School

Well, my idea to write a long drawn-out introductory post as a means for kick-starting this blog hasn't really worked out. I've tried to start a few times now, and each time I get going I can't seem to find any kind of focus. I want to write about so many different things that I end up writing a paragraph or two, getting frustrated with my inability to express everything I've seen (and eaten), and stopping. So here I am. By means of introduction, this post will be on the meat and potatoes of my life in Taiwan, my job at Korrnell Academy.

To begin: I am a "homeroom teacher" for a group of second graders. This means I have a desk and computer in their classroom and eat lunch and the afternoon snack with them. The class is thankfully only 13 students in size. Some NEST* teachers have 25-28 students to deal with, and I certainly don't envy them that. What I do envy, however, is the English language ability of those larger classes. My class is 205. Grades 1 and 2 are arranged such that the higher the number the poorer the English. 205 is the highest numbered Grade 2 class. So yeah, my homeroom kids know very little English. Which is not good at all because I realize I teach at a quick pace and use words that are hopelessly over their heads. Luckily I only teach them two English subjects, Math and Reading. Reading is a joke because these kids are barely able to sound English words out and they are supposed to be making prediction charts and making questions. All I do in Reading is have them echo read after me while I try to act out verbs and describe nouns (while giving them neither term) and give them all the answers to the workbook exercises. Math is a different beast, but no less frustrating. Instead of having no clue the whole period, they have no clue until I explain how to do the problem(s), which right now involve counting and >,<,= stuff--what the book calls "number sense." So once it clicks in each kid's head what each question is asking--or what they think it's asking--they go and do 20 extra pages while I am trying to get them to do two. This is always followed by a long session correcting them because they had no clue you were supposed to circle the picture with the most balloons in addition to counting all the balloons. It's not a terrible job, but it's not something I can see myself doing for more than a year or two.

I also teach 3-5th graders Science and Phonics. Phonics is easy peasy. Each class consists of a sound, which I make over and over and over and over again. Then, I read a bunch of words with the sound of the day in it. For instance, I did "soft g" today: giraffe, gem, gym, gymnast, gentle, etc. Science is...well, I'll leave Science for another post. Let's just say Science is more frustrating than Reading with 205. The classes I teach at this level are B1 and B2. After second grade the system becomes letter-based, with earlier letters meaning poorer English. So A has the lowest level and I believe D or E has the highest. The last group of kids I teach are middle schoolers. They are the F Group and I teach them Phonics and "Language Activities." F happens to be the first letter used for middle schoolers. So I got the English handi-capable kids. And these F group kids are the worst when it comes to getting them to express themselves in English. It's kind of nice because it gives me a chance to practice my Chinese, but it has created no less than 20 hair-pulling occasions where I class of 6-8th graders are all yelling at me in Chinese and/or English, all trying to tell me how Billy or Bob wants to go to the motel and make babies with his girlfriend (this, I have found, is a pretty big insult because sex (and drinking) is illegal before 18).

My days break down like this: B1 and B2 (3-5th graders) in the morning; lunch and nap time; 205 in the afternoon; snack; and then F. The school day goes from 8-5, and teachers are expected to be at school by 7:30. We do have a good 1 1/2 in the middle of the day to ourselves, so I have taken to hopping on another teacher's scooter and riding to the 7-11 to shoot the shit for a bit. But still, the school day is 8-5! Every day. Most of us NEST teachers have around 30 classes a week. I am teaching all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while Monday I have almost nothing and Friday I have an almost full day of classes.

Phew. Good to get started on this thing finally. This post is mostly for my Mom and Dad's benefit--and for all those who were desperate to know how my teaching schedule was setup. My next post will be a little more interesting, I promise.

*: NEST=Native English Speaking Teacher, which Korrnell uses in distinction to ESL (English as Second Language) who are Chinese teachers whose second language is literally English. I always thought ESL applied to the type of teaching and was not a descriptor for the teacher, but whatever. No big deal.