Authors Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong visited to speak at an Effective Professional Practice Symposium. Among other speakers were Myfanwi Meyrick from Generation Ready and Leonard Clark, director of curriculum, instruction and leadership. The symposium took place on Jan. 18.
The College of Education and Human Development along with the TEACH Project brought the Wongs to ULM as part of a professional development day for local area educators.
The Wongs’ book, “The First Day of School,” is one of the most recognized books in education and has been translated into five languages. The most recent translation to Korean was done by Kioh Kim, assistant professor and director of international studies.
“The translation works were very hard,” Kim said. “While translating the book, I wanted to give up many times. Some words and terms which are commonly used in English are not used in Korean.”
Kim wanted to translate the book after he visited American schools and saw that they were using Harry Wong’s classroom management and procedures and students were following directions verbally and nonverbally.
When Harry first started his lecture he captured the attention of the students by making pop culture references. His style of lecture is very direct and catches peoples’ attention because it can bring back memories of school and how your own teachers used some of his methods.
Tom Wolferd, a secondary education graduate student, said the Wongs were dynamic speakers and entertaining.
After intermission came to a close, the Wongs discussed their upcoming work and how to use it in the classroom. Their new work is called The Classroom Management Book, and it teaches how to organize and structure a classroom to create a safe and positive learning environment and should be available soon for purchase.
“I learned so many more details about an effective classroom management plan,” said Sara Blankenship, a secondary education graduate student.
Darthy Schween, director of the school of education said, “The symposium was everything I hoped it was going to be! I own everything of the Wongs; but this was my first time hearing them speak.”
