The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator

I recommend every teacher watch this DVD.

Nostalgia is the enemy of history. 'Downton Abbey' is great fun but it's not history. If seeing or reading something historical makes you feel warm and cosy, it's probably very inaccurate. --Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D.

The Art of Teaching (produced in 2009 by the Teaching Company)  is delivered by award-winning Professor Patrick N. Allitt of Emory University. A distinguished teacher with more than 30 years of classroom experience and 5 years as Director of Emory College's Center for Teaching and Curriculum (designed to study and improve the art and craft of university teaching). He interviews with an all-star group of veteran Great Courses professors. These teachers are:

• John Hale, Director of Liberal Studies at the University of Louisville
• Jeanette Norden, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• Stephen Nowicki, Dean and Provost of Undergraduate Education and Professor of Biology at Duke University
• Scott E. Page, Collegiate Professor of Political Science, Complex Systems, and Economics at the University of Michigan
• Steve Pollock, Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder
• Michael Roberto, Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University

You'll learn in these 24 lectures:

• How to handle the first day: The first day of your class is critical, because it gives your students an idea of what their learning experience will be like. Make sure that, during your first class, you explain your subject and establish your credentials for teaching it, demonstrate why the subject matters, set your expectations, learn your students' names, and immediately engage your students.

• How to give a dynamic lecture: Excellent lectures are both informative and interesting. Some tips to make your lectures more dynamic and memorable: Start your lecture with something stimulating or controversial; vary your vocal volume, tone, and expression to maintain attention; occasionally ask rhetorical questions; and avoid overfilling your lecture with content.

• How to effectively use technologies: When dealing with aids like PowerPoint, remember that the more teaching technology you use, the more time you're likely to devote to it instead of to your students. Keep your PowerPoint presentations bold and simple, and don't forget the usefulness of "traditional" technologies like blackboards. When using a teaching aid, always ask yourself: What does this method of teaching add? How will it help my students to learn?

• How to create and administer exams: Exams should fully test your students' knowledge and thinking ability. Before writing an exam, ask yourself what you want the students to take from your course. Decide whether to administer a multiple-choice test, a take-home exam, or an oral exam; each has its benefits and drawbacks. Similarly, decide beforehand whether you're going to grade on a curve or according to an absolute standard, and what your policy will be for handling potential grade disputes.

• How to survive the challenges of teaching: Teaching can be stressful at times, but there are many ways for you to remain focused. First, never take conflict with students personally; remember that your relationship with them is professional, and any disagreements should be handled professionally. It's also important to periodically reflect on your life as a teacher to ensure that you still view it as a vocation and not just a job to suffer through.

24 lectures:

1. Successful Teaching  
2. The Broad Range of Learners
3. Starting Out Right  ***** *(your first lesson)
4. The Teacher's Persona
5. Planning the Work
6. The Teacher-Student Relationship
7. Dynamic Lecturing
8. Teaching with PowerPoint
9. Demonstrations, Old and New
10. Teaching the Critical Skills
11. Engaging with Discussion, Part 1
12. Engaging with Discussion, Part 2
13. Cogent Thinking and Effective Writing
14. Teaching Revision and Editing
15. Coaching Students on Presentation Skills
16. One-on-One Teaching
17. The Learner's Perspective
18. Exams, Evaluation, and Feedback
19. Maintaining Your Enthusiasm
20. Managing the Challenges of Teaching
21. Creativity and Innovation
22. Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths
23. The Anatomy of a Great Teacher
24. Teaching and Civilization

Glossary

active learning: opportunities for students to be engaged and interactive with the material; activities that help the students learn through doing.

critical thinking: Using logic to explore questions for which there are no clear-cut answers.

Learning to learn: process of enhancing one's ability to attain and apply knowledge.

What I learn 

• The goal of teaching is to cultivate a student to be a life-long learner. To be a life-long leaner is to realize "the more you know the less you know". 
• The initiative has to come from students. 
• Learners need to learn how to teach themselves. 
• Not teach the body of language but ways of thinking.
• Don't discredit yourself if not all of your students succeed. You can only influcene that much when they are in school. 
• Teach less not more
• Don't be afraid of repetition.
• The capacity for self-criticism is essential for professional development.
• Take pictures of your students who hold the names they write. By putting pictures and names together, each student can know each other. By knowing names can greatly facilitate learning, especially when in the discussions,  

Lecture 1:

• The drive for self-improvement and the willingness to accept criticism are essential in teaching.

