Hugo Yarn Hotel Taichung

... always Tuesdays that we are good on?" I responded, "I don't know you tell me" It is funny that he noticed that because it is true, Tuesdays usually are the day of the week that they are good! haha Also we have been reading some stories that have Spanish in them and the kids have been enjoying getting to hear what Spanish sounds like. Well one of my kids at the end of the day called me abuelo, meaning grandfather. They were almost in tears they thought it was so funny that ...

... at school. When we come in from outside many of them change clothes because they get so sweaty. When we get to the classroom they are all able to get their clean clothes, get them ready and we help take off the dirty clothes and put the new shirts on. But then they are able to put the dirty clothes in their "dirty clothes" bag and put the rest of the clean clothes away! <br><br>In class all week we were learning about the letter "e" from Letterland, meaning that the letter ...

Last week brought the end of our summer program. I can't believe how fast this summer went! I am excited for the end of summer because it will bring about a change in the school program. I will now begin teaching different hours. I will only see my 3rd graders 3 times a week from 5-7 in the evening. I will fill in my other hours with extra classes and other office work. Some of my other classes could be 2 creative writing classes and the possibility of teaching 2 English classes for ...

... It is a monthly magazine that the school publishes of different short stories and activities. There are 3 reading levels and it is used as part of the curriculum here. The magazine comes with a CD to help the students be able to listen to English when at home. The magazine also is broadcast over the radio here. Well today I was able to record for 4 different stories for the CD! I get a copy each month so I will be able to bring back some of the ...

<br>Among one of our latest quandaries was the notion to visit a small town outside of Taichung called GuGuan. This town is home to something North America is surprisingly plentiful in, hot springs. This mysterious mountain village is around 2 hours by bus out of the city. Like almost every event in our new life in Taiwan this experience would be decided in the eleventh-hour, the night before our big trek. I did have first hand knowledge of a vague area of town ...

... especially as a relatively new person into the field. I definitely got a lot of perspective into the life of a student based upon my conversations with parents during last year's parent/teacher conferences. I was anxious to see how much I could tell when the parent spoke little to no English. I was supposed to stand with my Chinese teacher, Iris, who was to serve as my translator for the evening ...

... to the core in today's post-9/11 times that we are currently facing. I decided to have a little fun with my Lazy Ozzie experience. I decided to go out and put together a set of clothes and create a mask (complete with feathers) so I would resemble Ozzie while storytelling. For my activity, the students were to make and color masks of their own so we could re-tell the story together as a group. I had a feeling it was ...

... is also expected of these students when they attend Chinese school that they sit attentively and never talk while in the classroom. There is a lot of emphasis on memorization and direct instruction when it comes to learning in a Chinese school environment. Therefore, when they come to English school and encounter a teacher (such as myself) whose whole philosophy on teaching is that children learn by doing rather than listening ...

We planned a group outing last night to see The Dark Knight. I am a huge Batman fan and have been anxiously awaiting this film for the past year or so. Needless to say, I was so excited that I did laundry the night before just so I could wear my Batman t-shirt to the event. The movie, as expected and reviewed, was absolutely fantastic. I couldn't help but feel like the Dark Knight himself when I hopped on my ...

... and rattle it in hopes of getting the monkey upset. The money did nothing. However, he asked that a female teacher come and just lightly tap the cage. One teacher did, and the monkey just went bazzerk; flailing his arms all over and throwing things in his cage. I believe the farmer made some sort of dirty joke in Chinese, because only the Chinese teachers were (nervously) laughing along with him as we continued our tour. He took us on ...