Week 2

BENCHMARKS & BEST PRACTICES   

7. Learn while they learn.

When I was a student, I always marvel our teachers for being so knowledgeable.  When I become a teacher myself, then I realized that I learn a lot when I teach. I understand concept better because I have to explain the concept. Every time I explain a concept the explanation becomes more and more comprehensive. There is no doubt that I am learning when I teach, not only during preparation, but during the teaching process itself. As a language teacher teaching Chinese, I teach classic essays, poem and modern literature, every times I teach I gain more in deep understanding of the subject and better integration of technology into the teaching and learning activities.  Most of all, I learn how to engage the students to actively attend to the teaching and learning activities using different activities and technology.

 10. Attitude is everything!

Attitude is everything.  It is undeniable that the achievement and success of a person depend on the attitude of the person. It is so said to see students who are bright and talented being left behind because they were too proud. Students who are not so brilliant at first will come out to be in much better form and achievement if they have good attitude. However, good attitude is not easy to teach, it is more effective to teach good attitude by instill self awareness of the students by reading, good example, and motivation of teacher, parents and friends.

14. Preparation offline is still necessary.

Extensive preparation offline is necessary for every successful online teaching and learning activities.  I always do my researches before setting up study groups and online activities. Constantly assess the responses of the students.  It is important that the activity comply with the objective the subject at the same time relevant to the progress and growth of the students. If the activities are not well prepared, students will be attracted to doing other things online.

27. Motivate students to engage and interact with each other

It is not difficult to see students pick up bad attitudes from peer influence such as being arrogant, no respect to teachers and their studies and so on.  To change the attitude of student, teachers have to put in constant personal attention and motivation which require a lot of patient and perseverant. It is a process and effect which never promise sure success, no matter how good a teacher is. The important thing is, the effort of teacher will surely see some positive responses among the students. As teachers, we cannot do everything, but we can do something.

 Learning in group requires students to interact and share ideas among each other. Therefore the success of online learning depends on the healthy interaction amongst student in the study group.  Cooperate learning in class is a preparation for the online learning.  This is because in the class students sitting face to face and get instant responses from their peer group either in term of body language or verbally. This helps to create more mutual understanding and better rapport which will contribute to the success of online activities. Therefore, teachers should always motivate students to interact with each other. 

In one of my form 3 class, there were some students who could not cope up with their studies. I try to motivate them and pay more attention to them, be approachable to them.  After sometimes, I was able to see their problems and be empathy with their feelings. The students feel comfortable to ask me questions and rapport relation is established.  Then, I see the improvement in their studies.