Tuesday, September 28, 2010

My Students Are Calculators

Over the past few weeks, I've come to the slow realization that my students are calculators. Not in a good way (how are we going to divide up this bill equally?), but in a terrible way (you can't do this problem because it's not worded exactly like the last one I did?). They have been programmed to simply plug-and-chug in math class for their entire mathematical careers. This tends to be a large issue when it comes to problem solving skills and logic in mathematics.

On one hand, it makes tests very easy for these kids- that is IF they understand the directions first. On the other hand however, it makes them utterly helpless when it comes to solving a problem they have never seen before. They not only lack creativity when solving problems, but also a general understanding of what they should try to do if they get stuck.

It makes it very frustrating as a teacher because I don't know how to undo fourteen years of black and white instruction and introduce a little grey area in their math worlds.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

New Shoes and a Korean Boy Band

This weekend was fairly epic as far as my life in Asia goes. It started out normal enough, class with a bunch of eleventh grade students who did not want to learn anything (or be quiet) on a Saturday morning. But things picked up significantly after that.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, I boarded a bus with ten students and our Dean of Faculty to go to Taipei for the evening. Having never been to Taipei, I was pretty excited to go, but that's not the real reason I signed up to chaperone this particular trip. That evening, we had tickets to see a Korean boy band in concert and I was more than willing to accompany our students there. Not only do I have an unnatural love for boy bands in general (I did see Hanson in 2008, long after they released Mmm Bop), but I figured it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't pass up. We all went to Taipei 101, the giant building in Taipei that was at one time the tallest building in the world (seen below), and then all went to the concert together. And the concert delivered like Dominos!

Each song had Korean verses but an English chorus and it was hilarious. One song literally was "Let's get crazy! Let's get crazy! You're so hasty! Let's get crazy!" It made me smile to say the least.

As if a Korean boy band wasn't enough of an excitement for the weekend, two of the other new teachers and I went shoe shopping this afternoon. I was very excited to find out that although my feet are pretty huge by Asian standards, some stores still carry shoes made for bigfoot Americans (you can see the fruits of my labor below).

All in all, a solid weekend, now I just have to figure out what I'm going to teach tomorrow!





Thursday, September 23, 2010

New Lunch Table

Today was the second day of our new seating assignments at lunch and dinner. And it is AWESOME. My table before was composed of primarily boys who a) didn't particularly care for my forced English conversations and b) couldn't speak English at all. I basically just sat there and listened to them speak Chinese for thirty minutes each day.

My new table is all girls and already by the second day we have been trash talking the other teachers (in jest of course), talking about our favorite boy bands, and been touching on the subject of how to talk to the boys we may or may not have huge crushes on. Needless to say, I now metaphorically skip to lunch whereas before you just about had to drag me there. I mean, who doesn't like to go eat at a table where you are unconditionally loved?

As if that wasn't enough of a day-maker right there, I also found out that I will be attending a Korean pop boy-band concert this Saturday with a handful of students and our Dean of Faculty in Taipei. It's like god looked down upon me and smiled today.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Moon Festival

Today is the Moon Festival. I don't exactly know what this means, however we did get to have a bonfire outside and see some pretty awesome fireworks. The three marshmallows I had roasted over a Taiwanese fire were some of the best marshmallows I've ever had- probably because I had just spent two hours in the library with students so just about anything would have tasted good.

The best part about tonight though were the fireworks. Now I've seen fireworks before, but these were awesome. All of the students and teachers (those who were here for the night) sat on one side of our track and the secretaries and cooks were on the other side of the track lighting them off. Needless to say, we got a good look at them. We were close enough that one of the students got burned apparently.

My first great Moon Festival!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Water Polo and Typhoons

Today was an epic Sunday. I woke to the sounds of wind whipping through the Taiwanese trees. A typhoon was passing over Taiwan and the wind was howling through the school. When all was said and done however, it was smaller and less severe than what we initially thought so all is well now.

This afternoon, while the typhoon raged outside, we had our first house competitions of the school year. See, my life is basically a real world Harry Potter tale now because at our boarding school we have points, house competitions, and prefects just like Harry Potter. So today we all went into the indoor swimming pool and played water polo- house against house. There are 8 houses total and I am part of the 8th house which was new this year; we named ourselves the House of Archimedes and we have an owl as our mascot. Unfortunately, the House of Archimedes is not so talented in water polo.

Although we lost both of our games very quickly, it was still fun. The most entertaining part about it was that I got to stand on the edge of the pool and watch all of my students try their best to be athletic in a pool. It was hilarious for the most part because there are some very uncoordinated students in this school!

