Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Monster Mangos and Goodbye to Teaching in Taiwan

Well, today was a big day. It was my last day teaching in Taiwan (we still have to proctor finals for the next four days, but I won't be doing any instruction with the classes I've had all year). It was a bittersweet feeling all day: I'm so close to the end of the school year that I'm just itching for it to be done, but it's the last time I'll be teaching in Taiwan so I'm trying to make it last. An odd combination if you ask me!

One class in particular I will miss from this year. My second class of 10th graders of the day was always a ball of energy for me. As any teacher will tell you, some classes just have "it" where all of the members contribute to a simply wonderful classroom climate. There's no particular reason why some classes have "it" and some don't, so as a teacher you just have to enjoy them when they come along. My 10th graders definitely had "it." I won't say anymore, I'll just let the following pictures speak for themselves...
Some of the girls in the class were almost in tears on the last day. They are so sweet.

But also pretty crazy, as you can see!

Even though we had lots to review for our final still, they made me get another teacher to take a whole group photo. I can't say as I'm reallllly upset about this ;)
Besides having a great last day as a teacher in Taiwan, I also made a wonderful discovery. As I've previously stated, Taiwan mangos are beyond delicious and I have made it a goal of mine to eat one every day until I leave. That is not a joke either. Well today I stopped at a fruit stand and got some mangos. I was about to go checkout when I noticed a giant, mango shaped yellow fruit right next to the regular little orange ones I get. I can't read chinese, so I was completely guessing at what it was, but I figured it was worth the bet.

Sure enough, I got home and whipped out my cutting board immediately to find that it is a GIANT mango! SCORE! As you can see from the picture, it is literally double in size. I'd call that a perfect after school snack!
My Monster Mango cut in half next to the regular, baby sized, mangos I normally get.
What an epic day...Only 13 days until I'm home...

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Graduation 2012

It is hard to believe that graduation has come and gone already. I didn't teach this bunch of seniors, but I taught a few of them last year and know almost all of them outside of class. Some of them I know better than the students I teach because of random interactions in the halls and activities. It's really a fun atmosphere when it's such a small school.

Needless to say, today was fun and a little sad. I had to say goodbye to some kids that I have known for two years. However, graduating from high school is a rite of passage for every kid and it gives me great pride to know that I helped shape these young adults (some more than others). Congratulations class of 2012! Good luck in whatever you chose to do with your next steps in life :)

Class of 2012 right after the ceremony

The Girls- (left to Right) Kate, Nichole, Me, Jane

My favorite Korean student, taught him last year and unofficially advised him this year. He's happy, I promise :)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The End is Near...

There are 17 days between now and when I board a plane, never to return to Taiwan. Now I don't know that I won't ever return to Taiwan, but it seems unlikely to me. It is a very bittersweet feeling for me because on one hand I am dying to be back home with family and Target stores plentifully in every city. On the other hand, I currently live on a beautiful, exotic, tropical island where everyday brings new things and your life is just legitimately more interesting. Like I said, bittersweet.

It hasn't really hit me yet that I will be leaving in a little less than 3 weeks and never returning. However, I am trying to check things off of my bucket list to get ready for the ultimate departure. Here is what I need to do thus far:

1) Drink as much bubble teas as humanly possible (one a day?)

2) Eat at least one mango each day (Taiwan mangos are sweeter than any candy you can buy here, most delicious fruit I have ever eaten!)

3) Make another trip up to the waterfall

4) Buy more pearls and Jade! Of course :)

5) Eat stinky tofu one last time, when in Rome!

6) Buy more tea to take home

7) Enjoy my city

I am going to miss Taiwan, but at least I have some time left now to give it one last goodbye. 17 days to go!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

I Was Born this Way (a Geometry Teacher)

There are always good and bad days as a teacher, and being a geometry teacher is no different. Do I love teaching rule after rule on chords in circles? Absolutely not, they are unnecessary and annoyingly similar yet different. Terrible.

However, there are lessons that I literally can't wait to teach all year. Today was one of those lessons: a basic introduction to geometric solids or 3D shapes in geometry. You're jealous you're not one of my students right now, correct?!

My students discussing the smaller models I gave them to name after the lesson
I like this lesson because it is so tangible for my students. English language learners are always grasping for something concrete to hold onto and a cube provides a pretty solid grip. It's also a good lesson because these solids show up everywhere in the real world so it's easy for the kids to relate. One of my girls said the cylinder was like toilet paper; that was a new one I hadn't heard before :)

A look at the "skins" and diagrams I drew to go along with
This year was definitely better than last year because I worked out all of the kinks from my first year teaching. As a department, we have nice clear models of the four basic solids (cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid) which come in very handy during this chapter obviously. And this year I took it a little further and wrapped those models up in colorful paper. Then in class, as we were writing down the proper definitions of each solid, I was also able to engage students in a constant dialogue regarding the "skins" and what they would look like "unwrapped." We talked about the similarities between them, like how cones and cylinders both have at least one base of a circle. Then we discussed the differences, like how cones don't have any defined sides while pyramids always have triangle sides.