Seminar teaching: discussion style vs. tutoring teaching: one-to-one. 

In seminar teaching, students are required to read aloud to the teacher. This makes students be aware of their writing, force them to better prepare. 

Lecture 2:  The Broad Range of Learners

Engagement increases in grouping learning. build rapport with students. 

• There is an intimate and symbiotic relationship between learning and teaching.

Lecture 3: Starting Out Right 

You never get second chance make first impression

• The first meeting is critical-plan for it carefully
• Learning your students' names
• Show your enthusiasm for the subject. The subject is lovable. Teachers must love the subject.
• Show why the subject is important
• Give the students a sense of difficulty and challenge of the material
• Demonstrate your expertise, build your authority
• Set rules for the learning environment and make it clear that you will not tolerate annoyance, such as surfing the Web or texting in class.
• Above all, engage the students in the subject itself immediately.

For historians, they don't study right vs. wrong. They study one right idea vs. another right idea. For example, study slave in slave owners', slaves', abolitionist's point of view.

Lecture 4: The Teacher's Persona

• A teaching persona makes it easier for the teacher and for the students to meet each other's expectations. You can and say necessary things to a student as "teacher" more easily than you can as yourself. Your student can respond with more freedom.
• Use your own distinctive characteristic in developing your teaching persona. These may include your age, your gender, and other characteristics, such as regionalisms or national origin. 
• Don't underestimate the importance of dress in creating your teaching persona.
• Keep your teaching persona consistent.
• User your teaching persona to develop an appropriate relationship and a suitable rapport with your students.
• Personal friendships with students are forbidden and, in many instances, a form of professional misconduct. 
• Take pride in helping students succeed, but don't forget their limitations.
• Don't act as though you're like students- emphasize the differences, not similarities.

Lecture 5: Planning the work

• Set goals for yourself and your students and know what you hope to achieve by the end of our course before it begins.
• Break the material down into manageable units.
• Sequence the units logically.
• Leave time for review and repetition
• Don't plan too many details but allow room for flexibility and to take advantage of unforeseen learning opportunities and difficulties.
• Don't try to cran too much material into each meeting. It's better for students to understand the material than to have more material thrown at them than you can comprehend.
• Anticipate where your students will struggle and plan for it. 

Lecture 6: The Teacher-Student Relationship

Teaching is a relationship based on inequality. The teacher knows something the student doesn't and has the responsibility to teach it. The teacher also has the authority to judge the quality of the student's learning.

In Britain, there is usually a distinct separation between teachers and students. In America, many teachers prefer to stress the egalitarian aspect of the teacher-student relationship. ... Creating ground rules establishes the classroom as a special place for the work of learning. 

• You should never show signs of favoritism or special preference, which is a perversion of the proper relationship and deeply unsettling both to the favorite and to those who are not favorites. 

Lecture 7: Dynamic Lecturing

Lecture 8: Teaching with PowerPoint 

Lecture 9: Demonstrations, Old and New

Lecture 10:Teaching the Critical Skills

Lecture 11:Engaging with Discussion, Part 1

Lecture 12:Engaging with Discussion, Part 2

Lecture 13: Cogent Thinking and Effective Writing

• Describe, explain, persuade
• Filler is not impermissible
• For Technical writing, the important things are contrary to mystery novels.
• The introduction is the last to write
• Using active voice. Passive voice is acceptable because it is repetitive and who did it is not important?
• simple, clarification not complexity writing
• elaborate
• 5W Who, when, where, why, what.

ten sentences

two-syllables

no adjective

Passive voice to active voice

Lecture 14:Teaching Revision and Editing

Lecture 15:Coaching Students on Presentation Skills

Lecture 16:One-on-One Teaching

Lecture 17:The Learner's Perspective

Lecture 18:Exams, Evaluation, and Feedback

Lecture 19:Maintaining Your Enthusiasm

Lecture 20:Managing the Challenges of Teaching

Lecture 21:Creativity and Innovation

Lecture 22:Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths

Lecture 23:The Anatomy of a Great Teacher

Lecture 24:Teaching and Civilization

TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, SAT, ACT, AP, SSAT, TEFL, TESOL

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) (中国133 考场 刚试了一下听力 比我出国时难了不少) 考费 1350RMB

TOEFL Junior: is measure of English-language proficiency for students age 11 to 15.

