Teaching and it's the end of November

It's the end of November and in Taiwan it means you only have two more months till winter break and Lunar New Year at the end of January. I'm getting tired though and no December break to look at....

Fortunately, I have six days off for Annie and I's wedding reception. And to top it off, two friends from Hawaii are visiting - Shannon and Dennis. We will have a blast, I am sure. I am getting a bit homesick so they may also help a cure for that.

Theres are some more students at work. I certainly love them. It's amazing. There is something about teaching so many different grade levels so many times a week. K, 2, 4 and 6. They are so different. It's really giving me an opportunity to see which grade I prefer teaching. I'll let you know in the future.

Teaching English as a forgien language is a different challenge though. Sometimes I haven't a clue if they understand what I'm saying...but hey...that could be anywhere.

As for my health, the toenail pain is gone but the healing of the toe sucks - cleaning, keeping dry. What a pain. It's been raining a lot too and I have to wear Tevas.

In grown nail be-gone

Don't cut your toe nails too short. Really!!!He was a good doctor.




A few shots of the pre-surgery. Yeee haaa what fun!


Yesterday I had my surgery at the Wang Fang Hospital. They cut a piece of my nail off and a little skin. It feels so much better. I think I made the right decision but the aftermaintenence is a hassle and important. So I do ti. Clean it, cover it, keep it dry and take antibiotics. I hate taking pills. But I take them. The toe is so important to my quality of life. I want to minimize the risk of infection.

Thanksgiving Dinner Party - Taipei Style

Hans and Tina. Hans is German she is Taiwanese. He speaks fluet Mandarine and English, and she speaks pretty good English



Went to the neighbors' Hans and Tina for Thanksgiving. Two other Americans were there - one who lives in Taiwan and the other used to live in Taiwan but lives in Chicago with his Taiwanese wife. Nice meal, plenty of libation and good conversation. I almost felt like I was home in Hawaii, California or Ohio.

Thanksgiving away from home

Thinking about past Thanksgivings and they were wonderful events with friends and family - always. I'm a bit lonely this year. Many times the day was spent with Paul and Marganne, Shannon and George and which ever woman I was dating at the time. What memories.

This year on Thanksgiving I will be working. There is no Thanksgiving holiday in Taiwan. It is hard to get a Thanksgiving meal here except for the Turkey and Rice place. But it really isn't the meal, it's the people you are with that matter.

This year I will be with co-teachers and 2,4, and 6th graders. It's all part of living in another culture. Working on the holidays is not a fun part of this culture for me. In 8 weeks we do have Lunar New Year and Winter Break.

On Friday I will have Thanksgiving dinner with the neighbors Hans a German man who speaks fluent Chinese and his wife Tina a Taiwanese-Chinese woman. There will be two American couples there too. I haven't met them.

I needed nature so I went to "Green Lake." Hmm, I wonder why it is called Green? It is a nice place to get a little nature in Taipei. It was just what I needed, on a Sunday night.

In-Grown Toe Nails and Knee Problems

I have two major impact health problems that have caused me to think about the future. My toe and my knee are both hurting. The most painful part of this is that "I'm a hiker and have always been a hiker!" I back-packed to the top of Mauna Loa, Ka'aha in Volcano Park, to Papoose Lake in Humblodt County, The Sierras, Mount Sibyak in Indonesia, a week in the Cascades in Oregan, cross country skiied in New Mexico, hitchhiked around the US twice...and much more. Now it hurts to walk around the apartment or walk to the store or to class or around the class. It sucks.

Now I think about the treatments, drugs etc. The toe is first. Anti-biotitics, then cut part of the nail off. At first I didn't want to cut anything. Just let it grow out. That was 2 weeks ago. Now I am ready to cut the nail out. It keeps cutting my toe and getting infected.

The knee is a different story. I will wait for the MRI. I do know I have a "Baker's Cyste." Contrary to popular beleif, it is not caused by baking too much. It is named after the guy who "discovered" it.

Here are two websites that will tell you all about my problems....
http://www.medicinenet.com/baker_cyst/article.htm
http://www.epodiatry.com/ingrown_nails.htm

Fabry's Disease

The parents of the one-month old baby who just had his First Lunar birthday party, found out today that he has Fabry's Disease. The diagnoses was made after a routine infant blood test. "Fabry disease is caused by the lack of or faulty enzyme needed to metabolize lipids, fat-like substances that include oils, waxes, and fatty acids. It is a genetic disease passed on by the x chromasone." The prognosese isn't good. "A mutation in the gene that controls this enzyme causes insufficient breakdown of lipids, which build up to harmful levels in the eyes, kidneys, autonomic nervous system, and cardiovascular system. "

"Symptoms usually begin during childhood or adolescence and include burning sensations in the hands that gets worse with exercise and hot weather and small, raised reddish-purple blemishes on the skin. Some boys will also have eye manifestations, especially cloudiness of the cornea. Lipid storage may lead to impaired arterial circulation and increased risk of heart attack or stroke. The heart may also become enlarged and the kidneys may become progressively involved. Other symptoms include decreased sweating, fever, and gastrointestinal difficulties, particularly after eating."

It sounds miserable.

"Patients with Fabry disease often survive into adulthood but are at increase risk of strokes, heart attack and heart disease, and renal failure."

He will be going to National Taiwan Univerisity Hospital for treatment next week. It is the only hospital in Taiwan that can provide treatment for the disease.

