Meeting the Co-teachers

This week has been a lot of fun because we finally got to meet all of the co-teachers! We will not be paired up with a specific teacher for another two weeks, so this time has been spent getting to know each other and finding which co-teachers (they are called LETs and we are the ETAs) we think we will be compatible with throughout the school year. There are 12 of us and 34 of them, which means each of us will have between 2-4 co-teachers in the course of the year. Last year was the first year of this Fulbright program here in Kaohsiung (and the seventh year in Yilan). Because the program was so successful last year, way more schools applied to be a part of it this year. While the ETAs last year were able to work with the same school the entire year, this year we will all be matched with 2-3 schools. We will switch schools the second semester, and a few of us will even be working at two schools simultaneously during a single semester. The education bureau obviously thought that they could best use us as native English speakers by putting us into as many different classrooms as possible. I think the city tried to expand the program too quickly, and that many problems will arise as a result. It just seems hard that by the time we as ETAs begin to feel adjusted and comfortable in our jobs, the semester will be over and we will have to switch to a new school and work with two new co-teachers (we will work with 1-2 co-teachers at each school, depending on the school).

There are 20 elementary schools and 3 middle schools, all of which are spread out all around Kaohsiung city. At the end of this month, both the ETAs and the LETs will rank each other, and then we will be paired up accordingly. What makes this process so confusing is that the schools come in predetermined groupings. The education bureau already paired up schools based on their location, so when we as ETAs rank our schools, we will be picking a prearranged package deal. This week, we have all been trying to meet and talk with as many of the co-teachers as possible; then next week we will be working at a summer camp and practicing with co-teaching; and the third week we will visit all of the schools and tour their facilities. I find the schedule/sequence of events unnecessarily stressful and angst-brewing. Since none of us know who will end up with which schools/co-teachers, we (or at least I do) feel pressure to divide our attention between all of the co-teachers, trying to build relationships with each one. The problem with the paired-up schools is that it creates situations where one school may hit it off great with one ETA, but the other school in the grouping gets along really well with another ETA. One obvious example of this is a school who really wants one of the guy ETAs, but the second school's principal has declared that it wants a female ETA (I do not even want to get into the politics of that sexism...). I do appreciate the fact that the bureau tried to pair up the schools based on location, but I still wish we would have been allowed to choose each separately. Additionally, I believe it would have made more sense to conduct all of the school visits the first week (seeing the actual facilities is mildly important in making the decision), and then to do speed dating immediately following, so that we could already be paired up with our co-teachers. That way, instead of us secretly having favorites and being stressed about the eventual pairings, we could already know our co-teachers and spend these next few weeks getting to know them specifically and learning to work with them. Despite my rational side telling me that I will get along well with whomever I am assigned (I rarely have people-problems), it is still extremely stressful for me to be hanging in the balance right now - kind of like the application process for grad school...

On Monday, we did a lot of introductory and get-to-know-you activities for all of the ETAs to meet all of the LETs. Everyone had prepared a powerpoint to share information about themselves and/or their schools. Every other day this week, we have had lectures/seminar discussions on the theory and methodology of teaching English. Some of the discussions have been very useful, while others were entirely too theoretical to ever be of any use to me. Considering that most of the ETAs have never taught before, one would think that the most useful lectures would be on practical skills for teaching English to children. Instead, we have had sessions on public speaking (which even I know is very different from teaching in front of a classroom), psychology jargon (the point of which seems to be the giving of highly academic-sounding labels to obvious ideas and then explaining them in as convoluted a manner as possible), and famous education psychologists with their varying theories over the past century. Interesting - perhaps... but not at all useful for hands-on application. And they want us in a classroom in two more weeks!

Probably the most fun activity we did in the sessions was to create our own lesson plans, integrating activities for teaching both reading and writing (the lesson's meta-cognitive goal? or was that the meta-linguistic goal?... remember, the psychology of this was all way over my head - er - too boring to concentrate on learning oops). We were split into groups of five, yet my group somehow ended up with 10? That the LETs are awesome is the only explanation for that one... :) Anyways, my group used Eric Carle's book "From Head to Toe" to teach a hypothetical fourth grade class animals and matching actions (ie: "I am a giraffe, and I bend my neck"). In Taiwan, the public schools begin their English instruction in the third grade, so we were assuming an elementary lesson with students who already had the rudimentary blocks of the language (ie: phonics). My group, all of which were ETAs, unanimously voted against me to make me the teacher for the demonstration, meaning that they got the fun job of asking me ridiculous questions and of intentionally failing to understand my teaching. I, on the other hand, had the lucky job of making a fool of myself in front of 50 people. In the process of acting out all of the actions while reading the story, I definitely forgot that my audience was made up of adults instead of ten-year-olds. "I am a crocodile, and I wiggle my hips." And yes, I did unwittingly "wiggle" my hips to the great amusement of the entire room...

my lesson-planning group


with the co-teachers at the market / Sue baked our group a coffee-flavored cake!

The co-teachers have definitely been the best part of the week. They are all amazing, and I am so excited to be paired-up and to begin working more individually with them! They also make me laugh so much. For example, one lady has been trying to set me up with her son. Apparently he is single, 24 years old and would love to take me to church! She even gave me his email, facebook account and mobile number... Poor guy... I love mothers! They make the best match-makers. :)

Our other major excitement for the week has been our scooter lessons. I am so getting a scooter! They are really fun!! Plus, it is the only time when I am outdoors here and not absolutely melting from the heat (sidenote: the weather here is intense - having never been in a tropical climate, I was quite unprepared; the temperature is in the 90s, but the humidity is usually close to 100%... just imagine that for a moment... yes, I am perpetually sticky and dripping - delightful image). When I say that everyone in Taiwan rides scooters, I mean about 97% of the people in this country. Whereas streets in Beijing were filled with cyclists, taxis and pedestrians, the streets here are just filled with scooters. There are not nearly as many pedestrians, and the mass transit here (buses and metro system - MRT) is surprisingly under-used. I believe most people also have their own cars, but they find scooters more convenient for daily use.