All the teachers on the graduation field trip

Dear friends,
Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I went with all the 150 sixth graders from my school on their graduation field trip around the Western and Northern part of Taiwan. We went from Kaohsiung to Taichung, then Xin-zhu, then Taipei, Taoyuan, and finally returned to Kaohsiung. I took over 500+ photos, which I have split up into two albums--Taiwan Photo Set 22.A and Taiwan Photo Set 22.B. I hope you have time to take a look at the pictures because they are pretty good, especialy because Chia-Ling took some artistic shots of our trip.

Day 1
We set off from Hua Shan Elementary School at about 7:30am on Wednesday morning and on 4 tour buses carrying 150 students, 9 teachers, and 5 tour guides, we set off for our first destination: bike riding in Taichung (I don't know the exact name of the place we went to ride our bikes because it's in Chinese). The bike route was pretty level and somewhat short, but we the scenery was pretty cool because we crossed a huge bridge and rode through tunnels that used to be for railcars. You can see pictures of the bike ride in this album. After our bike ride, we hopped back on the bus and headed to an amusement park in Xin-zhu.

The amusement park was awesome! There were so many spectacular, and scary, rides. I rode the ride pictured to the right, whose horizontal track turns vertical 180 degrees and then drops you straight down into lots of upside down turns. Chia-Ling and I rode it twice! You would think I would be scared, but I wasn't because of the following story I'm going to tell you:

So, the teachers were all excited to ride the amusement park rides, but they were especially excited to ride the water park ride (pictured below). We put all our stuff down in the storage area and then got into the boat. Look at how happy we are =D.

The ride was so much fun. I'm sitting in the very front with Watson and we both have our hands up. It was exhilarating and we all got very wet.  After the ride, we got out to get our stuff, but when I looked around, my backpack was missing!

First off, let me tell you the backpack wasn't even mine. I borrowed it from Billy, my apartment mate. Secondly, I had everything in that backpack--Alien Resident Certificate Card, Health Insurance Card, ATM card, NT$4,500 dollars, MP3 player, Fulbright business cards, two jackets, an umbrella, and tissue. So, it was pretty valuable. Luckily, I gave my camera to one of the teachers who didn't ride the water ride so I still had my camera. But, I LOST THE BACKPACK that wasn't even mine and all my valuables! I was freaking out!

All the teachers immediately called the theme park managers, all tour guides, and told fellow students to look in bathrooms and trash cans for my backpack. When the teachers asked me to describe the backpack, I told them it was all black. That was only my guess because I couldn't quite remember what it looked like since I only had it in my possession for that morning (I borrowed the backpack only for the three day trip).

We searched for about an hour, students, teachers, and all tour guides (including some tour guides that weren't even part of our tour group!). Finally, Watson, one of the teachers I was with, receives a call from one of the other teachers, "We've found it." "Is there anything inside?" I ask.

"I don't know," says the teacher.

I run over to where they are and see the backpack. Wow. Everything is there.

"How did you find it?" I ask.

"Well, Tsui-Zhu [another teacher] and I thought the backpack must be nearby the water ride so we went around the little souvenir shops. Then, we saw a backpack laying on the floor in one of the shops. But, we didn't know if it was yours because the backpack was GRAY and BLACK. But, I recognized your umbrella sticking out of the side, Shiela, and knew it was yours!" exclaimed Chia-Ling.

Wow. I was SO incredibly lucky. Lots of students lost their items that day, but I was so lucky to have found my backpack with EVERYTHING inside. Apparently, somebody--probably a student--just grabbed the wrong bag and when they discovered it wasn't theirs, they probably just left it where they were. I'm SO surprised they did not steal anything. I thank my lucky stars for that.

So you can see why after two hours of frantic panicking, that incident made me fearless! I rode everything after that. I rode the ride that vertically drops off, the boat ride that swings back and forth, bumper cars, roller coasters, etc. You name it, I rode it. Let me tell you, I had the courage of a lion.

After the amusement park, we went to a hotel in the mountains of some place in-between Xin-zhu and Taipei (I don't know the name, sorry to disappoint. I'll try to find out later). Now, I felt okay after all the rides, a little dizzy, but still okay. Once I got in the car and we headed up the windy mountain roads and, oh dear, I threw up! Terrible, just terrible. A teacher throwing up before her students! Ha! So much for the courage of a lion, eh?

