Sentiment

A visit of an English class on 3/29,02
Before observing class on Friday, I felt much pressure about it. It is said that the students and teachers in the collateral elementary school of NTCTC were different from the others.
As soon as I entered the language lab, I felt oppressed. It is due to the narrow space of the lab. Maybe it is because we were all in the lab with the students while learning. After reading the teaching design of the class, I had a strong expectation to see the teaching. The teaching plan described detailed and it had many goals in one class. It really surprised me a lot.
When the teacher started to teach, I was a little disappointed about the atmosphere in the classroom. I think the teacher could arouse interests clearly, because I didn’t think that the song “Green Sleeves” is suitable. The topic was spring, campus and Easter. It should be full of hope, happiness and vitality, but the song let me feel sad and melancholy.
About the puppet play, I think the movements could be more exaggerated. I sat in the back of the lab and I almost could not know what they were doing. Besides, the playbills were not very good, and so were the word cards. The weakness of them was because the words on them were too small and the color was not chosen well. It was really a pity because she used the methods to make her class rich but could not find the relative results.
Further, I didn’t know if the students were used to the class already. But for me, I would feel I don’t like attending English class as this. Maybe I am becoming picky and I know it really needs time and effort to think about fresh ideas on teaching. I felt the air there at that time was like my age in the elementary school.
Or maybe it was because the students were in the 6th grade so the teacher would not try some games in class. I am not sure about it.
Anyhow, it seems that the teacher enjoyed her work and she did do effort on it. I think it is enough. At least, she tried many ways to enrich her class.

Comparison between 2 schools:
To tell the truth, I prefer the former teaching. First of all, Teacher Ruan wore a smile all the time and used classroom languages to encourage students. I think it is essential to the kids in the elementary schools. Second, the environment really influences students’ learning. If schools can provide better environment and it must facilitate learning. Third, the two teachers put different emphasis on teaching. Ms. Ruan seems like students to produce the language. She hoped students know how to apply them into oral production. However, the later teacher liked students to know more words and didn’t expect them to use. She only let them know there were some words existent.
Highly possibly that I should consider about the age or levels among the students. But I think all kids like active class and interesting things, no matter the student is shy or not. Even a shy or naughty student would be appealed to the excellent stories or even classes.
By observing more and we can find some points that we should avoid or we can take them as an example. It really helps me a lot to build up some knowledge about teaching English.