Entry 7

  Last week, my professor invited a girl working at Funday to come to our class and have a sharing. She has not worked in that company for a really long period of time but she has already got a lot of experience to share with us. She talked about her working experience like her interaction with the learners. All of the experience were fun and interesting. By knowing her experience, many questions regarding online teaching have been answered. She used a video of her teaching as a demonstration of the real situation happened during online teaching. I admire how the teacher remained calm and was quick when they have to check the answers of the students. Meanwhile, I can start to understand the necessity of having online teaching. Most of the students are adults. They do not usually have that much time and patience to learn a new language by their own. By having online learning methods, these students are re-offered the opportunity to learn again in their ages. This helps prove that they can enrich their knowledge and sharpen their tools just like a child can. In the video, I can also see that the teacher needed to have small talk with the students in order to help the students relax and reduce the awkwardness. This was a great way to shorten the distance between each other even when they were not able to see each other's faces. The presenter asked the student about his work on that day so they can have a casual conversation first. I came up with a question while watching the video. For one minute, I thought of a question, "what if I am the teacher?". In the next minute, I only hope that I can do better in having small talk. Besides, the presenter talked about the working environment and hours. She talked about a funny story about the black cloth used as a background falling off. This reminded me of the importance of double checking your working environment before you start the class. For the working hours, I think it is acceptable and understandable. You can have a few lessons a day. It kind of felt like the schedule in university school life. On top of that, I appreciate the flexibility of the place to work. You can either work at home or at the office. This allowed workers to work with more freedom and have a more comfortable working environment. Last but not least, I consider this way of teaching and learning as very effective since the teacher teached based on different topics. The topics can be related to the news or daily life. This greatly increased the interest of students learning. I understand that learning in a classroom is a tradition. Yet, it might not be the most effective way of learning. With the help of the new techniques like online learning, people who are not comfortable with learning in a classroom can have another way to satisfy their craving for knowledge. Honestly speaking, I would like to become a teacher for online teaching in the future.