My One Year Review-: A+

Its summer school and with the extra time, I decided to write a review of my first year at Huey Deng.

I. The Daily Grind

My bosses, managers, coworkers are nothing short of extraordinary. We (foreign teachers) are treated like we are proficient at our jobs and everyone has been utterly professional. Having had sadist managers (Tainan) before, I feel so blessed.

The food is free! I (and my kid when she's here) can have lunch and dinner for free. The only draw back is the food is a gamble. Its often swimming in oil and its cabbage for lunch and dinner. Sometimes however we are lucky enough with deboned mackerel, spinach, and the more frequent chicken broth with goji berries thats heavenly.

The school grounds are beautiful, Yuanshan is clean and opening my office door is always a beautiful view up close and personal with nature. (A bird literally left its nest today in the closest tree). I regret not spending more time near the fish pond with bubbling water. I do try and walk when  have a free 20 minutes or half hour or so.

II. Student Culture

Its pretty tardy hardy. I am still in the process of letting go of expectations of starting class on time, to the point where I can lag myself. There's always a good reason; the kids are cleanings the campus, or hallways, or some club, extracurricular activity took their time. It does work my nerves still.

If I had to generalize, I found my 7th graders sweet but spoiled and my 9th graders smart but entitled.The 9th graders definitively had way more attitude and emotional ups and downs. The phenomenal truth is the students at Huey Deng are infinitely better behaved and mannered than the students I taught at Chung Dau. Again, I feel so blessed. Having competent Taiwanese co-teachers in the classroom makes a huge difference.

I do think that the students have ingrained expectations that foreign teachers are here to play games and entertain them. I blame their years since kindergarten of having being able to afford bilingual schools with a western teacher that did nothing but games. Games have their place, but I am not their entertainment, my classes are legitimate classes. There were times when students came to my class without paper or pencil and that still boggles my mind! Not in my class!

III. Academia

So many tests!!! That's just Taiwan, right?  As a teacher it works in my favor (maybe) if my classes are cancelled, I can catch up on prep work, take a walk. Most of the time I'd like to get through my curriculum too.

I found my 9th graders had no experience on how to research, despite growing up with computers and googling info. They were surprisingly really bad at it. First there's deciding what info they need, then where to get it (legitimate sources) and then how to organize that all together. I'd hope they could do that in their native language, but they limited practice.

There isn't an orchestra! They have a string ensemble but that's it. Being apart of an orchestra when I was in middle school was one my fondest experiences growing up.

The Library is hardly used, and its small. At least I never used it, but I did donate a couple of bags of books. Its seems like its of minimal importance, and when I was a student we were constantly using and enjoying using the library. Maybe that's just with this tech age, everything can be found online, sadly libraries are becoming obsolete.

Whats exciting is the Environmental Science department. I think I am working in the wrong department- they are always doing fun projects like gardening, building a trellis, and even bee hives! This department has a long term vision for the school and with my former experience working in a self sustainable community and working on an organic goat farm I am happy (and a bit envious) of this vital component in the students' education.

The school has an international focus, so that during holiday breaks, the school (usually my managers) are taking students to Thailand, Europe, or America. Likewise, educators from New Zealand for example, came here to check out our school for an exchange program. Student exchange programs and travelling in general is such a fantastic means to open the mind while being exposed to history, art and other cultures.

IV. Recommendations

1. If I were a board member or had any amount of influence I would have the school buy 35 used bikes and have the kids take field trips around Yuanshan. There's some great places they can see within biking distance. Likewise they could learn to repair and fix the bikes, a workshop on bike maintenance for example.

2. Students need more sleep and to wake up later. I'd be surprised if students get the 9 hours of recommended hours of sleep.There's enough medical evidence and academic studies that prove sleep is vital for superior brain performance. Their test results, attention in class,memory retention and behavior would improve (Watch: What Happens When Teens Don;t Get Enough Sleep). The same can be said with exercise, more PE classes or activities. How I wish the school could build a swimming pool and a weight lifting room!

3. Each graduating class can have community service and involvement has a prerequisite to graduating to the next grade. It doesn't have to be big.The school already does reward kids who do community service, but I'd like them to go further. As a privileged class of students, they should experience the responsibility of volunteerism.

4. I would love to see the kids run a snack/juice bar of their own, focused on healthy foods. They need to experience whats it like being on the service end of providing a utility and not always being catered to, always on the receiving end. For example, when I was 15 1/2 I started working part-time at Subway, as did most of my generation. (I also worked in an organic deli while being a full-time undergrad student). It teaches how to have a good (non academic) work ethic, provide customer satisfaction and teach about preparing food and what are healthy foods. I would totally help with this project.

V. Reviewing Myself

1. My curricula were too difficult, especially for the 9th graders. They were bogged down with tests and my class was low on their priorities. If they would of applied themselves consistently, yes their grades would of been better, but I could of been realistic about their workload. My new 7th grade social studies curriculum is radically easier to swallow and the pace will be much slower. I am glad we all decided to split the now 8th grade ESL classes according to ability. Its so much easier for everyone. I want the students to feel a subject can be mastered, that their English is improving. I want shy kids to improve with public speaking, and for extroverts to give their space to the more quiet.

2. I can be more consistent with class management, in enforcing class rules, like being a respectful listener (which works my nerves and I feel like I am constantly repeating myself). I hope to be better with consistency, and not just when its grating my patience.  Its no fun for me being angry or enforcing rules, but unfortunately, most Taiwanese kid's are conditioned to only responding to anger (and coteachers' sticks). I do think some of the kids had projected their mother issues onto me, and that's just not something I am willing to deal with. Its a boundary issue. I am just their teacher.

3. My coworker warned me not to do a big project at the end of the 9th grader's school year, and I did it anyways. I'll never do that again.They mentally checked out when they finished their big tests.

4. I would like to try new games, activities, projects and incorporate brain breaks and technology that I am not familiar with. I would love to collaborate with colleagues and learn from them.

5.I want more students' feedback and to be better at facilitating class discussions- especially in a social studies class. What I find is there's the culture of "losing face" that makes students afraid to step out and make mistakes as well as boys' having more social space than girls to take over the floor. I plan on starting the next semester right away with a class survey on their learning styles, and teaching right away on how to ask questions. I really want them to value class discussions and being a polite listener.

Overall, I am delighted to start the new semester, but after my month long holiday of course!