My first week of school is done. It took a lot more out of me than I thought. I have a newfound appreciation for teachers. Being surrounded by Chinese all day is challenging as the teachers don’t feel comfortable talking in English. So what ends up happening is they will ask Irene, my LET, to ask me something for them. Its understandable that they use Irene as a middle man now. My goal is by the end of the year being able to speak for myself. I just met with a potential Chinese tutor in Chishang, a neighboring town, that is Canadian. He has offered to hold a class one to two times a week for us to practice and learn sentence structures. It will not only be helpful to learn more Chinese and feel confident in my speaking, but also learn some more games that I could incorporate into class later.
This past week I observed for the most part. Irene uses me for the dialogue section of the textbook. I read the passages first and then the second time I read it sentence by sentence with the children repeating after me. I feel confident in my speaking which has allowed me to gain some more confidence in the classroom. I was challenged immensely on the first real day of school. On Friday I was told that I was responsible for leading a “fun” and “informal” English class for the first and second graders at Dian Guan on Monday. With no other instruction other than that I had to plan a lesson. I didn’t fully understand where their level was because I hadn’t met them before so I thought a fail-safe lesson included a story and coloring. I told the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in order to gain an better gage of the students’ comprehension of numbers, days of the week, and food. The second graders got the story easily while I had to use my Chinese to help the first graders understand. I did not plan enough for the lesson so the children ended up coloring for most of class which they seemed to find fun. Each one had a different style of coloring. Kate colored with three markers in her hand at once making circular movements on the caterpillar coloring sheet. Patrick colored everything within the lines and the correct color. Everything was black and red on one little first grader’s sheet and the other first grader used the lines only as suggestions. Despite this mess up, I feel like I have grown. I spent my free time during school coming up with long extensive plans for coming lessons on colors and numbers.
I was given a second chance at teaching solo on Friday when I gave an all school English activity. I created a Moon Festival storybook about the holiday dictating the lives of Hou yi and Chang’e. The kids seemed entertained, but I do know there is a lot of room for improvement on my end and a lot of I have to prove to the school.
My schools are also very different. Dian Guan has 10 students all of which are aboriginal with poor English skills for their grade level. Kan Ding on the other hand has around 40 students, some aboriginal, but a much higher English comprehension. Outside of class I am able to converse with the students at Kan Ding unlike those at Dian Guan. I can’t say I have a favorite now because I’m just getting started, but I am fortunate to get the opportunity to experience both environments.
Going into my second week I feel a lot more confident in terms of what to expect. I know that in my fourth grade class at Dian Guan in which I only have one student, Charlie, that he won’t say a word for most of class unless he can play a game. Only during a game will he participate. So since we figured out this little tidbit we have been playing jenga every class. For every right answer he can pull a block. Come to think of it, my fourth graders across both schools are my hardest classes. The class at Kan Ding is a very talkative and rambunctious group. I should’ve expected it from a class where the kids are named Godzilla and Rambo. They have been the first class to frustrate my LET thus far. This group tests our observation skills because although they are all saying the responses, under the desks they are passing snacks which aren’t allowed in class and different pens back and forth.
Sticking on the topic of names, I have had the chance to give English names to some kids. All names are limited to those with two syllables and names my LET and the teacher think are “pretty.” Having to get the approval of both the LET and the homeroom teacher makes me question how some of the other children were able to get their names. The most interesting names other than the ones already mentioned are Rhino, Angel, Pizza (which has since been changed to Lisa), and Bell (which I think originally was supposed to be after the princess, but has been consistently written wrong). Putting myself in the shoes of the kids I decided on giving each child a choice of 3 names so that they feel their name is theirs instead of something assigned to them. As a result, I have named a Julia, Jack, Finn, Austin, Luke, Tyler, Justin, Lily, and Morgan. I have one last class to give names to. I’ve been trying to sneak in Meryl or Quentin to bring in a little movie pizazz to class, but alas I don’t want to give a child a name they can’t pronounce.
My interactions with the other teachers has also improved. My LET and I are sharing more and more details of our own culture and family. Kan Ding also has an older English teacher, Jean, that has since moved on to teach social studies there. She has taken to answer my questions and eat lunch with me which is a very isolating time during the day. I either sit in the teacher’s lounge for lunch (at Kan Ding) or at the teacher’s table in the lunch room. My limited Chinese means that I pick up maybe enough to know the topic, but never enough to put in my own opinion, at least not yet. When it comes to school related questions and talking the Director at Dian Guan can also speak English and she takes the time to make sure I understand what they expect from me. The biggest motivation to improve my Chinese is the Dian Guan fifth grade teacher. I’ve been calling her 老師so far because I am a little self-conscious of mispronouncing her name, Tsui Ping. Regardless, when she found out I loved the bananas here in Taiwan she went home and then came to my apartment with a box of 20 hand-picked bananas. There are four main types of bananas in Taiwan: the regular yellow ones in the US, long green ones, short green ones, and short and fat yellow ones. Each banana has a different taste and I love them all. I’ve had at least one banana a day and a pomelo, a Taiwanese grapefruit. Taiwanese people love to gift their teachers specifically us ETAs fruit so I’ve never wanted for more fruit except for maybe a longer mango season because it is just about to end.
Looking forward to the second week of classes.
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