Well, after riotous complaints regarding my lack of writing,
I’m clicking away again! In
reality, writing is easier to edit and expound upon later.
I’m not sure how much I should write about school. I already see the difficulties in
teaching in a different country; some of the challenge is based on culture, but
much of it originates in differing teaching philosophies (which are also
affected by culture, I realize).
For example, Taiwanese parents want their students to be successful. They’ve defined “successful” as getting
a high score on their university entrance test. In order to do that, the school system was set up to have
longer school days, cram school at night, Saturday school, sometimes Sunday
school, and summer school.
Students are under so much pressure that they choose to sleep during
class or socialize if there is any sort of pause or monotony in the
lesson. Many teachers allow this,
knowing the students are under pressure.
It might be easy for teachers to get the mentality that “one lesson
doesn’t matter”, “they need the sleep more”, “they will just get this again in
cram school”. So, I am struggling
with an overall cultural philosophy that sets extremely high standards, which,
when translated into expectations for individual lessons on a day-to-day basis,
is fairly low. It seems like a
game of telephone that starts clear and ambitious with administration and is
mistranslated down to each classroom until it’s unrecognizable.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve seen some great lessons and great
teachers. But I am wondering how I
myself will fit into this system, as I always want to maximize the time that I
have in class, sometimes to a fault.
I need to have a plan as to how I will react to each situation, but I
know it will change and evolve as I gain experience actually doing it.
Another teacher here, James, gave me the opportunity to come
into his 12th grade class and be interviewed and make dialogue with
the students. I learned that they
are extremely anxious about taking the big university placement test in May
(Mom and Dad, I kind of wanted to tell them “don’t study! Be a golf caddy
instead!” I didn’t.) No one
talked, and I literally had to pry questions and answers out of their
mouth. (For example, I pointed at
a student and said, “ask me where I’m from”. I wasn’t going to give them the easy way out and just talk
the whole time). After a time,
they opened up a little bit. I
told them my personal narrative of wanting to quit AP Spanish my senior year of
high school, but because I was willing to make mistakes (which is difficult for
anyone, but especially in this culture) and be active and involved in class and
because I didn’t quit, I learned so much.
I didn’t pass my AP test, but it opened so many other doors for me, and
in the end changed my life. I also
told them to study as hard as they can, but in the end, a test does not make or
break them. They can still be
successful with a bad test score.
The relief in the room was palpable. I saw it in their eyes. It was the most reaction I got the
whole 45 minutes with them. Then one
student asked me, “how do you relax when you are stressed?” I thought for a moment, and then answered
with Psalm 42:8, “Be still and know that I am God.” It’s awkward to pull so hard to get so little dialogue and
honesty out of students, but in the end I think that’s what I have to do. I’m sitting here now and thinking of what
I should have said differently, but I need to just “be still” and let God take
it from here.
It was so clear yesterday that we could see the mountains
surrounding the city which are usually hidden in a hazy smog. I was told that it's normal to not see the mountains for months at a time, and usually only after typhoon rains. Another occurrence-- my friends have been teasing me that there are earthquakes when there really aren't any, and of course I'm so gullible that I believe them. During supper on Friday we experienced
a REAL earthquake that shook our table for a few seconds. At first I thought they were pulling a prank per usual, but I laughed when I realized I had just experienced my first real earthquake.
Today is a full day!
I went for a bike ride this morning in Forest Park, then biked to the
next city. It is extremely hot
today and the sun is so intense!
Later tonight, we’re going to here the Taipei Symphony Orchestra because
our friend Janice gave us free tickets.
Gotta run, love you all!
Anna
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