The World of Tai Tai

Three years in a row before being accepted into Maktab, I had repeatedly failed my interviews, unable to reach the benchmark set by the college. An introverted person, I did not have the presence of mind to respond to the interviewers' questions with convincing answers, thus time and again making a fool of myself. One time, an elderly male interviewer looked at me with disdain and remarked that I was no teaching material.  The spiteful words had ravaged my self-confidence, causing me to cast doubt on the authenticity of my vocation. To be well-prepared for the fourth interview, I spent a lot of time brushing up on my English, as the course I was applying for was Teaching English As the Second Language. Almost every day, you could see me reading books and talking to myself in the mirror. During learning intervals, I watched television to observe how people communicated with one another, jotting down commonly used words and trying my best to use them in my daily conversations with ...

Today, education has become increasingly challenging, and getting students to write on the chalkboard  is considered obsolete. Cooperative learning, advocating learning through hands-on activities, is one of the most favored methodologies to date, where students, each assigned with a different responsibility, take charge of their learning in groups while teachers are reduced to the role of facilitators, only offering assistance when the need arises. No doubt, cooperative learning has produced more and more students who are independent and can think creatively. However, from my point of view, it should be done in moderation, as doing too much of it will kill its novelty, making students lose interest in the long run. Besides, slow learners tend to be passive throughout group discussions, hardly anyone addressing their learning issues. Although chalkboard writing  is discouraged at schools, sometimes, there is no harm for a teacher to use this approach to point his or her...