Dear friends,
My first week at school (last week) was so incredibly fun, exciting, busy, and full of adventures that it's hard to distill just a few of those memorable moments down into a blog entry. But, here we go!

On Monday (Sept. 8, 2008)
In the morning, I went to English Village at Ling Zhou Elementary School (not the elementary school I teach at) to finish up last minute activities for English Village. As you may recall, English Village is a program that was launched by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education to create simulated environments (e.g. hotel, airport, supermarket) where students can practice their English with foreigners.

For example, a post office where students can play with the environment and speak.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistants created station games in addition to a dialog station at English Village to help the students practice more English. English Villages, or simulated environments, were built in many Kaohsiung Elementary Schools. However, we are only running three English Villages this semester. Fifth graders from all over Kaohsiung go to one English Village once a year. We prepared for English Village on Monday, but it does not officially start until Tuesday (Sept. 9). On Monday, I just finished up last minute touch-ups to the station games to get ready for Tuesday's opening ceremony and full run through of English Village. Though, every Monday I will spend the morning at Ling Zhou English Village. In the afternoon, I go to my school, Hua Shan Elementary School by walking from Ling Zhou Elementary school to the MRT, take the MRT to the last station on the red line (Xiao Gang), and then bike to my school for about 15 minutes, depending on traffic.

When I got to my school on Monday afternoon, I  brought Moon Cake for all the staff and faculty for the Mid-Autumn moon Festival. I was already introduced to the staff last Tuesday, but I introduced myself to my classes and began teaching today.

Teaching was so wonderful. The kids are so cute and they love to play games! They can pronounce my name pretty well because it sounds like the Chinese word for "Greece"---Xi La. Ashley & Jia-Ling are very good teachers and I've already learned a lot about how to plan for classes and what to go over first in class.

For my introduction for the rest of the week, I used pictures to show my students where I am from in the United States and I made a name card for myself. All the students "oohed" and "ahhed" when they saw the beautiful mountain pictures of Colorado! When I taught this week, I also made a poster of "American Culture" vs. "Chinese Culture" to help my students understand some differences. The examples I went over this week were:
American Culture: Calendar starts on Sunday & American students do not take naps during the day at school
Chinese culture: Calendar starts on Monday & Chinese students take naps during the day at school

It was so cute because when I told the students that American students don't take naps during the day, they were so surprised and thought that the American students must fall asleep in class! They were all very intrigued by the differences.

I later went home by bike, MRT, and bus (I call that my "triathalon commute back home"). Travel to and from my school takes about an hour. I absolutely love my school, though, so the commute is worth it.


On Tuesday (Sept. 9, 2008)
English Village started on Tuesday morning at Ling Zhou Elementary School and it was rather difficult because some of the logistics were not planned out. The kids had a lot of fun, though. It was good that we had this run through because we figured out some of the problems with the games and the rotation to different stations at English Village. I was exhausted after that two hour English Village session at Ling Zhou. Then, I commuted to my school, Hua Shan Elementary School, in the afternoon.

At Hua Shan, I met the principal, the staff, and the faculty. They are all very friendly and fun. They kept on teasing each other about how shy they were to talk to me, a foreigner. However, when Friday came along, I noticed that if I spoke Chinese, my teachers were very talkative! I told them that my Chinese is like their English, "still learning." So, I told them to don't be afraid to talk to me, because as long as they speak slowly, I will understand, and I will do the same.

Hua Shan Elementary School has been so welcoming. They've already given me a bike, moon cake, "Beauty" tea, a temporary helmet (because my permanent helmet is being decorated by my classes as a gift), free lunch, lunch bowls and chopsticks, and more mooncake. They are even going to make a display case for me at the school to show all the students and parents. I already designed it so when it's up at school, I'll take a picture to show you. They're calling my display case, "Shiela's Column". It sounds like a "column" from a newspaper, but it's actually my display case  =D. After I taught three classes on Tuesday, I played basketball with the basketball team after school.