Anyway, the hotel in the mountains was pretty cool. The teachers, later that night, all got together and karaoked. I was terrible at singing, but I still sang because it was fun. We hit the sack at about 1am.

DAY 2
The next day, I woke up rather cold. There was no heater in the hotel and Chia-Ling (my co-teacher) and I suspected that we left one of the windows open. But, to this day, we will never know. Chia-Ling even wore gloves to go to bed!

Anyway, the next morning we got up at 7am and headed to Taipei at 7:30am. We went to the Taipei Zoo. I kept my bag very close to me throughout this excursion...

We saw all sorts of creatures, but the white rhinosaurus was everywhere! The picture to the right is a pretty good shot of the white rhino. We had a lot of fun at the zoo and the class I toured with was pretty photogenic so we took lots of photos. So many photos in fact, that we were late in meeting back up with the rest of the school. Oh well. When the other classes were waiting for us, they enjoyed McFlurries from McDonald's while we took pictures =D

See how photogenic this class I toured with is?

And then, I played with some of our students. My student is killing me with a blow-up sword...

After we spent about an hour and a half at the zoo, we went to the harbor. On the way to the harbor, we visited the house of Dr. Mackey, a Canadian minister who was famous for establishing a hospital in Taiwan. He was also famous for something else...Chia-Ling will have to fill me in on the story again. In the photo to the left is a picture of me and a teacher in front of a Dr. Mackey statue head.

The harbor was absolutely beautiful. But, I can't put anymore pictures of it on this blog because  there's already too many pictures. You'll just have to see the pictures yourself in this album.

When we went to the harbor in Taipei, which is called Danshui, we headed to "Old Street." There they sold lots of "Pi-Dan," or what literally translates into "leather eggs." The eggs are black, small, and the outer layer is very thick and leathery, hence the name. It tasted, different. Anyway, those eggs were very popular amongst the students and teachers; everybody bought a bag. After visiting old street and eating some dessert, we took a a boat to a nearby island (again, the name is in Chinese and my Chinese isn't that advanced).

Check out one of my students enjoying the boat ride to the left. The boat was pretty neat and we all got sprayed by the water (See pictures here). When we got to the harbor, there was an amazing bridge called "Lover's Bridge" that was for pedestrians only. It was huge and beautiful! Check out the architecture in the picture below.

The 6th graders in the picture above is the class I toured with the entire three days. Chia-Ling, Tsui-Zhu (another teacher), and I walked the bridge. It curved so beautifully. Since coming to Taiwan, every single bridge I've been on (two in total so far, hehe), I've jumped on. So, here's a shot of me jumping (see below). The other bridge I jumped on was in Sandimen's aboriginal park. You'll have to look for that picture in one of the photo albums.

Ta da! Me jumping on the bridge. There was also one more bridge on this island that I jumped on. I was jumping against the sunset. You'll have to find it yourself in this album =D.

After walking the bridge and boardwalk, we headed to a five-star hotel in Taoyuan, the Howard Hotel. It was amazing. They had a swimming pool, game room, sauna/jacuzzi, beautiful view above a reservoir, workout room, game room complete with a mini golf course for children, ping pong tables, pool tables, a nice restaurant and lots of other stuff. I was so exhausted from the day that I headed straight to bed at 10:30pm. Once my head hit the table, I fell asleep.

DAY 3
The next day, we went to yet another amusement park. This time, it was in Taoyuan. This amusement park is very special. It's called LeoFoo Village Theme Park and it is equivalent to the Disneyland of California. I think it's even better than the Disneyland in California, though. Granted, I haven't been to Disneyland in over 15 years, but this theme park was AMAZING!

There are four villages in this theme park--a safarii park, an arabic-like-Taj-Mahal theme park, a water park, and a Western cowboy and indians themed park. It was awesome. The teachers and I went to the safarri park first.

We rode a bicycle trolly above some of the animal cages and we also rode a small train.

The train ride took us very close to the tame animals. Look at how artistic this photo of Coach Pao is to the right. Chia-Ling took this picture. The animals came very close...

See Ms. Liu, my dean of student affairs, to the left and the ostrich running after us? We were very close to the animals. We later took a carnivorous bus ride to see the lions and tigers. It was a great safarii ride.

Later, I also rode a camel with a fellow teacher who was just as daring as me! See picture below.

In the photo above, we were just about to head into the Western Cowboy and Indian themed park. There, Chia-Ling and I rode a roller coaster ride called the Screaming Condor. It was pretty crazy because the ride was very very high and it twisted. We also rode something like the Tower of Doom back in Denver, a normal vertical drop with no twists and spirals. Lots of fun, but only some of the teachers joined us because the others were too scared =D.

