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Perfecting ones tools is prerequisite to perfecting ones work.

Analects by Confucius
Introduction
Born in a teachers family, I thought I was quite familiar with the teachers work. My mother and
father both worked as math teachers in two different high schools. My deep impression of
childhood on their work was packed with the thick and abstract math books they used for their allnight preparation for the next days classes, the professional seminars they went to on weekends, the
test papers they brought back home to grade, and their intense discussions on certain math
questions. I never thought that there would be one day that I would follow their trails to become a
Chinese language teacher in an American high school.
It proved that being a teacher was not easy as I thought when I really became one. There were so
many laborious tasks with so many challenges beyond my imagination, and I started to realize how
important my parents' work was, and how much I was willing to dedicate myself to this career.
Being a Chinese language teacher in an American school requires different professional knowledge,
skills, strategies, and experience than being a teacher in a Chinese school. MATC program provides
me with mostly all the necessary professional teaching methodologies by its scientifically designed
courses to enable me to survive my school days. After getting enrolled to the MATC in MSU, I
started my first summer in East Lansing in the year of 2013 with countless paperwork, the master
courses, the summer camp for the STARTALK, and the preparation for the new school year for
Oxford High School. Settling down in a brand new country could be quite challenging, especially
when the multiple tasks took place at the same time. My anxious concerns towards all the
challenges were greatly reduced owe to the MATC program. For me, the MATC program is tool that
equips me to accomplish a higher accomplishment in teaching and to perfect my teaching.
How does MATC perfect my teaching
The TE818 and TE891 that I took equipped me with the fundamental teaching methodologies and
pedagogies. The case study, action reflection and plan, and response paper with analysis on and
solution to the problems that would occur in the class enabled me to put the classroom management,
the diversity, the student's capacity of learning, and the student's personal development into more
consideration. (Standard 1: Understanding and commitment to students and their diversity) I could
clearly feel my improvement when I applied the acquired teaching knowledge from the MATC to
my teaching. The scientific and professional theories and the practical case study and project
proposal provided me with solid theoretical foundation, practical approaches to an effective
classroom management, and strong confidence to perfect my teaching. I still remembered one of my
case studies on one challenging student who had unpleasant learning experience with her previous
Chinese language teachers. As the youngest daughter in her family with seven older brothers, this
student was diagnosed as OCD when she entered the Oxford High School. She struggled with most
of her classes, especially with her Chinese language class. She always felt stressful and was easily
irritated. Besides the unpleasant experience she had with her previous Chinese language teachers,
she disliked her Chinese class also because the school required her to choose Chinese language
class instead of Spanish language class as Spanish was her native language. She felt being ignored
by the school, just as she felt being ignored by her seven older brothers at home. The case study that
I wrote was about one serious confrontation we had. She contradicted me with disrespectful words
when being asked to speak louder in one speaking quiz. She seemed very upset and she left the
classroom before the bell rang without any permission. Same as all the new teachers, I felt awfully
helpless to face the unexpected problem. I finished my teaching on that day at my best extent, drove
back home, and wrote down the case study for my master course on what happened. I listed three
different hypotheses with four workable solutions and accordingly possible challenges based on the
requirement of the case study of the course. I felt much better and more confident after doing so. I
cannot wait to meet her again to implement my action plan. The next day, I followed the best

