Dear friends,
On Wednesday, January 21, I will fly to Beijing and Hong Kong with my apartment mates, Kate and Billy. So, check out the CHINA blog for future updates until I return back to Taiwan on February 8. For those of you who use RSS feeds, there will be a RSS feed on the China blog.

All my best,
Shiela

Dear friends,
I went with my host family biking all around Kaohsiung today. They just bought new collapsible bikes. We rode them from Love River to Dream Mall to Qijing island. To get to Qijing island, we rode the ferry with our bikes. At Qijing, we ate squid on a stick and basked under the warmth of the sun. It was very cool weather to ride bikes today, the weather was probably around the mid 70s.

You can find more pictures from today in this album: Taiwan Photo Set 30.

Dear friends,
I just got back from a 3-day trip to Kending, Taiwan. From previous posts, you already know I've been to Kending twice. This third trip to Kending was still terrific because I was able to still see many new things.

On the first day, we went to the Aquatic Marine Museum. There, we saw lots of beautiful fish, sharks, and we even got to see a beluga show! You'll see pictures in this album: Taiwan Photo Set 29. During the beluga show, if you answered questions about belugas correctly, you were given an opportunity to be kissed and professionally photographed with a beluga for free. Of course, I couldn't answer any of the questions in Chinese, but I was lucky enough to be given a free photo pass by an elderly women who answered a question correctly and was leaving the show early. Quite an experience! When I put on the life jacket and pet the beluga, the beluga felt squishy and soft. I was a bit nervous when the beluga came to kiss me on the cheek and I was hoping it couldn't tell I was nervous. Anyway, it was fun.

The mid-year conference was different from the orientation conference in September because we actually got two days to explore Taiwan instead of sitting in a conference room all day. During those two days, we hiked in Kending National Park and saw two caves, orchids, and several unique trees. Pictured in the photo above is a tree whose roots grow vertically--really amazing! We also saw a tree that was wrapped in vines. The vines knotted themselves to keep from squeezing the tree to death, according to our tour guide. You can find the picture of the tree in this album link.

The Fulbrighters took several group shots and I'll post two of them here. You may not recognize me because I'm wearing glasses. One of my contacts ripped and I had to take it out so I wore glasses the entire weekend. I thought I was so smart because I actually brought an extra pair of contacts with me to Kending. Unfortunately, when I opened up one of the new contact lens packets, it was empty! There was no contact in there...so much for my luck, eh?

In this picture, I'm in the middle, popping the peace sign...

In addition to going to the Marine Museum and Kending National Park, we visited a beach and observed egrets. On the last day, each grantee and group of ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) presented on their experience in Taiwan so far.

Dear friends,
My co-teaching experience with Ashley & Chia-Ling has been an adventure in learning about teaching and Taiwanese culture.  We not only lesson plan together, but we also share stories about our lives. Check out photos in this album.

With Chia-Ling, I co-teach fourth & sixth grade and also run Storytime with the first, second, and third graders. With Ashley, I co-teach 5th grade and co-run English Club. We are all very very busy, but we've also had a lot of fun lesson planning, socializing, and getting to know one another.

When we co-teach, it is also co-learning, as I learn about their local teaching styles and they learn about my teaching style. Together, we model dialogs for our students, have them repeat and pronounce words together as a class, then as a team, then as a pair, and then individually. We have sentence-building exercises, spelling games, phonics jeopardy, charades games, doodle and spell activities, and many other activities for our students. These classroom activities keep them focused, engaged, and learning while having fun.

In teaching the younger grades 1-3 English, Chia-Ling and I will use the www.starfall.com website to show them interactive stories.

For English Club, Ashley and I have done so much with the students! We have worked on:
1) Flat Stanley project
2) Taught them the Macarena Dance, Hokey Pokey Dance, and other songs
3) Played games (7-Up Heads Up, etc.)
4) Taught them about Holiday Culture: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas
5) Started Comic Book packets for them to understand American humor
6) Let them watch the third Harry Potter movie
and 7) Created an informational map of the United States

Here are some pictures of English Club building the map of the United States and drawing in each state what each state is famous for:

Click above to enlarge the pictures

Chia-Ling, Ashley, and I recently had to deliver a presentation on the English curriculum to the entire faculty of Hua Shan. You can find the powerpoint we made here. Be sure to take a look; it will give you a good picture of some of the things we do at school.