It was a lesson that went all hour, 50 minutes, and I have never seen my class so engaged in a basic lecture. Well, I guess that's because it wasn't exactly a basic lecture- I was "undressing models" in front of class! Get it? Taking off the colorful paper of the geometric models I had! I know, I'm clever. My students think so too...perhaps.



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Goodbye My Possessions! I Hope to See you Again Someday in the Future!

With just under 6 weeks left in Taiwan (ever!), I am starting the somewhat terrible and somewhat fun process of relocating to another country once again. Yes, it has started already. I came to Taiwan in three suitcases, and I will not be able to leave with just that! It's amazing how much stuff one person can accumulate in the course of two years.

I had heard from other coworkers who went through this same process last year that shipping boxes home by "slow boat" (meaning your package is literally shipped on a barge instead of flown in the air) is pretty easy to do from Taiwan and relatively cheap. So a few weeks ago I set out on the quest to find boxes to put my "life" in. I went to grocery stores, hardware stores, stationary stores, looking for the perfect discarded pieces of cardboard to safely house my things back to the U.S. The biggest requirement I was in search of was box dimensions big enough to pack enough in while still being able to fit on my scooter (how else would I get it to the post office?! I miss my Civic...and it's trunk space). It was a challenge.

Little by little however, I managed to gather three good boxes to meet my very specific size requirements. Then I began compiling the heaviest, bulkiest stuff I owned here that wasn't going to be used in this last month. I packed up DVD's, books (too many!), nail polish (many bottles = surprising amounts of weight), extra t-shirts, sweatpants, and all types of jackets- professional and recreational. In my scooter sized boxes and with three separate trips to the post office, I packed the excess baggage of my life. And now it's gone...hopefully not for good!

The post office is pretty easy to navigate here and my coworkers from last year were right, it was cheap to send those boxes. All three cost me just over $100 total which is nothing compared to the $700 allowance my school gives me to move home. The only problem? It takes 3 months for them to reach their destination. Slow boat, remember?! Yikes, so I guess I'll find out in August if I still own several bottles of shockingly pink OPI nail polish and a twentieth anniversary edition of Bambi on DVD. I will keep my fingers crossed that they show up but I sure won't be holding my breath until then!


Countdown until my departure from Taiwan: 39 days

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Touring in My Own Country

Working long days, grading at night, and lesson planning on the weekends tends to make you forget there is life outside teaching. This is common when you are teaching in the U.S., and sadly enough it becomes more and more likely the longer you live in a foreign country. You forget that you are actually living somewhere unique and different and fall into the old routines of everyday life. In order to actually take advantage of living in such a cool place, you need to force yourself to be a tourist in your own country. Thus, I have been making this a big push in my life in the last few weeks I have here in Taiwan.

Last weekend, a coworker and I took the Taiwan High Speed Rail down to Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan. We stayed in a brand new hotel, which was awesome, and saw what the southern city of Kaohsiung had to offer. We walked along the fisherman's pier, strolled along the famous Love River that runs through the center, and rented bikes to go out to the old British Consulate that overlooks the city. It was great. The best part about that weekend was that by Sunday, I felt like I had had a real vacation and was ready for my week to start.
 Called the "Dome of Light" in the Formosa Boulevard MRT station in Kaohsiung

 View of Kaohsiung City from the British Consulate up on the hill
Really cool graffiti or murals (I couldn't tell which to be honest) on a building in the art district


Today, although I didn't travel anywhere else on the island, I did take a long walking tour of my own city, Taichung. I walked to the Science Museum which has a nice park all around it. Then I wound my way down further into the heart of the city and ended up at the National Museum of Art. It's free and oddly enough, I've never been there. Most importantly, it was air conditioned so after a long, hot walk, it was perfect.

Besides the much needed break from the heat, I also made an important discovery while there: Taiwan has some amazing art. I've always told people that Taiwan does not produce hardly any art simply because you can never buy it anywhere. There are never local vendors or small artists with their own galleries. You can't walk through small art fairs and buy cheap prints of photography even if you wanted to. So I was simply convinced it did not exist on this tiny island.

I was wrong of course. The art here is just for museums only, but it does exist. Even in the museum shop, there were no prints or mugs or even keychains of any of the local Taiwanese artists I saw in the museum. I did, however, see plenty of Van Gogh and Monet posters. Why, Taiwan, why? When there is such wonderful art being produced here, I still don't understand how the people don't want to display it more. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy it for one afternoon.

