And now onto my purpose for being in Taiwan: teaching English!
The Yunlin ETAs learned about our school placement options back in August. Over a series of video calls, each school's Lead English Teachers (LETs) gave a presentation on which grades we'd co-teach, how many LETs and classes we'd have, and other general school information. Then we ranked and submitted our preferences. Some people prioritized school location, transportation options, student age group, or cafeteria dietary restrictions. Personally, I was having trouble selecting my first choice until the start of the very last presentation, when the LET, Doreen, delivered a cold-open rap about Jhennan Elementary School (鎮南國民小學). Even before she finished, I knew there could never be another school for me :)
To be fair, Jhennan Elementary has plenty of advantages besides Doreen's rapping. While the other Yunlin ETAs have to report to two different schools, Jhennan is my one and only. (Each school only gets one ETA per year). Other ETAs' commutes require 30-minute scooter or car rides while Jhennan is barely a 10-minute walk from my apartment (and an even shorter bike ride, thanks to my surprise free bike from Uncle Yang). Our wonderful Yunlin Fulbright coordinator, Joyce, works out of Jhennan. And our semi-regular Fulbright teaching workshops all take place at Jhennan so I never have to travel for those.
Of course, Jhennan's biggest selling point is co-teaching with the two LETs: Doreen and Amy. Doreen teaches fifth and sixth grade English while Amy teaches third and fourth grade. Each grade is divided into five or six [1] homeroom classes which take English together twice a week. I trade off weeks between Amy and Doreen. In all, I co-teach 21 different English classes as well as 20 40-minute class sessions per week. Since each class has roughly 25 students, I will be working with about 500 students!
Jhennan Elementary's campus, including outdoor hallways, English classroom, courtyard, track field, and mascot.
Last Friday, I visited Jhennan and met Doreen and Amy in-person for the first time. I met them in one of several teachers' offices where staff members (including me now (!)) have their work spaces and can spend time between classes and during breaks. Over some afternoon bubble tea, we discussed teaching methods and toured the school. And just in case I needed more sustenance, my LETs also gave me a literal bag made out of bags of snacks! That'll keep me going for 20 classes a week.
From left: The teacher's office, afternoon tea with Amy (left) and Doreen (right), a snack bag made of snack bags!
Doreen and Amy also introduced me to a lot of other teachers and Jhennan staff members. I gotta be honest; it's going to be a challenge learning the names of a few dozen new strangers, especially when everyone's wearing a mask. (And don't get me started on learning 500 student names)! At the same time, in East Asian professional settings, titles tend to surpass names in importance. In fact, during my previous experiences interning in Shanghai, I often never learned my colleagues' names, but rather addressed them exclusively by title. At Jhennan, the staff titles rank from teacher, group leader, director, up to principal. So first, I'm going to try to remember who falls under which rank and go from there.
My official first day of school was this past Monday! I was with Amy and the third and fourth graders this week, and my main task was giving them a self-introductory presentation. Like any Zillenial, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation about my hometown, family/friends, and hobbies. Because these younger students' English is still fairly limited, I tried to frame my background around terms they'd understand. For instance, to introduce my hometown, I explained that Washington DC is the US capital, just like Taipei is the capital of Taiwan. Basically, I told them, "I come from the Taipei of America." That might've confused the students a little, but they definitely perked up when they heard "Taipei" and other familiar words.
Additionally, I included photos of the White House, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris to explain that DC is where the US president and vice-president live. "This man is America's Tsai Ing-wen and she is America's Lai Ching-te," I explained, comparing Biden/Harris to Taiwan's own president and VP. This definitely perplexed some students who no doubt wondered why I was using their president's name while pointing to a man who was so obviously not Tsai Ing-wen. But a few students recognized Biden and the White House, and for the rest, Amy stepped in and translated. My favorite reaction was when a student saw Biden's picture and yelled "Akon!" Akon means grandfather in Taiwanese, so technically, the student wasn't wrong.
