Welcome Mom and Dad!

It is 7:02 a.m. on Wednesday and in a little over 14 hours, I will be welcoming my parents to Taiwan. I can't believe it is here already and I can tell it hasn't really hit me yet. I'm sure that after a two hour bus ride up to Taipei and then waiting in the baggage claim will really make it real however.

Before I leave school to get them tonight I still have a list of things to accomplish: clean bathroom, do dishes, throw out food from the fridge (the brown lettuce can probably go), and who knows what else! Oh yeah, I also need to teach today. Ah! My students should consider themselves lucky today because Ms. Pint's lesson plans include a whole lot of "homework time" at the end of each period. Basically kids, be quiet and Ms. Pint will let you do whatever you want, she has too much to think about to give a well-planned lesson today! You're welcome.

I don't know if I'll get a chance to write a new post until Debbie and Virgil are gone, but you can look forward to one as soon as they leave recapping all of our adventures. Taiwan, look out because the Pint's are coming!

Waiting for the Great Arrival

Today is Monday. My parents arrive on Wednesday night. I cannot believe this time in the year has come already! It feels like I have been waiting for the end of March to come to see my parents forever.

The day when Debbie and Virgil land in Taipei is nearly upon me yet I can't seem to wrap my head around it. I keep reminding myself that by this time in the afternoon three days from now I will be hanging out with my Mom and Dad. However much I tell myself that, it just doesn't seem real yet! I know that these next few days will both crawl and fly by. Because although it seems like Wednesday night is still years away, it might take me a while to get my apartment clean enough for close inspection.

I don't think I need to say it, but I will for emphasis: I am getting ridiculously excited to see my parents again! It has been a long time since I've seen anyone from home and I can't wait to throw my arms around them on Wednesday night in the terminal of Taipei International Airport. But until then, I think I'll go mop my floors now.

This is How you Know you Are a Dorky Math Teacher...

There are times when I say to myself, "Yup, I am a dorky math teacher." Last night was one of those times.

A while ago, I challenged my master minds after school activity to build the tallest freestanding structure out of five pieces of paper (no glue, no tape). After 45 minutes, I had two very impressive towers, the tallest being 82 cm. After seeing my 13 and 14 year old students tackle this, I knew that I just had to try it myself.

One bottle of wine, two math teachers, and ten sheets of paper later, we reached a height of 87 cm. I was very excited about this fact because I was getting a little nervous that my students would beat me in something math related. Not this time kids, keep trying!

I Do Not Teach 2nd Grade

There is a very good reason as to why I don't teach elementary school. If you know me well, you know I generally dislike children. Often when I tell people this, they seem surprised and somewhat concerned seeing as how I'm a teacher. It's not that I don't like anyone under the age of 18, I just don't like them if they are under the age of 13.

My 7th grade class has been pushing that limit lately. They are all 13 years old or older, but they have been acting exactly like what I imagine a classroom full of 2nd graders would act. It has been a nightmare to say the least.

Recently, my mentor and I decided that I should try to be aggressive with the classroom management to try to get the class back in order. Along with strict rules on no talking in class, raising your hand, and staying in your seat (I know, 2nd grade rules...), I've also had to figure out other ways to motivate them to learn.

Taking off participation points for not coming to class prepared or giving them a zero for a missing homework assignment was not working. Either they didn't care about their grades or they couldn't comprehend the significance of the point losses at the time. Whatever it was, simply penalizing their grades was not getting their books to come to class with them every day and homework seemed to be somewhat of a afterthought to them.

So now I have a "Math Magic Box." If you get five stickers in a week (1 sticker= bringing your book to class, homework done, and bellwork completed for a day) you get to choose something from the Math Magic Box!

This is what my teaching has come to, yikes. However, I will say that I had a terribly awesome time picking out all of the little things to put in my new bribe box, so I can see why elementary school teachers like it sometimes. Hopefully this works even a little!

Well It Was a Pretty Good Day...

Some days are good for no particular reason at all. Today was one of those days, a Monday at that which is truly rare. Nothing went particularly well or interesting at all, but after teaching and doing my other teacherly duties, I'm still smiling for no apparent reason. It's a pretty good feeling to have, especially when you watch the sun set over the rice patties to top the day off...

