It's not ALL fun and games (but most of it is)

If you were reading this blog unawares of what Adam and I actually do every day, it may seem like we just wander around Taiwan looking for adventures and natural disasters. While we are making the most of our free time, at least 40 hours in the week are spent teaching. The school is conveniently located a 5-7 minute walk from our apartment, depending on the traffic light. In one building there are 5 classrooms and a yard with rubberized tiling and extra desks and chairs. Across the street is the office for the teachers and the copier.

All of the kids except for a few in my beginner class attend Chinese school in the morning and then head to English school. The classes at A1 are scheduled with youngest and usually least advanced kids from 1:30-4:30, older and advanced-beginner to intermediate students from 4:40-6:10, and the intermediate to advanced students have class from 6:40-8:10. The classes are named after different planets and outer-space features, but I haven't really figured out how the naming process works. Here's a breakdown of my first class of the day, with more to come later this week.


URANUS (1:30-4:00)
This is what's known as a "baby" class. All of the kids started out at the school without knowing any English and range from 5-7 years old. Four of the kids in the picture were just added to the class last week when we switched from morning classes to afternoon classes (it used to be held from 9-12). All of the classes held at this time slot are generally younger kids who get out of school earlier and hence know less English. One of the four newbies doesn't speak or write any English at all, one falls asleep daily (even when we're singing!), one can speak really well but can't write her name, and the fourth looks permanently half asleep and likes to sniff other kids. The rest of the class is also full of unique personalities, but I'm used to them by now. One of the girls pouts through coloring since she doesn't like her markers, another kid yells at the top of her lungs whenever anyone uses Chinese, one little boy loves beetles (they're the trendy pet here), and another can't write a capital G to save his life. One of the girls is sought after by all the boys, and one of the boys has to go to the bathroom every half-hour. Not pictured is another new boy who still hasn't made a sound in class and didn't have a name on the first day, so I had to name him. All in all they're an adorable, lovable class.

Even though I don't have any training or experience teaching kids this young, other than buying supplies for the SED preschool, I think I'm getting the hang of it. We're currently working on handwriting (we're through capital W), short vowel sounds, fine motor skills (aka coloring inside the lines), and vegetable vocabulary (since we finished fruits). New kids excluded, we've mastered colors, the alphabet, days of the week, pieces of clothing, shapes, and numbers 1-50. We sing songs with hand motions at the beginning of every class, too. A recent hit was a variation of "I like to eat apples and bananas" by Raffi, filling in OUR favorite fruits. Since this is a tropical island, we added mangoes, papayas, kiwis, and other goodies.

My favorite part of class is coloring time. The kids all come up with very unique results even if they're all coloring the same picture, but the best is listening to them talk and sing while they work. The previous teacher taught them the phrase "May I please borrow..." and nearly all of the kids have mastered it. Even though at any other time of the class you might hear yelling, giggling, or crying, this is the only time when the classroom is full of the most polite 5-7 year olds I've ever met.