Two of my favorites from today:

Liu Kuo-Sung  

Chen Ting-Shih

Now if only I could buy prints of these somewhere in Taiwan! Anyhow, good day being a tourist in my own city.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Applying for Jobs While Living Abroad

The long and winding road has begun: I've been job searching for the 2012-2013 school year already. Just like any job search, there are disappointments lining your path with an ever constant feeling of frustration to keep you warm at night. The most frustrating part for me however is that I live thousands of miles away from these schools and 13 hours ahead in time. The most frustrating emails of incomplete files received and scheduling conflicts always wake me up in the morning which is never good to start a day with.

However terrible it has been, there is a glint of hope in my educational heart currently. After submitting no less than eighteen applications over the past month or so, I have had two interviews, one job offer, and I'm feeling good about some other prospects. I'm waiting to hear from an interview that I did last night (at midnight mind you...) by the end of this week, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I will keep you all posted as I hear (hopefully) from prospective employers...

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Algebra 2 Activity Epic Success!

I have always been the type of teacher who likes to do hands-on activities. It breaks up the monotony of math lectures (yes, this math teacher admits it can get a whee bit boring) and allows for a lot of students to get involved who don't normally. I especially like discovery based learning when it comes to the younger grades because it tends to help them connect the concepts more than just examples.

This entire year I have been resisting doing too many activities of this nature with one class in particular however. I have a class of tenth graders who are all very bright, fairly motivated, and well behaved....when you lecture at them. The few activities I tried with them in the beginning of the year were a disaster! Such great little children turned into terrible angry monsters the moment I released them from their assigned seats. I try not to revisit those days in my mind, gives me shivers.

I was getting a little spring fever while planning last week though, and wanted to try an activity with them again. Why not? How bad could it be, again? We are studying exponential growth and decay and I found a cool activity in the textbook of all places involving pennies. You start with one hundred in a cup or dish. You spill all of them out on the desk and remove all of the pennies facing heads-up. After taking away the evil heads-up pennies, count what you have left. Repeat this process until you are down to one. The theory behind this is that half of the pennies should be removed each time you spill them out onto the desk. Hence, following an exponential decay model where you have a rate of 50% and a starting amount of 100. Simple enough.

So like any ambitious/perhaps stupid second-year teacher, I typed up a worksheet and went about harassing coworkers to donate to my educational fund. And to my total shock, it was what I would call an epic success in class today! I have never heard them so quiet and focused when doing an activity like this. They completed the steps and dutifully started on the critical thinking questions on the backside of the worksheet. What I'm very impressed with is the fact that they used their partners to figure it out, not automatically ask me on each step. It was honestly so great, I don't think I can accurately convey it through this blog. Great teaching moment for me!

Needless to say, I will maybe try a few more hands-on activities with that class before the end of the year!
I also like these sorts of activities because some of my students physically go
nuts sitting in a desk all day. Sure! Lay on the floor and count! Why not?!

  

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Beijing with the Sisters

Well, I've been a little late on this update due to a busy week back at school, but Beijing with the sisters was a TOTAL success! I had my expectations of a good trip with maybe some stumbling blocks here and there, but I really can't say we even had even the slightest slip-up.

Ok ok, that's a little bit of a lie, we did have some issues getting to our hotel the night of our arrival. We have come to the conclusion after the fact that we ended up with a driver who was illiterate. The hotel sent me detailed, step by step directions in Chinese for a driver from the airport which he couldn't follow. So near the end of our trip, he parked the car on a corner, got out, and proceeded to ask a small schoolgirl how to get to our hotel. Pink backpack, pigtails, the whole works; she was probably 9. Eventually we made it, but it was funny to say the least.

And I guess there was my departure which was a little too close for comfort. I had a flight leaving from the Beijing Airport at 8 p.m. the night before the sisters left. I knew I wanted to get there at about 6 p.m. thus wanted to leave the hotel via taxi at about 5:15. Well, we got to drinking beers on an awesome rooftop bar in between the Drum and Bell Towers and misjudged the time it would take us to get back. Because at about 4:50 we were racing down the street to get to our hotel from the metro stop and my bag was completely unpacked still. When I opened it up in Taiwan again, my things were literally in ball form from my rushed packing. However, I did make it to the airport in plenty of time, so I can't really complain.

So like I said, minor minor travel blunders but nothing to really tarnish my memories of the trip. All in all, I had a wonderful time in Beijing, and more importantly a wonderful time with my sisters. We saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and just about everything else. We had Peking Duck (YUM!) and other traditional dishes. Melissa kept us on track the whole time so we utilized every second of every day to the fullest, hence we went to bed at 9 p.m. every night! It is a trip I will not soon forget, Beijing is really a great city and it was a really amazing time I got to spend with my sisters.

Temple of Heaven

Tina on the Great Wall

Melissa in front of the Forbidden City and right across the street from Tiananmen Square (hence the picture of Mao...)