Basketball with the Hua Shan co-ed basketball team was SO MUCH FUN! The kids are quite good and the coach told me they were number one in Kaohsiung a few years ago and took fifth place in all of Taiwan Elementary School Basketball 5 years ago! While I was not that good, the kids cheered me every single time I got a basket. At the end of practice, the girls did their team cheer and the boys did their team cheer. Their cheers were so cool! The girls's cheer goes like this: "Hua Shan--clap, clap--Hua Shan,--clap, clap--Hua--Shan--Guo--Xiao--clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap... (repeat)" The clapping is rather difficult, but it sounds really cool. The boys cheer is different and I don't remember it. When I asked my "sports class" (yes, I have a sports class...) what the boys cheer was, none of them wanted to tell me because they were too shy. The reason they were shy was because the boy's cheer is like a war cry. They say "Hexia!" and then say something else while contorting their faces into an intense competitive look.  It's very cool.

While I enjoyed the girl's and boy's basketball practice, I do not think I can go every Tuesday afternoon because I am so tired after going. I love practicing with the kids, though. I'll try to go at least once every month. It's hard because on Monday and Wednesday, I have Chinese class in the evening and Tuesday is the only day I get off to study Chinese. Plus, it's the only time I can lesson plan for my meetings on Wednesday morning with Ashley and Jia-Ling. I will have to time manage if I want to go to basketball practice.

On Wednesday (Sept. 10, 2008)
On Wednesday morning, I was introduced to all the students at their flag raising ceremony. It was so hot on Wednesday and the kids had to sit outside. I gave a little speech and said hello to everyone.

After the flag ceremony, I taught my three classes for the day. Just to give you a snapshot of the classes I co-teach, let me tell you which grades I co-teach and on what days. On Mondays, I co-teach one fifth grade class and two fourth grade classes. On Tuesdays, I co-teach two fifth grade classes and one sixth grade class. On Wednesday, I co-teach first graders, a sixth grade class, and a fifth grade class. On Thursday, I co-teach two fourth grade classes, a third grade class, and a sixth grade class. Finally, on Friday, I co-teach English Club with Ashley and co-teach second graders, and two sixth grade classes. It's a very busy week. But, if you think this is busy, just wait 'till next week when I add my Chinese classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. My schedule will be booked with Monday being the busiest where I travel to three different locations (Ling Zhou in the morning, Hua Shan in the afternoon, and San Min Elementary School in the evening for Chinese classes).

On Thursday (Sept. 11, 2008) & On Friday (Sept. 12, 2008)
These were my most relaxing days. I lesson planned, taught my classes, and chatted with fellow teachers. Walking down the halls, students would say, "Hello Shiela Lao Shi" (Chinese for "Hello Teacher Shiela"). I kind of felt like a celebrity because I kept on waving my hand, smiling, and saying "Hello" back. My students are so excited that it makes me so excited and happy to be at my school. I really love my school. Also, check out the very nice welcome letter the principal wrote about me at the end of this blog.

Later Friday evening, I met my host family. It turns out that they live near Hua Shan Elementary school where I teach! Isn't that amazing?! My host mom Tai-Shia, my host dad Chung-Shih, and my cute little host sister Scarlet (9 yrs.) are so funny, curious, and talkative--just like me! You can check out photos here. When they announced the host family and Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) pairing, my host family and I couldn't stop talking to each other because we had so much to say; we were so excited. Well, we immediately made plans for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival weekend. Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on Sunday, but we spent the whole weekend together.

On Saturday
My host family took me to Pineapple Mountain, a little mountain near Chengqing Hu (Crystal Clear Lake). We hiked up the little mountain and saw the pineapple fields. Did you know pineapples grow in the ground? I didn't know that; I thought they grew on trees. Anyway, let me tell you, this hike was very windy. It was windy because a typhoon was coming! We went hiking in typhoon weather.

Look at how windy it was up on Pineapple Mountain!