Parents Day A Total Success

After 8 long hours with my students and their parents, I would label it a total success. Not only was I able to talk to some parents who I had wanted to talk to (some of my least productive kids in class) but also got to talk to parents whose kids I adore (which is always the more fun conference).

The real victory in my book came after all formal conferences were over however. After parents day meetings and whatnot, we always have house competitions. This year we had the kids compete in basketball, volleyball, and tennis. And for the first time ALL year, my house won! Archimedes was victorious in the volleyball tournament!

The better part came next: faculty played the winners. That's right, yours truly was out there competing against high schoolers with some fellow coworkers and of course, we came out on top. Now there may have been some favorable calls in favor of the faculty from our headmaster who was serving as a line judge (who was no where near the court and also has an undying desire to win everything), but that is debatable.

All in all, I got to meet many parents and beat my students on the volleyball court. I had a great time!

Parents Day Number Liǎng (Two)

Today is the second time I will confront my students' parents. After the first parents day, I'm not all that nervous: the attitude of parents who send their children to a boarding school is much different than those of American parents at a public school.

I guess if you send your child away to live and attend school, you sort of wash your hands of them in many aspects. Obviously my students' parents love them and want the best for them, but they realize that they can't do much when they don't live under the same roof.

What baffles me still though, is the relative wealth of our students, and parents day is always a good reminder of that. On the whole, our students are very modest for being how wealthy they actually are. However, the other day one of my students was telling me how their "servant" got arrested for being an illegal immigrant after serving his family for his entire life. I had literally nothing to say to that story in response because I couldn't relate in the slightest. After a few moments, I finally managed to asked where she was from and he told me he didn't know.

Stories like that make me realize that the parents I'm about to talk to are from an entirely different social class from me along with an extremely different culture. What I take comfort in though is that Taiwanese people are very gracious and very interested in being good hosts. I am never looked down upon here, even when I am talking to a parent who owns five factories in China that make all of the Nikes supplied to the West Coast. It is such a comfort and also something that I'm not sure I could say were true if the situation were reversed and they were teaching at an elite school in America...

New Music

There have been several common themes for my blog, some of which are obvious: teaching, living in Asia, Asian food, etc. However, a more subtle topic I tend to write about a lot if my undying love for Asian pop music. Oh how I love the simple English lyrics mingled in with the Chinese words that probably have terribly odd meanings to a catchy techno beat.

I walked into my coworkers classroom just now to find him doing some spring cleaning. Among the piles of papers and discarded pencils that he pulled out of student desks, there was a nice looking Asian pop CD mixed in. What is a girl to do but immediately put it into her computer to import to her iTunes library? I am now listening to the completely awesome sounds of 獨一無二 And no, I don't know any sort of English equivalent of his name, but I dig his beats.

Feel free to watch the music video here :)

New Favorite Mushroom

Asia has an abundance of mushrooms of all different shapes and sizes. Being the mushroom lover that I am, I am in mushroom heaven on this side of the world. I never know the name of the mushrooms I happen to be eating, but I still enjoy every single bite.

In the few short months that I have lived in Taiwan, I have decided on a new favorite mushroom (but it will probably change again sometime soon because why not? There are hundreds to chose from here!). My new favorite mushroom is the Needle Mushroom, more scientifically referred to as the Enokitake Mushroom.

They are super thin, really long, and by all means looks exactly like a mushroom version of a needle. Just like most mushrooms, they lack a very strong taste but it's such a fun texture that I am falling deeply in love with them. I also enjoy the sorts of foods you find them in. They are either mixed with vegetables and some sort of sauce and stir fried or put into hot pots: basically a soup you make yourself at your table with meats and veggies to your liking (and the occasional Blood Cake, but that's a whole different story).

Coming home to America will be so boring when your choices are button mushroom or pre-cut button mushroom.

Ladies Night 2011

This past weekend, some of the female coworkers and I decided that we needed to have a ladies night. And of course, what would a ladies night be without ridiculous outfits?! Luckily, the art teacher at school is very good with a hot glue gun thus we transformed ourselves into obscure animals for the night: a shark, narwal, crab, zebra, caterpillar, and fox.

Needless to say, we had a really great time and everyone at the bars loved us. It was such a conversation starter!

Ladies Night 2011 in Taiwan was an epic success!