Great Wall of China


Pint Girls at the Forbidden City

Monday, April 2, 2012

Tainan Trip A Success



After about 28 hours in Tainan, we are off to China tomorrow to see the Great Wall and Mao. So before we head off to the land of restricted internet (so thankful I live in Taiwan), I figured I'd share some pictures of us in Tainan.
We told Tina, "Go put your hand in that hole in the tree" and she did it. Had to take a picture.
Big night market in downtown Tainan.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

A Few Short Pictures Before Tainan...

This morning we're heading off to Tainan, so I figured I'd post a few pictures before we left. The sisters and I are enjoying the vacation thus far, so I'll keep you updated!

The Sister's enjoyed the soft-shell crab at the Vietnamese restaurant on Friday night!

The big golden Budda near our house.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Seesters on their Way!

Well, it's official: my sisters are somewhere in the air between Los Angeles and Taipei! I have waited patiently, and now that the time is here, I am getting very nervous! I'm obviously excited to see them too, but I'm really starting to wonder how they'll like Taiwan and how well Tina will sleep (my guess, not well!). It's just a little pressure hosting your only two sisters!

Thus far the schedule is pretty set, and since I don't think I'll get a chance to update my blog while they're here, I'll outline our trip right now. Tonight, Thursday, they land in Taipei at 8:30 and I will meet them and bring them back down to Taichung. Tomorrow they will come to school with me for our half day before the start of spring break; they get to meet all of my little darlings and even get to play SAT Math Jeopardy with 10th graders. Friday night a bunch of coworkers and I will take the sisters to our favorite Vietnamese seafood restaurant for some Taiwan Beer and deep fried soft-shell crap (um, YUM!).

Saturday will bring lots of goodies, especially for Melissa! We're going to hit two pearl/jade markets and then dinner somewhere that night- perhaps up the mountains at a place we refer to as the "Mushroom Palace." Then Sunday we take off for Tainan, a smaller city South of Taichung about 35 minutes by high speed rail. We'll spend the night, return to Taichung on Monday, and fly out to Beijing on Tuesday!

Now I can't give you an itinerary on Beijing because I'm not going to be planning anything once we're in China: I had to plan all of the Taiwan stuff! So we will see what those days bring, but I'm sure we'll see the Great Wall, The Forbidden Palace, and Mao (his body is perserved for viewing...).

If I can, I'll try to post some pictures before we leave Taiwan on Tuesday, but that will depend on how busy the seesters keep me! Wish us/me luck!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

What I Love and Will Miss about our Students

There is no doubt that Asian students have more of an aptitude for mathematics. I think it has more to do with their schooling from a young age rather than genetics, but that's just my opinion. Either way, most of my students are ahead of their American counterparts as far as age groups go. One special group of students that makes this fact very obvious is the math olympiad team, whom I have worked with for two years now. They are 8th graders who can do more math than most college freshmen in the States.

It's an understatement to say I will miss them, for obvious and multiple reasons, but I will specifically really miss their intrinsic motivation to do math of all things. Just now the bell rang to release students from their last hour of the day to go to their dorms to change for activity. Michael, one of my math olympiads from the fall, came right over from art class (next door) only moments after the ringing of the bell left my ears. His purpose? "Do you have any hard math questions for me, Teacher?"

He does this from time to time; I don't teach him and never have, I just coached him in math olympiad in the fall of both of my years here. He just simply loves math so he comes and visits me sometimes. I don't have normal math problems just laying around my classroom, so I generally give him SAT math prep tests. And you know what, he does well on them. I love these kids' natural math ability!

Now we'll just see how he does with the special right triangles SAT sheet I just gave him!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

They Can't Deny It, The Students Actually Like Math!


We've been working on our all school math competition , Math Wars, since early November and it has been an uphill battle. Entire prep periods devoted to a saturday in which we would put in basically volunteer hours just to have this event. Countless night trips to hardware stores and dollar stores gathering supplies. And of course, the ever constant battle with administration to get exactly what you need to make it happen. Needless to say, we were all really hoping it was be good in the end.


Lucky for us, our hard work paid off in full: Math Wars was a shining success! I knew it would be good when I started with an all school presentation in the auditorium at 1:30 yesterday. The students filed in just like any other day, but when I started talking they were really listening. I don't mean the sort of teenage half-listen and half continue talking with your friends, I mean actually listening. I explained the day to them: five different rooms that they could choose to be in focusing on different applications of math. We had the visual room, the vocabulary room, the construction room, logic room and finally the challenge room. It was up to them which room they wanted to compete in and I think that made a big difference for a lot of students.

I was in charge of the challenge room- "only for the serious mathematicians." As all of the students in the challenge room filed in and sat down at their tables in the cafeteria, I could tell there was definite excitement building. I explained the rules and the process of the day, and then went on to detail the opening activity. Now the opening activity was the only one that was a direct competition for the entire event. Each team had to use two containers, one with 3 units of water marked and the other with 5 units, and pour exactly 4 units of water into my cup which was also marked. As I finished explaining and took one last pause, I literally saw students sitting on the edge of their seats. So I just said "Go!" and I have never seen some of these kids move so fast!

