Over the past three weeks I have been able to see even more of Taiwan, as well as everyday life here in Taichung. I have started attending a yoga class with one of my LETs (yes it is completely in Chinese!), I am singing in a choir and helping to create a local a capella group, I am more comfortable ordering and/or asking for things in Chinese now, I have started going regularly for acupuncture, and I continue to take my language class twice a week. The list goes on ... It is a wonderful experience to be here and to meet all of the wonderful people whose paths I have been blessed to cross.

English Camp: This past week we went to a wonderful school where the teachers took many pictures. Below you can see some of the activities we organize for our "English Camp" students each week, including a version of "Simon Says" and other games that help students practice using new vocabulary.

Scooters: I realized that I have not yet posted about my scooter!  Many Taiwanese people ride mopeds, more often called scooters in English, and it is a very convenient and practical way to get around the city.  I love my scooter and have been getting more comfortable driving it more and getting gas :) Below the 3 pictures of my scooter, I have included a picture of a typical family scooter situation - notice the child's seat in the front foot area!

Chong Qing Elementary School: Below are pictures of my desk the "Office of Student Affairs." I love being in the middle of everything, and the teachers I share the office with are so wonderful to be around. We are preparing for Halloween festivities, as can be seen on my computer screen ...

Play-Doh ABCs: I recently tried an activity we learned about during our training in August: having students physically make the new letters they are learning about ... with Play-doh! These Grade 2 students LOVED it. It was a fun, alternative approach to helping them internalize letters a through e, specifically targeting more kinesthetic learners (students who need more physical activity in order to better retain new information). Each time we made a letter, we talked about its name and the sound it makes, so it was a review of our phonics in addition to a silly way to recall which letter is which. It was a great opportunity to teach new words in English, such as "Make a ball" in between each letter, and "Roll your Play-doh into a string."  It was also a chance to practice "Thank you / You're welcome" as they received their Play-doh and handed it back to me at the end. The activity also provided a chance for everyone to experience a different form of learning; we played a purposeful game, students interacted with each other, and the teachers (both myself and my co-teacher) were no longer at the center of the lesson. As soon as we started, my co-teacher ran out to get her camera and to tell the homeroom teacher what was happening in her class, and both walked around taking pictures and interacting with the students. Below is visual proof of how much fun we all had :) 

Kenting, Taiwan: Recently we had a a three-day weekend because of the Mid-Autumn Festival (also called the Moon Festival). This holiday comes from the ancient Chinese tradition of giving thanks to the moon and celebrating the harvest. Please click here to read a bit more about the festival: http://ttf.ncfta.gov.tw/en-us/Season/Content.aspx?Para=8. Because everyone gets an extra day off to celebrate the festival, we were able to take a longer trip. 8 of the 10 ETAs in my group went to Kenting, which is the southern-most point in Taiwan.  It has beautiful beaches and was a wonderful place for a bit of a vacation!

Fireworks at a night market to celebrate the Moon Festival

We are now 3 weeks into the school year! I have been so very welcomed by everyone at Chong Qing, and now that all of the students know me a little bit more, they call out "Teacher Sara!!" when they see me in the halls :) Chong Qing is a wonderful school with a strong emphasis on and regard for English language learning. I teach all students in Grades 1-5 (the school has students up to Grade 6), two weekly storytelling periods for Grades 1-2, and a weekly "English Conversation" period for teachers and staff.

Half of the school building is currently under construction, so this semester we (the 5 of us English teachers) do not yet have our own classrooms and we go around to teach in the students' homeroom classes.  This has its ups and downs; I love having a desk in the middle of a busy office where I can be a part of things, but I also look forward to settling into a classroom and being able to display student work. Overall it has been a wonderful first three weeks and I am very happy to have been placed at this school!

This is the school's website: http://www.cges.tc.edu.tw/
Here is the website in English: http://www.cges.tc.edu.tw/english/index.html

 Chong Qing Elementary School: Elementary schools here are physically very open; you can see from the pictures of Chong Qing that hallways are covered but totally open to the outside.  There is air conditioning only in one multi-purpose room, but there are fans in every classroom and office. 