雅思 The International English Language Testing System, or IELTS

GRE 考费 1450RMB

以下考試中國沒有考點:

SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test)

SAT 1, SAT2 (subject tests, 2021 年取消)  

ACT  (American College Test)

AP (advanced placement)

SSAT ( Secondary School Admission Test ): it's used for admission to private middle schools and high schools. If you're looking to attend an elite private middle or high school, this is a test you'll need to do well on.

EFL(TEFL), ESOL (TESOL), ELL, ESL(TESL), ESP 

TESOL(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), used to be called TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). The most recognized qualifications for teaching English abroad to non-native speakers are TEFL and TESOL  certifications. While these two certifications are quite similar, there is a technical difference between them. TEFL allows you to teach English in a non-English speaking country, like China or Russia. TESOL, on the other hand, is a designation for teaching English to second-language speakers in an English-speaking country – study abroad students, expats, immigrants and so on. For most teaching jobs, however, these certifications are treated as equivalents. 120-hours of training is often the minimum requirement for TESOL certifications.

EFL (English as a Foreign Language) meaning: English as a Foreign Language is learning English in a non-English-speaking country. For example, students in China who are learning English are considered EFL students because English is not the official language of the country. But if those same students were in the U.S. learning English, they would be considered ESL students.

ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) meaning: What is ESOL? The meaning of the initialism ESOL is English to Speakers of Other Languages. It applies to both ESL and EFL contexts. One reason why this term was created is because some individuals argue that when students are learning English in a native English-speaking country (ESL), these students are not necessarily learning a second language. It could, in fact, be a student’s third or even fourth language. English as a Second Language, then, is limiting and not fully comprehensive in its description.

ELL (English Language Learners) meaning: The term English Language Learners is commonly used in K-12 environments. It has been brought to my attention, however, that some school districts prefer to use the term ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) to describe their student population. This could simply be a preference issue.

ESL (English as a Second Language)  meaning: English as a Second Language is learning English in a country where English is dominantly spoken or where English is the official language. For example, students from non-native English-speaking countries who come to the U.S. and Canada for an extended period of time learn English as a Second Language. They acquire English as a means to communicate in the dominant language spoken in the community where they reside.

ESP (English for Special Purposes)  meaning: English for Special Purposes includes students who are learning English in context of a certain field, profession, or topic. For example, when I was teaching legal English in China, I was teaching English in context of law. These students were learning English in preparation for studying law through an American university where the professors were all native English speakers.

Source: https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/what-s-the-difference-between-esl-efl-esol-ell-and-esp

Online Teach English in China

Google:  teach chinese kids english online

Test the speed of your internet

https://www.speedtest.net/

Certificate

Source: https://www.englishfirst.com/blog/tefl/everything-you-need-to-know-about-tesol-certifications/

TESOL stands for “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.” Other acronyms you may see alongside TESOL, including TEFL, TESL, ESL and ESOL, all mean about the same thing for the most part. 120-hours of training is often the minimum requirement for TESOL certifications.

The most recognized qualifications for teaching English abroad to non-native speakers are TEFL and TESOL certifications. While these two certifications are quite similar, there is a technical difference between them. TEFL allows you to teach English in a non-English speaking country, like China or Russia. TESOL, on the other hand, is a designation for teaching English to second-language speakers in an English-speaking country – study abroad students, expats, immigrants and so on. For most teaching jobs, however, these certifications are treated as equivalents.

A TEFL certificate is also preferred but not always required. Learn how to get your TEFL certification within 4 weeks online (120 hours).

https://www.englishfirst.com/work-abroad/free-tefl-certification/ 

The TEFL certification course and training could save you up to $500.

each.online@efkids.com

General Info 

• In your interview and mock class, your employer will want to see you use TPR (total physical response). That means talking with your body as well as your voice, using gestures and signals to indicate that you’ve heard the student and to illustrate concepts.

• between $10 and $25 an hour.

• You’ll be offered a starting salary, and if you accept it you’ll sign a contract for somewhere between 3 months and a year. After that, you’ll create a profile on the website and start teaching!

• Peak class times are in the Chinese afternoons, which means that you’ll be teaching late at night or early in the morning depending on what time zone you’re in.

Are you paid per minute, per 25-minute class, or per hour? Will you receive payment monthly or do you have to earn a certain amount before the company will deposit payment to your account? Does the company use PayPal or another online payments system?

Most companies teach children and adolescents, but some work with all ages or only cater to certain populations, such as business people or high school students studying for standardized tests.  Do you want to converse, teach in a flipped classroom, or have complete control over your curriculum development?

