Spring 2011- Happy Year of Rabbit
SLS 750 Distributed Language and Multimodal Analysis (http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/multimodality/)
SLS 600 Introduction to Second Language Studies (http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/SLSIntro/)
Fall 2010
SLS 418 instructional Media: http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/blog/
SLS 600 Introduction to Second Language Studies (http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/SLSIntro/)
Summer 2010
SLS 680P Tasks, Activities and Learning Environments
Spring 2010
SLS 418 instructional Media: http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/blog/
SLS 380 Bilingual Education: http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/bilingual/
Fall 2009
SLS 680P Second Language Pedagogy: Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning http://sls.hawaii.edu/~zhengd/blog/
Courses Taught in Michigan State University
• TE 818 Curriculum in Its Social Context (.doc)
• TE 894 Laboratory And Field Experience in Curriculum, Teaching And Schooling (.doc)
• TE 891 Special Topics in Teaching, Curriculum, and Schooling: Methods of teaching Chinese as a second language(.doc)
• CH 101 in Second Life (.doc)
Teaching related experiences, reflections, inspirations, excerpts...
The following scenario is an excerpt from a parent, Mrs. Li, of our English language school in Changchun , China , where I taught and managed the school. Mrs. Li shared with me this interesting scenario when she took her daughter to our school by a taxi-cab.
The cab Driver: Where to?
Mrs. Li: To Qinghua Elementary School?
The Cab Driver: What class is your daughter taking?
Mrs. Li: The English Class?
The Cab Driver: Is that the class taught by a young teacher who always smiles?
Mrs. Li: Yes, How do you know her? The one who co-teaches with an American teacher?
The Cab Driver: Oh, yes. They were my customers one time, and I remember them. She must be a very good teacher, she smiles all the time.
Mrs. Li: Yes, she is. We are very lucky that she teaches my daughter.
Not until I taught children English, did I know that teaching would be my aspiration. Co-teaching with my husband inspired me to pursue a degree in Master of Arts in teaching. I was immediately absorbed with how Bob interacts with children, and children responded to the inquiry style so well. Our school was a success; we had everything for learning English: an American teacher who created the immersive environment, a Chinese teacher who taught grammar and disciplined the children. The more successful it became, the more I realized how critical it was to formally pursue American teaching methods. This ambition led me to the Master of Arts in Teaching program in the University of Great Falls, Montana, with a goal of creating a teaching method that extracts the essence of western and oriental philosophies of learning.
I started my first job as an English teacher teaching medical English. My students were nurses and doctors who would go to Singapore, or Arabic and African countries to practice medicine after they gained a good command of English writing, reading and communication. All of my students were much older than me. I used a communicative approach to teach listening comprehension, which was in sharp contrast with how it was taught before. One incident taught me that adult learners in Chinese culture were shy in saving face, but most importantly it taught me how to assess practical skills, such as listening comprehension, as well as learner's needs. I found one student was cheating in the middle of a quiz. I was very surprised about such behavior because they came to learn, not to get a good grade, though getting a good grade was important for the final evaluation in terms of who got to go abroad. Upon talking with the student, I found out that she couldn not follow the instruction in class, and she never let me know what she did not understand when I asked if they were with me. I learned from that experience that adjusting to different students' level and needs is very difficult in a one instruction-fits-all classroom. Not until I took an instructional design class at UConn, did I learn that needs analysis is a tricky business; real needs can be hidden because of many reasons. Evaluation methods, such as survey research and ethnographic tools, can be used to examine problems systematically. Teaching, design, and research are tightly connected. Without any one of them, a person can not become a grounded teacher, designer and a researcher.
From: *SES555@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 9:18 AM
To: Dongping.Zheng@huskymail.uconn.edu
Subject: Hi !
Hi Dongping,
I just wanted to say thanks for a great semester. I really enjoyed your class, and I feel like I learned a lot. My friends would tell me that they were not learning much at all in their lab classes, so I am glad that I had you for a TA because we covered so many different things! Thanks so much and have a great holiday.
*Erica :)
*Email address and student name are fictitious to protect privacy.
"Dongping, I really have learned about technology integration in schools as in service of pedagogy, something that was an entirely new concept to me, I value the work I did in class. Thank you for being available in and out of class. I can tell you value the work you do and the class, by the time and effort, as well as attitude that you expressed to us in the class."
"The TA was very prepared and insightful, she made up for the instructor's lackings."
"Dongping was my TA, she was always prepared to answer questions and was very accessible both in and out of class."
"I enjoyed your class."
" Dongping made herself assessable to her students. Class was very helpful in learning technology."
Last Updated September 12, 2010|