Calligraphy Class: Recently I went to calligraphy class with our Grade 3 students! It was a wonderful experience to sit at a small desk amid the students, and to have them guide me through each stroke. They LOVED having the chance to teach Teacher Sara :) The teacher, JiYen, is one of my favorite people at Chong Qing. She has been not only an interesting person who shares many of the same values, but also a great friend who is passionate about sharing culture and discussing new ideas. It was great to be a part of her class and see how she interacts with the students. It was a double period, so the students worked on their calligraphy for an hour and 20 minutes. After her introduction, which took about 20 minutes, we all got brushes and ink and set to work. The class was very free-form after that; JiYen sat at the front and students came up to her for help, and we all chatted, painted, and drank tea :)

Cultural lesson: Now that finals are underway and winter break begins next week, the semester is winding down. In our English classes throughout all grades, we have an extra class period after students finish their exams and before we end school next week. This means one very exciting thing: we have time for a random cultural lesson, completely unrelated to anything in our curriculum! I recently came across a wonderful video that shows snapshots of students and teachers in classrooms across the world, and I have been very excited to use this in the classroom these final two weeks of the semester. I have created a geography/culture lesson in which I show students this video, teach them where the 7 continents are and how to say their names in English, show them pictures of classrooms in Africa (Namibia) and Europe (the Czech Republic) where I have previously taught, and discuss the differences they see in thevarious classrooms portrayed in those pictures and the video. Please take 3 minutes to watch this awesome video!

https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/schools-around-the-world

End-of-Semester presentations: Since the semester here ends at the end of January, last week we had the last of our bi-weekly Fulbright ETA workshops. All 10 of us paired with at least one of our LETs (Local English Teachers, i.e. our co-teachers) to give a 5-minute presentation. We showed pictures and described the English programming we have organized at our schools this past semester, which include activities such as storytelling, pen pal programs and other international activities, holiday lessons, whole-school presentations, and extracurricular activities. It was wonderful to hear in detail what the other 9 Taichung ETAs have been doing! I enjoyed presenting about all the things I have been able to do because of how open-minded and supportive the administration is at Chong Qing. I am also lucky because the LET that came with me, Patty, is a great partner and she was fun to present with. Her English is excellent and she is comfortable speaking in English with foreigners (something not all that common here). Patty and I have a great relationship, both professionally and personally, and I love working with her at school.  During this presentation we bounced off of each other, building on what the other had said and telling relevant anecdotes that came to mind in the moment right then and there. I am happy that our presentation went so smoothly and that it came from both me and Patty, and not just from me.

Rain in Taiwan: Last week it rained quite a bit, and as I was parking at school one morning I took the picture below of the rows of scooters and raincoats. Everyone here is SO CUTE. Yes it is very functional (and necessary!) to wear a raincoat while driving a scooter in the rain ... but it still strikes me as endearing the way everyone wears brightly colored raincoats and wears their hoods tucked under their helmets.... So this is what a parking lot looks like on a rainy day in Taiwan :)

New Year's and Sun Moon Lake: New Year's is a big event here, much like at home; everyone wishes each other happy New Year and people travel to different cities for the holiday. Driving home on New Year's there was so much traffic, and later there were fireworks all night long. Then over the long weekend I went to Sun Moon Lake, a GORGEOUS spot about an hour and a half east of Taichung. It was wonderful to be surrounded by nature and so nice to get out and hike! Here are some pictures of sunrise, a bamboo garden, and the beautiful view of the clouds across the lake.

I will begin this post with the heads-up that it has A LOT of pictures! Schools here typically take tons of pictures, which they use when they submit lesson plans to the government and on their websites. Enjoy!

English Camp: We are now finished with English Camp for this semester. Schools here continue school through the end of January, when there is a 3-week long winter vacation before second semester starts at the beginning of February. These pictures are from the last two schools we went to, where the students were particularly sweet, engaged, and eager to learn. I have absolutely loved traveling and working with a new group of students almost every week. I will miss camp over the next two months but I am happy to have many varied experiences under my belt now that I can share here.

Teaching Chanukah to an entire elementary school (!!): This is definitely one of the most exciting opportunities I have ever had in my life. The past two weeks have been the most exciting (and the busiest!) this semester. I have been able to teach about Chanukah for a full two weeks; I have taught every class in the school about Chanukah. The teachers and administrators at Chong Qing have been curious to learn and helpful to me as I planned all of our Chanukah programming. For each class, I presented a powerpoint that included an introduction to concepts such as ‘Jewish people’ and ‘Hebrew language,’ and explained the basic story of Chanukah. I also presented key vocabulary, taught a Chanukah song, and showed pictures of Jewish students from my mom’s kindergarten class in the United States. After presenting the powerpoint, I taught the students how to play dreidel and then gave them a chance to spin and play this exciting Chanukah game. Following this, I reheated pre-made latkes, a traditional Chanukah food, and each student was able to eat a piece.

