Things that fly...

(besides bugs that is - this post is not about bugs in my food or house!)

Dear All,

Next week are midterms, and I'm frantic - I need grades! So, I'm grading. That's one thing that flies - time.

One day I'll talk about the mathematical formula for teaching. Actually, it's not a formula. I just added up the hours a first-year teacher works, on average, and it came up to, well, maybe I should put it here. I think I shall declare an official "Revere a Teacher" day in honour of all teachers around the globe who are involved in one of the hardest jobs there could be.

For one, teaching is not predictable. For another, it is never predictable. And for another, it is rarely predictable. I wonder if I got my point across. I am getting so used to asking for feedback, I just may slip some in my writing one day ... so if I write, "predictable... now what does predictable mean? Look at the context of the sentence, do you have any clues? What could it mean" ... if I do that, you will have a glimpse of my classroom, and, if you get a flash of insight as to why my students sleep in class, besides staying up all hours, please do let me know.

Back to my point. My mathematical problem: and indeed it is.

5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of prep time each class = 25 hrs
5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of grading time each class = 25 hrs
5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of teaching time each class = 25 hrs

correct me if I'm wrong, I am rather sleepy as I write this, and "rather" is an understatement (what do you think understatement means?)... :| 

If you've added them up, and I assume you did even before you read all my sentences, that calculates to a rough average of 75 hrs a week. How many hours are there in a week anyway? That's where my Sundays go! Now I know.

Another thing that flies - away that is - and that is energy. Even my students are asking for energy during prayer request time. That is sad. I tell them they're too young to get so tired, but what does that make me? It makes me wonder at least.

And yet another thing that flies - or, well I wish could and would, is myself! This picture was taken at the tea plantation / zoo area and one day we will merge it with another picture of one of us pushing another teacher out of the other side, and we will photoshop a scary background in there. But why am I telling you this? I'll spoil it! That's another thing that I have discovered takes wings and flies, and that is common sense and memory, when you lack sleep.

So good night, and until next time,

- R



Miscellaneous Thoughts

This will be miscellaneous as today was rather a hodge-podge day for me. I was surprised - classes went better than I anticipated, seeing as how my students' prayers for no school today because of the typhoon, were not answered quite as they wished, and we were all back in school today. There wasn't the excess amount of bouncing off the walls I was expecting, rather there was quite some decent concentration, for a Monday. Surprises appear everywhere.

Now for the random happenings of today..

Today I asked my students to write about someone important to them. Several asked me if they could write about themselves. ...



My Kitchen - or korridor

 I have decided that for now, rice noodles with some gluten and corn and a bit of stir-fry, is my favorite meal to prepare. It's the fastest too. With my size kitchen, as you can see here, I don't relish standing in it long, slaving over the huge burner that burns everything in sight, so the faster the meal prep, the happier I am.

I have also decided that I do not like little caterpillars in my red lentils. I was quite surprised to see the first one. I had decided, thankfully, to sort my lentils, just to be on the safe side. And as I was sorting through them, I saw what looked like a stone. But upon further inspection, I notised it looked more like a piece of dirt, so I picked it up with my fingers, and thought, it was so soft it must be a dust bunny. The next thing I knew, my stone-turned into-dust bunny, began wriggling, and my dust bunny became a soft, wriggly tiny-worm-like-caterpillar-thing.

With some shrieks and much flying of lentils into the sink, I tried to hastily dispose of the un-dust-bunny. I haven't been here long enough to knowingly and willingly include the extra protein in my diet. I figure gluten and eggs are plenty protein for me

Well that's it for now. My eyes are closing and that usually means I won't get much done as I won't be able to see anymore. Take care,

- R

In Taiwan: Never leave home without an umbrella...
and never eat Hawaiian pizza...

And This is Home (for now)

Dear All,

Taipei City at night

I am back, with new and improved Internet... I hope. If I were to count the hours I spent trying to get connected, through 3 different ways, on two different computers, over the space of 8 different weeks, it would be ... well, a lot. So, I won't try to count them. But it goes without saying, but still I shall say it, that it is so good to have a computer and internet and music. I finally feel I can rest in some semblance of peace at the end of the day. And! I can call home online! What more could I want?





 

So begins my 9th week in Taipei. It's hard to fathom this much time has passed already. Teaching is definitely one of the most time-whirling-away careers out there. I mean that you are constantly busy and even though time doesn't necessarily go by faster, it always goes by full of some sort of activity, which makes it less noticeable, and so after 9 weeks, you're quite amazed it's been that long.

View from the metro station by the school

So here is a post about my new home and the sights, and foods, that are part of this new place I am making home for now. Hope you enjoy the scenes that can only be adequately described through pictures, and not words.







First the videos from the tea plantation...


Here is a video of the gondolas and the tea plantation, from last post :)


The latest thing we did was go on a ferris wheel ride on top of a huge building, and watched the city of Taipei drift by slowly as we rose higher and became increasingly more scared (two of us were, the other two were laughing at us :) because the ground was too far below to even look at. It was quite the experience. Beautiful and breathtaking in many ways (like, holding your breath for 20 minutes).