Peanut butter sandwiches

Thank you for Costco! For dinner tonight, I ate an organic peanut butter and jam sandwich. The organic peanut butter complements of Costco-Taipei and the blueberry jam complements of my niece Tammy who lives in Amish country, Pennsylvania. The organic whole wheat bread complements of the local organic food store.

I love Costco. There are two stores in Taipei. Going to Costco here is almost like going to the Kona store and seeing a lot of Chinese folks on vacation. Even the food counter offers the same menu – Hawaiian pizza among other things. They also offer Kirkland coffee packed by Starbucks for $299 – almost $10 for a half a Kilo.

Well, the peanut butter sandwich was great. Takes me right back to childhood and that nice warm feeling of mom.

First Lunar Birthday

Arthur (Annie's brother) and his wife, 2.5 year old daughter and one month old.



Relatives celebrating.

Annie or Li-Wen and I pretending. It's a nice feeling but we have no plans to have children (for many reasons).

Last night we celebrated with Annie's brother and wife, and their almost new-born son's lunar Birthday or one-month birthday. Plenty of food and all sorts of drinks. One of them being JWB, one of my favorites.

The restaurant is owned by Annie's aunt and it is where Annie and I will have our wedding reception dinner December 30.

I can't really tell you the "real" names of most people here because I mostly learn their English names and some don't have English names. English names are used in English class or for the pronunciation conveyance for English-only on non-Chinese speaking people.

The one month old doesn't have a name yet. He will be named soon though because he should be named by his lunar birthday date or when he is one-month old.

I have two Chinese names. One is 柯傑洛 and the other is Assuyia. I don't know the Chinese letters or words for Assuyia. It means something like "nice person."

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Presentations in a language and with concepts that you don't understand. Wow! Will any of it be valuable? I don't know!
Do they really understand...? I don't know!
Most of my students don't seem to "know" what they are saying. Yet I hope they are learning.

How do you teach English as a foreign language? It’s not something I paid much attention to at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, where I completed my Teaching Credential. It wasn’t on all those Praxis Tests that I had to take either. I had no reason to study the topic. Now I wish I would have.

So now I am really focusing on it. It’s amazing how being in front of 25 second graders, 25 fourth graders and 23 sixth graders who all don’t speak English very well will get you to focus. One, I want the students to learn English. Two, it makes me feel good when I have successful lessons and see progress.

Here’s the thing, though. I want to teach them something meaningful along with the grammar, vocabulary and all that other stuff. Of course, those of you who know me know I want it to be ecologically based. But how do you teach ecology in English to students who are limited in their English abilities? Likewise, how do you use ecology to teach English as a foreign language?

So relying on my excellent training at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, I just went for it. That has worked a little. Instead of “Old Mrs. Brown has a lot of bananas in her basket but doesn’t have many vegetables.” It’s “Tree frog lives in trees and in ponds.” The kicker here is that I’m not sure that they really know what they are saying.

My goal was to have them learn a little bit about ecology and Taiwan plant and animal life. They could use Chinese language books and Chinese language in the class but they had translate it into English and give an English presentation. This had limited and great success.

I have a new project coming. For the next two weeks we have a project. The six graders study and make “something” out of a “7-colored bird” also known as a Babet. The fourth graders are doing Siberian Huskies and the second graders doing Stag Beetles and other beetles.

This is all in the blind for me. But the one common thread or rope is “Classroom Management.” Without control of my classroom, well, everyone knows that a fun time will not be had by anyone and not a lot of learning will be accomplished.

First Post

My school.

Hard at work!


Some photos of my students and school.

It's Saturday morning in Taipei. In Hawaii it is Friday afternoon and in Toledo, Ohio it is Friday evening. I've been living in Taiwan for a little more than two months. Gee, it seems longer. Living here is different than visiting. Since I've been here I have gone through many changes. First I had that "vacation" feeling. Next came the "I got get a job. I feel lost feeling," and now I am in the "Why did I get a job so quickly?" feeling and the "We really don't get a break until lunar New Year (February 2007)?" you've got to be kidding feeling.

Well, I know why I got the job so quickly. It made me feel like I had a sense of place. I don't think there is anything quite like a job to give you that "This is my home." feeling. Also, there is the money thing....

About the job. I teach English (not as straight-forward as it sounds) to kindergarten, 2nd graders, 4th graders and 6th graders. I teach all but the K's seven times a week. The K's I teach or should I say perform for only 2 times a week. I teach at a private elementary school.

The students are like the students I have known in Hawaii. Most of the lessons are text-book based. However, I find that I can get most of the classes through the text book in 5 lessons and then I have two lessons where I teach what I want. In fourth grade we are doing poetry and pen-pal writing to a class in Mountain View, Hawaii. In sixth grade I am having them make a poster and do presentations about endemic or indeginous plants and animals. The second graders are learning to write stories that go with illustrations. I am stumbling through these processes and a lot of it is experimental since the level of student's English abilities vary and my Chinese is still in its infancy.

Behavior is an issue here just like in Hawaii. Students may respect their Chinese teachers here but it doesn't mean they respect their forgien English teacher. In each of my classes, there are 3 or 4 boys that take up a lot of my attention due to behavior issues. The tools I learned student teaching in Hawaii are useful. But I find that the bag of tools must be rotated or modified. Similar to the "Borg" students seem to adapt to the modifications, and then another needs to be tried. Sigh.....

About my personal life. Annie and I live about 2.5 hours apart. It's a lot closer than Hawaii - Taiwan but far from ideal. I miss her a lot since we really only see each other on the weekends. More about all this later.

I hope you enjoy the new blog.