Category Archive

May isn’t here yet, but the showers have brought some beautiful flowers this month!  May is also bringing more things for me as well, so I decided to sit down and put my thoughts here before I ran out of time.  I have family that will be visiting the first week in May, so plans are being made ready for their arrival.   

       

 

On one of my many walks around town, I saw some beautiful colors of spring flowers.  It was interesting to see where they were growing – the first picture is up close, and the second one shows the setting around the flowers.  We can learn a lesson from flowers – beauty shows up in some of the most unique places! 

 

I was invited to take a trip to visit Turtle Island on April 15 along with nine students from Nanao and a fellow teacher, Mr. Wei.  I didn’t even think of a special deadline in America while I was sailing over the ocean!  Turtle Island is an island made from a volcano.  There are several hot springs along the coastline coming up from the deeps somewhere.  The color of the water has a marked difference where the hot springs are, and there is the telltale sign of the smell of sulphur.  

  

 The purpose of the trip was for a special rite-of-passage for the eighteen year old students in Yilan County.  The students go to the top of the island (1,700 steps to the top) where a special ceremony is conducted by the chief administrator of Yilan County.  I am sorry to say, I only made it to about 425 steps, then came back down with some girls who did not fare so well on the boat ride over.  My concern anyways was the trip down – that is harder on my legs than going up!  But I got an award anyways saying that I had reached my goal of adulthood — in case any of you were wondering when I would ever get there!! 

There were special fun events planned for the students – hula hoop relays, hat relays.  We walked around a small inland lake before we had lunch which provided some very beautiful sites to see.  We were also able to go down into some military tunnels used for protection of the island during previous war times.    The warning sign at the entrance warned of several things – including poisonous snakes.  I’m happy to say we did not encounter any!   

  

Earlier this month, the villages of Nanao held some competitions – mostly sports activities with elementary and secondary students competing against each village.  There are seven small villages that make up Nanao.  It was interesting to me that some of the students were there competing in the events, while the rest were still in school.  On the weekend, however, there were more events, and some students were assigned to help explain to me what was going on.  Three young men were right beside me through several events, to make sure I wasn’t by myself.  I always enjoy seeing community gatherings – from babies to grandparents, all enjoying those events. 

    

 

On April 25, our school had a special celebration.  I think it was an anniversary of the school, but I am not sure which one.  The day’s events began with a tug of war competition between classes.  Later, some dignitaries from the different villages were there to watch some of the special events.  The school’s native aboriginal dance team sang a special song.  It was beautiful.  An awards ceremony followed for special jobs some of the students had.  There were several different competitions - some of the homeroom classes had dance competitions against each other.  Some of the outfits were very creative!  One class switched gender roles, and there were some very interesting ‘girls’ – for sure!!   In the afternoon, there were some athletic competitions between the different classes, and awards given out for the top contenders.  One of the students got too excited, nervous, or hot, and fainted, so the ambulance had to come get her.  Notice the number to call on the window.  Other than that, it was a really great day – with good weather, and lots of good fun.   And the mountains, as always, provided such a pretty backdrop for the day.

    

    

    

   

  

In one of our English Club classes this month, we worked on asking and giving directions.  We had a worksheet that we went through together, but I wanted to make it more practical for them.  So, I  wrote some directions for the students to follow to go on an adventure to find a treasure!  Each student had a slip of paper with instructions for each step.  They had to read the words, and then follow the directions.  We actually ended up back where we started, but it was sure fun to see them reading, and figuring out what some of those words meant.  The ‘treasure’ was a bag of cute little Chinese snacks wrapped in paper that made them look like little people. 

    

 

In my special classes I have been teaching this semester, we have been doing some interesting things – at least they seem to be mostly interested!  We just finished up Humpty Dumpty – with extension activities using shapes, colors, and patterns.  We used tangrams one week, and made some different shapes with them.  The students had a task one of the days to draw a shape out of a bag, and they needed to identify the shape and the color.  I have a set of magnets that are different fruits – so as I was creating a pattern, we would say the names of the fruits.  It was a great way to repeat the fruits and have a purpose in doing it that was useful!   

   

 

As the school year is winding down to an end, the students are showing some progress in the English acquisition over the year.  In several classes, the teacher will let the kids listen to what I say as I explain something further, and have them try to translate into words they understand.  I am amazed at some of the students who are really picking up words and concepts from the lessons!  The students are doing better reading, and some of them are even asking me questions showing some depth of understanding of the language.  It sure does this teacher’s heart good to see that!  (Is that correct English??) 

     

 

This past weekend has been a busy one – with invitations to special events.  There was a family get together to celebrate a grandfather’s 80th birthday.  One of the grandsons and his new wife were on their honeymoon here from America – to celebrate with the grandfather.  The extended family gathered at the house, sang songs, read the twenty-third Psalm, and shared some thoughts together.  I had been asked to share a little in English for the new couple.  Then the family adjourned to a local restaurant where we had dinner – food, food, and more food!  Delightful evening. 