Taipei at night, taken from a very high altitude



Our method of transportation to see Taipei at night










 





I truly am back in the city!








 

And this is "Home"



Sunday Outing to Tea Plantation

Dear All,

Today three of us teachers decided to leave the books and grading behind for half a day and explore the city of Taipei, specifically, a tea plantation. You get to it by first riding the MRT/metro, (actually 3 of them) then taking a gondola (pictured above) for a ride above the mountains for 10+ minutes, then walking for a mile or two.

The view from the gondolas was spectacular. In fact I tried to take as many pictures as I could, even when I was too scared to look down because it felt like we were going off the edge of the earth.

After a quick stop for some nourishing icecream and water after the long MRT rides and gondola experience, we trekked to the tea plantation or museum and saw how tea is made and dried and grown. We wandered around, taking in both the wildlife such as huge, bright yellow and black striped spiders, and skinny green lizards with long thin tails, and also, when we first came in, tea samples you could pour into your mug from a tap labeled ‘tea.’

As it is quite late I will end here for now. It was quite a good experience to get out for the day. This is my first Sunday in 6 weeks to not go to school and lesson plan, so it was a good day!

Take care,

until next time,

-R

And We're Back...

Dear All,

The Internet has been restored at home, thanks to the help of my fellow co-worker teacher and IT genius. We'll see how long it stays this time. So far it has lasted past the 10 minute mark! I am quite hopeful.

If I ever wondered if my students are learning anything, I have found the answer to that, and it is affirmative. They are, and they show it too. I have heard strains of "yo-oh's" and other sounds resembling our choir vocal exercises streaming up through the humidity to my 3rd floor office while I laboriously arrange stacks of homework into neat little piles that grow into untidy huge haystacks.

This week I learned the difference between "many" and "several" although it is much easier to know than to explain. This week I also had a flashback to my first week of teaching when everything seemed to go wrong and I felt like the world's largest klutz, because today my umbrella refused to extend to its full length and consequently I was left with the only option 0f walking around with a very short umbrella. Thankfully there are many trees shading the streets in Taipei and I was able to walk to the bus without getting sunstroke. It was at this same time, as I was fumbling with my umbrella, pushing and prodding and pulling and shoving, that my little keychain charm on my cellphone decided to break and fall unceremoniously to the ground.

My first week it seemed everything went that way. I dashed into school the first day breathless and scared because I had to teach and I had arrived just after the first period (thankfully I didn't teach until 2nd period), and since my office is a little balcony off of one of the classrooms, I felt I couldn't go in until the class was over! Thankfully I was told I could enter and leave as I pleased, so I did. That first day was also the day I waltzed into the front gate listening to my iPod with soothing music to calm my nerves, and sailed past the front door, where the principal tapped me on the shoulder and discreetly reminded me that the students were not allowed to listen to their iPods and he didn't want me to be embarrassed later. Mortified, I pulled off my headphones and have never worn them since except to listen to music in my office.

But back to the current events. Another reason I know my students are learning something, whether it be what I want them to, or otherwise, is when I entered one of my classes, I was greeted by a student who was pretending to be a teacher. He said "Did you see that? I know how to teach!" and he proceeded to tell me how you teach: you say "Students"* and you have prayer requests, and you give bellwork."** I was quite impressed. In fact I may ask him to teach one day in the near future since he obviously has the aptitude and interest. One less day of lesson planning :)

*this is my phrase for getting their attention; ** this is an assignment to get them working at the beginning of class while I take attendance

I would expound on my daily activities but I fear they are much the same, except for the little daily things students say or the things I learn through experience. For instance, my ESL grammar class falls asleep whenever I open my mouth to talk about the lesson, but if I ask them to compete in two teams to write down the answers to their exercises on the board, they sit up straight and begin to furiously write in the answers before it's their turn to go up to the board so they can win. Competition seems to be a big motivating factor here.

As for my daily schedule... I basically wake up 3-4 hours earlier than I normally would, and arrive at school between 6:30 and 7:30 am, after a 1-mile trek down the street between home and work. I am thankful it's only 12 minutes' walk and no longer. Then I cloister myself in my office until the bell signalling the end of 1st period rings, which is my cue to dash down the stairs to the 2nd floor where I begin teaching my English classes, 3 in a row. Then it's one hour lunch break, which I usually spend hunched over at my desk furiously clicking on my computer and checking my e- mail and doing research. Then I have my last English class, and then student help for the next 2 periods and I alternate between listening and talking with them, and getting grading done. Then on M, W, F, I have choir and by 5:30 my official working day is done. Then begins my unofficial working day, as I proceed to correct, or just arrange, the stacks of homework that have been turned in that day. Thankfully I have learned from the first month, and the size of the homework pile has lessened, now I just need to catch up. I usually research and grade and plan until 7 pm, give or take an hour, then I trek home and find something to eat.

Our most recent exciting event was the opening of our new microwave! We were so excited, my other roommates and I, we decided we really needed a life.

Well I shall write more next time. Until then, adieu, or zaijian (goodbye / until next time).