act, it needs

teacher research constantly and play as kinds of roles well, then you can be a

good teacher the students loved.