It is good to give thanks!

I am finishing up November, my third month here, and I must say that I have so much to be thankful here in NanAo.  I have great teachers to work with, and many students who are eager to learn more English.  This month has had some earthquakes (I hear that is just a usual occurrence here), and a small typhoon – the tail end of the one that hit the Philippines.  We had a loss of power this time for only about two hours – - much shorter than the last one! 

As I have had extra time during my days, I have been doing some searches for ESL teaching ideas.  My goodness, there is so much available out there.  I type in whatever I am teaching (for example – ‘adjectives’), or the type of lesson I am looking for ( such as ‘conversations’), and I have been amazed at what all is out there  If you teach ESL, I would encourage you to spend some time looking on line for some ideas to use in your class.

Because a large percentage of our student body is aboriginal students, we have been trying to teach with things they are good at.  This student body is very musical, so with the older grades, we have done some oldies songs with some highly repetitive words.  In the twelfth grade, we used ‘Hey, Jude’.  The teacher said that if she saw them anywhere and began to sing ‘Hey, Jude’, the student was to continue the song in English.  One of the students and I were reading the words and singing on the platform at the train station.  That was fun!   

Another teaching device I have been using with the students is the dialogue journal.  I wrote an initial letter to them, with questions about themselves, their family, and their interests.  It was ok if they wrote back in Chinese, or used pictures.  The teacher helped translate the letters, and I responded with some open-ended questions for them to answer.  That worked well for the first few weeks after introducing it, but I have not gotten very many of late.  I am going to give an assignment to them with questions they can answer, about some topic they are familiar with.  Many of them want to write, but don’t know what to say.  So, I want to step back, and provide opportunities for them to use more of what they have been working on in class.  I’ll let you know how it works. 

Once or twice a month, we have the English club.  We have been focusing on specific topics, working on vocabulary pertaining to that topic, and setting up opportunities for them to practice some dialogues together.  This month we did money vocabulary, with some shopping dialogues.  We also did some ‘hand’ turkeys – using the thumb for the head, and the four fingers for feathers.   We created a word bank on the board with things they said they were thankful for, and they then wrote that on their turkey.  The time goes by so quickly when we are in the club – even though it lasts for two hours!  Here is a picture of me teaching about the first Thanksgiving. 

Many of these students can read English much better than they can speak, so our goal is to help them improve their listening and speaking skills.  My actual goal with the student body here is to have them all speaking English fluently by the end of the year.  However, goals need to be realistic and attainable, so the amended goal is to have some of them speaking more English than they are now. 

One example of the difference in the students’ desire to learn English showed up at my desk last week.  A young man, Michael, who is very good with his English, brought another student down to read English sentences to me.  Michael is his private tutor!  He told me later that was the first time his friend had spoken English like that on his own.  The student below drew a picture for me with a note of thanks for teaching her English. 

I am going to include some pictures I have taken as I have been on walks around here in NanAo, and some in LuoDong as well.  The scenery here is beautiful. 

          A mountain stream, a beautiful hibiscus in November, a beautiful butterfly and then a bird in a cemetery, a mountain walkway

Here are some pictures from school – some students           

Co-worker, Sonia, with one of our students

Thanksgiving was spent at The Home of God’s Love – an orphanage in LuoDong.  This is an annual event for missinaries and foreigners who enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving fare.  We had upwards of 70 people, including all the missionary children there.  Two Fulbright people, the director and one of the teachers, were able to have dinner there, too.  The pictures are of our table, my two teacher friends – Katie Hodges and Tim Collins, and then a Thanksgiving prayer. 

I would enjoy hearing from some of you who get a chance to read my ramblings!  Thanks for visiting.

   One more month in 2007 – looking forward to a new month.

Marilyn – teaching in Taiwan