solution I chose from my case study step by step to solve the problem. I asked her to have a private
conversation in the hallway to avoid the embarrassment and stress for her. Instead of blaming her
for what she had done, I gently asked her if there was anything happened to her the other day. Her
eyes were sparkling with tears, and she said she was under a lot of pressure. She suffered from
OCD, and she felt no one cared about her problem or her feeling in school nor at home. Her seven
older brothers did not even listen to her, and when I told her to speak louder in class, she felt that I
intentionally picked on her because none of her previous Chinese language teachers liked her. I
listened to her story quietly and patiently, and I asked her if she felt better after talking with me. She
nodded, and I told her that when she felt no one would listen to her problem nor would care about
her feeling, she could always come to me, and I would always be there for her. I would never forget
her smiles in tears after she heard what I said. From that day on, I could clearly feel her positive and
respectful attitude towards her Chinese language learning and towards me. There were still some
times when she felt stressful and upset, she would come to me before or after class to talk about her
problems instead of having conflicts with me in class. She learned the Chinese language at her best
extent owe to our positive and productive relationships, and she found it was not difficult at all for
her to get an A in my class. She visited China as an exchange student in Guangzhou for six months
last year, and she basically wrote me mails every week to share what was new to her life. I heard
more excitement and less stress through her mails, and I saw positive and stable growth from her.
She was gradually turning into a confident, optimistic, and strong young lady with respect and
gratitude towards her life. In one of her mails, she said she would not become a better person
without my help. I felt the same way towards the MATC program, which constantly provided me
with all the necessary and effective support to my teaching from behind. I would not perfect my
teaching without the help of the MATC program. The more I perfect my learning through the
MATC program, the more I would perfect my teaching.
The MATC also perfects my teaching from many perspectives in an integrated collaboration
between my academic acquirement and my teaching experience. The TE872 and TE 894 courses in
the MATC program equipped me with practical teaching skills and strategies to solve the problems
that I would meet with in the everyday teaching. (Standard 2: Understanding of subject matter, how
to teach it, and how to design curriculum, instruction, and assessment to foster students
understanding) The curriculum and the assessments that I designed based on the Michigan World
Language Standards and Benchmarks and the IB standards for the language acquisition
systematically and effectively combine the obligatory requirements statewide, the target Chinese
language knowledge content, and the effective assessments together by using the pedagogies that I
acquired from the course, such as the TPRS, the instructional teaching planning, the washback
design for the formative and summative assessments, and the differentiated teaching strategies
based on the students learning specialties and/or difficulties. During the process of applying the
acquired professional teaching methodologies to the everyday teaching, I was able to receive timely
and valuable feedbacks from the authentic teaching after the systematically reflection, including the
teaching videos that I recorded and the reflection logs I wrote to analyze my advantages and
disadvantages in my teaching, the mini projects and the term projects I accomplished to inspect my
teaching effectiveness, and the professional development reports to refine my practice. (Standard 4:
Reflective, systematic inquiry and study/refinement of ones practice)
The TE 807, TE 843, CEP891, and TE 872 equipped and enriched me with the advanced teaching
knowledge to enable me to possess the proactive forethought as a teacher leader. (Standard 6:
Proactive participation in collaborative initiatives, professional learning communities, professional
organizations, and teacher leadership beyond the classroom) Many a little make a mickle. The
progress I acquired from the MATC program has gradually and stably changed me from a novice
and unskillful teacher into a professional teaching expert and a contributive teacher leader. (Goal 2:
Accomplished teaching; Goal 3: Collaborative Professional Development, Teacher Leadership,
Contributions to the Field) When I face my students in my class now, I feel more capable and
confident to deliver the teaching, to handle the unexpected problems, and to get the students
engaged and interested in my teaching while arousing their strong motivation towards their

learning. The MATC perfects my teaching while I have been perfecting my journey of the MATC.
MATC equipped me with the most powerful tools that I can use to achieve the most effective
teaching from all perspectives, and it also reduced the limitation of my teaching capacity.
Conclusion
This summer, my mother and father visited me in the States. I invited them to my classroom to
observe one Chinese language class and to share their professional observations from two
experienced teachers perspectives. They kept smiling at me during the entire class, and I saw
satisfaction and pride from their eyes. They were both impressed at how much I grew up in the past
three years owe to the benefit of the MATC program, and they were amazed at how much the
contemporary teaching differed from the teaching 30 years ago, and how much the teaching in the
States differed from the teaching in China. When I proudly showed them the State of Michigan
Provisional Teaching Certificate that I acquired on June, my appreciation towards the MATC
program was beyond my expression.