At the end of the amusement park trip, about 1pm in the afternoon, we headed back to Kaohsiung. The four and a half hour ride back to Kaohsiung was very long. Our tour bus passed the time by singing KTV, all four and a half hours. Amazing, eh? The kids, teachers, and I sang for four hours straight, no sleeping!

When we got back we were all exhausted. We got back early, though. It was only 5:30pm!

The trip was so much fun. Thank you Hua Shan Elementary School and Principal Liu for inviting me to go. I got to know my 6th graders better and saw lots of Taiwan.

Below, you can see some artistic shots that Chia-Ling took on our trip. She's quite the photographer.

What a fun three days. But, the next day, I had to wake up at 8:30 to go to Kending with my host family! It was non-stop fun. I was jumping from one place to the next. I visited the North part of Taiwan and the next day, I visited the South part. Keep reading for my exciting adventures...

Dear friends,
1. Hua Shan's Basketball team is really good.
2. A fellow Fulbrighter, Dan, loves to play basketball.

So, as you can imagine when #2 met #1, playing basketball was bound to happen. This afternoon, Dan came to my school to play with the students. The kids were pumped and excited to meet him. We stretched and warmed up for about 15 minutes then jumped straight into a game.

The kids were so excited, they blocked Dan!

Three other teachers joined us to play, Shang Ping Lao Shi, Teacher Watson, and Zhong Jian Lao Shi (I don't know all of their English names). I played against Shang Ping Lao Shi on the girls team and the two other teachers played against Dan on the boys team.  It was a lot of fun and everyone wants to do it again. So, you'll see more of these posts later =D. You can find more photos here.

Over and out,
Shiela

Dear friends,
The Kaohsiung City basketball tournaments were held at my school, Hua Shan Elementary School, all last week. It was an intense three days of schools coming from all over the city to play basketball. The teams used our outdoor and indoor courts.

Fans sitting on the sidelines

The boys basketball team of Hua Shan Elementary School were the tournament champions! I was so excited to watch them play. They were ALL so good! The girls did pretty well, too; they took third place. Everybody could really move around the court quickly. These little boys and girls are so much better than I ever was at their age! This was the final tournament of the fall semester. There will be another tournament next spring, too.

CONGRATULATIONS, Hua Shan's Basketball Teams!!

Dear friends,
My school, Hua Shan Elementary School, has a partnership with a local 7-11 that lets students buy slurpees at a discount as long as they speak English with the clerk. Me, Chia-Ling, & Ashley, all went to school today (a Saturday) to teach students and even some parents how to buy a slurpee in English. We played various games when teaching the dialog and new vocabulary words. The students were mostly from grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. When we arrived at 7-11, I stood next to the cashier and the students spoke English with me and then bought their slurpees with the "real" cashier.

Do you see me wearing the 7-11 uniform?

We did a little "cheers" and then played "7-Up, Heads Up" outside 7-11 before heading back to the school. It was a good activity for students to use English and it was a good day to drink a slurpee =D.

Dear friends,
On November 8, 2008, my school had a huge 10-year anniversary celebration. Many special guests were invited including councilmen, representatives from the Bureau of Education, other principals, previous teachers that taught at Hua Shan, and many others. My school prepared a special ceremony for this special event and Chia-Ling and I were the MCs (Masters of Ceremony).

Awards were given to teachers who had taught for ten years and to some special guests. Each grade did a performance that lasted about 5-10 minutes. The students and teachers worked really hard on the performances, practicing nearly two months before the actual ceremony. I made a video with clips from most of the performances. Hopefully this will give you a glimpse of how outstanding the kids are at Hua Shan. Here is what each grade did:
(In order of appearance)
Grade 2: Pom-pom dance
Grade 3: Hand-clapping dance
Grade 4: Fan dance, martial arts fight, & lion dance
Grade 1: Spongebob Squarepants "I love to take a bath" dance
Grade 5: "We will, we will rock you" dance, drum performance, & flag spectacle
Grade 6: Body combat dance
Yep, Hua Shan Elementary School students are pretty amazing.

After the ceremony, my school held the final "tug-of-war" competition among the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Tug-of-war is one of the competitions for the World Game. As I mentioned before in previous posts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan is hosting the 2009 World Games. So, to honor and have some fun with one of the sports, Hua Shan did its own tug-of-war competition.

