In the last class, I read to Classes 313 and 310 two passages from the 32nd chapter “Don’t Complain, Just Work Harder” in Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture: (more…)
Archive for May, 2009
Complaining Leads Us Nowhere
Thursday, May 14th, 2009If I didn’t need to give students tests…
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009These days, to prepare the students for the final, I’ve been giving students a test in class every day. Though it took only 20~25 minutes for them to finish the test, we still have to spend at least 10 minutes on discussion. I had to tell myself that students need tests either to push them to study or to find out whether they have really learned what they are supposed to learn. (more…)
Three Compositions
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Among the 100 or so compositions on the 3rd mock exam which I graded, the following three are the best. They are the originals, without any modifications by me. I requested my dear colleague Melody (陳美麗老師) to read and grade them. She gave them the same grades as I did.
Writing task: 你是否可曾想過十年後你想要成為怎樣的一個人，做著什麼樣的事，過著什麼樣的人生？請以此主題寫作一篇作文。第一段，請描述理想中的你，十年後正在作什麼樣的事；第二段，請寫下你實現理想可能的步驟與規劃。 (more…)
Much To Live for
Monday, May 11th, 2009A student handed in an essay “Why Living?” today. A philosophical question. I remember about seven years ago, Hung-ren, a student then studying at National Tsing Hua University, asked me the same question when visiting me. He was inspired by a professor of the university Ming-hui Peng (彭明輝教授). I told him I’d never thought about the question. He answered that a happy person like me would never wonder why he/she lived. (more…)
Happy Mother’s Day!
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Today is Mother’s Day. Wish all mothers health, happiness, and love.
Here is a quote from Dorothy Canfield Fisher, which I came across long ago when reading Think Big by Ben Carson:
“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”
So one of the best Mother’s Day gifts is to convince our mom that we can take the responsibility of taking good care of ourselves, physically, mentally, and behaviorally.
P.S. I remember I once put the quote on my blog.
Follow Your Feelings
Saturday, May 9th, 2009Yesterday while surfing the Net for some information, I came across Oprah Winfrey’s speech at Standord’s Commencement ceremony dated June 15, 2008. Its title was “Oprah talks to graduates about feelings, failure and finding happiness.” It was a long speech, so I printed it out. After I read it and put it down, the words I could recall best was “follow your feelings.” Oprah advised, “…feelings are really your GPS system for life…. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it…. When you don’t know what to do, get still…. and let your internal motivation be the driver.” She mentioned her own experience: (more…)
Stubborn Mistakes
Friday, May 8th, 2009While I was grading the writing part of the 3rd mock exam, including translation and composition, I was puzzled by some stubborn mistakes students had made. Every year the mistakes reoccur. Though I know it is inevitable for students to have mistakes in their interlanguage, I was still wondering why students couldn’t avoid these mistakes. The spelling mistakes could have been avoided if the students had been familiar with the correspondence between sound and spelling and if they had said the words in their mind while writing. The following are some examples: (more…)
Mama
Thursday, May 7th, 2009Yesterday I taught Class 310 the song “Mama,” sung by Il Divo, which I already taught the other two classes last week. This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I’d like them to express their thanks and love to their dear mom. When I asked them to guess which sentence in the song touched me most, Derek (董德) said, “And I know you had dreams.” Bingo! Every time I came to this line, it brought a lump to my throat. I told the students that our moms had their dreams too, but that in order to take care of the family, they sacrificed. (more…)
A Powerful Sentence from TIME
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009The latest issue of TIME features the world’s 100 most influential people. None from Taiwan is on the list. Well, I’m not quite sure about the criteria.
Today I mentioned in class a sentence I read this morning before leaving home: (more…)
Reading Brings Power
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009The stories of these two girls prove how one can benefit from reading. They both love reading English novels.
http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=11&f_SUB_ID=3022&f_ART_ID=192760 (more…)