Everything was going great until a couple of my students got the great idea to push Ms. Pint in the pool. They never succeeded but I did spend a lot of time hugging the wall in the pool. Hopefully our next house competition will be on dry land!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

You Know you Live in Asia When...

You know you live in Asia when certain things happen in your day. Yesterday was actually quite full of those moments and at the end of the day, I just shook my head and muttered to myself, "I really do live in Asia, don't I?"

Yesterday started off like a normal day. I mean, you know you're in Asia when you teach Asian students all day long, but that's just the norm now. And of course in the afternoon when the headmaster set off the fire alarms because he was trying to exterminate some ants on the third floor, I felt as if I was in Asia. Not because Asia is the only place in the world that has fire drills, but the simple fact that as we were standing outside for half an hour I literally sweated through my shirt and parts of my pants because it was so hot at 2 p.m. on the track.

I really started to realize my geographic location when I had to officiate the badminton match last night though. When you're in a gym filled with Asian students playing hardcore badminton, you know you're in Asia. It made me laugh a little bit but then they were taking it so seriously that I had to really watch the lines and foot faults.

As if the sporting event of the night was not enough, I knew for sure I was in Asia when I ran up to my classroom at 9 p.m. to find a surprise. I had just opened my door when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye; I've found cockroaches in the school before so I thought it might be another one. This time however, it was the worlds smallest gecko. I wanted to ask him if I could get cheap car insurance, and then I remembered they probably don't have Geico in Taiwan.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Good Times on the Weekend

This past weekend was a pretty good time in Taichung. Of course, every Friday night we go to Family Mart and drink cheap beer on the patio. What made last Friday awesome in particular was the fact that a new pizza place opened up in Taichung and one of the teachers stopped there before coming so we all got to eat real pizza. Even though I've only been gone about three weeks now, it was still amazing to eat pizza!

Saturday I had to teach in the morning and unfortunately, my first class of the day was really bad for me that day. First they wouldn't settle down then they turned into zombies who didn't want to do anything. So that was a struggle to get through, especially since classes are an hour and fifteen minutes on Saturday. Luckily though, my second class that day was much better which left me in a better mood for the rest of the weekend.

That afternoon I also made my first trip to the Jade Market. It was everything you expect out of a Taiwanese bazar-type market; lots of Jade, lots of random souvenir stuff, and lots of jewelry. I obviously didn't walk away empty-handed; a strand of real pearls cost me about 100 NT (roughly $3.50). We finished up Saturday celebrating a co-workers birthday at a Greek restaurant which had super delicious gyros and fries. A nice way to spend a Saturday evening if you ask me!

All in all, this last weekend gave me a good break from the students and now I'm all set for another week! Monday's already over for me so this week is all downhill from here.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Best Sign in Asia

This is possibly my favorite billboard in Taichung. If you can't quite read what it says, allow me "even the biggest of birds can fit in our pants".
What exactly do they mean with this?

Friday, September 10, 2010

First Full Week Teaching The Kiddos

It is Friday afternoon during 8th period as I type this. I have a prep this hour so I figured I'd procrastinate a little more from lesson planning for next week by writing a new post on my blog-lucky you!

After my first full week teaching at ICA, I know that I'm going to like it here. All of the staff is super helpful and nice so I never feel dumb asking questions or seeking advice from anyone. Everyone also gets along really well so I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them better in the coming year.

I have also decided that I'm going to really like teaching this particular batch of students. First of all, the rumors are not true- Asian students don't just sit quietly in their desks waiting for the teacher to teach! They are just as loud and out of control as American students but the difference is that when you tell them to be quiet or to stop monkeying around, they actually listen (for the most part). I'm getting to know all of my classes better which makes teaching all of them much more fun! I know that this is the "honeymoon" period and that it will inevitably end, but I'm enjoying it for the moment.

The biggest challenges I have are my 7th and 11th graders. In general my 7th graders are awesome, but I have an uphill battle ahead of me with one boy in particular. I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly certain he is autistic. If he were in the U.S. education system, he would definitely have an IEP and be pulled out for some classes or have an aid with him. My struggle with him is that I have to educate not only him, but the other six students in the room as well. It sounds a little silly to complain about a class of seven students (an unheard of number for American public schools), but I also have no help or resources at my disposal for working with an autistic child. My goal for next week is to try to figure out where he is in math ability compared to the other students. So that will be interesting to say the least!

My 11th graders are what you would expect out of high school juniors. At ICA, each grade is separated into classes of A, B, C and D. The A's are the best in their English skills as well as their math skills. As you can guess, the D's are the worst in both areas and my last class of the day is the 11D class. Again, there are only six of them so you would think I would be able to control them no problem, right? Wrong! They are all over the place each class period that I still have no idea where exactly they stand in their math skills. I do know however that they are all really good friends and love to speak Chinese in class even though they are NOT supposed to. They will be an entirely different type of challenge than my one 7th grade boy, but a challenge all the same.

