I remember when I was young, my parents always said to me:“How patient your teacher is! She’s been teaching you this repeatedly. You must thank her for it”. At that time I did not expect that I would be a teacher as well when I grow up. With the constant changes in the society and with the rapid pace of modern life, we always feel that we are dashing every day and even have a false feeling that earth rotates faster. Nowadays, we emphasize the teaching methods and efficiency. When we are trying to teach the maximum amount of contents within 35 minutes, the teaching is undeniably more efficient, but also undeniably, those who have difficulty in catching up are in a worse situation. The following are some suggestions of mine on how to make good use of the 35 minutes in class.

　　First of all, I divide every class into three parts: preview, learning, and exercise.

　　Preview gives students the“room for thinking”. We respond to many things promptly like conditioned reflex, but for children, sometimes they need a time to assimilate contents that look strange to them. Even if they have known about them before, it is harder for the children to recall them than for adults. So preview is very important, especially for those who have difficulty in catching up. Those who learn better can respond at a faster rate and can make a preview following the instructions of teachers. Those who have difficulty in catching up can only start to think with eyes focusing on and fingers pointing at the contents. Sometimes, I found that students’involvement increased from start to end when I asked a question and asked the students to preview the lessons following my train of thoughts. When the lessons seem familiar to them, they are able to get involved and think hard and dare to ask questions. In order to make preview effective, we need to do a lot more than just asking the students to read their book after school or asking the students to look for the answers to questions raised in class. Effective preview needs effective thinking, which is a complicated thing requiring techniques. The teachers need to prepare relevant questions which can function as resistors in a series circuit. Students think step by step following the teachers’instructions like the electric charge flowing to the terminal from the positive pole.

　　Learning comes after the preview and the two parts can be combined into one. If questions raised in the preview part are compared to the resistors in a series circuit, and then in the part of learning, what teachers do can be compared to circuit configuration. All in all, we need to guide the children in a right direction with the questions rather than guiding them to a dead end. I mentioned that the teaching needs techniques; anyway, the techniques are much easier than those required for circuit configuration.

　　The last and the most important part is exercise. I often say to my students,“If you have no difficulty in following me in class, then you can understand what I say in class, but it does not mean you can do it yourself”. When I was a child, my teachers often said,“The faintest ink is better than the best memory”. Learning requires exercise. Problems will be found and solved during exercise. A child cannot learn well unless he/she does exercise. Also, a child cannot learn well by doing exercise only.

　　The time in class is limited, and a good teacher needs to make good use of it. A good teacher should not rush the students into learning and he/she should know that the 35 minutes are not for cramming lessons. The ultimate goal of the 35 minutes is to give students ample room for thinking. It may seem contradictory, but it would not require us to give a lot of thoughts if it were that easy. No wonder people compare the teacher as“a candle that lights until it burns out”.

　　Zhou Qin

　　Soong Ching Ling School