Inovating teaching methods
On my first day at the FOFL of NTU, I come across some documents and booklets on teaching creatively with the use of visual and audible aids as much as possible. The teachers here also put an emphasis on communicative teaching; they focus more on students' oral communication in class other than traditional passive learning. There is one thing, though, that I need to point out: All the activities looks so good on paper, but still they miss the pre-teach sections. Now matter how excellent the activities are, if we do not pre teach the students, they can hardly end up with anything benifitial for them - or worse, they do hardly speak anything at all. Well, at least they have the ideas, and I really hope that they are doing all these for real - not just for demonstration.
As for myself, with a cut-edge on techonology, I would do some games, web quests, online quizzes to create a new learning atmosphere. Assigning reading tasks before class, and after that, come up with a quiz, just like what the professional teachers at CIE did, should also be a good idea. I think I do have quite a lot of experience on these and also on the topics discusses by the new colleagues, but still I have a lot more to learn.