Once tug-of-war finished, our school held a 100 meter race. I'm not too sure if it was 100 meters, but it was pretty short distance. The first graders were so cute because one kid lost his shoe when he ran and another kid who was in the lead waited for the others to catch-up so he could run with them--so adorable! For almost all the grades, I was the referee who yelled, "On you mark, get set, go!" I didn't fire the gun, though. A fellow teacher did that because I had my hands full with the megaphone.

It was an incredibly fun day. The kids worked so hard on the performance and did so well. I also bonded with my fellow teachers and co-workers because we've been doing so many activities together, from the korfball competition to the relay race to the anniversary celebration! I'm so glad I'm at Hua Shan Elementary School because I get along so well with my teachers, fellow administrators, and students. Hua Shan is a very friendly, warm, and fun environment. I am so lucky to be at this school.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUA SHAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!

Check out more pictures, here!

Dear friends,
I was a co-MC with my dean of academic affairs  for Hua Shan's Relay Race today. Taiwanese Relay Race day is like America's Field Day, except the Taiwanese only have one activity--the relay. Hua Shan Elementary School has a relay race each year and the students race against members of different classes in the same grade. Only third through sixth grade raced today. The first and second graders watched.

The day began with all of us heading to the middle school track and field. My school booked the track and field because ours was too small. The kids walked from Hua Shan to the middle school. The line of kids snaked around the entire block. When the kids arrived at the track and field, I led them in the "Boom Chica Boom" cheer and then they did warm-up exercises.

When the exercises finished, the students got ready for their relay race. During the race, my co-MC, Mr. Sha, would loudly cheer "Jia Yo! Jia Yo!" which literally means "Add Gas, Add Gas!" There isn't a real English equivalent except for maybe "Go! Go! Go!" So, I started shouting loudly in the microphone, "Go! Go! Go!" It was pretty exciting. The kids usually sped up when they passed by the stage and heard us yell.

It was such a fun event. I got a pretty bad tan, though. The sun was facing me so I was pretty hot when I was MCing. There are more pictures of my teachers and administrators in this album.

Dear friends,
Tonight I went with the sports class and Hua Shan's teachers and administrators to the Korfball Semi-Final World Game. Kaohsiung, Taiwan is hosting the 2009 World Games. This was the semi-final warm up game for korfball. If you're American, you're probably wondering, "What is Korfball?" Korfball is like basketball but you don't dribble. The ball looks like a soccerball and you try to score by making a basket. The hoop looks different because there's no net, only a ring, and there's no backboard. You play on a court and each team has four people on each half court (when I say "court," think "basketball court"). It's actually a pretty cool sport.

I had a lot of fun because Hua Shan was basically the cheerleading squad for the China-Taipei Korfball Team. The China-Taipei team played the Russian Korfball team. We were very very loud. The Taiwanese love to use these little plastic horns to blow and to also hit. The cheers are so awesome because everyone is so coordinated. China-Taipei won by two points, which is a lot because other teams that we saw kept only a one point difference with the opposing team.

The kids cheers were pretty cute, too. I recently burned the basketball coach a CD of warm-up songs for tomorrow's field day at Hua Shan and one of the songs I put on there was "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men. At the Korfball game, the 6th grade sports class started cheering, "Who Let the Dogs Out? Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo!" They thought the "Whoo" sounded like "Boo" so they thought it was legitimate to cheer against the Russian team. It was so cute!

Fellow teachers and staff at the game (above), Hua Shan students and a teacher (below)

You can find more photos of korfball right here.

Dear friends,
My school made a display case for me! I designed the layout and wrote the little blurbs.

Dear friends,
This week was Halloween. Chia-Ling, Ashley, and I had our students make face masks. We made basic face masks out of paper plates and had them decorate them last week. This week, they could wear it in class and if they said, "Trick-or-Treat," they got candy. We also showed them a short video about celebrating Halloween (See Teaching Tab for more details). Many of the students made excellent masks. We gave prizes to the cutest and scariest masks.

Ashley & Chia-Ling were witches for Halloween and I was a vampire (who didn't have vampire teeth). One day though, Ashley was an angel =D. You can find more pictures of Halloween in this album.

Ashley, Chia-Ling, and me

Dear friends,
It has now been about a month since I've been teaching and two months since I've arrived in Taiwan. I can say without a doubt that teaching and living in Taiwan is incredibly meaningful and fun. If you can't tell from my blog, each weekend is filled with so much activity!

