Dr. Wu sent us a good article from The Harvard Business Review, OCT. 2004

The title of this article is "Cultural Intelligence" in which they discussed the three sources of cultural sources and a chart to help you diagnosing your culture intelligence…

Joanne Tseng shared another article providing Team Teaching tips…

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Team Teaching: Teaming Teachers Offer Tips

Team teaching is a strategy used at many grade levels in many schools — but how teams are structured and how well teaming actually works varies widely. In this article Education World writer Sharon Cromwell explores two essential questions — What constitutes an excellent teaching team? and How can teachers strengthen their teams? Included: Practical tips to share with teaming teachers!

What elements help make a teaching team strong? Team teachers cite several characteristics of an outstanding team that really works for the benefit of students. The one trait they all seem to agree upon: Team members must laugh when appropriate to maintain the proper perspective about what happening with students and themselves. Use humor, teachers say, to keep the team positive and on target.

"Don hold grudges against team members," Glen Lawson, who teaches science and reading at Davis Middle School in Flowery Branch, Georgia, told Education World. "You should laugh together, eat together, and make copies together at least twice a week."

TEAMING TEEMS WITH ISSUES

Approximately 77 percent of middle schools in the United States now employ some form of team teaching, John Lounsbury, publications editor for the National Middle School Association, told Education World. Lounsbury, who is often referred to as one of the "godfathers" of the middle school movement, says, "We have come to realize that teaming has not been exploited fully by teachers to make the kinds of changes in instruction that are possible." When team teaching is fully implemented, however, research has shown it leads to an "improved work climate, more frequent contact with parents, increased teacher job satisfaction, and higher levels of student achievement."

"We organized teams and declared victory," Lounsbury continued, "but we haven taken full advantage of teachers working together to create a more integrated curriculum."

Lounsbury outlines the major problems that sometimes dog team teaching:

• Teams don have adequate common planning time.

• The responsibility of the team leader is not taken seriously enough, even by the leader.

• Teams of four or five are simply too large, because reaching consensus on changes is difficult with so many diverse personalities.

• Teachers involved may not themselves be sufficiently committed to change.

Lounsbury quotes the nineteenth-century American writer Henry David Thoreau on the subject of change: "Beware of enterprises that require new clothes but not rather a new wearer of clothes." In introducing team teaching, Lounsbury says, changes have too often been superficial without truly transforming the middle school curriculum so that subjects are interrelated rather than remaining compartmentalized.

To read more, see How Teaming Influences Classroom Practices, published in the November 2000 issue of the Middle School Journal.

TOP-NOTCH TEAMS

"For a team of teachers to be strong and productive, everyone must work together in a collegial manner," Melba Yvette Smithwick told Education World. She is a professional staff developer at the Paul R. Haas Middle School in the Corpus Christi, Texas, school district. "We always share teaching strategies, critique each other with respect and honesty, laugh a lot, and keep each other focused when we get sidetracked.

"We remind each other," Smithwick goes on, "that these people [whom we teach] are still children regardless of their height and that we are the adults who must guide them."

Echoing Smithwick, Lawson says that team members must treat each other with respect. One member, he insists, should not "hog the ball"; rather, all members should cooperate for the good of their students. He believes a team with teachers who are "male or female, older or younger, and having more or less experience" can "identify and reach kids with all kinds of needs."

Further, Lawson recommends "a variety of teaching styles" on a team. "A good team" Lawson says, "includes different styles, such as an authoritarian, a caregiver, and a cheerleader. ?Students will respond differently to these different teachers and all will get their needs met. It is also essential that the teachers value and support each other in those roles."

A strong, productive team is one that recognizes its strengths and weaknesses, Michele Lash of Regis Middle School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told Education World. Lash teaches eighth grade Spanish as well as religion. "On our team, each of us is better at some things and tries to take on those responsibilities while others do what suits them best. No one can do it all."

Team members must "be flexible," Lash emphasized. "Especially in middle school, things change. If youe too rigid, you will quickly become unhappy, which soon becomes apparent to the students and sometimes to the parents. Also, you must be an advocate for the students. Every child needs someone in his or her corner. Sometimes, their teachers are all they have."

Working together to create curriculum that makes sense should be a goal of all teams. Lounsbury, who has more than 50 years?involvement in the development of middle schools, believes a powerful team will "break down fragmentation among subjects" and interrelate the content of subjects taught by team members.

STRENGTHENING A TEAM

Many teachers know how an especially good team works and are always searching for ways to improve the performance of their teams. The teachers we talked with offered some tips on building strong teams.

"We can let the difficult teachers win," Lawson says. "We can just let them have their way because it is easier for us. We are teachers, after all. Everything we do teaches, including [teaching] the teachers we teach with."