Later that evening, we barbecued and ate lots of moon cakes. A fellow teacher at school told me that the reason why barbecuing now occurs in Taiwan is because a very popular television commercial showed people barbecuing with soy sauce and ever since then, people wanted to cook this special way on Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. I don't know if this is true, but it's very interesting. I only stayed for some of the barbecue because it was a fellow English Teaching Assistant (ETA) and Local English Teacher (LET)'s birthday so I went to celebrate with them later that evening.

On Sunday
It rained a lot and the wind howled so loudly, some of my apartment mates could not sleep. Despite the rain, my host family picked me and two of my apartment mates up and drove us to Chung-Shih (host dad's) grandparent's house for homemade hot pot! The dinner was so incredibly delicious! Check out the photos here.

I ate so much moon cake this week. The Bureau of Education also sent each of the 12 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants a huge box of moon cake, so I've been eating one a day...quite a lot! I could write more because I left a lot out, but I think this is enough for one post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next update!


This is my school website where you can find the Principal's post below:
http://www.hshanps.kh.edu.tw/show.php?index=1

席拉！華山的四海一家~ Welcome Shiela to Huashan 作者 weitow | 10 九月, 2008 | read_nums (1)        海上生明月，天崖共此時！       

        一到中秋季節，月餅和月亮就自然成為我們生活與感受的焦點。今年的中秋前夕，很多華山人都有個共同的感受：沒想到，今年的第一口月餅，竟然是來自Shiela小姐－這位遠從美國來做客的朋友手中。

      Shiela小 姐－華山的外籍英語客座教師，經意願選填而到本校，擔任為期一年的學童英語課協同教師，是一位美麗大方又親切近人的好女孩。她是高雄市政府教育局，透過與 國際學術交流基金會的合作，由該機構引薦美國「傅爾．布萊特」獎學金得獎青年，而來台擔任學童英語協同教學的一位外籍教師。

      華山奉高市教育局之命，於去年設置英語村，以提供更有利於學童學習英語的教學環境，自開放教學以來，倍受師生歡迎與喜愛，使用率居高不下。但本校並不以此為滿足，總希望本校的學童英語教學能繼續有所突破。

       這學年度，Shiela小姐加入華山人行列，成為本校刺激學童提昇學習英語的第三劑強心針。

       第一劑強心針，來自於本校五年級的謝興泰小朋友。他在今（97）年暑假期間，報名參加英國劍橋英檢，通過第11及檢測，相當於國內英檢中的高級檢測，這項傲人的成就，讓他10歲通過這項檢測的事蹟，成為東亞第一人的新紀錄。

       第二劑強心針，來自於本校甫從英國修完教育哲學博士返校服務的王嘉陵老師。嘉陵師在考取公費出國留學之前，已獲得國內教育博士學位，秉於自我成長與進修的信念，考取公費留學而遠赴英國求學三年，其各項英語能力自不在話下，相對的，她的英語教學專業，更是本校特別倚重的。

       而Shiela小 姐，雖是額外且意外的成為本校英語教學的第三劑強心針，但令人敬佩的，是她並未絲毫的以過客心境而減低對華山的投入，很用心也很主動的融入這個大家庭。即 便她僅能說一些簡單的國語，且大部分表達都需要使用她自己的母語－英語，但熱情有增無減。不但很快的贏得全校同仁的認同，且非常受到學童的歡迎。

       Shiela小姐在9月2日向本校報到後，依合約規範休假，開學第二週起正式到本校任職。第一天的正式上班，她帶來一大盒甫出爐的月餅，宴請本校同仁。吃月餅不稀奇，唯有每年的第一口月餅才讓人驚艷，尤其是那份來自千里之外的外國友人的真情，不但讓人非常感動，而且有一份特別的感受。 

      一盒月餅讓彼此成為一家人，一份熱誠讓學習更提昇。

      這一年裡，因於本校英語教學三劑強心劑的投入，華山全體師生會擁有真實且難忘的四海一家（We are the world）新體驗。因此，華山人要張臂歡迎Shiela小姐來華山，也要奮力提昇全校師生的英語學習。

Leave a Reply