Our Powerpoint Presentation

Check out photos in: Taiwan Photo Set 28- My Students at Hua Shan =D!

Dear friends,
I have not updated in a while regarding  my teaching experience in Taiwan because every single week I must write a weekly reflection report where I outline how my teaching is going. Thus, I tend to forget to update my website with stories about my teaching.

To remind all of you, I teach at Hua Shan Elementary School in southern Kaohsiung City. I teach 13 classes regular English classes (Grades 4-6), 2 special English classes (Grades 5-6), and Storytime (Grades 1-3). Altogether, I teach over 400 students. As you can imagine, teaching so many students makes it very difficult to remember all my students' names. I try, though, and the kids love it when I pronounce their names wrong, which I do often.

Each class I co-teach has about 30 students, which is pretty big compared to American classrooms. I teach in two classsrooms and one of the classrooms does not even have desks! This classroom is called the English Village classroom. Let me tell you a little about English Village.

You may remember from previous posts that there have been many English Village classrooms (or simulated environments of post office, restaurant, hotel, and airport) built in the elementary schools around Kaohsiung City. This was an initiative by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education to stimulate interest in English and to help students improve their English speaking ability. Fifth graders from all over Kaohsiung must go to English Village once a year to do the English Village Activity. What is this activity you ask? Well, the Bureau has selected two environments to work with this year--the hotel and the supermarket. The Bureau would like the foreign teacher to run a dialog about the hotel or supermarket with 30 students and try to get each student to speak with the foreign teacher. How can one foreign teacher in the room manage 30 students in a dialog? Impossible, right? Well, the Fulbrighters decided to design stations and activities for English Village so that we would be able to get more individual time with the students. We created stations for each hotel and supermarket environment and divided the class of 30 into four teams of 7 or 8. Each English Village has three stations where they play English games and the fourth station is the dialog station where they speak with the foreign teacher. Each fifth grade class only gets 40 minutes at one environment (e.g. hotel) and then they must switch to the other environment (e.g. supermarket) for the next 40 minutes, and then they leave back to their school. The entire field trip to the English Village environments is only half a day.

The idea of English Village as a whole could be better. First, only fifth graders go to English Village once a year. That is not enough time to improve their English speaking ability at that age. Plus, once students get to English Village, they literally only play English games until they go to the dialog station. The dialog station is not a bad idea, but the foreign teacher only gets 5-10 minutes with each group. While I try to do the most with the dialogs, it is hard for the students to improve their speaking ability in just five minutes. So you can see how this activity, only for half a day and once a year for each fifth grade class, does not really achieve the goal of letting students improve their speaking ability. It may spark interest in learning English, but that interest is not supported or sustained. It would be good if the Bureau let each grade up until high school participate in the activities to sustain interest as the kids grow older, but right now it's a one time deal in the students' fifth grade year. Since so many English Villages have been built in elementary schools, it would be difficult to redirect funding for other projects (like reducing classroom size) now. As a person who is responsible for working at English Village, I hope this project can be better supported and the activity can be altered to be more effective. I will convey these suggestions to the Bureau at the end of this year. For now, let me get back to telling you about my teaching experience.

The English Village Classroom at Hua Shan (see how it resembles an airport? Look at the surroundings)

One of the classrooms I teach in is in the English Village Airport classroom. Of course, being an airport environment, there are no desks, but only comfortable seats. So, when my students come to class, not only are they really excited because they know me and my co-teachers always plan a fun activity/game at the end of class, but they have super comfortable seats to sit in that are incredibly close to each other so they can talk to each other in class! Ack! You can imagine the management problems we've had in classes trying to get our students to be quiet. For the most part, they students are well behaved, though.

I've noticed that Taiwanese students are pretty obedient and very good test takers. The entire society here is centered around exams. If you want to advance socially or professionally, you'd better ace that exam in your junior high school, which will determine your placement in high school, which in turn determines your placement in college and life. It's rather unfortunate that it seems your professional trajectory is locked and unable to change at such an early age.

The other classroom I teach in is the 5th grade English language classroom. This is a more traditional style classroom.

