Time to Say Goodb

    To reschedule or not to reschedule, this question kept troubling me for a long time. Eventually I rescheduled my flight and I am going home two days later.

Yesterday, I called my 10-year-old son; I was melt by his sweet voice over the phone. He said, “Mom, I miss you a lot.”

“I miss you, too.”

“Mum, I want to be with you. Yesterday, we went to see a movie, and the tickets sold out. We couldn’t see the movie. But if you were there, you would figure out a way to buy tickets.”

In my boy’s mind, I am still his omnipotent hero.

Before coming to Yale, I struggled a lot. I was really anxious. I even thought of cancelling the trip. Finally, I successfully conquered my anxiety. My husband said I should enjoy to fullest extent of my Yale life, but I am not complete when my family is away from me. However, this study experience proved to be very fruitful.  I observed a lot of excellent teachers’ classes and I reflected these teaching method and developed my strategies of future teaching. Also, I harvest invaluable friendship here.

     With time passing by, I feel my attachment to this new group is getting stronger. This morning, Polly was tearful when she said that it is hard for us to say good bye. It is really hard for everyone because we have spent so much wonderful time together in the past forty days. I will miss the study life here, and this memory will be as beautiful as the rainbow we saw in Niagara.

Reading is an art

We heard a lot about love is an art or teaching is an art, actually, reading is an art.

    To master this art, we first have to know why reading is an art and what to do and how to do to master this art. Reading actively makes a big difference from passive reading. Reading is an art means you have to practice a lot to master this art and this skill doesn’t come naturally. While reading, we should ask ourselves questions about the argument, is it persuasive or loose? What do you think of the author from the book he or she wrote? With regard to the third question, we should communicate with the author actively; initiate a debate with the author and to use the margin effectively, making the note while reading and get to know the context the author wrote.

 Only by reading actively can we enjoy the beauty of reading.

Drama Queen --- Siggy

When Siggy danced ballet to the class, I fell in love with her at the first sight. She is a naughty boy, an energetic magician, a ballet dancer and a drama queen. Her class is full of surprises, and you have no idea what she is going to say or to do the next moment.

She is very initiative in her teaching. She asked us to complete a story by using “fortunately” and “unfortunately” at the beginning of each sentence by turn. She asked us to provide special vocabularies of facilities in the hospital or airport etc., which starts with the first letter of our names to enlarge our vocabulary.

I can remember many activities Siggy carried out in the class. In one class, she first asked us to draw a T-shirt and then asked us to finish some tasks according to her description. For instance, to write our hometown on the right sleeve of the shirt, write the name that gave deep influence on us on the left sleeve, write our hobbies on the right bottom of the shirt and something we would like to conquer on the left bottom, which I wrote procrastination; and something we are unwilling to share with other people in the middle of the shirt. After finishing the entire task, she asked us to count numbers from 1 to 5, those were in the same number were put into a group and they were supposed to clarify what they had written to each other. Then, we counted again, and were assigned to groups with different people. While we were talking, Siggy walked around to listen to our conversation and talk to us randomly.

We had a lot of fun from doing those tasks and we are free to say what we want to say under the guidance of the drama queen. It is a good opportunity to re-experience our life as a student and I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot.  If we would offer such colorful activities to our students in the future, our students will benefit a great deal from those tasked-based activities.