SuperStar Teacher — Jennifer W — Interview
This week’s SuperStar Teacher is Jennifer W! Jennifer is not only a SuperStar for FeedbackPanda but she is also a professional opera singer on her 16th season with Houston Grand Opera. She has sung on the New York Met’s stage and the next thing to check off her bucket list is to sing the National Anthem at a professional sporting event. Check out Jennifer’s fun interview below.
Tricks for staying alert: All the coffee and a personal fan on the floor to keep my legs cool. The fan really wakes me up.
Favorite Lesson to teach: I love the last unit in Level 2. The students visit America in lessons 1–5 and Britain in lessons 7–11. This shows me that the kiddo is ready for Level 3.
What do you do in between classes? FEEDBACK PANDA!! Check email and Facebook groups.
How do you use FeedbackPanda? Each day before I go to bed, I log into the VIPKID portal. I use Feedback Panda for each scheduled class to remind me: when my last lesson that I had with the student, if I have taught the lesson before, what project a student chose for lesson 12. I also will use the Feedback Cloud to import templates for a class I haven’t taught before. Everything is now ready to go for my 3:40am wake up call!!
Describe your Feedback Style/Structure: I start with a greeting that I will customize in each class (I am very happy to see Elsa in class = I am very happy to see Elsa today. She had a beautiful pink shirt on that she said is her favorite color.) I use short and simple sentences to review the lesson content: vocab and target sentences, blending CVC words, reading comprehension activity. I will name 2–3 of the skills that were mastered (Elsa is using complete sentences to answer the reading comprehension questions.) I name 1–2 activities that most students could use practice (Elsa can practice saying the following words as a one syllable word instead of a two syllable word: washed, talked, used) I end the feedback with a message to customize (Thank you for a good lesson, Elsa! See you soon! Respectfully, Teacher Jennifer W = Thank you for a good lesson, Elsa! I always smile when I see your name on my schedule. Teacher Jennifer W)
Good Feedback Must Contain…short sentences with facts. Parents also like seeing an activity to do outside of class that is easily done and doesn’t require a lot of time.
What do you like to see when checking the Teacher to Teacher Feedback (notes on students from teachers in the VIPKID portal)? I look to see what project the student chose in Lesson 5 or 6 if I am teaching Lesson 11 or 12. I look to see if there is an English name that the student goes by if their Chinese name is listed in the booking tab.
Notes or comments to the teachers who import your templates? I am really glad that you like and use the templates I uploaded. I think all teachers appreciate when they do not have to reinvent the wheel when someone has a good resource available. Feedback Panda is awesome because you can still make the feedback relevant to each student when a solid framework for each lesson is provided.
Any other comments you wish to communicate… : ) As VIPKID keeps modifying lessons and tweaking the PPT, I like how Feedback Panda allows us to edit and work together to have a great system to keep our feedback current.