English Camp: We had our first "English Camp" this past week! As I explained in an earlier post, there are two groups of us who travel, at least twice a month, to facilitate one-day English workshops for students at different schools all around Taichung. These are all schools that do not have "foreign teachers," as we are referred to here, and so they applied to the Ministry of Education to be granted one day of programming led by native English speakers. We will be visiting a wide range of schools throughout the year, including tiny schools and schools in the mountains.  This past week our group worked with 38 Grade 6 students, and it was a success.  We taught about the 4 seasons, and though we definitely came away with aspects of our curriculum and teaching methods we would like to tweak and improve upon, both the students and all of us had a BLAST and gained a lot from the experience. At the end, students wanted our autographs and then all hugged us and made it hard to leave :)  Below are pictures of our group and the view from the drive up north to this small school.

Hiking at Da Keng: Da Keng is a scenic area close to my apartment, and two weekends ago I went hiking there with one of my co-teachers.  We took an easier trail but it was still beautiful!

  

Fulbright Orientation, Taipei: Last weekend, all of us gathered for an orientation conference in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.  Fulbright grantees in Taiwan this year include 76 ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and about 30 scholars (including Master's and Doctoral students and grantees doing research).

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Taipei: This museum details the life and rule of Chaing Kai Shek, who served as the political and military leader here from 1928 to 1975. It is a beautiful building and museum! 

National Palace Museum, Taipei: This art museum is a gorgeous building, featuring many different types of  Chinese art from calligraphy to paintings to artwork that incorporates jade and other stones. 

Walking around the streets of Taipei: Below is an old gate in downtown Taipei.

Taiwan is such a fascinating place!! On our way home from English Camp this week, I noticed this sign at the train station and wanted to share it.  

I want to start this post by sharing two articles!

First is an article published in the Jewish Exponent over the summer:
http://www.jewishexponent.com/headlines/2015/07/doylestown-resident-heads-to-taiwan-as-a-fulbright-scholar

(Minor corrections to this article include: there are 76 Fulbright Grantees here this year, and many schools here go until 4:00 pm, after which many students go directly to "cram schools" for additional lessons.)

Next is another article that may be of interest, published this past week in a San Diego Jewish newspaper:
http://www.sdjewishworld.com/2015/08/27/jewish-fulbright-scholar-teaches-english-in-taiwan/

This week has been our transition week. We finished training this past Monday and start school this coming Monday.  We have been busy preparing, meeting with our co-teachers and administrators at school, continuing to further set up and settle into our apartments, and using our bit of less-scheduled time to explore the city.

I spent most of the workday at school on Friday, and I am so excited to begin working at Chong Qing.  The teachers and staff have all been very welcoming, and we had the chance to start working together yesterday. The school is trying something new with Grade 5 this year. In years past, it has been difficult to teach classes that are made up of such a wide range of abilities, so this year Grade 5 students will be split into three classes according to their English language skills. Yesterday I worked with Patty and Pauline, two of my LETs (Local English Teachers; our acronym for our co-teachers) to develop the screening test that we will use on Monday. It was great to have the chance to be able to help these teachers during the last-minute craze of getting school ready for the students, and a wonderful experience to collaborate on our first project together.  Six of us also went out for lunch, and it was nice to get to know everyone a little bit more.

I have a bicycle now! Chong Qing had one they lent to the ETA who worked there last year, and it is now mine for the year. Patty has been so helpful in teaching me how to ask for everything I needed to do to get my bike set up.  I successfully used Chinese to get air in the tires, buy a helmet and lock, and have the seat raised. I rode the bike to school yesterday, complete with my new bright yellow, full-body raincoat (meaning it is wide enough to go over me + my backpack, and long enough that it covers my legs as well)! It is quite the adventure to ride on the road alongside cars, trucks, and scooters, especially in the rain ;)

Food: As expected, the food here is amazing!! Below are noodles, dumplings and soup .... mmm.... I am greatly increasing my chopsticks skills, which includes building muscles I didn't even know were in my hands :) It is very common to eat out here; restaurants are EVERYWHERE and very inexpensive. Some people say it is more expensive to buy and cook your own food, and it is part of the culture to pop into a noodle place for a quick lunch, for example, and it is very common to see people eating alone. Restaurants are small and the service is quick, so it is very practical to eat there.

 

Funny signs: I thought this was great ~ this is the alcohol section of a general, all-purpose store. It seems "Don't drink and drive" is taken very seriously here. We have been studying to get our driver's licenses here (for scooters) and that is something that comes up often in the materials we are studying from, both as a general rule of the road as well as something for which there are major fines.

Rain: It's been raining so much lately! I love having roof access at our apartment :)

Next time I post, I will officially be writing as "Teacher Sara" :)