It was really just as intense for the rest of the time; each house (team) was working on what they wanted because we provided them with five or six other challenge problems that they could choose from to try and gain points. Again, I have never seen some of these kids work so hard! I even saw some shaking hands and that is not an exaggeration!

The best part about it was that I was hearing the exact same thing from other teachers in the other four rooms. It seems like all of the students enjoyed their time and really got competitive about it. We had kids getting really pumped about the results which we are refusing to release until Monday at assembly. Little did they know they would like a math competition so much! :)



Thursday, March 22, 2012

On the Eve of Math Wars...


Well folks, tomorrow is the day. The day that my math department has been preparing for since November. The video (see previous post to have your mind blown) has been made, posters have been hung around school, and all supplies have been gathered. Tomorrow is Math Wars 2012 at school, an all school math competition!

I am so excited I cannot possibly begin to explain. On one hand, I'm just so curious to see how the students like it and if it is as epic of a success as I am imagining in my head (I think so!). On the other hand, I'm just really excited for it to be over so I can have all of my prep periods back! It's going to be very fun and a great accomplishment to have under my belt, but boy does it take a lot of work to organize an event for 180 kids!

It is Friday at noon and I just put the finishing touches on the trophy for Math Wars. Now we just have to wait and see which house brings home the gold! Stay tuned...


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

St. Patrick's Day in Asia


Very American holiday's are always interesting when celebrated in Taiwan. As one can imagine, the Taiwanese don't get overly excited about holiday's such as St. Patrick's day. Now we do a pretty good job at picking up the slack and making the best of it, but it's always difficult to get certain essentials.

For St. Patricks day this year, Nichole (my roommate) and I decided to have a little green gathering at our apartment. And since it was such a fun themed party, we wanted to get costumes to really take it to the next level. We go to a costume shop where you can rent full costumes for school a lot. So we drove over there and checked it out last Friday. Sadly enough, we couldn't find any full body leprechaun costumes there, but we got creative and still made the party a hit!

We didn't have any green food coloring to make themed appetizers, but we did get foods in the three main colors of the Irish flag (and of course positioned them in the order of the flag as well). So even though we live in Asia where pots of gold and four leaf clover decorations are impossible to find, we gave it the old American try and did our best with random stuff! It turned out pretty well too!




Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Math Wars

I have fallen behind, once again, but boy do I have something exciting to tell you! In the time that I left you last, lots has happened obviously. We had our advisees over for dinner at our apartment, had a Ladies Night (teachers only that time) out on the town, and have been doing lots of other little things. So my time has been clearly elsewhere, instead of blogging. But something is in the works right now that I can't help but tell you all about.

We are having an all school math competition in one and a half weeks! I know, exciting. So to build anticipation for the event, we showed a video at assembly. Let me just post the link to the YouTube video of it and I'll let you see for yourselves...it is EPIC.


Enjoy :)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Earthquake!...on the 10th Floor

It has been a miracle that this year there have been significantly less earthquakes than last year. Well, that miracle was shaken away on Sunday morning when our apartment building began to sway. Yes, you read that right, sway.

Earthquakes are scary enough to us Midwesterners because it is such a foreign and unnerving feeling. Last year they were scary; the building shakes and the contents of your shelfs start to rumble towards the edge. This year is oh-so-much worse living on the 10th floor of a high rise apartment complex. Now, I take comfort in thinking about how many regulations there must be on buildings as tall as ours (17 stories!), but I also worry that it could still fall. Obviously.

It is a very odd/terrifying sensation to realize that your entire apartment building is swaying back and forth because there is an earthquake. It sort of feels like when you go up into a tall fire-tower and it sways with the breeze. Except this is a huge concrete and steel structure...where you live. We checked later and it was actually a pretty big earthquake, 6.1 on the Richter Scale, but it was far away and deep in the earth. It still scared me enough to not want to experience any more while at home! Minnesota, when can I set my feet on your solid ground again???

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Joy's of Having a Mechanic Named Bruce

I am convinced that mechanics all over the world must all be alike. It takes a special type of person to get their hands dirty day after day and constantly fix machines that the rest of us try our bests to run into the ground. No matter the race, language, or time zone, a mechanic is a mechanic.

Which is exactly why I love my mechanic Bruce. First of all, his name is Bruce which is quite possibly the best mechanics name in all the land. Second, he is the stereotypical mechanic you would think of, but Asian. In a culture that is lacking in machoness, Bruce is all that is man. I know several male coworkers who love to go visit him just because they think he is a cool guy.

And most importantly, Bruce is a straight shooter and will not cheat you on parts or labor costs (since he doesn't charge anything labor, it would be pretty tough to!). I can go get my oil changed from Bruce (like I just did, hence the raving blog post you are reading) and he will tell me if my tires need to be changed or just pumped up with air. He will tell me I'm an idiot for waiting so long to get my oil changed and then he will tell me if I need to replace the brakes or not. Last time I did need to replace my brakes, and good old Bruce put in used ones to save me some money...which I hope is safe.

