First School Assembly

This was taken on the first school assembly in Nanchang No. 2 High School. On the left side are the students from the Sino-Canadian Department (Nova Scotia Int'l Program).

Use of Calculators

“There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.” – Nancy Kassebaum


One of the frustrations in using technology is about choosing the most effective and efficient technology in class. Almost every year, new technology is introduced and replace the old ones. As much as I like to try the new ones, I also keep some good old technology that is more practical and helpful to my students.

The Grade 10 Math textbook from Pearson is a very good tool that comes with dvd technology and other features. It was designed to use a TI - Inspire calculator that our school did not even use. Ask me why.

1) TI-Inspire is not allowed to be use in examinations.
2) TI-Inspire is hard to navigate if not trained properly how to use it.
3) TI-Inspire is 3x expensive from TI-84 graphing calculator.

Do you allow the use of calculators in class? I do but I choose wisely which can be very beneficial for students like the graphing calculators and unit conversion app in my Math class.

Using Media in an EAL Environment

Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event. – Heidi-Hayes Jacobs

(I recorded this video during class break and you can hear students' murmur.)

Using media in class is very helpful. Your students will get to hear different voices in your class which is good for their English.

Aside from the DVD technology that comes together with the textbook from Pearson, it is also recommended that you'll let the students watch other instructional videos from other teachers. For me, I prefer to use the ones from Canada since we have the same curriculum.

Some useful websites can be found at:

1) School District No. 43 in British Columbia

http://www.sd43.bc.ca/RESOURCES/PARENTRESOURCES/MATH/10/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.sd43.bc.ca/Resources/ParentResources/math/10/Pages/WhatisSImeasurement.aspx

2) Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/math

Do you know any other good instructional video links for Maths?

Bridging the Language Gap

“It is not about the technology; it’s about sharing knowledge and information, communicating efficiently, building learning communities and creating a culture of professionalism in schools. These are the key responsibilities of all educational leaders.” – Marion Ginapolis

Teaching Chinese students is quite challenging, especially to Grade 10 students. The Nova Scotia International Program in Nanchang No. 2 High School is catering Grade 10-12 courses to Chinese students who had never been in an English language learning environment. Most of them never had a foreign teacher, and many can't speak or communicate in English. It's a tough job for us how to teach Math in English to these students.


Being here for more than ten years, I have quite understand the issues and more or less, I devised some plans how to overcome the struggles of my students. One of the things that really helped me a lot is creating a group chat discussion in QQ wherein students can communicate in English after class and discuss what did they miss in class. It can also be a great tool where students can access or download files I use in class for them to review at home or read online whenever they feel like. It's definitely good for improving students' English and developing a camaraderie among the class.

Here's some of the screenshots that I took from the QQ Chat Group:

Even you want to give explicit instruction, you will find that there's some words lost in your discussion that would take time for other students to absorb or understand. You would like to know if they did understand or the students could clarify it after class when you're not around. Technology, for me is helping me bridge that language gap.

For teachers - how do you deal with the language gap in class?

When There's No Textbook

Our students did not receive their textbooks yet so what I did, since it's our first meeting, I did not start the class on the first day of school. I discussed class routines and the course introduction and year plan and decided to deliver the first lesson the next day. I asked my students to download a pdf copy of their textbook online. I also told them that they can bring their own tables or iPads with the downloaded files and they can use those gadgets in class.

I asked my brother Sandy who is teaching Exploring Technology what online drive he is using and he recommended docs.com and Google+. I opted to use the docs.com because Google is blocked in China and I will have a hard time explaining my students to get a VPN and explain the whole process. I remember I used Dropbox before but then again, it's blocked. I also gave two websites I created few years ago for references where they can download the textbook as well.

Anyways, once the QQ Class Group is set up, I can send and/or share the files easily. QQ is an online social media app famous in China. Around 2014, when Weebly.com became slow, I shifted to QQ instead of the maintaining a class website. It's actually efficient and effective since all students are online in QQ.

What resources do you use when there's no required or recommended textbook for your class? Any technology that can aid this issue?

“Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today.” – Jennifer Fleming

First Day of School (School Year 2016-2017)

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. 

John Dewey

Yesterday(Beijing time) was the first day of the new school term. It was an easy start since I was just discussing classroom routines and rules, expectations, year plan, and some orientation about studying in the Sino-Canadian Program in nanchang No. 2 High School.

I teach the same subject, but different students every year. This is my fourth year of teaching Grade 10 Math Plus for Nova Scotia International Program based in China. This year I am teaching four different classes with class population 23-27 students in 32 teaching periods (45 minutes each period) per week. That is a lot, huh? There is a shortage of Math teachers so we were asked to teach more classes. Last year, I had 117 students, same teaching loads. I will talk about this case in another time.

I would like to use this blog to keep everyone posted with what is going on in my class. I have tons of files that I planned before to publish but because I was busy travelling and working full-time plus overtime, I forgot about it. I did share some of my stuff in social media but only for public audience, not for teachers’ community, which I thought, could be more useful.

Anyways, I should get going. Over the next few days I should be able to highlight the basics in teaching Math 10 Plus to Chinese students with a curriculum designed for Canadian students. I will be focusing on the following aspects:

1) Classroom Routines

2) Vocabulary Instruction

3) Project-based Learning

4) Inquiry-based Learning

5) Differentiated Instruction

6) Seating Arrangements

7) Assessments

8) Students’ Work Outcomes

9) Resource Depot for Math Support

10) Students Feedbacks

11) Unit Lesson Planning

12) Self-Reflection

13) Math Portfolio

I will start sorting and organizing my files so that I can share it to the teachers community. Feel free to leave your comments.

Sincerely,

Lilian