Trust between me and students

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Today I was amazed by how fluent my grade 5/6’s in saying Chinese tongue twister.

Last week when I let them practice it outside. I did have some worries . I worried whether they would practice or not when I couldn’t supervise them physically. This week their results prove to me that I can trust them.

Another thing I changed a little bit was my perception of students’ learning. Sometimes I was not sure whether the some grade 5/6s were really learning because the classes could be very hectic every now and then. I felt there was no connection between me and students. Or I felt unsure about their learning. But today after students did their writing from 1 to 100 in Chinese, I finally can relax cause I know most of them have been learning all the time in cultural study classroom.

Great work, grade 5/6s. I feel I can trust you more in learning!

Classroom noise

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I am always very careful with my classroom noise level. But recently some changes in grade 5/6s made me reflect on my “noise-level policy”.

Since last week, I introduced tongue twisters to all my grades. The effect is fantastic. They love it. The classroom atmosphere suddenly changed. Students had great enthusiasm in practicing Chinese tongue twister. They either stand up or sit at a quiet place, holding a piece of paper and reading aloud in Chinese. The classroom dynamic changed. After few minutes whole group teaching, I got chance to talk individually to each child. I either help them with their writing or with their pronunciation.  The noise level is a little bit out of my comfort zone but I accept it as everyone is learning.

I feel this is healthier than before. Whole group teaching, small group tutoring and individual helping.

The noise level in other grades:

All the Preps are overall following rules well.

Grade 1s, 2s and 5/6s are getting hectic this term, probably this is the last term of this year. One of grade 2 classroom teacher told me that I need to reinforce the noise level rules. Yes, I am doing it now 🙂

Common difficulties and misunderstanding in writng Chinese numbers

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These few weeks all the grade 5/6 have been working on the numbers from 1 to 100. I noticed some difficulties they have in common.

First of all, they have difficulties in writing Chinese numbers 4,5,7,9. These numbers in Chinese symbols are like these:

四 （4） 五（5） 七 （7） 九 （9）

Among these numbers, they specially have difficulties in writing number 5 and 9.

Second, most of students have difficulties with writing teen numbers. They wrote 11 like 一十一 （one ten one） 12 (二十 twenty), 13 (三十 thirty)…

They got confused with tens and teen numbers.

Chinese numbers relate directly with the place values. They are all about how many tens and ones within 100. For example:

12, it is one ten and two ones。 We know ten is 十， two is 二,  we omit one in one tens and ones  in two ones. So 12 in Chinese is 十二.

After the teacher’s explanation, it is students’ efforts which count in their Chinese language achievements. Like saying Practice Makes Perfect, they need more practice.

Can we all be teachers, Ms Zhang?

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Today I met a girl from Prep in RGPS. She approached me and said:

“Ms Zhang, Sima said she wants to be a Chinese teacher when she grows up!”

I said “Yes, I know that. Did she teach you guys how to read in Chinese this week?”

She didn’t reply but kept quite for a second, then she looked at me with her dark eyes.

“Ms Zhang, can we all be Chinese teacher ?”

I smiled at her and said “Yes, you can be a teacher and everyone can be a teacher if they want.”

I could imagine what has happened during this week when I was not with them. She might really influenced by Sima’s cheerful spirit and strong motivation of wanting to be a Chinese teacher, and she wants to be a teacher too.

I was really happy for this girl and feel honoured to “plant this seed —wanting to be a teacher” in her heart.

This is the happiest moment in my day today!

“If you keep teaching this song, I will rip it off!”

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“Ms Zhang, Ms Zhang, don’t teach this song, if you continue, I will rip it off…”

I taught Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to one of my Grade 5/6s students in RGPS after they finished their required work in class. Just when we were singing this song together, a boy with high-pitch voice shouted at me “Ms Zhang, Ms Zhang…”

I knew he likes to get my attention by shouting in the class. So I ignored him while I was teaching others.

At the end of the class, he came to me and demanded that I shouldn’t teach this song. I asked him why, he said there was Allah in this song. I was confused and not sure what he was talking about. Few questions later, I understood what he said. Basically he said if we sing the first two lyrics of this song backward we could hear “I wish there were no Allah”.

I asked him where does this idea comes from, he told me that he learned it from internet. One of his classmates asked he “can you believe internet?”. He didn’t answer back. But he was so convinced by this idea that he started to get angry when he felt I was not convinced by him.

“I will rip this paper off if you continue teaching this song. It about my Allah…”

In the end, I told him to ask his father or Imam from Muslim mosque  to write something about the relationship between this song and Muslim Allah to me next week. If I was really convienced by him, I will stop teaching this song. He left with “I will rip it off”.

When I was back home, I checked on the internet about the connection between Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Muslim Allan.There was only one comment on Google website. There was a video on Youtube about it but it is obviously a farfetched comparison between two verses which I couldn’t really find any clue about how this children rhythm offend Muslim Allan.

