Today in class I had students brainstorm some examples of uncomfortable conclusions to which facts sometimes lead, which is mentioned by Mr. Bok in “Have a Good Four Years.” Before they came up with something, I gave them my example: Life is unfair. I asked the students to give me some facts which lead to this conclusion. The following are some facts Class 314 offered: (more…)
Archive for April, 2009
Brainstorming
Thursday, April 30th, 2009Discussion in Class
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009This morning in Class 310, I started U. 12 “Have a Good Four Years.” Of course, the students brainstormed the reasons why they wanted to go to college as a warm-up. After that, I asked them what they would say as the opening of the speech if they were the university president Mr. Bok. One said, “Welcome to Harvard.” Another said he/she would introduce the school. (more…)
A Warm-up Activity for Unit 12 “Have a Good Four Years”
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Yesterday and today I started Unit 12 in Class 313 and Class 314 respectively. It is a speech given to freshmen at Harvard by its president Derek C. Bok in 1971. Before having the students look at the text, I asked the students to guess from the title “Have a Good Four Years” what this lesson was about. They immediately told me it was about going to college. (more…)
Crying–Two Compositions by Two Students
Monday, April 27th, 2009Remember the two students I mentioned yesterday who PK in writing? I’d like to post their compositions in this entry. The following is the writing task on the 2005 2nd mock exam.
有人哭，代表著無助、失敗、惋惜、憤怒、或懷念和哀悼；有人哭，卻是一種幸福、喜悅、或成功。請寫一篇120字以上的作文，第一段敘述你自己或曾經見過什麼人、為了什麼事而哭過。第二段描述你是如何度過這次的哭泣或是你如何安慰、陪伴或協助你所見到的哭泣者，以及這次的經驗令你有何體會、收穫或學習。 (more…)
Two Interesting Students
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Yu-ting (顏渝庭) and Shu-wei (周書緯), two students in Class 313, are two of the most aggressive students in my writing class. They have their own interesting game–PK in writing. I forgot since when, but they have kept writing almost every day for a while. They write on a new topic every other day and then after I give them my feedback. they hand in their revised version next day. Starting the day before yesterday, they handed in their English diaries. I’m happy that they have fun doing what gives some students a headache. (more…)
YouTube Edu
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Annie (詹麗馨老師) just called me and mentioned a website set up by YouTube meant to offer free lectures on video from different US universities. She told me it was introduced in the latest issue of TIME. After hanging up, I rushed for the magazine (April 27) and found the article “Logging On to the Ivy League.” Terrific! Now we can sit at home in Taiwan and learn from professors in the US. (more…)
Co-ed or Not Co-ed?
Friday, April 24th, 2009This afternoon a student from former Class 306 paid me a visit. Now a freshman, he found it harder for him than for those who came from co-ed schools to get along with the opposite sex . During his three years at NHSH, he studied in a single-sex class. That was the school policy then. I remember once a student who graduated earlier also told me about the same problem. (more…)
What to Write after a Topic Sentence
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009The writing task of Meow-meow Practice Exam 22 required students to write on “How to Get Rid of Depression,” with “Everyone gets depressed once in while.” as the topic sentence of the 1st paragraph, and “Whenever I feel down, I like to…” as the beginning of the 2nd paragraph. (more…)
English Villages
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Wow! English Village!
The government is planning to set up English villages, making use of schools’ spare classrooms. The author of the following article in today’s UDN, suggested setting up immersive English-only villages. I agree. When one is put in the sea of English, he/she will certainly get wet.
A Spider in Its Web
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
This morning when I stepped out of the Academic Affairs Office, heading for my office, I looked up and caught a glimpse of a spider in its web. The web stretched from the 4th floor to the 3rd floor. If a spider that big appeared in front of me on the wall of my study right now, I would definitely ran away, probably with a scream, and asked for help. However, this morning I stopped to take a long look at the spider and its web, amazed at how the spider had woven the web. It must have started with a string, and then? (more…)