Taiwanese Elementary School Field Day would’ve been my dream when I was younger. It’s a day off from school where instead of classes, you play games. There are running relays, sprints, and then the games we would think are akin to extended family get together in the summer similar to a 3-legged race and running with an egg on a spoon. Seeing as my school only has 10 students, they split the kids equally onto two teams. Typically, at larger schools a grade will compete as a team against other levels. We had the bunny team and the koala team, which seemed like odd choices for animals because I asked the kids if they’ve ever seen a koala and none of them including me have. It might just be that the school happened to have or find two flags with those animals on them which didn’t really look new, but more like they were folded in a closest somewhere just waiting for the next field day.
Field Day starts out with a kind of ceremony involving the flags. Two teachers led each team as their own and developed a chant with a dance to perform. For two weeks leading up to field day the students practiced out on the field because on Field Day they perform for their parents and family. Field day is such a big day that they got new school uniforms, new shoes, and worse Amis headdresses and an Amis traditional purse. Following their marching and chanting the students also performed a piece of music on Amis instruments with the help of some of the really small kindergartners. They sounded much better than in practice recently as there is less order to their music class. As they performed for their parents you could see each student trying their best and it was so fun to see and cheer them on afterwards.
Going into field day I didn’t know much else about the activities. I just assumed I would be expected to be there and cheer the kids on. When I arrived to school, I got a school hat which I am super excited about! The name of my school is 電光國小， Dian Guang Elementary School. The students at 電光國小 are mainly Amis, an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan known for the bamboo cannon (a form of welcome). As a result of the tribe’s use of the bamboo canon, the school’s name 電光 translates to lightening. So, in reality, I teach at the school of lightening which sounds pretty good if you ask me, almost like the new Hogwarts.
On top of getting a new hat I was informed that I would also be participating not only as a teacher, but as a substitute teacher to a student whose parent wasn’t able to attend the event.
The first event was a series of sprints in which each grade raced their classmate, or for the students who are the only one in their grade they raced the student in the grade next to them. I was the finish line. Standing at the end of the track with a roll of guaze taken from the nurse to act as the ribbon. The trouble with events like these is I don’t always get instructions fully so I just knew to stand there and that my teacher asked me to not drop the ribbon. We held the guaze at around waist height estimating the size of the second graders and waited as they shot the starter gun. The kids came running with smiles on their faces. Kate ended up beating Patrick just barely in the race. Due to the height difference between the two made it so the ribbon ended up dragging momentarily against Kate’s collar bone area giving an almost rug burn. I felt awful that on the first event she was going to see the nurse. From then on, no matter the race I too also dropped my end of the guaze to make sure that didn’t happen again. I’d rather have to dust off the gauze than be the reason someone got hurt.
Following the kids’ races they held a parents vs. teachers relay race. I was so excited to be even asked that morning to participate on the side of the teachers. It was to run halfway around the track, alternating a guy then a girl. I asked my LET and some of the other teachers how serious it was and my LET assured me it was serious. Irene ran before me and sprinted making a gap between the two teams. Upon seeing Irene try really hard I copied her. As you know I am not one to not compete and make it “fun.” If I am going to run I might as well win. Well, I sprinted as I would in my converse shoes completely unprepared for running. Running against a parent I never even saw begin to start running, I gave teachers a serious lead in that the teachers following me made a show of “not trying.” I was a little embarrassed I tried so hard seeing as the third-grade teacher ran hand in hand and skipped with the parents she was running against. In the end the teachers won and were given a bag of rice noodles and some toothpaste.
Picture (right): left to right a teacher I have never met, the science teacher, the third grade teacher with the great style, one of the Kindergarten teachers, me, Irene my LET, the environmental education teacher (from what I have seen they are always outside with him), and then the principal -- as you can see I even don't fully know what everyone teaches its just never discussed.