Children

Teaching kids is super fun, but it can be draining, too. When you teach children you’ll want to speak slowly, use lots of fun props, and make class interesting and exciting. If you’re bubbly and high energy, you’ll love teaching children! However, if you’re more serious or staid, you may want to consider working with older students.

High School Students

High school in China can be pretty intense, meaning that your students may be totally slammed with work. They’ll probably pay attention well in class and have good English skills, but they may not give your ESL classes as much attention as you’d like because they have so much other work to do.

Pre-College Students

Students who want to go to university in the U.S. need to pass a language test in order to get admitted to school. You need to be familiar with CELTA, TOEFL, or other tests to teach these students, but if you’re good at teaching to these tests you can make a pretty high salary.

Keep in mind, though, that teaching to a test is more stressful than other types of teaching because your students are relying on you to get into university.

Adults

Adults take English lessons for a number of reasons. Some simply want to practice their English, while others are specifically looking to learn English for business purposes.If you’re teaching business English you can make a lot of money because it’s a niche field.

Teaching regular adults is also rewarding because you can develop a good relationship with an adult language learner. They’ll probably also be vocal about what they want in their lessons, making for a more collaborative teaching process.

Article Title: 12 Companies to Teach English Online to Chinese Students

Source: https://jimmyesl.com/teach-english-online-to-chinese-students-is-it-for-me/

By Molly Oberstein-Allen / March 2, 2021

Table of Contents

• The Benefits of Teaching English Online
• Finding the Perfect Teaching Company
• The Best Companies to Teach English Online to Chinese Students
• What Are the General Requirements to Teach English Online?
• What Equipment Do You Need?
• Do You Need to Bring Your Own Lesson Plans and Worksheets?
• What Are The Work Hours Like?
• How Much Is The Pay?
• What’s the Application and Interview Process Like?
• Can You Teach English Online While You’re Traveling?
• You Don’t Speak Mandarin – Can You Still Teach English Online?
• What’s it Like to Teach Chinese Students Online?
• Is Teaching English Online to Chinese Students Right for YOU?
• Online Teaching Might Just Be for You!

VIPKid  

Salary: $15.60-$24.40 per hour, Glassdoor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Due to independent contractor laws, potential teachers who have California, New York, or Washington state residence can no longer sign with VIPKID

VIPKID caters to Chinese students between the ages of 4 and 12.Teachers don’t have a minimum teaching requirement, although VIPKID recommends that teachers work at least 7.5 hours a week in order to maximize booking opportunities.

VIPKID provides teachers with lesson plans and a teaching platform complete with a points system, a feedback system, Powerpoints, and a conversation box.

Teachers don’t plan their lessons. Instead, they use VIPKID’s curriculum, which centers on the flipped classroom method of teaching.

VIPKID also offers great personal development resources. They recently offered all of their teachers free TESOL certification.

https://www.teachaway.com/blog/8-amazing-companies-let-you-teach-english-online-from-home

italki: Learn a language online  https://www.italki.com

https://learnenglish.cbt-i.org/zh

Media bias: my challenge to this issue

PEER-GRADED ASSIGNMENT, THREE PEOPLE GIVE ME TWO POINTS ( 1,NO, 2, MAYBE , 3, YES). 我觉得我写的很好，提出了自己的观点符合题目的要求。可惜别人不这么想。我发现我想的总是和别人不一样。

HTTPS://WWW.COURSERA.ORG/LEARN/MEDIA/PEER/RK0PK/UNIT-4-ASSESSMENT-2-PEER-REVIEWED-MEDIA-BIAS/SUBMIT

1. Describe the article or video. What kind of source is it? Who is mentioned in the story? When did the situation happen? What happened?

2. Try to identify the type of bias that you see:

• bias by omission
• bias by placement
• bias by spin

3. Explain why you think it is this type of bias. What information or point of view might be missing? Is the placement of this article or video appropriate? Do you see any biased language that might influence your opinion?

Model Response:

I watched the television news for my city. At the very beginning of the program, one of the people in the TV studio said that they had important news about keeping children safe. I thought, wow, I really must see this because I want to keep my children safe.

So I waited for this news story. I had to watch some advertisements before the story. When I finally saw the story, it was about how to protect your children from strangers who want to take them. There was a video of a person who tried to take someone’s child, but other people helped prevent this. Then there was an interview with a police officer.

I think this story is bias by placement. They try to make me think it is an important story by talking about it at the beginning of the news. Of course children are important. But I know that the situation they talk about is very uncommon. In my country, if someone tries to take a child, it is usually not a stranger. By placing the story at the beginning of the news, they take a situation that is not very common in my society and make the danger seem more common than it really is.