Me, Ashley, and our students in the other classroom I teach in

The classroom environment makes a big difference because it influences how students interact with each other and how they pay attention. I would much rather have my students sit in the uncomfortable wooden chairs, rather than the cushioned red seats of English Village because it forces them to not fall asleep. But, the students that come to English class never fall asleep. I say this without exaggeration. Since there are two teachers in the classroom, one of us can teach while the other "grazes" or walks around the classroom to make sure students are understanding and paying attention. It's really nice.

I will put a post about my specific co-teaching experience later. I think this blog post is pretty long. While I have to cut this post short, I want you to know that my teaching experience is going very very well. I've been learning a lot about effective teaching and how to improve as a teacher. I'm also building a strong relationship with my students, school staff, and fellow teachers. I am so lucky to be at a school where I am really getting to know the environment and people. They are willing to get to know me, too, so it's cultural exchange, both ways.

Dear friends,
It's about time I devoted an entry to my students. They make teaching so enjoyable every single day. I've made an album of them that I will update frequently here.

Do you remember that I teach at Hua Shan Elementary School and Ling Zhou ELementary School's English Village? At Hua Shan Elementary, I keep the students really busy so they usually don't have time to ask me a lot of personal questions. Although I teach at Hua Shan everyday and I feign not knowing Chinese (only works some of the time), I don't give my students a lot of opportunities to ask me personal questions (I give them lots of time to ask me culture questions, though). Please note that in Taiwan, people in general do not hold back in asking about your personal life. It's very typical. At English Village, I only teach two half days and they have the opportunity to ask me a ton of questions because there's more time available. Here are some questions I've been asked:

Curious Student 1: Teacher! How old are you?
Me: Hmm...(This is probably the third time I've been asked this question today and not just by students, but by other teachers) Good question. Guess!
Curious Student 1: 100!
Curious Student 2: 200!
Curious Student 3: 5!
Me: Wow, do I look 100 and 5 at the same time? Try again...
Curious students guess many times before finally guessing my age.

Another question I've been asked many many times:
Curious student 1: Teacher! Do you have  a boyfriend?
Me: Do you know Spider-Man? That's my boyfriend!
Curious students burst out into laughter. Sometimes, I change my boyfriend to be Batman & Superman. The kids get a kick out of it.

Dear friends,
Billy, a fellow Fulbrighter, and I were featured in a newsletter called the Maritime Capital that is printed in both English and Chinese. See this link: http://mag.udn.com/mag/newsstand/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=161849
The story is pasted below...

Experience a “Fresh” Kaohsiung Meet William and Shiela／高雄鮮體驗 認識William 和Shiela

【Text／Hsin-yi Peng；Photo Courtesy／William and Shiela】
The "International Village English World" is Kaohsiung City's English education project in 12 elementary schools for 5th and 6th graders. On the eve of Halloween, the students had a chance to experience the fun of Halloween with the help of their Taiwanese and foreign teachers, making Halloween masks, wrapping mummies, and hanging doughnuts on a rope for a game. Through diverse curriculum and everyday scenarios, Kaohsiung City Government hopes to inspire students to become interested in learning English.

The Education Bureau, in cooperation with the Fulbright Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, recruits Fulbright Fellows as co-teachers to teach English in the 12 elementary schools that are part of the "International Village English World". In the International Village, there are simulation hotels, restaurants, and an airport for the children to practice, so that they will no longer be afraid to speak English. For the schools that are not part of the "International Village", the Education Bureau has scheduled "International Village study Tour camp", which will Allow an additional 17,000 students to come to the International Village this year to interact with the American teachers and gain more language skills.

William(left) and Shiela (right)(Photo／William and Shiela)
方家樂(左)和李詩媚(右)(圖／方家樂、李詩媚)

The foreign teachers arrived in Taiwan at the end of August and their co-workers are very impressed with their enthusiasm for teaching. William and Shiela are two members of the current team and they are here to share with us their experience in Kaohsiung.

William Billy Fong just graduated from the Colby College. He said he was thrilled to have the opportunity to come to Taiwan and teach, as well as learn about the education system in Taiwan as he gains more experience in teaching. William was assigned to Zuo-ying Elementary School to team with Ms. Chun-yao Fang as co-teachers. Together, they teach English to children between 3rd and 6th grades. William said that he used the website YouTube as a tool for the students to practice their listening comprehension and expressions. His hope is for the students to learn more about the respective cultures of Taiwan and the US, but most importantly, he wants the students to speak with self-assurance, to understand the purpose of learning English, and to increase their confidence in learning English.

