Exit Slip 1 - Sept 17

Today in my EDUC450B workshop, we watched two videos on Frank McCourt. Both interview videos are really inspirational and provided a lot on teaching strategies. One of the most important take away from his interview is that we must "teach the students, not the subject". I cannot agree more on that. In his interview, he said that he taught at vocational schools, and one subject he taught was E.S.L. Of course, learning a new language is difficult, especially for adolescents. And the fact that teachers should accommodate student's learning is a great way to motivate and engage them. McCourt also explains the importance of getting to know the students better and knowing where they are coming from. Drawing from my personal experience, I immigrated to Canada from China when I was 9 years old. I was immediately put into E.S.L. class (not Language Arts or English class) until I was in Gr.9. When learning to read English, I remember writing down ways that I find was suitable for me to learn to read. To facilitate this, I would write "Pinyin" on top of the words that are difficult to read - for my own benefit, but my E.S.L. teacher suggested that I read using the dictionary (pronunciation) method with symbols I don't recognize, which was complicated. For this problem, I personally think that it would be better if my teacher appreciate my own learning method than doing something else that I don't find comfortable with learning.

In addition, as an immigrant myself, like McCourt, I can imagine the possible difficulties of teaching at Canadian or American classrooms. So there is still a lot for me to learn about the Canadian classroom cultures (even though I have attended Canadian institutions for many years). There are so much more to learn and explore when I do actually teach at a school, whether it is public, private or international!