My favorite part about seeing Bruce for my oil change however, is the departure. I will generally smile and tell him thank you and all I get in response is a slight nod of the head and a somewhat dismissive hand wave. Mechanics are lovable, gruff characters. Even in Taiwan.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Volleyball Tournament Weekend


For the second year in a row, we have hosted the ACAMIS middle school volleyball tournament right here in Taichung. That was this weekend and since I had relatively nothing to do, I decided to drive on over and cheer for the kids. I teach quite a few of them and since it's a small school, I know almost all others.

The volleyball was fun to watch, but perhaps the best part about going there was our unexpected welcome. We walked into the gym while the girls team was warming up and the boys were sitting on the bleachers ready to watch them. One of them must have spotted us come in because they started waving and then when we waved back one of them jumped up, ran to meet us, and gave us high fives. And then the next one ran up, and the next one. We successively high-fived the entire middle school boys team and went to go sit down on the bleachers thinking they all ran past us because they had somewhere to be. Instead, they just filed back and returned to sit all around us. It was pretty adorable because they all jumped out of their seats solely because they were so excited to see us there, it really makes me glad I went!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

"I Feel So Accomplished"

There are inevitably days in teaching when you curse the ground in your classroom and ask yourself "Why? Why did I go into education?!" Luckily, those are almost always offset by the really great days when students surprise you in the best ways. Today was one of the good days.

About a month and a half ago, we got a student in from L.A. He is Taiwanese born but lived in California for over 7 years; needless to say he is practically fluent in English which is awesome. Along with this great communication however, comes the American mindset of many students. Nick (that's what I'll call him on here) doesn't like math, and doesn't want to do it, and he will let you know this. Oh boy will he let you know. It is in stark contrast to his classmates who are generally good at math and sweet students overall.

I have been struggling with Nick ever since he came- he doesn't want to do any work and is a distraction to other students in class if he's awake (he sleeps lots in my class too). He feels like he shouldn't be in Geometry and should instead be in a lower class because he failed his last math class, Algebra 1. I don't blame him necessarily, but it's impossible with his schedule to put him in a lower class at our school. Consequently, he has been shutting down a lot in my class no matter what I do to try to engage him.

Today in Geometry was just another day, so I wasn't anticipating anything special. We were working on sine, cosine, and tangent and I split the students into partners to do some problems. To my great surprise, I noticed Nick hunched over his notebook working intently. This almost never happens, so I let him go and waited for him to finish. When he did, he looked up, raised his hand, and asked if I could check his work. When I told him it was 100% correct, his face lit up and said "Wow, I feel so accomplished!" He then proceeded to go around the class helping other students who didn't understand.

It was a pretty cool moment. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but it's a start to say the least.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Taipei City!



What I love most about being a normal adult again, I don't teach on Saturday's for the second half of the year, is that I get real weekends. Since I get two full days off, I took full advantage of it this weekend. A friend of mine and I hopped a bus bound for Taipei City!

Even though I have been here for a year and a half already, I still have not seen Taipei...at all. It is sad, I know, so I did something to change it. We left school right away on Friday and got to our hotel at about 8 that evening. Not much time for anything but a little BBQ and some Taiwan Beers. A good Friday night if you ask me!

Saturday we were up early and to the National Palace Museum by midmorning to beat the crowds. The National Palace Museum in Taipei has more original Chinese artifacts than the Beijing museum because a lot of it was smuggled out of the country for safe keeping when Mao took over in the early 1940's. So it's a really cool experience to have and we quite appropriately spent over 3 hours there. Time for a late lunch, rest time, and then dinner at a Mexican restaurant. A drink at a bar and then it was time for us dorky teachers to hit the sack.

Sunday we took a short MTR trip to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Chiang Kai-shek was the first leader of Taiwan after they separated from China) which is very impressive. It didn't hurt that it was a beautiful day in February, so it was a good end to our weekend. A short bus ride back brings us back to reality, but it was a really great weekend away. And I finally got to see Taipei! A very nice Asian city, and a nice modern place in Taiwan...


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Will I get My Keys Back?

We have been having problems in our bathroom recently with a leaky shower. So we called Daniel, the son-in-law of our landlord, who speaks awesome English and lives in the building next to ours. He came over a week ago maybe and took a look at it and decided he couldn't fix it. He arranged for us to have a handyman come and last night he finally did.

This was the same handyman I had try to fix our couch a while ago (see previous post on it...truly great) so I was glad to see him. Unfortunately, he couldn't fix it at the time either- he needed a new rubber washer before he could stop the leak. So Daniel suggested that I give him my keys and he would let the repairman in the next day around noon. "Well," I asked Daniel, "that sounds fine, but how am I going to get my keys back then?"

