My Taiwan Adventure

Sweltering in the sun this morning at 7:30 I was a judge for one of the recitation classes. It consisted of 14 VERY nervous grade 8 students getting on-stage in front of all their rather boisterous class-mates and reciting 2-3 paragraphs of English memorized from their textbook. The winner was a boy who was FAST but articulated well. Three of my students participated but none of them placed. The best English students in Junior High are all placed in "Advanced English" class and have no option to take something like Drama.

I have a new perspective on the students almost every week. This week I gained an appreciation for why they're so odd in the mornings. I would feel pretty odd indeed (and did today) after sitting or standing at attention in the HOT mornings with a few hundred other students while the moral officer talks. It's a regular routine for the students to come to school and then attend assembly and flag raising in boot-camp like manner. The other thing I recently remembered is that Taiwan requires mandatory service for 2 years. Yes, all my rowdy boys WILL end up in the army at some point in their lives. It's the thought of those boys with guns that scares me just a little. English teachers of the world run for your lives!

It's odd. One of my older boy's classes today had their final and I followed that with a questionnaire. You know the kind where the teacher asks - what did you like, what did you hate and what would you change?

The answers I got back were somewhat surprising. Number one answer to what did you like was "teacher?" I have to shake my head because I spend a fair amount of time shouting "be quiet" and "attention class" at this group. The general consensus from the survey was that they wanted, "a quieter classroom." Is anybody else out there laughing?
Also interestingly, they wanted to do more "talking with the teacher". I'm very pleasantly surprised. Only one of the kids said they hated me. *laughs*


I didn't cry when saying goodbye today to some of my Grade 4s even I just got "misty eyed." Some of them asked if I'd teach them in Grade 5 too. I had to say no. Being bright students they asked why and I told them I wasn't coming back to the school. They asked why again and I had to pause and think because I wasn't prepared for that question. I explained that sometimes people have to make hard decisions and that they would understand later in life. Then I told them that I wanted to teach more kids just like them. That made them all smile. I handed out my e-mail address to a few of the more advanced kids. It will be interesting to see if any of the bright young minds take the opportunity to further their English by writing me.

I killed my first cockroach today. It was "presented" to me by one of my boys on a piece of paper. I think he expected me to run or jump. Instead I ordered him to put on the floor. The boys screamed louder than I thought boys could when I killed it. Here's my lesson on roach killing:

Killing Cockroaches in 3 easy steps:

1. Get it right the first time. They're harder to squish than you think.
2. Don't think about it.
3. Have something handy to wipe the guts off your shoe. Otherwise, it sticks.

Never let them see you cringe before, during or after.

So that's my day in a nutshell.... exam x 4, lunch & grading, exam x 2 and more grading. I'm not sick of the grading - yet.

PS - My sister DID get evacuated and her basement was flooded! I'm glad I live in the north part of Taiwan - there were flash floods down south that swept people out to sea this week.

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