Goodbye,Yale; Goodbye, My Dear Teachers

         Time flies. It’s our last week in Yale. We have to say goodbye to our dear teachers: Siggy and Carrie. I feel very sentimental.

One month is too short, but I have learned a lot from some excellent teachers. From Siggy’s classes, I learned many teaching methods and skills: such as how to use some interesting activities and games in classes to make every student get involved in without any pressure, how to encourage beginners, especially shy students, like me, to speak English bravely. At the beginning I was afraid of speaking in public, but in Siggy’s classes I feel at ease and with her patience and encouragement gradually I am willing to speak in class, though I still couldn’t speak very well, and then I even had courage to make a presentation in the public library. In Carrie’s class I’ve gained some skills in how to appreciate short but classical literary works. Carrie has taught us to use blogger to record the highlights of life in English with a few photos, which makes me interested in writing. In Alan’s classes, I’ve learned how to instruct students to write step by step formally and seriously. From Kirk, I know how to make students enjoy speaking English. In Betsy’s active classes with too many strongstudents in, I learned how to guide and instruct such students unconsciously and wisely. In Rob’s classes, his way of teaching idioms are very useful for my future teaching. And Susan makes me to think: sometimes teacher should be an actor or actress in order to make your students to understand some difficult things…Oh, I benefit a lot from all these wonderful teachers’ classes. Their teaching methodology is very useful for my teaching in class.

Besides learning through observing classes, we had quite a few cultural experiences. we have visited Mark Twin’s House and appreciated brilliant arts in Metropolitan Museum of Art. Especially with Carrie, Xiafeng and Patrick’s efforts and help, we three groups had a good opportunity to introduce some parts of Chinese culture to American people in New Haven Public Library. We did try our best to make audiences know more about China and Chinese. And I visited two churches on Two Sunday mornings: the Center Church and the ST. Paul U.A.M.E. Church. Their atmospheres are totally different: the former was in a solemn atmosphere with a few people in and the atmosphere in the latter is very lively, filled with energetic music, by which more people were attracted to the church, however, their ceremony of worship was also so solemn that some Christians were even moved to tears. 

After classes, we spent a lot of time in the libraries to read some books, scan or download some useful materials for our future teaching or researching.

       Of course, there are no perfect teaching methods. American teachers and we Chinese teachers still have room for improvement. Let’s make great efforts to become a good teacher.

         Thanks a lot, my dear teachers!