=====================================

I think our teachers may be too polite to use the spin which means giving a positive or negative point of view about a subject in order to change the opinion of the audience. But spin can become disinformation. But for a person like me who comes from authoritarian China. Disinformation is not even the right word to describe the world where 1.4 billion are living. It is lies. Here is a piece of evidence.

RSF (Reporters Without Border) appeals to the UN to act for the release of Apple Dialy founder Jimmy Lai who has been jailed for his adamant support for Hong Kong's pro-democratic movement.

In his twitter, Hu Xijin, Editor-in-chief of the Global Times, China state-affiliated media, wrote, "It is the long-term support and instigation from you, Western forces, that has set Jimmy Lai up. You incited him and gave him the illusion that he can rely on you to defy the law and confront central govt without paying any price. Please spare him and those confused HK people."

What is this central govt? It is govt to build internet censorship GFW (the great firewall) to fool the Chinese and the World with lies. The Media literacy class neglects this type of media.

================================

Vice President Kamala Harris under fire for 'disrespectful' tweet. Vice President  Kamala Harris came under fire Saturday for tweeting about Memorial Day, but without mentioning the significance of the weekend. "Enjoy the long weekend," Harris wrote, above a candid photo of herself smiling.

I think it is a typical example of bias by placement. Bias by placement happens when stories that are important for our daily lives don't receive important placement in media messages. It can come from consuming news as entertainment. Another word for this is sensationalism. Sensationalism means, using news media messages to entertain people, instead of informing them about events that are important to their daily lives.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vice-president-kamala-harris-under-fire-for-disrespectful-tweet

Washington’s public universities will no longer require the SAT or ACT

UW would not require a standardized test score for admission for the incoming freshman class of 2021. On Tuesday, that policy became permanent at all of Washington’s public four-year institutions.

Beginning in fall 2021, UW, Washington State University, Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, The Evergreen State College and Western Washington University will become permanently “test-optional.” Students can submit scores, but they won’t be penalized during the admissions process if they don’t; admissions officers say a high score might benefit a student who wouldn’t otherwise be offered admission, but typically scores won’t be used. And scores won’t determine students’ ability to earn scholarships or placement in university honors programs.

The pandemic made taking these tests practically impossible, but permanently ending testing requirements signals a profound shift in how universities think about who to admit, experts say.

“Washington is doing it now, which is terrific,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University and the author of a higher education blog that focuses on data and university policies. “Essentially [along] the whole West Coast you don’t need standardized tests to apply to public universities.”

Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/washingtons-public-universities-will-no-longer-require-the-sat-or-act-will-admissions-become-more-equitable/

https://councilofpresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Test_Optional_Statement.pdf

Education quote

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. - Nelson Mandela

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.- Albert Einstein.

Don't let schooling interfere with your education.”  Mark Twain

Red penetration

2012. 5. 13 

獨！拜登白宮會兩院領袖！美國通膨巨獸陰霾！中共搞統戰？新華社年燒千萬美元！大外宣滲透全球？！【年代向錢看】20210513

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81tUSdsMNNQ

According to FARA, China Daily received around 91 million dollars in the year 2019 to 2020. 

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities specified under the statute to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.  Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents. The FARA Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of FARA.

https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) is a federal agency that monitors and translates foreign media into English. FBIS Daily Reports are translated transcripts of foreign radio and television broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements. The reports contain political, military, economic, environmental, and sociological news and information.

https://www.lib.umn.edu/govpubs/fbis

Teach2030: PART ONE: 4 courses

Start part 1: on May 9, 2021

• Course 1: Fresh Thinking for Your Classroom
• Course 2: Growth Mindsets for Teachers and Learners
• Course 3: Practical Active Learning for Your Classroom
• Course 4: Planning Lessons to Reach All Learners

Three key points about teaching.

1. Teaching is a process intended to support learning by inducing a change in the person taught. It happens over a period of time.
2. Teaching is the action of communicating a message that will have an impact on your audience.  So how we make this content, and our message accessible to learners is the art of teaching. 
3. This how of teaching, or the art of teaching, we call pedagogy.