"Oh, I'll just leave them with the front desk workers for you to pick up" was his obvious response. However, I had flashbacks to the first time we tried to talk to them about our mailbox and why there was this weird colored thing on it, and it was a total and epic failure. He must have seen my face turn colors, because he assured me that he would leave a note or something. I have my doubts that this will work though. Unless his note says "There will be a crazy white girl who can't speak any Chinese needing to pick these up from you" I don't foresee this going well.

Everyone, keep your fingers crossed that I see my keys again!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Lantern Festival 2012

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration each year. You probably picture iconic images of beautiful lit orbs floating away in a skyline of orange (see more info here), but unfortunately that doesn't happen too much anymore. Now the Taiwanese simply celebrate with street food (yum!), bad live music, and lighted dragons (since it is the year of the dragon now). Fingers crossed though, I should be getting some more pictures of actual lanterns being set off from school tonight, but until then take a look at the modern celebration we partook in last night at a park downtown! Happy Lantern Festival everyone.
Just your standard street food stalls. This one has some pig's blood cake I think...
Year of the dragon!!!
Just a couple of white people enjoying this Asian tradition.


Thursday, February 2, 2012

This Means War!!!


As my previous post mentioned, there are definitely benefits to teaching at a private international school. I rediscovered another one: how much fun you can have with coworkers and students. I realize, again, that there is fun to be had in American public schools as well, but things are just more relaxed here. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the student-teacher relationship is just different when you are a teacher at a boarding school.

So one of my coworkers, Dan, loves candy. I don't think you understood me just there, you probably read" My coworker Dan really enjoys to eat candy", but what I mean is that my coworker Dan literally loves candy. It is hilarious and also sometimes an issue.

Take for instance today: I was out of my classroom down the hall for two seconds before my cleaners came (each student cleans a designated classroom between 6th and 7th hour each day at our school). As I was walking back to my room, Dan comes scurrying out while laughing hysterically and I find my cleaners looking somewhat scared and definitely confused holding various cleaning tools. Concerned, I surveyed my room only to find my Jolly Rancher container open and missing some candy! Dan!!!!!!!!

As if that wasn't funny enough, he then proceeded to send his cleaner, 8th-grade Julia, down to my room with one of the empty wrappers and instructed her to tell me "Mr. K said it was delicious! Thank you!". What he didn't realize however, was that he started a war. I already have the perfect retaliation, but I am not allowed to discuss it here because he may have spies who read this blog.

I love teaching at a private international school! So much fun :)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

My Students Feed Me

There are definitely perks to teaching in an international private school. One of those perks that I experience on a daily basis is the general kindness of all of our students. I realize that in public school, there are plenty of nice kids, but the student teacher relationship in America is significantly colder than here. In the States it is common to ask a teacher, "how was your weekend?" and it is equally as common for the teacher to respond with a simple "it was good! Ok, take out your books..."

Here, I have a much stronger connection with almost all of my students because, frankly, I have to. We are a boarding school so all of my students live here without any sort of parents involved. A lot of them are even alone on Parent's Day...which is twice a year. It's sort of sad when you think about it.

Lucky for me though, they sort of treat us teachers as their parents/mentors/older siblings I guess. They ask us how our weekend was and expect a real answer, so I have gotten in the habit of telling them the rundown of what I did on the weekend. They know when I clean, when I go shopping, and what my favorite restaurants are.

Another great thing about our teenage students is that they are always hungry. Thus, they always have food in class. I allow it in my classroom because I have a standing rule about eating: it's fine as long as you give Ms. Pint some. I have them trained so well that one of my students, Jason, just walked into my classroom and without even sitting down walked over to my desk and offered me a cracker. I'm starting to get nervous that the American school children won't share their candy with me when I return...

Monday, January 30, 2012

Zoo Project

It's that wonderful time of year again, the one where I hear the groan of geometry students and get to see the cogs turning in their minds. That's right, the 2nd annual Biology/Geometry Zoo Project is upon us!

I just passed out the project description sheet to my two classes today and I am excited to see what this year brings. If I haven't preached to you about this project before, let me take this opportunity to let you know what I'm talking about (and tell the rest of you about it again, yay!). I created this project last year off of a similar type project I found online and it is my favorite geometry project. It challenges the students to not only complete the list of requirements and follow directions carefully, but it allows them to be creative and figure it out for themselves.

Basically I partner with my friend Kate who teaches Biology to the exact same classes that I teach Geometry to. In this project the groups of students design a zoo following certain requirements we give them. There are 5 animal types they must use with specific enclosure requirements they must follow (for example, the elephants need 300 square feet each, there will be three in the zoo, and the enclosure must be either be in the shape of a rhombus or a kite) and they are in charge of picking a 6th animal to put in their zoo. For Kate they turn in a report on what the zoo needs to do to take care of their 6th animal and any other information they think is relevant to keeping their animal in captivity. For me, they complete a scale drawing of their zoo complete with all area's of the pens and their work in finding that.