The prizes for all the events were a little interesting. It was like someone forgot to get prizes and went to the grocery store instead. The students were walking away with bags of tea, rice, seasonings, and 怪怪 (a puffed rice snack like a Cheeto without the cheese). I think my favorite was the kindergarteners all walked, or attempted to walk, away with two large bottles of soy sauce. When I say “big” I mean it. Those bottles at first glance looked to be the same size as a liter of coke. On the Brightside, despite the weirdness of the prizes all the kids got them regardless of winning or not, encouraging them to always try their best.
The other activities included in Field Day was a relay to fill a container with water the fastest one spoonful at a time, rolling a tie to the line and back the fastest, and hitting a ball back and forth with a pool noodle. These games were cheered on by a constant chant of 交由，jiao you which means “more oil”, but is used as a way of saying good job and keep it up! The kindergarteners had some different games including bouncing on a ball to the line or my personal favorite crawling inside a cardboard box so it mimics the movement of a tank wheel to the line and back.
After the individual events came the activities where parents and students competed together. With all the instructions given in Chinese and my LET on the other team I was truly on my own in understanding the directions of these weird games. The first one really takes the cake. I was handed a face mask to cover my eyes. There were two desks in a line, one with oranges and one with bananas. What I was able to make out was that I wouldn’t be able to see and Daisy (my fifth-grade student whose parent couldn’t attend) would peel the fruit. She would hand it to me to eat and then we would run to the next table and do the same with the bananas. You really have to put all your trust in your student to not fall over. Unlike what I saw with the other parents before me who split the fruit between the parent and student, it seemed more like Daisy handed me the entire orange with maybe one or two pieces missing. That or it was just a ginormous orange I’ve never seen. Either way I found eating an orange fast that has seeds leads you to swallow a lot of seeds even if I tried to spit them out. I must’ve looked like a mess. The banana went a lot better than the orange as you can image. On the run back Daisy forgot to take my hand which left me to do that whole run looking like I lost my glasses. You know how people with bad sight kindof fumble around like Velma in Scooby-Doo? That was my attempt at running without hitting a desk till another parent helped guide me back to the group. I was one of the lucky ones. Two parents/other teachers went over the desks and landed on the ground when the students forgot to warn them and just pulled them in the direction. I was really just glad I saw the nurse making sure all the kids washed their hands before that activity where I would be eating fruit they peeled.
One of the other parent activities was one in which you push against your partner in an attempt to run while holding bamboo between you. The bamboo is cut into five segments and the only way to go fast is to get them at the right angle and push together the whole way. We only dropped them once which is pretty good if you ask me. We carried two poles holding a basketball between them and tipped the ball into the “hoop.” The last activity I switched students with Daisy’s little sister, Kate. The height difference had a large impact on this last activity which was to go to a line and back carrying the basketball by pressing it between our backs. Seeing as Kate is a second grader and maybe near my waist it was pretty entertaining as I tried to crab walk sideways to accommodate our difference in height. Either way we had a blast!
The kids and parents all thoroughly enjoyed the day. I found it interesting to get to see their parents and younger siblings that came to cheer them on. It was a great community bonding activity for the students and myself. As a part of the teacher relay team the other teachers were commenting on my speed. There are two teachers I really want to be friends with, a third-grade teacher who has amazing style, and a kindergarten teacher. I don’t know either teacher’s name because everyone calls each other by their title either 主任 for director or 老師for another teacher. I’ve never really gotten to speak to either before that day because they don’t speak English and sometimes, I am a little self-conscious of my own Chinese. I typically will attempt to speak during lunch at the teacher table, but these teachers eat with their students as opposed to the principal and directors. Anyways, I became not only Line messaging contacts, but also followers on Instagram! That night 三年級的老師(the third grade teacher) kept messaging me. It was in Chinese, but messaging always gives me the time to be able to translate without pressure. I count that as making a new friend.
I am already looking forward to my other school's field day which they have next semester!