Before all the pictures ... Here is an article about Chanukah at Chong Qing (http://www.pacificnews.com.tw/shownews.php?postnewsid=19&titleid=81632) that was published in an education newspaper. It's all in Chinese, but it's worth a quick look! Everyone here has been so excited to learn about a new holiday and it's wonderful to see that the school made sure this article was published. Several teachers said to me "I'm so glad our kids can learn about something other than Halloween and Christmas," and both teachers and students alike have eagerly been asking questions about this new culture/religion :)

Every day during Chanukah, during the 10-minute break between 1^st and 2^nd period, the teachers made a school-wide announcement inviting all students to come to the front gate.  There we had set up two posters of a Chanukiah (the traditional candelabra we light on each night of the 8-day holiday), and each day I called up a different student to ‘light’ the newest candle. I had other students come up to write the date and count “Today is Chanukah day number ____.” On some days I also had students come up to hold a toy Chanukiah and several dreidels while we lit each big Chanukiah. Then we gave all students a little cookie after they had said “Happy Chanukah.” Needless to say it was a very energetic 10 minutes where the students were very excited to participate and learn new Chanukah phrases. On some days there was Hebrew music playing in the background, and every day the sounds of students’ laughter and Chanukah greetings could be heard around the school.

We had other whole-school activities as well. At the end of the week we took the longer 20-minute break between 2^nd and 3^rd period to organize many simultaneous games of dreidel. The teachers made another announcement and students came flocking to the front gate, sitting in front of the Chanukiah posters in circles on the floor. I briefly re-explained how to play dreidel, we gave each group a dreidel and some playing pieces, and students were free to play. Many teachers came to watch, and all of the English teachers were there to help facilitate and answer questions. Many students remembered and/or were able to figure out exactly how to play … and though there was definitely some confusion, students enjoyed themselves nonetheless and came up with their own creative ways to play. It was wonderful to see these Taiwanese students excited about playing a Jewish game I grew up with!

Then on Friday of the first week, I was able to take about 15 minutes of our weekly all-school assembly to present a Chanukah program. First I showed an abbreviated version of my powerpoint. I was addressing an audience with a wide range of Chanukah knowledge; many students had already had had their Chanukkah lessons, many were not scheduled to have those lessons until the following week, and none of the teachers had seen anything yet. Then I welcomed one of our Grade 4 classes to present some Chanukah introductory sentences in both English and Chinese and then to sing I Have a Little Dreidel. I taught this song to students in Grades 1-4, and this particular class was very enthusiastic about performing it, complete with hand motions, for the whole school. Then lastly, I showed a video I made that included clips of Chanukah activities from our students here, from my mom's kindergarten students, and from 8th grade students at the Jewish elementary school I attended from 4th - 8th grade.  My 5th grade teacher and I have been compiling and sharing videos of our students engaged in Chanukah activities as part of a cultural exchange project, which was a wonderful addition to our Chanukah programming here. 

On Monday of the second week I was able to put together what was definitely one of the highlights of the whole experience. During the 20-minute break in the morning, I set up skype with my mom! She was projected up at the front of our audio-visual room, and students and teachers came to see Teacher Sara’s mom! Some students sang the Chanukah song I had taught them (“I have a little dreidel”) and a few more students asked her some questions. Then, when everyone was there, we watched as my mom lit the Chanukiah (with real candles!), showed us different dreidels, sang the Chanukah blessings … and showed everyone our pet rabbit and cat. The students loved it, oohing and ahhing at the Chanukiah and dreidels, calling out the different colors of the candles, and waving hello and goodbye to our pets. The teachers, too, were interested, and some even stayed afterwards to personally say hello to my mom. It was quite an exciting morning and it was wonderful to see how much everyone got out of the skype call – including students, teachers, and my mom.

On the whole, this experience has been incredibly exciting for me for many reasons. My school has been nothing but supportive and interested in helping me bring something new to this community. Many people at my school have a surface-level knowledge of Judaism (if any at all), and most have never met a Jewish person before. To be able to give 400+ people a positive experience with a Jewish person, Judaism, Hebrew, and Chanukah specifically, has truly been a remarkable opportunity for me.