I also showed pictures of my family and explained how my dad's family originally came from Wales and Germany while my mom's family immigrated from Taiwan. Even though I knew the immigration details might go over some students' heads, I still included them for a few reasons. For one, I wanted to plant the concept of a mixed-race person in their head. And second, I wanted to disabuse the notion that the default American person is white[2]. I showed the students pictures of my Ama and Akon (Taiwanese grandparents) and asked if anyone had ever been to their home counties of Pingtung and Tainan, to which nearly every student raised their hand. But if I'm being honest, what got the most response were the pictures of my cooking. I did pick my most drool-worthy photos for a reason ;)
First day of school pics!
As fun as it was to talk about my family and hometown, since I co-teach eleven third and fourth grade classes, I gave my introductory presentation eleven times! And next week, I'll give it ten more times to all my fifth and sixth graders. I'm starting to regret including and therefore repeating that joke about Wales and whales, but oh well, I feel like I'm pot-committed to this presentation by now.
After listening to my presentation, the students continued preparing for their midterm tests in early November. Because of COVID restrictions, the Taiwan ETAs are starting to teach midway through the fall semester, so we have a bit of catching up to do. In my case, I'm taking more of a backseat role for these first two weeks. While my LETs lead midterm prep, I've been observing and learning about the classroom environment, sometimes stepping in to assist with an activity or explain a word/phrase. I imagine my lesson planning duties will pick up after the midterms.
When I'm not co-teaching my 2-5 classes a day, I spend my free periods working at my desk in the teachers' office and chatting with colleagues. The school day lasts roughly from 8:00am-4:00pm although everyone arrives by around 7:30am. The students clean the school both first thing in the morning and right before they leave in the afternoon. I was super impressed as I witnessed the unquestioning coordination of 7- and 8-year-olds in mopping bathrooms and sweeping the hallways. 8-year-old me would never have had the stamina or humility to do that.
Cleaning time
Lunchtime lasts from 12:00pm-12:40pm; in non-COVID days, we'd be eating buffet-style in the cafeteria, but under the current circumstances, the cafeteria workers deliver the food to each homeroom classroom for students to eat there. The teachers also get their own buffet station. The food is eaten bento-style (throwback to my quarantine hotel but I don't mind) which usually includes rice, one or two vegetable options, one or two protein options, and sometimes a little treat like fruit or glass jelly. Everyone brings their own plates/bowls/utensils and washes them after lunch in one of the many school hallway sinks.
The teacher lunch line and school lunch. We got lucky with noodles and fried taro that day!
Naptime follows lunchtime from 12:40pm-1:30pm. Already familiar with naptime culture from my Shanghai days, I was excited to return to this underrated custom. Scheduling downtime after lunch just makes sense, you know? In my experience, having that pre-planned recovery period makes a huge difference in afternoon energy levels and focus, and I really wish the US and other countries followed East Asia's lead on this.
All in all, my first week went fairly smoothly! As I expected, co-teaching is definitely a figure-it-out-as-you-go type of role, but I'm willing to take the time to test the waters and learn what strategies and lesson plans work best with my students. It's too early to know exactly how I feel about co-teaching, but I'm glad to be at Jhennan with friendly and skilled colleagues.
To celebrate my first week of teaching, Amy and Doreen very generously treated me and my roommate, Ciashia (who also started teaching this week at different schools) to dinner. Here's to a great year of co-teaching!
Happy first week of teaching! From left: Doreen, Amy, me, and Ciashia
Moment of joy/humor: One of the snacks Doreen and Amy gave me is called 乖乖 or Guai Guai which means "well-behaved" and usually refers to children. Many of my colleagues keep bags of Guai Guai on their desk in the hopes that it'll keep their students well-behaved. My students so far seem pretty polite, but a little extra luck never hurt anyone so I've joined my colleagues in this unique office decor :)
My offering to the gods for some Guai Guai students
[1]Each grade has five classes except fourth grade, which has six because those kids were all born in the zodiac year of the dragon, and according to Amy, many Taiwanese people want a dragon baby.
[2]When traveling abroad and being questioned about my ethnic ambiguity, I hear a lot of, "Oh, so your mom is Taiwanese and your dad is American." Uh, not exactly: both my parents are American. My mom is Taiwanese-American and my dad is Welsh and German-American. That's how you say it.