Pedagogical theory

All Teach2030 courses are based on solid evidence and research that is mapped to Cambridge Teaching Standards; you can be confident that the theory, information and strategies in this course all demonstrate best teaching practice. teach2030.com

Course #1: Fresh Thinking for Your Classroom: Objectives:

• Define what being a teacher means to you

• Discover the value of learning partners and how to keep a teacher portfolio

• Compare examples of good and poor teaching

• Examine your own experiences as a learner and how they have shaped you as a teacher

• Reflect on your own teaching practice

This course is mapped to the following Cambridge Teaching Standards:

(4.3) Collaborate with colleagues to share new ideas about teaching and learning to improve subject and professional knowledge and practice.

(6.2) Critically engage with recent developments in subject knowledge, learning and international good practice, and apply new ideas and approaches to improve the quality of their teaching and the students’ learning.

(6.6) Evaluate learning programmes and their own teaching using reflective practice and evidence from different courses, including student feedback, to inform planning and to improve future teaching and learning.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Explain how your own experiences as a learner have shaped you as a teacher

• Provide concrete examples of what you consider good teaching to be

• Collaborate with a colleague and work together to support each other

• Use a teacher portfolio to track your personal development

What is a teacher portfolio?

A teaching portfolio is a record of your achievements and progress as a teacher.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265538740_The_Teaching_Portfolio_A_Tool_to_Become_a_Reflective_Teacher

Why keep a teacher portfolio?

It demonstrates:

• 1) Your own personal philosophy of teaching
• 2) Evidence of your learning from training you have received
• 3) Opportunities to record your self-reflection on areas of strength and those that need developing.

It serves as a continuous tool to reflect, evaluate and monitor your own teaching and performance, in order to develop your teaching skills and continue to raise learning outcomes for the children you teach. 

How to build a teaching portfolio

All teachers who are committed to their professional development should consider keeping a teacher portfolio; that they can continue to build on throughout their career. When teachers select an entry for their portfolio, not only do they have to think or discuss, but they also need to write down their ideas and reflections. Reflective writing provides teachers with an opportunity to focus, organise, edit their ideas, and finally to reflect upon them in print. And, perhaps most importantly, the written documents are always available to be reviewed, and to serve as clear evidence of the teacher’s thinking, reasoning, and actions.

ice-breaker activities

=================================

Course 2: Growth Mindsets for Teachers and Learners
Carol Dweck's mindset theory

This course is mapped to the following Cambridge Teaching Standards:

3.1 Have high expectations of all students and demonstrate a commitment to their learning, personal growth and well-being 4.3 Collaborate with colleagues to share new ideas about teaching and learning to improve subject and professional knowledge and practice. 5.9 Use the outcomes of assessment to identify students’ learning needs, set targets for improvement, and plan for future teaching and learning interventions. 6.2 Critically engage with recent developments in subject knowledge, learning and international good practice, and apply new ideas and approaches to improve the quality of their teaching and the students’ learning 6.3 Use active learning approaches and activities that encourage pupils to ‘think hard’ for themselves so they are challenged and their learning extended. 6.4 Create a classroom culture where students are encouraged to: work cooperatively and collaboratively; be prepared to take intellectual risks and ownership of their own learning; be open to new ideas and welcome new challenges

A fixed mindset is when you believe that intelligence is something that you have or don’t have.

• You might have been raised to believe that everyone in your family is no good at Maths.
• You might dislike challenges, as they make you think you that you’re not as clever as you would like to be. 
• Or you give up easily, and see effort as a waste of time, as you either know it – or you don’t. 
• You can feel threatened by someone who is able to do something you can’t do. 
• You don’t believe you can get better at something.

A growth mindset is when you have a strong belief that your intelligence can be developed. 

• You welcome challenges as you see them as a chance to learn.
• You continually ask yourself if you can improve something. 
• You persevere when things get difficult, and keep going.
• You see effort as a path to getting better at a skill, not as a reason to stop. 
• You believe feedback is incredibly helpful, and positive criticism is a way to get better at things.
• You are inspired by the success of others, and see it as another way to learn and succeed yourself.

what is the difference between ‘ability’ and ‘attainment’?

If we describe a learner as low ability, it suggests that their ability is fixed, and they cannot improve at something. We must think of a learner as currently attaining at a lower level instead, and that with your help and guidance, they will be able to climb that ladder and attain (to work at) at a higher level. Using the word attainment shows where they are now, but it does not imply that they will always be in the same position. It is growth mindset language.

All of these mindsets show a teacher who sees that they too are always learning, that they continue to improve their practice as their career progresses. They are as much a work in progress as the children they teach.

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Course 3: Practical Active Learning for Your Classroom

This course is mapped to the following Cambridge Teaching Standards:

3.1 Have high expectations of all students and demonstrate a commitment to their learning, personal growth and well-being 4.3 Collaborate with colleagues to share new ideas about teaching and learning to improve subject and professional knowledge and practice. 