All of the girls looking as normal as we can with those things on our heads.

Now we decided to act out our specific animals.

And this is when we had a "Land vs. Sea" battle.

No Tsunamis Here

For everyone that is concerned given the news recently, do not worry because Taichung is totally intact. We didn't even feel a tremor here when the massive quake hit Japan and we're inland so the waves didn't effect us at all. I'm also fairly certain that the coasts of Taiwan, although got baby tsunami waves hitting them, are totally fine as well.

Unfortunately, Japan is a different story. It looks pretty bad there and we have a few Japanese students at school who are very upset about it. It breaks my heart because I can't imagine what it would feel like if a huge natural disaster hit home when I wasn't living there. I know that I will be praying for everyone affected by the quake and resulting tsunamis and I ask that everyone reading this do the same. If you don't pray, that's cool, just send good vibes and positive thoughts over in the general direction of Asia.

You are Wrong, but you Don't Know that you Are?

I am having issues with my students. Don't worry, they're still respectful, quiet (for the most part), and hard working (again, for the most part). But I'm having issues communicating to them that they are wrong and do not actually know everything.

It has hit that point in the year when they can't rely on what they have learned in previous math classes anymore to get them by. New material is getting harder and my expectations have risen since the students are progressing through that material. Yet almost all of my classes stare at me blankly when I ask if there are any question on the homework problems each day in class. It honestly baffles me because I put the answers on the overhead and I see them looking at them, but they don't actually check to see if their answers are correct. I have to literally say "Jeffrey, did you get #7 correct?" When Jeffrey undoubtably says "Oh, uh, no...." I just shake my head. Why do you think I put those answers up there?!

When I was a student, I remember checking my answers against the solutions my teacher would give on the board because it is just what you do. I also remember trying to figure out where I went wrong if I didn't get the same thing. However, my students seem to have no concept of this process. I don't know how to get them to understand they are getting problems wrong and THEN it would be nice to get them to pay attention to the right way to do it. But we'll just take it one step at a time here, I'm going to focus on making them realize they are wrong first.

We'll just see if I can accomplish that goal first, I'm getting close to resorting to public humiliation to make them aware of their flaws but I won't pull that card if I don't have to. However, it would be sort of fun to make public humiliation a daily part of Ms. Pint's math class so maybe I'll try that tomorrow! "You're wrong! You're Wrong! You're REALLY wrong!"

Yoga IS Dangerous!

It's no surprise that I am not the most graceful person ever. So me doing yoga is always a sight to see to say the least. Almost every pose I look absolutely ridiculous but I still try my best! I'm pretty sure the instructor thinks I'm somewhat of a lost cause.

Last night we had our weekly yoga class on Tuesday nights. I've been getting really close to getting into an actual headstand and last night I made some great progress. I can get one leg straight up in the air but when I go to put the second one up, I freak out and fall over. No big deal, I fall a lot in yoga.

Attempting side crow was more comical for me last night though. I was holding it, a very hard position if you ask me, for a full five seconds! That was, before I fell straight on my head. My skull hitting the mat made this sort of sic thudding sound and the whole class looked back at me and went "ooouch!" Classic moment for me in yoga!

Not quite what I looked like before my nose dive, but close!

Mast Minds Succeed yet Again

My after school activity is called Master Minds, and we think a lot and come up with masterful solutions to things. I'm always trying to come up with fun challenges for my kids to do and I think I hit the nail on the head with this last one:

build the tallest free standing structure you can with 5 sheets of computer paper and no glue or tape. Go!

Asian Haircut

Tonight was my first international haircut. I said "Some layers around the face and a little trim to cut off some of the slit ends."

I got the one-eye Asian school girl bang. Whatup.

World Math Day!

Today is World Math Day and my after school activity, Master Minds, was TOTALLY into it! Basically you compete against kids your age from across the globe in one minute games of simple arithmetic and see how many questions you can get correct. Not the most complex game I've ever heard of, but the kids loved it so Ms. Pint was happy!

The website chooses people at random to put you against (normally 2-4 kids at one time) and three different computers of our club got onto the same game here! What are the odds???

Jill was one of my Math Olympiads and has been playing this world math day site since I gave her login to her two weeks ago. She can get over 60 questions correct in 60 seconds. She is awesome.