Teaching has been going very well. Depending on the time of day, some classes are more responsive than others. I co-teach thirteen classes--four classes with Ashley (four fifth grade classes) and nine classes with Chia-Ling (four fourth grade classes & five sixth grade classes). I also co-teach first, second, and third grade classes each week with Chia-Ling for half an hour. Additionally, on Thursdays and Fridays, I teach a special English class for fifth and sixth grade students who are behind in class and/or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. You may be thinking that this is really a full schedule of teaching! It is and I enjoy it very much because the students make it very meaningful.

I was requested recently to write a little piece on my teaching experience for a news article. Billy helped me translate some of it. Please forgive my mistakes in Chinese. I do not know if this will ever be published, but I am putting it here on my website for my students and school to see. Also, thank you Oliver for helping me fix a few errors and putting the post in traditional Chinese characters.

高雄，您好！我叫李詩媚，我的學生都叫我Shiela老師。雖然我已經來這裡教了兩個月的英文了，但是我依舊非常喜歡在華山國小教英語。這一點都不誇張，華山的校長、老師、職員和學生們全都很友善，他們也很熱情地歡迎我，讓身在國外教英語的我能很順利地適應。我很愛我的學生，在我的心目中，他們有一個很特別的地位。無論是在學校內或者在路上，當學生遇到我的時候，他們都會很大聲地叫我"Hello Teacher Shiela！"為了提高他們的英文寫作能力，他們還會寫信或著發電子郵件給我。儘管他們的英文程度有限，但是他們依然很願意跟我談話。他們對練習說英文的興趣真的是非常地感人。

雖然我覺得學習單字和文法是很重要的，但是我也認為我應該培養學生們對學習英語的興趣，這樣一來，他們會更努力地學習英語。我已經在我的學生身上看到這種轉變，他們學習英文不只是為了考試，很多學生透露給我聽他們學習英語的原因是為了可以跟我或著別的外國人聊天，還有可以到別的國家去。因此，我會嘗試在不同的場合跟我的學生們練習英文。比方說，我們會在路上、走廊、教室裡或著籃球場說英文。我每個星期二都會跟我的學生打籃球，這樣他們可以多學和籃球相關的單字。我希望這學年結束的時候，我的學生們會更有自信地說英文。

 Hello, Kaohsiung! My name is 李诗媚, but my students call me Teacher Shiela. I have been teaching English at Hua Shan Elementary School for two months now and I do not exaggerate when I say I love teaching at my school. Hua Shan’s principal, teachers, staff, and students have been so welcoming and friendly that they have made my transition to teaching in a foreign country very easy. Hua Shan’s students, in particular, are very special to me. They not only always give me a loud, excited English greeting at school and on the street, but they also initiate writing me letters and emails as a way to improve their English. Even though they speak very limited English, seeing these student’s enthusiasm and motivation to learn English is very meaningful.

While it is important that students learn proper grammar and vocabulary, I think it is also important that these students develop an interest in English．If they are passionate about learning English, they will be more motivated. I already see this in my students. Many of them have expressed an interest in learning English not just for the sake of an exam, but so they can speak with foreigners like me or go to an English-speaking country. Because of this interest, I take advantage of any and all opportunities to help my students practice English. For example, on the street, in the hall, in a classroom, and even on a basketball court. I play basketball with the basketball team every Tuesday so I can have some fun and teach them basketball terms．I hope by the end of this year, they will speak English with more confidence.

Here are some pictures of me co-teaching with Chia-Ling. I will post pictures of me co-teaching with Ashley later. We didn't have time to take pictures of our class this week.

Grade 6, Class 2

Chia-Ling and I explaining the Rabbit & Turtle Race Game. Basically, it's a game modeled after the American board game Candyland. However, in order to roll the dice, two students have to correctly say the dialog.

Two Grade 6, Class 2 students practicing a dialog:
Student 1: "How do you feel?"
Student 2: "I am sick. How do you feel?"
Student 1: "I am excited!"
The students get to choose out of the limited vocabulary words they are learning the emotion they are feeling (e.g. excited, tired, sick, bored, hungry, thirsty, sleepy)

Little first graders yelling, "BINGO!" We were playing BINGO with numbers...

Also, I've helped Chia-Ling set up her own website, check it out: www.chia-ling.weebly.com

Ashley has a website, too. Check it out: www.wretch.cc/blog/ashley53077

Thanks for reading!