The students who attended the "International Village study tour camp" actually practiced beforehand; William remembered one particular incident when he was role-playing as a cashier in the International Village supermarket. He was practicing the conversation with a student when the student unexpectedly took out a home-made coupon! William cracked up right then and there. He enjoyed seeing his student showing their efforts in learning, and that's where most of the fun of this teaching assignment comes from.

William is very impressed with the convenience of life brought by the Kaohsiung MRT. A native of New York, he loves to go shopping on the streets. He arrived in Kaohsiung in August, but already he shops like a native and says that he will "definitely not miss the anniversary sales"! He likes the beach and lighthouse of Cijin District and he strongly recommends the charcoal grilled calamari, a specialty delicacy of the area.

Another teacher here to share her experience is Shiela Lee. She started working in Hua-shan Elementary School only a few months ago, but already she is very close to the faculty and the students, who address her as "Teacher Shiela". Shiela said she is very grateful to the faculty and students of Hua-shan Elementary School. The teachers and students made the transition to Taiwan very easy because they were so welcoming. For that reason, Shiela considers Hua-shan Elementary School the most charming place in Kaohsiung, along with Love River and Cijin District.

Sutdents wear Halloween face masks in Shiela's class.(Photo／William and Shiela)
李詩媚的學生戴上萬聖節面具(圖／方家樂、李詩媚)

Shiela remembered her astonishment when she saw the long lines of motorcycles on the road in Kaohsiung, which is a sight she could not even begin to imagine in her hometown in Colorado. She also shared the memory of her first time sitting as a passenger on a motorcycle, she was so nervous that she squeezed her rider with both arms at full strength. Such unique experiences have left deep impressions in her Taiwan experiences. Shiela likes the convenience of traveling in Kaohsiung City; she hopes to learn more about the customs and traditional holidays and festivals in Taiwan.

Shiela mentions that there are many students with different skill levels that come to the village. When Shiela sees students at English Village, she has to be creative to address the different skill levels. And, she wants to improve the confidence in her students' speaking ability. She likes to teach English through everyday life, such as making Halloween masks, and letting the students learn a different culture through games and experience the fun of learning.

高雄鮮體驗 認識William 和Shiela
【文／李大衛；圖╱方家樂、李詩媚】

方家樂的學生體驗「包裹木乃伊」活動(圖／方家樂、李詩媚)
Students play wrapping mummies in William's class.(Photo／William and Shiela)

高雄市12所設有「全球村英語世界」(International Village English World)國小5至6年級學生，在12位台灣籍和外籍教師搭配進行協同教學下，於萬聖節前夕，動手製作萬聖節面具、包裹木乃伊和串在繩上的甜甜圈等萬聖 節相關活動。高雄市政府教育局希望透過多元且生活化的英語情境教學引發學生們的英文學習興趣。

教育局透過與美國傅爾布萊特基金會合作，聘請傅爾布萊特青年得獎人進駐全市12所設有「全球村英語世界」的國小１年，擔任小學協同英語教師，在全球村裏模 擬旅館、餐廳、機場等各種情境，讓小朋友們不再害怕開口說英語。對於沒有設置全球村的學校，教育局則安排「英語村遊學體驗營」的方式，預計今年會有 17000學生到英語村與這群美籍教師實地互動、學習。

這群外籍老師於今年８月抵台，和他們一起合作的工作夥伴相當稱許這群充滿教學熱忱的老師們，團員中的William和Shiela與大家分享他們在高雄的感受。

剛從Colby College畢業的方家樂(William Billy Fong)表示他很高興能有這個機會到台灣教書，吸收教學經驗，同時了解台灣的教育系統。方家樂被分配到高雄市左營國小，與方瓊瑤老師搭配進行協同教學， 教導三到六年級的學生英語。方家樂說他會利用YouTube網站來訓練習學生們的聽力以及表達能力，他希望能讓學生對於台灣跟美國文化能有進一步的認識， 更重要的是鼓勵學生勇於發言，讓他們了解學英語目的，增加他們對於學習英文的信心。