Sunday morning was filled with firewords going off for some reason – which I found out later to be in celebration of a god’s birthday this weekend.  There were fruits and flowers set up in front of many homes and businesses, with incense burning alongside them.  The temple was full of people, gods, music, and flags. 

         

   

After our church was finished, the pastor and family were going to an engagement party which started at the home of the bride’s family.  They sang songs and read scripture there, too – this time the love chapter, I Corinthians 13.  Then, the family adjourned to a restaurant downtown for dinner.  Again, food, food, and more food!  I was very honored to be able to be a part of all of that. 

    

   

It seems that at the end of every school year, the question comes to mind about my effectiveness – did I do a good job this year, did my students learn enough, did I make a difference?  I have found that the most difficult part of teaching English is an accurate assessment.  Many of the students are still in the pre-production stage where they are just hearing the words but not able to produce them.  Then, there are students who are ready to try saying anything because they are so hungry to learn more words, and the rest of the students are somewhere in between. 

I have decided that for the rest of the school year, I want to teach a motto to my students that challenges each of us to keep striving to be better – to do our very best.  I hope they can all say this at the end of the year – “Good, Better, Best!  Never let it rest!  Until your Good is Better, And your Better is the Best!”  I challenge you to keep striving, too! 

Springtime - a celebration of new life!

Beauty – flowers beginning to bloom

     

 These were taken in Taitung on Saturday, April 5 – the air smelled sweet from all the flowers.

Here is a picture taken of a palm tree – while I was on a hike in Jiaosi.

 I have enjoyed working with my new classes this semester.  Because I am coming up with my own curriculum, it requires more preparation, but that is fine.   We started out with “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”, and a review of the alphabet.  I have an alphabet chart with pictures, so I am teaching the vocabulary for the pictures, too.  I also made up Alphabet Books for each of them using the picture for each letter, and making sentences using the most frequently used words from the Dolch list. 

    

Our next thing was to work with colors, so I used Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  I introduced the colors and the color words, as well as the names of the animals in the book.  I made up a book for each student so they could read along with me.  This last week, we were reviewing the colors, words, as well some of the vocabulary in the book.  If the students could find the answer correctly (even with help), they got some bear snacks!  That worked well in getting even the reluctant students to speak up and participate. 

   

Early in the month, the school had a vocal music competition for the students.  Many of these students have incredible voices.  They enjoy singing and dancing so much.  It was very enjoyable to watch the students get up in front of the student body and sing – some got too nervous, but others really surprised me at their ability.  As the judges were tallying up the scores, they needed some fill – so the principal asked if I would sing.  One of my co-teachers and I got up and sang Beautiful Sunday.  We had sung that with the students before, so they sang along with us! 

    

Many of the students in the school here are aboriginal.  Some of the students were in a dance competition, dressed in their traditional dress.  Here is a picture of some of the girls.

This semester I have seen the students reading more – and it seems as though they understand!!  This last week, one student translated back into Chinese the reading selection I had read to the class.  These students have been amazing me even more! 

 

Some of the foreign teachers here in Taiwan took a trip together to visit an island that is part of Taiwan, but is very close to mainland China.  We were never able to see the mainland because it was too foggy.  Two teachers on Kinmen, for their second year, were our tour guides.  It was so good to see everyone again, and such a special visit.   We were able to see a beach that is still off limits because there are still some land mines buried there.  As you will notice, it was a very windy day (that picture was taken by Edi Campbell, one of the teachers on the trip).  We also went into a tunnel that had been used by the military there.  That island is still used for military training – we saw many soldiers there on our visit. 

       

We visited the workshop of a man who makes knives from old bullet casings.  He did a demonstration for us – the knife he is holding is what he was working on in the first picture. 

    

We strolled through a small village built like a Chinese village.  The houses were simple, with subtle differences, such as the type of roof design.  Certain designs denoted social status in the community.  Even through there was not much grass, they still had many flowers around the village, including some bonsai plants. 

         

One of the special things we saw was a memorial to the first United States military person killed in action ono Kinmen.  He was from Michigan, which is where I grew up, so that made it very special to me.   

Here in Taiwan, there is a national holiday called Tomb Sweeping Day.  The families go to the cemetery and clean them up, and place flowers on the grave. The picture is of a Catholic cemetery with families together at the grave sites.   One of my co-workers told me that some people actually go to worship their ancestors on that day, and they leave some food on the graves for them.  My hope is that someday more of these people will come to see and understand why Jesus came – to give life, a life of meaning and purpose here, and an assurance that we can have life forever with Him in heaven. 

Just one more picture of flowers, and I’ll be done for this time.  This was taken early in the month, before there were many blossoms on the trees.  This is one of the early cherry blossoms.  This island still has a lot of Japanese influence here.  As your springtime comes, I sure hope you take time to enjoy the changes this season brings.  Remember, springtime is a celebration of new life!