Magic #142

The number of times I've been stared at for being white? Way too low. The number of Chinese words I know? Way too high. The number of hours it took me to write this entry? Close, but not quite.

That my friends is the number of students that the parents and school officials of Taiwan have entrusted me with. 142 students to help learn English good. 142 students to keep safe and out of trouble while under my supervision. 142 students to teach about the important things in life like Da Cubs, Da Bears, and Da Bulls.

And now that I've been teaching some of these kids for two months (I can't believe its been that long!), I feel I can give everyone some thoughts on my classes and classroom experiences thus far.

First of all, here's a basic rundown of how classes work at my school. The first level is M. This goes from M1-M6. These are the youngest and least experienced kids. They start off learning simple vocabulary and sentence patterns. The next level is K. This goes from K1-K12. Quite a range here so let's just say this is the intermediate level. And the highest level is NA (New Advanced, no idea what M & K stand for). This goes from NA1-NA7. These classes introduce the kids to writing stories rather than just sentences and reading books rather than one page stories.

M & K classes meet twice a week and are taught once by a CT (Chinese Teacher) and once by a FT (Foreign Teacher) each week. NA classes meet once a week and are only taught by a FT.

The classes go for 3-4 months. Because of this, and because the kids start learning at different ages, there is a lot of overlap in the age of students between levels.

I currently have 8 classes. Here are some thoughts on each:

K8 (23 students, 4th-5th graders): Most K classes have around 15 students so this one is quite large. But its also one of my favorite classes. The students are smart, eager to learn, and behave so we have fun. With that said, I could do without Alan. I love his enthusiasm when he volunteers for any question I ask but I hate that 90% of the time he's not just wrong, he's not even close. He might be staying at this level for another session. TBD.

K5 (8 students, 2nd graders): My newest class is also by far my smallest class. While I don't know the kids that well, so far they've been good. Even if they weren't, there's only eight of them so I could manage it. And not that she's an evil student, but Quby scares the crap out of me. She seems like a nice, cute little girl on the outside but she's got some ambition and hates to lose, both in games and on her homework. I gave her back a quiz that she didn't do well on and I got the evil eye from her. Yikes! There's a decent chance I'll be writing on the board one day and get stabbed with a pencil. She'll play all innocent, but I'll know it was her.

K7 (15 students, 3rd-5th graders): Not a bad class. They'd be better if they didn't tell on each other constantly about who's speaking Chinese or doing something else. Jeez. Snitching will only get you so far in life children and its not far. Only bad apple is Leo and I already found out he's not coming back for K8. Bueno!

M6 (15 students, kindergarten-1st graders): My youngest class is also my second favorite. This class is the closest thing I have to "babysitting" since they're so young and small. And its tough to keep their attention so someone is always standing up or has the wrong book open. But that's also why they're fun. When they're standing up when they're not supposed to, I simply pick them up and put them back. This works until they all start doing it so they can get picked up too.

And besides that, this class has the best English names of them all. I have a Jonathan, Frank, Mimi, Sunny, Yoyo, Connie (the kids always laugh because I say it with the Chicago "A"), Melissa (sorry MK, she spells it with two s's), my one and only Jeff, and my single favorite name in all of my classes, Otis. Not only is that a ridiculously awesome English name to have (how many Otis's do you know in the States?), but the kid doesn't have all his teeth, has glasses that appear to be too big for him, and he's the smallest kid in class yet he tries, and fails, to wrestle the girls during break time. Priceless.

K10 (23 students, 5th-6th graders): A solid class, but also my most boring class. Most students are fine but that's the problem. Not enough superstars or troublemakers to make them standout. And the material for this level doesn't help as its boring and tough to make exciting games or activities with. And not only are there a ton of students, but there are several duplicate names in the class (2 Andy's, 2 Ken's, 2 Sandy's) so I can never remember who is who.

NA3 (19 students, 7th-8th graders): After all those wonderful things, it seemed too good to be true right? Well, that's where this class comes in. They are by far my least favorite class. Not only is this huge for a NA class (most are around 12 students) but they don't do their homework, they don't pay attention in class, and they simply don't care. I've even kicked a few kids out of class for being a disruption. That's right, I can be a disciplinarian when I need to be. Now they've seen my tough love so things are getting better but I'm not completely optimistic.

NA1 (17 students, 3rd-6th graders): These students have cemented their place in history as the first class I ever taught. Not only that, but they're my favorite class and couldn't be more different than my other NA class. It doesn't seem like a big class, they do their homework, they pay attention, and we have fun in class. This is also the class that very willingly posed for a picture with my Cubs gear. Just this last week, I forgot to update them on the Cubs at the beginning of class (as I do every week) and not two minutes went by before I heard, "Teacher Jeff, what about the Cubs this week? Did they win?" That's when I had to explain the All-Star Game and its worthlessness.

OT2 (14 students, 2nd-3rd graders): This is my outing class that I have for the summer only. I wish it was longer because these kids are awesome. Basically, we play a lot of games and we go on field trips every other Friday. Two weeks ago, we went to the Taipei Zoo. Not only was it a really nice zoo, but the kids were so excited and we had a blast. I saw my first koala bears too. So small and they just sat there. I can now say with confidence that I could fight a bear and win.

What's also great about this class is there are 7 boys and 7 girls. So we always play boys against girls cause "we don't like the girls" according to the boys (that won't last forever my friends). As far as the battle of the sexes goes, all I can say is the boys need to practice their golf game. We play almost every class and the girls not only beat them, they destroy them. I'm thinking of taking them pro.

Alright, there you go. Sorry it took so long to share some thoughts on the main reason I'm out here but I hope this gives you a little insight into my new life adventure. Its still really strange in a lot of ways (I'm a teacher!?!? In Asia!?!?) and I miss you all back home, but thank you for your continued support while I'm in my new "home." It means a lot.

And I'll be sure to blog if I get another Otis.