前來英語村遊學體驗營的學生事先都經過充份的練習，方家樂談起有回他在全球村扮演超市收銀員的角色，與學生練習對話，學生們出奇不意的秀出一張自備的折價卷，讓他笑翻天，學生們的用心讓他覺得這份教學工作真的很有趣。

他相當稱讚高雄捷運帶來便利的生活，家住紐約的方家樂很喜歡逛街，儘管８月才到高雄，他已經逛到熟門熟路，還樂此不疲地說：「一定不會錯過週年慶的！」除此，旗津的烤小卷是他強力推薦的美食，他也很喜歡到旗津海灘和燈塔遊玩。」

另一位在華山國小服務的李詩媚( Shiela Lee)，她到華山國小才幾個月，卻已經跟華山的全體員工和學生打成一片，學生們都叫她Teacher Shiela，李詩媚說她非常感謝華山國小全體師生的協助，讓她很順利地適應初到台灣的轉折期，也因此，李詩媚說對她而言，龍華國小跟愛河、旗津一樣，都 是她心中高雄最迷人的地方。

談起她第一次到高雄看到長龍般的機車，壯觀的機車場景讓她驚訝不已，因為在她的故鄉科羅拉多看不到這樣的場景，她還提起第一次被載在摩托車上，她緊張地緊 緊箍住載她的人，這樣特別的經驗深深烙印在她的台灣經驗裏。她覺得高雄市到哪都很方便，她希望利用這一年可以多了解台灣的風土人情和傳統節慶。

李詩媚表示，前來全球村體驗的學生每個人的英文程度都不一樣，因此，李詩媚說面對學生時她必須更有創意地調整教學內容，以達到因材施教的目地。除此，李詩 媚也希望能提升學生「說」英文的自信。李詩媚希望藉由生活化英文學習機會，比如製作萬聖節的面具，讓學生從遊戲中認識不同的文化，體會到學習的樂趣。

【本文出自《海洋首都中英文雙月刊》第52期】

Dear friends,
To celebrate the new year, I went to Taipei (again). I was just there the weekend before to see Lang Lang play piano. I went with Kate and a friend from college, Chao-Wei.

When we got to Taipei, we walked around a lot because we got there super early. The outdoor concert started at 7pm; we got there at 6pm. It was also lightly raining in Taipei and it was much colder than Kaohsiung. The wind chill is not as awful as Iowa winter weather, but it was colder than the 70 degree weather in Kaohsiung. I borrowed Chia-Ling's coat because I didn't bring any real winter clothes because I thought this tiny little island wouldn't be cold. Well, I sure was proven wrong when I got a cold last month during the weather change. Anyway, thank you Chia-Ling for letting me borrow your coat; it kept me very warm =D.

When the concert started at 7pm, it was pretty cool because Kate, Chao-Wei, and I got pretty good spots considering we were so early. There were many famous singers at the concert, but I don't really remember their names. However, I did see S.H.E. sing several songs, this guy from Tainan who wore cool glasses (see pictures below), and I really wanted to see MayDay (Wu Yue Tian) sing, but they were last. We left our good spot in front of the concert early because we wanted to be near the MRT to beat the mad rush home after the fireworks. I was really grateful that did that because we got to where we were staying at 1:30am and not 2 or 3 am.

The Famous Singers at the Outdoor Concert (at least up until we left for a closer location near the MRT)...

Click to enlarge the pictures

The next day, I was very tired, but I had an excellent breakfast to start the New Year. Check it out:

We met up with some of Chao-Wei's friends in Taipei and we had lunch at Din Tai Feng. After lunch, we headed to the biggest night market in Taipei, Shi Lin Yie Shi. Lots of fun! You can see lots of photos in Taiwan Photo Set 27.

Dear friends,
On the same day that my students had the Christmas performance, I left for Taipei with my host family to see Lang Lang play piano. For those of you who do not know, Lang Lang was the piano player at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. You can read stories about him here from the New York Times.

When I saw him in concert the day after Christmas (December 26), I was amazed. He plays with such vigor and always with a smile! He moves his whole body to the music and always closes his eyes. It was very impressive. I played piano when I was growing up so I can appreciate his music as a fellow pianist, and boy, was I astounded. I kinda fell asleep during the slow movements, but I would quickly wake back up. I was very tired after weeks of not that much rest.