This year should be a good year because I have examples to show my classes this time around. Some of my students last year did a really nice job on it and I am excited to show these examples and challenge my current students to top them. We start work days tomorrow so I'm excited to see what they start cooking up! I'll keep you posted :)

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hong Kong for Chinese New Year....Sorry for not Posting For Forever!

I don't even know what to say, except "sorry"? I was planning on posting when I got back from Hawaii, I was, and then life happened. Back to school, getting ready for midterms, writing midterms (blah!), and then midterm week. And then we left for Chinese New Year Break! Not a good enough excuse? I know, I'm sorry.

So let me fill you in a little (this could take a while, better get another cup of coffee!). Where I left you last was right before Christmas break, so let me elaborate on Hawaii a little...it is AWESOME! I have heard from many people that they love it and I knew it would be great, but I liked it a whole lot more than I was expecting to. It didn't hurt that I got to see my family (sans Melissa) either. All in all, it was a really great family vacation in a really great state. I loved it.
Near old scientific drilling holes in Volcanoes National Park. You can still feel warm steam!
Of course respecting this holy place of the native Hawaiians...



From there I flew all the way back to Taiwan by myself, which was a little sad after so much time with family, but was welcomed back with a New Year's Eve party when I returned. It was nice to see friends again and bring in the new year by watching fireworks off of our 10th floor balcony in Taichung. Like I mentioned before, midterms dominated my life for the next week or so and then when midterms week actually hit, it was nothing but play time for me! It was great! :)

It turns out that if you do not need to plan lessons for classes and grade at night, it leaves you a lot of free time. So while proctoring midterms during the day, I spent my nights seeing movies and going out to eat; it was really a nice break while still working. And then came our actual break!

So with the same group of girls as my last year's Chinese New Year trip to Thailand, we took off for Hong Kong. It was a nice trip filled with Western style food (and some Indian, Thai, and traditional Chinese thrown in there too) and good beer finally. Hong Kong isn't a "sight seeing" type of city, but we did see some cool gardens and temples. We caught the light show on the harbor (the world's largest and longest standing permanent light show at 8 p.m. every night) and saw fireworks for Chinese New Year over that same harbor. We stood outside to watch the Chinese New Year Parade and even saw the Rams cheerleaders who flew out to participate...it was odd to say the least! And we even took a day trip via ferry to Macau (Asia's gambling capital, very much like Vegas).
Old streets of Macau- a Portuguese colony hence it felt very oddly European.

Hong Kong skyline at night.



Is that Bruce Lee?


I don't want to bore you with the details of everything we did, but I do want to tell you one story in particular. Above Hong Kong's soaring towers and crowded streets, there sits a very large statue of Buddha. All of our friends who have been to Hong Kong before told us it was pretty cool, so we planned on seeing it one day. Unfortunately, all of our friends saw it in summer or fall, not winter. Needless to say, we had some faulty advice on the site and we didn't think about it enough to foresee the problems we encountered. So let me tell you this little cautionary tale.

There is a cable car that leads up to the Buddha which is supposed to have spectacular views on the way up and down. So we waited in line to take the cable car for well over an hour; since it was Chinese New Year it was pretty packed. Once up the mountain, it was cold. Now I'm from Minnesota, I know what cold is, but this was brutal. I think I heard it was about three degrees celsius (or roughly 37 degrees Fahrenheit) and we didn't have any sort of winter jackets. We made the best of it though, we already made it up there so why not?
The only good view on the way up. Everything else was just white from fog.


Unfortunately, it also happened to be cold enough that day where the moisture in the air turned into a thick/freezing fog. We literally couldn't see the big Buddha even when standing right beneath it. Again, it was funny to us because, well, why not laugh at the situation? We had some fun posing with some statues, laughed a lot, and genuinely enjoyed the cold time we had up there.
Is that a Big Buddha there? I can't even tell! :)





Just as we were beginning to lose feeling in our fingers and toes, we headed back to the line to ride down. As we approached, there was an employee there saying that cable car service was "temporarily" suspended and they were getting buses to take people down. Fine, no problem, just get me somewhere warm were our thoughts. And that's when we rounded a corner to see probably a thousand people already in line. We laughed about it for about a half an hour....
...and then we just got too cold to laugh. And anger set in. Then despair, and finally ironic bitterness.

Up on top of a mountain, standing in near freezing winds and mist, with rain jackets and sweatshirts beneath only, we waited. We waited in line, outside mind you, for over two hours. Finally we were ushered onto a bus for a forty minute ride down the mountain to the sounds of a fellow passenger losing their lunch because of the windy road. We finally made it down and were reimbursed for our cable car ride to a Buddha we couldn't even see. Sigh. I guess there's always one terrible day of travel for each trip!

Hong Kong is great, but I just wouldn't suggest taking a trip to the Big Buddha in January :)