After a long and tiring week of trying to be a real teacher though, I still want to pick back up where we left off next week and try again-a pretty good sign I think. Now if you'll excuse me, I have yoga to attend then some cold beers are waiting for me at Family Mart tonight. Cheers!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Pictures from my life in Asia


I know I've been very bad at posting pictures, so here's a large batch of them:



Today was payday, so here is my very first payment as a real professional (and yes, those are all $1,000 bills of Taiwanese money)

These are the graves you see all around the school. They're right on the side of the road but you're not supposed to take pictures of them because the Taiwanese people strongly believe in ghosts and a picture of a grave means that ghost stays with you then. Whoops.
No one in Taiwan checks their blind spots or slows down when driving on the narrow roads so you see these mirrors everywhere on tight corners.
This is a view from the road I run/walk on every day. The green spire you see is the school.
This is another section of the road I run/walk on every day. The big grey building you see in the background is the Buddhist Hospital right by school that I will ever be taken to if I fall ill.
This is in the town by Sun Moon Lake- definitely an Asian street.
Two shots of Sun Moon Lake- the pictures do not do it justice because it is beautiful there.




Saturday, September 4, 2010

My First Week OVER (how many more to go?)

My first week teaching at ICA is over and needless to say, I am a little exhausted! It wasn't even a full week (we only had classes on Thursday, Friday, and half day of Saturday like usual) but it taught me a lot already.

The first big mistake I made was underestimating my students, which I can't believe I did because I've been told not to do that by countless education professors. I sort of fell into the mindset of "they can't speak English very well, so it's going to be very hard to communicate" thus I thought their math skills were going to be equally lacking. Wrong.

Truth is it IS a little challenging to communicate, there are definitely times when I ask a question and no one has any idea what I'm asking of them, but math is the universal language. My first few days of class I was totally underprepared and didn't plan enough because I thought it would take way longer for them to get through the material they did. As I said, even though the English was shaky at times (and by that I mean about half the time at least) they knew exactly what they were talking about when it came to the mathematics at hand.

So today is Sunday, my one totally free day all week, and I need to spend it all lesson planning because now I know a little better how to handle my classes. I definitely have also learned what to expect out of them which will make planning much easier.

Tomorrow is Monday which is a downer because it's the beginning of my first full week of five and a half days of teaching, but I'm also going to make it rain tomorrow because it's payday! And since I don't have a Taiwanese bank account set up for me yet, I'll be getting roughly $90,000 in cash tomorrow! I'm rich! (Ok, so it is going to be Taiwanese dollars, not U.S., but it's still going to be awesome having that many bills in my hands all at once...you can expect a picture of it tomorrow)

I'm off to lesson plan my day away!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Teaching in Taiwan

After only two days with the students, I can tell that this year is going to be full of lots of things. For one thing, this year is going to be very full of stress as I try to adapt to a new style of teaching (these kids can't speak English? No one told me that!), a new style of school (private, international, and somewhat disorganized at all times yet still functional somehow), and a new style of life (living with my students? who thought this one up?)

I know that I'm going to have to change not only my teaching style, but also my general attitude towards planning. I've been told by almost every teacher here thus far that I shouldn't plan too far ahead because the students will amaze you with what they do and don't know. So it is Wednesday night, tomorrow is the first day of classes, and I am only planned out with detailed lesson plans till Tuesday of next week; a ridiculously small amount of time compared to how far out my detailed plans normally stretch. So I guess you could say I'm just rolling with the punches as of right now- a pretty new concept for me.

However stressful this year is going to be, I can also tell that it is going to be so much fun at the same time. I really like the community of teachers working at ICA and I've only known them for a week. Everyone has a great work ethic, an easy-going personality, and still knows how to have fun when we get just a little time away from the kiddos. I also am starting to feel more comfortable living with 170-some Asian students. It was a little awkward at first (it is only day 2 with them here) but I can tell I will really like working with them all year.

Will it be challenging when they don't understand anything I said to them about parallel lines for an entire class period? Absolutely. Will I be tired at the end of a long day and just want to go to a home OFF campus sometimes? Of course. At meals, would I like to sit by friends and not a randomly assigned group of students? Clearly (but that's not changing anytime soon so it looks like Jerry, Tim, Peter and Howard are my lunch buddies till the end of the year).

In the end though, I think I'll look back at my first year teaching internationally and be very happy with my choice to do so.