(5.9) Provide students, colleagues and parents with timely, accurate and constructive feedback on students’ progress in learning, attainment and areas for development. 6.2 Critically engage with recent developments in subject knowledge, learning and international good practice, and apply new ideas and approaches to improve the quality of their teaching and the students’ learning 6.3 Use active learning approaches and activities that encourage pupils to ‘think hard’ for themselves so they are challenged and their learning extended.

(6.6) Evaluate learning programmes and their own teaching using reflective practice and evidence from different courses, including student feedback, to inform planning and to improve future teaching and learning.

“Learning is the relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behaviour due to experience.” Richard E. Mayer, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, 1969 Macmillan. Learning is “Acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities.” From Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel, Belknap 2014 The key message is that learning is a process that leads to change due to the experience of the learner themselves.

The Harvard psychologist, David Perkins, (1) talks about ‘giving attention to the learning moment’ – the moment when challenge and skill meet. This is when we are challenged but also know that we can rise to the challenge.

He says there are four key actions you can do to focus on this learning moment and to create a culture of learning in your classroom – and in yourself:

How do you talk about the nature of learning? We need to not just teach and move through the curriculum, but stop to make time to talk about learning, to talk about thinking, to make learning itself an object of the conversation. Please download and read ‘Visible Thinking‘ by David Perkins.

中国 Math 教育

Google search: 少儿掌门PK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v08t3fFQQw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2TPnF44Y-w

When adding numbers, it is easier to add largest to smallest, rather than smallest to largest. Again, doing calculation from left to right is easier because that's the way we read numbers. Also it gives you better estimation. These ads are  popped up when I am watching the secret of Mental Math.

中国数学教育不仅反其道而行，而且纯粹死记公式。

速讀 speed reading Jim Kwik: Mindvalley

How To Read Faster & Learn Better

My comment: I really concern about, retention, problem, but this problem is only mentioned in the webnar I listened to, without any further explanation. 

 Things I get this webnar: https://www.mindvalley.com/superbrain/masterclass/var2 

• Visual pacer: use your fingers to help speed
• fast reading increase comprehension by concentration.
• subvocalization hinder speed   ( I don't agree. I am reading while I am listening. Maybe I am a foreigner, listening 语气和断句 help me understanding. 否则字都在跳，我没办法 focus

Average reading speed: 200 w.p.m.  usually 64,000 words/ per book. 

Jim Kwik also started with comic reading 

• Super Brain by Jim Kwik  (first book)
• Limitless: Upgrade your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock your Exceptional Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT_GcOGEFsk  (45:02/57:14)   ( I didn't listen it, but I find this summery)

Jim introduces his younger self as a child who had difficulty reading and writing because of brain injury he sustained when he was five years old. He had to be taught three times more than the normal kid to comprehend the lesson. He also mentioned that one of the teacher berated him in-front of other children saying, “This is what looks like if you brain doesn’t work”.

He was spending so much time in library that he was merely 117 pounds at that time. He got so weak and got unconscious one day that he had to be admitted to the hospital. After he came to senses from unconscious state, the nurse brought him a soup on a cup that had Einstein’s picture in it. The inscribed letters on the cup said, The same level of thinking is created the problem won't solve the problem.  “Don’t expect to get the new results, if you do the same things over and over again”. At that point he realized he had to change things. (my comment: it is not his words) He went in the quest of sources that would teach him how to study. There were always “what” to study but not “how” to study. 

“Seven habits of successful people”. He mentioned the most important lesson from that book was “You need to sharpen your saw before working with the saw. In other words, when we are required to chop off a block of wood with dull axe, sharpen it first so you can chop easier than trying hard to chop with dull axe”. 

The most important message of this talk was the following six bullet points. They can be abbreviated as “BE FAST”.  

• * B: Believe. Henry Ford: "If a person believes he can do it or not, both of them are true." It is important for any person on a learning journey to believe that they can achieve anything or understand anything. You will eventually become what you believe.
• * E: Exercise Physical exercise takes you to a state where you can learn faster and retain more. Socrates said," If you learn something and you cannot remember it, that is of no use." Jim gives an example of a time where kids are always ready to play. Slowly that playtime becomes hangout time. As we play more our mind is a state where it can grasp things faster.
• * F: Forget. In order to learn new things we should forget everything we know before learning that concept. The preconceived notions we have about the subject will hinder out capacity to understand the concept and master it.
• * A: Active "When you move, your mind will groove." So, it is very important to be active when learning. 
• * S: State of mind it's the most important part when learning or reading. Sometimes people learn pages from a book and they don't remember anything they read. So they start over and even on second attempt nothing is retained. So, it is very important to be in a state where you feel happy and you can concentrate. 
• * T: Teach When you learn something you should learn with a mindset that you will teach this concept or lesson to somebody else later. This mindset will make us vigilant when we are reading, to understand what are the key concepts, what were the contexts used etc.

