Yeah Yeah Yeah...

Earlier this week during student teaching, a student YEAH YEAH YEAHED me when I was helping other students. This particular student, H is at a more advanced level in Chinese (and other subjects) than the rest of her classmates because she speaks Cantonese at home AND attends Chinese school, BOTH in Mandarin and Cantonese. So well, DUUUUUH she is gonna be ahead of other kids in Chinese. But the point of this story is, she disrespected me and tried to brush it off. Well I wasn't gonna let her go. First of all, I'm an adult. Second, I am her teacher. I might not be her regular teacher, but the moment I step into that school I have just as much responsibilities to those students I work with as my master teacher and I don't even get paid for it. I am there to learn but also guide and help students. This kid disrespected me, and when I tried to ask her why she did that she totally ignored me even after I called her name at least 5 times. What did I do? I walked around the table and tapped on her shoulder and got in her face to ask why did she do that. She had a guilty look on her face and didn't dare to look me in the eye. I asked why did she do that, she responded she already knew the answers. Well I asked if she knew, was she going to help her classmates? She said she wasn't going to help. I asked her was it necessary for her to make that rude remark, and she said no. And she knew better. If it was her regular teacher she would have gotten in much bigger trouble. Now that I think back, I should have gave her a warning. She is smart, but if you're not going to help don't be mean or show-off about it.

On a lighter note, the same student who gave me a hug wanted to give me another one but it was during a time that was not too appropriate so I told her she can give me one later. I didn't get one but at least she wanted to give me one. :) Yay.

Next week I have to teach and videotape a math lesson for a final project. Hope everything goes well. Well if it doesn't, I will learn what not to do next next week when I am being observed.

One last note, I went to conference where Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore, a prominent educator in the  education field gave a presentation about the new Common Core State Standards that will be implemented in 46 states (except Virginia, Texas, Minnesota and some other state). She made a comment that teaching is not for the weak or wimps. Damn straight! She is one feisty woman! I like! And she didn't seem snobbish or uptight at all, unlike some people I've met in higher education who seem to look down on others who are not the status as they are. Education and teaching is not the for weak or wimps; it takes a lot of patience, endurance, care and heart to teach.

And one final last note (no, really it is!), I found out two of my classmates who attended a different high school (also different years) had the same horrendous math teacher I did in high school. That man was impatient, rude and mean. One of my classmates also dislikes him while the other liked him and had him all 4 years (WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?) ! I hated going to math class because he was always yelling and belittling us students. I last heard he had been fired and moved around several other schools in the city and was no longer teaching in the school my classmates attended. That man should have been fired and forbidden from teaching a long time ago.

I hope I will be a good teacher. I WILL BE AN AWESOME TEACHER.

A Fruitful Week!

Many things have happened in the past two weeks of student teaching.. first of all, I got my first hug from a student! That morning, I happened to see another student give another teacher a hug and I was thinking in my head: "When will I ever receive a hug from a student?" A little later, I received a hug from one of the students in the class that likes to chit-chat with me; I was glowing inside. It's been a long journey student teaching in this school because many of the students are still uncomfortable around me. Another thing that happened was that while I was walking with my English class to lunch, two of the girls from my Chinese class were standing behind me and they decided to tap on my shoulder and play a trick on me. While it's not right for them to be fooling around, inside I felt giddy because the students were warming up to me.

A few days ago, a student came up to me and gave me a flyer for one an event he is doing: raising money for kids in Africa with AIDS. What a sweet kid! He is asking for book donations and also holding a popsicle party/book fair to raise the money so I am going to donate a bag of books to him.

My own schooling on the other hand is always busy and exhausting. Finals are coming up and I have a midterm for the online Chinese American course. Ick. Hopefully all goes well. At least student teaching is getting easier, fun and fruitful! :)

First week after spring break!

This week was the first week of school after spring break; I was super out of it last week. While not going to class and student teaching was nice, my daily momentum was thrown off and I became very down and sluggish. On Tuesday, I was observed to teach an English Language Arts lesson; many things went wrong but at the same time, I just kind of don't care. I was suppose to go over the students' homework but they didn't bring it to class (because it is due on Friday); the kids went all crazy and attitude on me, one even said: "DUH" to me. I don't know if its fortunuate or unfortunate, but I didn't catch it. However, the substitute Ms. S, my observer, AND the kids' Chinese teacher heard it; the student got reprimanded pretty badly with a letter sent home and he had to come and apologize to me in person. The next lesson I need to teach is math, IN CHINESE. Oh shieeet! I dread teaching it in May, but it will eventually have to happen.

On a random note, during seminar I found out that one of my childhood mentors, Ms Y is a master teacher for my classmates. If it wasn't for her, many things in my life would have been much different. What a small world! If I didn't do bilingual ed, there might have been a chance she would have been MY master teacher! It's a small world after all... la la la la

On Thursday, a professor gave us a talk about academic integrity and yadda yadda. Unfortunately, this person does not preach what they teach. It's moments like this, it allows us pre-service teachers to see what we should and should not do in our own classrooms. Being bi-polar, inconsistent, messy, unprepared, and not flexible is just a big no-no as an educator. I just pray that I never get on the bad side of this teacher and swiftly/quietly finish their course without any problems. In my second class, there was a presentation from my classmates that mentioned about immersion, language loss, code switching, etc. I shared a dialogue between my mom and I, I had

I started my online Chinese American Identity course in another CSU campus. It's a pain because it's more work (readings/papers) to do, and I have to get books for it. The professor seems pretty alright so far, but was not very helpful in helping me into the online system. Luckily, I resolved the issue myself as the professors I had contacted weren't able to help me.

I have about 5 more weeks to go in my regular program, and about 9 more weeks for the online course and student teaching. Let's hope all this goes well! And one last random note: I miss Taiwan! Hope I can go back there sometime soon. nom nom nom