For example:

“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are”

According to the guy who posts this on the internet, if we sing this lyrics backward it will sound like:

“I wish there were no Allan”

I can’t really see or hear Allan or anything affending  Muslim religion in this song even I sing the lyrics backward few times.

Obviously my student believes it is right even though it is really a fallacy.

But I need to take it seriously and talk to this boy next week.

Language class, religion bias, teacher-student relationships… What a day I had on Thursday last week!

 

What do you want, some grade5-6 students?

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I got toothache after I finished my school on Thursday because i got angry.

I was angry and my face turned red in one of Grade5-6 classes. Three students were extremely disruptive in class. Student P, a very big boy, almost screaming or yelling when we were reviewing what we had learned from the previous lesson. At the same time, student J made funny faces in order to make student P and S laughing and shouting. Student S like a snake moving around from one table to another. Because of them, the whole class started making noise. Four girls at the corner of the classroom were completely doing their own things. Noise starts from whispering to talking really loud. I couldn’t’ hear my voice.

At that moment, I stopped looking at them and just teaching like I was teaching nobody. “What should I do? give up or bring them back to class…” The fire of anger grew big and big. I turned my face back to them and raised my voice to one girl who was talking loudly to another girl.

Yes, every student felt my anger and my face was red. The class was quiet immediately.  I told them nobody can leave the class if they can’t finish the tasks they were supposed to do in class.

Everyone was back to learning. But I felt like a failure. What can I do to these few kids?

At the middle of this term I have almost 2-3 students in each Grade 5-6s who are either seeking attention through shouting, screaming, disturbing classes or completely giving up learning. I talked to their teachers and got to know that some of them have learning difficulties, some need teaching aid to be with them all the time.  But I felt bad. If I believe students’ potential and I believe I should never give up every child, what should I do now to these children.

She said she is going to be a Chinese teacher!

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ON Friday I taught Preps in RGPS.

Student S told everyone she met in class or on campus that she is going to be a Chinese teacher when she grows up. Why? because she is the first one who can say the Chinese number tongue twister fluently in class.

It was the first time I introduced the tongue twister in Chinese language class and first time I  let them read Chinese characters without Pinyin.  It is about numbers from 1 to 7. I encouraged them to say it as fast and clear as they can within one breath. Student S learned it almost with 3 mins before she told me that she wanted to try in front of the whole class. I let her stand up and say it aloud. She did it fluently and I was really amazed by her fluent pronunciation and her great memory in recognising all the words in Chinese.

IN RGPS I only have one class for each grade and I only meet them once a week.  To remember everything I taught them in class well is really commendable.

Student S was so proud that I acknowledged her effort and she said to me cheerfully that she wants to be a Chinese teacher when she grows up. As a teacher myself, I feel nothing could deeply satisfied me than a student saying that she wants to be a teacher because of me.

After I sent them back to their classroom, Student S asked me to write the Chinese tongue twister on a big butcher paper and stick it on the wall so that she can practice it every day.

I did that because I want to nurture this “seed”.

 

 

 

Some issues I noticed among students’ Chinese learning

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I was surprised to notice that some Preps were so confident in counting numbers from 1-100 in Chinese but they had no ideas about what they were talking about. For example, when I asked them to point 17 out in 100 number chart, some of them were lost.

In Grade 1s I also have the same problems. Student got confused in Teen Numbers in Chinese. I can see students need more work on each teen numbers and part part whole concept.

The voice level goes up recently. It is not just students’ voice but also my voice. I need to talk about this with students again.

Big contrast between advance students and those who are struggling in learning Chinese. It makes my teaching difficult. I need to develop more materials in order to cater to their different needs.

 

Effort and Achievement

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Today in one of the Preps I had two students who were far behind others because of missing too many classes in the past.

In the last three days I put all their paper work together in order and noticed that students who never skipped classes are generally did very well in Chinese. They are confident in counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s. Their Chinese writing are also neat and accurate. However, the students who constantly missing classes performed really not satisfied. Some of the students are still staying in the beginning level. I am bit worried about them. What am I going to with them, especially some of them are going to study with me for the next few years.

Good effort, participation in classes equal good achievement.

As an educator, it is important to support students’ learning and let some students join in the class as much as possible. Don’t let them skip one or two or more classes in the name of they need more help in other areas. The imbalance “help” could only make their growth more “handicapped”.

Group students and give them different tasks.

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Monday morning before classes start I rearranged tables in class.

I put 100 chart on each table with a teddy.

I gave grade 2s students some tasks to do during the class.

Checked their work one by one. Identified their current learning difficulties and group them.

Tuesday I put certain students in one group and asked my volunteers to help them.

They have different level tasks now:

Students need help work at one group.

Students who are fast learners, they have extension and challenging work to do. Such as counting to 200, tongue twister, months and weeks.

The middle level students will follow step by step according to my teaching plan.

Overall, the effect was very good. I had two students started to work on counting 200. The students who need help or absent-minded also had focus during the class.