How the World Learns: Comparative Educational Systems

Knowing how the world learns is a stepping-stone to understanding how students acquire skills and knowledge, teachers teach, and education systems function in the best (and worst) ways

 -Alexander W. Wiseman

How the World Learns: Comparative Educational Systems, 24 Lectures

DVD 370.9 HOW, with CC, I saw in Kanopy with CC available, 2015

Alexander W. Wiseman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education

alexander.wiseman@ttu.edu

https://fire-ojs-ttu.tdl.org/fire/index.php/FIRE/about/contact

knowledge vs. skill ( tests only test skill not knowledge) and equality vs. equity

Finland success: equity (not equality) and expertise, hardly no standardized test,  low-stake vs. high-stake test in Eastern countries, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan

equality: equal access to the resource, etc, 

it is about what, content

 it is about how, engagement.

sin of mission vs. sin of  commission. Sins of omission are those in which we knew we should have done something good, but refused. A sin of commission is a sin we take action to commit, whether in thought, word, or deed. A sin of commission can be intentional or unintentional

• Sing with Beetles song, Hello, Goodbye
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children 

And you, of tender years

You can't know the fears that your elders grew by

As a mile wide and an inch deep - spoken by William Schmidt  bschmidt@msu.edu

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education

The Way We Were? The Myths and Realities of America's Student Achievement (Century Foundation/Twentieth Century Fund Report)

by Richard Rothstein   riroth@epi.org

michelle.stack@ubc.ca, University of British Columbia,

martensk@uni-bremen.de, University of Bremen    (lecture 8)

Sotiria.Grek@ed.ac.uk,  University of Edinburgh

pasi.sahlberg@helsinki.fi

Burhanuddin Tola  btola@centrin.net.id; pisa@centrin.net.id

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/contacts/pisanationalprojectmanagers2006.htm

Ian Westbury westbury@illinois.edu 

180 school days

1 The Global Challenge to Educate

• Context matters: context is key to make a useful comparison. 

           students move vs. teachers move; classroom anchored vs locks anchored.

• School factors and no-school factors
• The key to international comparisons is understanding which school and non-school factors align to make good things happen.

2 Sputnik Launches the Science-Math Race

3 Education Is Life

4 Evidence-Based Policy Making in Education

5 What Should We Compare about Education?

6 The World Learns from Horace Mann

You can describe something as nonsectarian if it's not connected or affiliated with any particular religious or political belief. A college is nonsectarian if it isn't associated with a religion or church, and a Sunday school class that teaches all religions is also nonsectarian.

Horace Mann got his ideas when he visited Prussia. 

because females were paid less, so they could be hired in large quantities to serve as teachers.

7 When Culture Invades the Classroom

knowledge achievement is knowledge creation.  Chinese Confucius conformity kills creativity, this culture influence education from the inside out, South Africa AID/HIV, poverty influence education from outside in. 

8 Germany and Japan's Shattered Expectations

9 Borrowing Foreign School Cultures

10 The Value in Linking School to Jobs

Competency-based education is another word for vocational training or 

sometimes called National qualifications framework

11 Why Blame the Teacher?

12 Gender Pipeline Lifts Equality Dream

13 Gulf Schools: The Non-National Advantage

Nationalism 民族主义

14 Who Is Accountable for Education?

15 How Parents Shape Student Outcomes

16 Reading, Writing, and Religion

A hidden curriculum is a set of lessons "which are learned but not openly intended" to be taught in school such as the norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in both the classroom and social environment.

17 International Test Scores: All and Nothing

18 Turning a Good Teacher into a Great One

19 The Foundations of Civil Society

20 From National Student to Global Citizen

21 The Problem with Teaching's Best Practices

22 A School inside Your Phone?

non-linear, need-based, network for computer study

23 The Rich-and-Poor Learning Cycle

24 How to Fix Education: Heart, Head, Hands

Heart: engagement 

Head: skill and knowledge

Hand: implementation