Author Archives: Alex C. Pan

About Alex C. Pan

Dr. Alex C. Pan was born in Taiwan and received his master and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is currently an associate professor at The College of New Jersey, where he teaches a broad spectrum of courses in subjects ranging from future teacher development to the impact of globalization. For over twenty years he has collaborated with public school programs and advised elementary and early childhood student teachers. He has published dozens of articles and given numerous talks and workshops on the topics of globalization, education, and technology-enhanced instruction. Most recently he has focused on teacher’s action research as well as the economic and cultural impact of globalization.

Best interest of students

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

As the semester is drawing to a closure, we are starting to plan for the new semester. For this coming fall semester, I’ll be working with a group of Internship I students. We will spend first several meetings on campus … Continue reading →

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Not to say Good-bye

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

The ACB (i.e. Advanced Core Block) junior practicum class is coming to an end. I hate saying good-bye, but I was asked to bid farewell to the class in their newsletter. Here is my piece: ACB Folks, this is near … Continue reading →

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A fundraising effort

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

I am deeply moved. When we started the junior practicum experience at the Carroll Robbins Elementary, we were thrilled to learn that several teachers were very dedicated to their work. They came in early and stayed late for attending to … Continue reading →

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Killing Good Instructional Effort

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

One of the most exciting and challenging part of the junior practicum for the teaching professionals will be the full-time teaching. My students were assigned a topic for the unit teaching. They will create ten connected lessons within the unit … Continue reading →

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School Safety?

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

When I give advice to young people about priorities, I always consider three things as the most important in order: safety, health, and accomplishments. Safety is the number one concern in any event. With the ever increasing incidents of public … Continue reading →

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Understanding ESL Students

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

To learn about those students whose mother tongues are not English and to figure out how to interact with them and help them achieve better, we need a firsthand experience to know how they feel and struggle to catch up … Continue reading →

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Break or Not to Break

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

We just finished our spring break. Now I actually feel terrible about the break. For the entire last week, I did not go anywhere. I switched off to do something else unrelated to my course teaching, i.e., several loose projects, … Continue reading →

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Essential basic skills students need to excel

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

If I could change anything in today’s education system, I’d reshape the focus of the essential basic skills. It’s a very complicated issue to address. Anyway, I’ll try to share my two cents. I have noticed that plenty of time … Continue reading →

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A bit learning on learning styles

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

Mr. Ted Reed, an adjunct faculty in the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department, was a dynamic speaker on learning styles. It’s perfect timing that he conducted a workshop today on learning styles for our junior practicum students, who were … Continue reading →

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Bloom’s Taxonomy in Teaching and Learning

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Alex C. Pan

Bloom’s Taxonomy has been around for decades and revised to better address instructional practice. There are six orders for the original Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and application. Many students of mine regarded it as a piece that they … Continue reading →

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