Lounsbury thinks an "open, honest discussion of hy teaming??should be held. Too often it is viewed as an end, not a means, and when administratively in place, teachers can go on teaching as they did before. … Unless teachers?attitudes about teaming are positive, or at least open, trying to make teams effective is tough."

"Set an agenda for the week," is Lash advice. "Include discussions on students about whom there are concerns. Include some type of professional development reading or discussion.

"If things are really getting hectic, and people are starting to grumble," she continued, "plan a time for everyone to share something positive that recently happened that involves a student. Usually, that gets us smiling or even laughing, which always brightens the mood.

"Don allow team members to do other things during the meeting," she says. "You wouldn allow it from students, so don accept it from colleagues."

COMING TOGETHER IS A BEGINNING?/font>

Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success."

Melba Smithwick puts it a little differently: "Lay all the cards on the table, don speak with hidden messages, be direct, honest, kind, professional, friendly, and — for goodness sakes — keep a positive attitude and a good sense of humor."

Leanne showed the DVD from her school on how they celebrated the

Halloween holiday.

        Jimmy and Alenda shared the TPR game for teaching new vocabulary like:

Brave, cute, honest, shy, etc. They also showed how to play a Bingo game differently.

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2:00~2:10  Introduction of Anita again to everyone.

2:10~3:00  Group discussion on Team Teaching questions collected from last

meeting. All participants were divided into 3 groups focusing on:

Ⅰ. Planning-

Ⅱ. In the classroom

Ⅲ. Team Relationship  

        Group Ⅰ : They picked question No. 1,3,5,7 in that category. Their discussion

on these questions are: Set a routine time for face-to-face meeting and strictly stick to the discussion. Ask each other questions—any questions about the class, students, textbooks. Asking is also a reminder for each other. They also gave a suggestion for less communication time: put a notebook on a certain desk, whenever who wants to talk or leave message to Fulbright teachers they can just write something on it.

  Group Ⅱ : They talked about the discipline in classroom. Some said that a formal

introduction of Fulbright teachers is very important so the students accept them as a REAL teacher, too. Some would like to separate class into 2 parts(LET with the basic part, Fulbrighters with the advanced part) so teachers can have better control of the classroom management. Others shared that they acted out a skit which showed how a well-behaved student can get rewards from teacher so the students can have a clear idea of following the rules. And different teaching style can benefit students in different ways.

 Group Ⅲ: They said that LETs would like to learn something new from the Fulbright

teachers. And the Fulbrighters can try something and then they two together can so some adjustment to fit students’ need. When the two teachers have different opinions, just give each other a chance to give it a try. Being patient to each other and even to students is also very important. Another thing is to ‘ work on the problem!’

Outcome-based teaching: Dr. Sroda explained:

             When two teachers worked as a team, two may know what their goals are but

NEVER talked about it! Something to start with in order to make it easy is to :

 Write them down. Make them explicit as possible. For example: What do we want our students to achieve in terms of language skill? What do we want our students to obtain by the end of this semester?

Dr. Sroda suggested that all teams keep working on the outcomes and bring the list of outcome of the team to Joanne Tseng at the teacher’s center on 6^th, Dec. our next meeting.

Extra comments:

1.     Please hand in the weekly reflection and attendance on time. Ariel will send an e-mail with a chart shows who’s missing which week. Please do remember to bring those missing ones to Ariel on the next meeting day, i.e. Monday, 6^th,Dec.

2.      The Happy Squad is going to present a show on 3^rd and 4^th of Dec. They would like to invite all the teachers to go to see the show and cheer for them.

The meeting of 10/25 was canceled because of the once-in-a-life-time typhoon!

Gerald shared his ‘Homework song’ and played the song with his guitar.

       Joanne brought a Thanksgiving chant to share with us.   

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2:10~3:00  Dr. Sroda talked about ‘Poetry and Pronunciation in teaching English’   

出席人員：（附件）

attendance : see the attached file.

‘Poetry and Pronunciation in teaching English’ by Dr. Sroda

1.      ‘No Pancake for you’: stress

2.      intonation: rising at the end –not knowing the answer,

 falling at the end—WH questions

3.      A good way to teach prosody—poetry and song (English is a rhythm-time language). And the use of tong twister.

4.      Chant and nursery is also a good way to address the prosody:

a.      I’m little teapot

b.      The Eentsy, Weentsy Spider

c.       Twinkle, twinkle little star

d.      Row your boat

e.      One potato, two potato

f.        Two Little Blackbirds

g.      Panic on being late 、Argument chant(from ‘Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham)

Leanne shared a chant she made:

        What’s your name? ＊2

        Please tell me, what’s your name.

        Jimmy. Jimmy is my name.