At the end of the concert, Lang Lang did TWO encores!! The audience was so surprised and we couldn't stop clapping. During the second encore, Scarlet and my host dad left to stand in line to get Lang Lang's signature. So, when Tai-Shia (my host mom) and I came out of the concert, Scarlet was already in line and I just took the place of my host dad. When we were waiting to get the signature, I realized I had nothing but a scrappy piece of paper for Lang Lang to sign.  When I approached the signing table, Lang Lang looked at me funny and asked me what this was in Chinese and I told him I didn't have anything else. He looked at me funny again and signed it. When I got out of line with Scarlet, we were some of the first people he signed, I snapped a few pictures of Lang Lang, then got back in line. Why you ask? Because my host mom bought me a program booklet for Lang Lang to sign properly. This time, though, I was at the very end and I had to kindly ask the security guards to even let me back in line. So, I got Lang Lang's signature TWICE! The picture above is Lang Lang's signature in the program booklet. The scrappy piece of paper just didn't make the cut =D.

When we got back to the Evergreen Hotel after the Lang Lang concert, Scarlet decided that we would visit the Evergreen Maritime Museum the next day. What a good decision that was because when we went to the museum we learned so much about ships, their history, and their operation. The museum director even gave us a personal tour of the museum! (See picture below).

After that, all of us  (Chia-Ling and my host family) went to Yang Ming Shan (Yang Ming Mountain) to hike. It was breathtaking and you can find pictures here in Taiwan Photo Set 26.

You'll find in the same photo album that I like to jump and take pictures a lot, especially if there's a bridge. Check out Scarlet and I jumping, teehee. Click to enlarge the photos.

Dear friends,
Winter is such a splendid time--making snowmen, putting frosting on cookies, having a feast with the family, and giving gifts. In celebration of the many different ways Americans spend their holiday season, I showed my kids pictures of what some Americans do during this time. I made a powerpoint that explained:
1) shopping and exchanging/giving gifts
2) decorating your house with lights
3) how families get together and eat lots of food
4) the many celebrations that happen in America (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, winter solstice, etc.) during the winter time
5) how some little children leave milk, cookies, and a letter out for Santa Claus
and 6) the many winter sports that people do (skiing, snowboarding, snowball fights, etc.)

To me, the holiday season is incomplete if I do not give gifts to people who are close to me to show my appreciation. For Chia-Ling, Ashley, and my host family, I made each of them a photo album (idea was given to me by Joyce from Ling Zhou Elementary School who gave me my own photo album! We have a surprise for Joyce and her family later this year...shhh! I can't say anything right now because she's reading this blog). Each album took about two hours to make, but I really enjoyed making them because these people really mean a lot to me. They have made my experience in Taiwan so special!

My school celebrated Christmas with an end of the year performance. In Taiwan, not many people are Christians, but they still celebrate Christmas. It is not as sensitive of an issue here as it is in the United States where some people may be offended if you celebrate Christmas and are not a Christian or introduce Christmas into the classroom. In any case, I did my best to let my kids understand the diverse ways Americans celebrate the winter season and get together with their families.

In regards to the end of the year performance, I was not originally planning to go to the performance because I got the day-off and was going to leave for Taipei with my host family. However, some kids let me in on a secret: they were going to surprise me with a performance...about me! So, I decided to check it out.

The surprise was:

The...

...BAND!

Click on the pictures above to enlarge.

During the Christmas performance, there were classes singing holiday songs in Chinese and there was even a kung fu performance by a second grader. The parent's association of our school also got up and performed a little dance right after the aboriginal student club performed a dance. At the end, there was a plethora of classes pretending to be rock bands. The very very last performance, though, was the surprise: The Shiela Band, performing "I am falling in love with you!" Talk about a surprise! The students were lip syncing to a song and it was so cute. It was such an honor to have a band named after me and the students really touched my heart. The performance was in front of the entire school (See picture above).

I am so thankful to have such a warm school and loving students. I have really developed a strong relationship with my students and the faculty at Hua Shan. I hope my students know how lucky I feel to be their teacher. They make me smile everyday =D.

You can find more pictures here in Taiwan Photo Album 25.