James shared another one tuned: Row your boat

        Pork, Pork, Pork and Beef.

        Pork and Beef and Chicken.

        These are the meats we like to eat,

        We also like the lamb.

5.      Singing Songs:

a. The weather song

b. On Top of Spaghetti

Joanne shared a song from the idea of ‘Ten Little Indians’

  One juicy, Two juicy, Three juicy turkey

  ….

  ….

  Ten juicy turkeys all for me!

And Alenda, Leanne and Gerald also shared some other songs.

6.      Pick a tune that everyone knows, say’ twinkle little star’

And practice pronunciation like this:

               /ka/……

7.      Long rhyming stories: one of Sue’s favorites—Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess

Extra comments:

        Jimmy and Alenda will present their TPR game next time.

Reflection sharing and Halloween teaching tips from Dr. Sroda…

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Reflection Sharing:

1.      Gerry and Buni(from Bi Hou)

2.      Leanne & Sharon (From Jhong Sing Team ) They made some costumes/make-ups for Halloween teaching(see the picture ) And teach the family tree..

3.      Hopkins and Angela (From Shing Sheng Team): They. played trick or treat at the police station. And they played guessing and counting.   

4.      Anne and Kelly (from Lo Dong team): They had a costume contest and some phonetic songs.

5.      Clio and Joanne(Tong Le Team):They decided their English week to be “ The Thanksgiving Week” So they teach Thanksgiving already! But the 6^th graders would like to have more Halloween English, so they teach Halloween to the 6^th graders.  .

6.      Katrina and Gloria (Gu Ting Team) : (Sorry, I was out of the meeting while you were talking. So I missed your story 😛 )

7.      Johanna and Jenny(from Young Le Team)

8.      Jennifer and Irene (from Long Tan team): .  

9.      Alenda and Jimmy (from Jhuu Lin team): They did Trick or Treat this Friday and decorated 3 bulletin boards.

10.  Jason and Droma(from DaTung) They made a book with witch and ghost inside. They also played Trick or Treat game with some material from textbook.

11.   Angelyn and Rosy( from Bei Cheng Team) : They did some Halloween activities , like black cat, pumpkin and some ghost stories.

12.   James(from Sing Nan): kept on the job decorating English classroom.:

Teaching Halloween by Dr. Sroda: (also see the handouts from Dr. Sroda with more detailed information on it)

1 Monster Building: teaching body parts, numbers and colors by having Ss ask questions like : How many (eyes)?  And  What color is/are the eye/s?

        2. Describing our Monster:

        3. Which Monster is it?

Reflection sharing and portfolio… [@more@]

Creating a Portfolio by Dr. Sroda: (also see the handouts from Dr. Sroda with more detailed information on it)

A portfolio is a collection of materials which demonstrates certain outcomes or competencies.

Outcomes for Fulbright Teachers 2004/05:

Materials in your portfolio should attest to your competence in the following areas

Ⅰ Reflective statement:

Ⅱ Supporting material:

Lesson planning

Team teaching

Authentic materials

Integrated skills

Theme teaching

Class management

School-wide/ outside activities

see the complete note

Do you still remember ?

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Three Goals for this year

        Joanne mentioned about the goals of this year. After discussing with

Dr. Sroda, Catherine and Vickie, we think of three goals as the general guidelines for everyone to follow. The three goals can be shown like below:

Team Teaching Discussion:

l          The insistence of using English only in classroom.

l          Q& A patterns as practice of conversation

l          The use of exciting games

l          One advantage of team teaching is that team partner can remind what needs to be considered like: if your speaking speed is appropriate to the level of your students.

l          We can acting out a dialogue while team teaching together.

Sroda’s lecture about team teaching:

        5 types of team teaching :

        1) Traditional—both teacher share and participate in everything.

        2) Collaborative or Supportive—one teacher presents and other follows with related activity.

        3) Parallel Instruction—split class into 2 groups and each teacher has a group.

        4) Differentiated Split Class – Split into groups according to level

        5) Monitoring—One teacher conduct lesson/activity and other moniters clears for progress problems, etc.

Dr. Sroda mentioned that amazingly each of the types have been applied by our LETs and ETAs! She would like our teachers think about the when/ how / why we apply the different types of team teaching.

Next, Dr. Sroda had each team discuss and try to make a list of “ Characteristics for Team Teaching”. Below is the list we gather:

             Quality Teaching   

             Team Teaching          

             Culture Exchange

see the whole note

你錯過了Happy Squad的精彩演出嗎？沒關係，這裡有一些精彩畫面給你回味一下囉！

Here  are some excllent photos for Happy Squad’s performance~~

http://140.111.66.31/blog/index.php?op=ViewResource&blogId=28&resource=LET+ME+GO+-+PPT.EXE

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