picking up the pace   2004-07-10

the days filled with whinging about the heat/humidity and our raison d'etre are officially over. i've now joined the ranks of the terminally exhausted and the perennially overworked.


school's in for summmer!


those in the know said to savour the days spent lazing inside wondering if it was worth it packing up and moving here. how right they were. the rush of summer classes has been swift and brutal.


school of one kind or another seems to fill the majority of kids' days here. if they're not being brow-beaten by stern chinese math tutors, practicing chopin etudes, or boning up for placement tests that'll set the courses for their entire lives, they're sitting in english language schools wishing they were a million miles away. and who can blame them? i didn't know what "phrasal verbs" were before this week and i'm sure glad i didn't have to sit through a lesson by a new teacher trying to explain them to me.


bad for them. good for our bank balance.


i've jumped from about 10 hours a week in the classroom to over 31. a huge jump for me ... mainly because every minute spent in the classroom means a minute spent outside of the classroom preparing materials and lesson plans. whoa. i can't believe teachers don't get paid for all the time they spend prepping for class. it's certainly given me a whole new appreciation for the amount of unpaid work and time teachers shoulder au gratis.


i was walking home from the bus the other night thinking ... "my feet are killing me, my throat is a little sore from talking all day, i'm totally beat, and i have to do this all again tomorrow." i remember hearing the exact same thing from some of my teacher friends and thinking ... "come on ... suck it up. how hard can it be? you only teach 25 hours a week."


well ... if walking a mile in someone else's shoes gives an indication of what something is really like ...


teachers of the world ... once again i salute you.



my teaching schedule.

intensive class
monday — friday
9:00 - 12:00
10 students (ages: 15 - 29)
3 days a week we focus on building/developing oral skills.
1 day a week we focus on building/developing reading skills.
1 day a week we focus on building/developing writing skills.


the students have low-intermediate english skills which means we can hold basic conversations using limited vocabulary. i really like this class. the students are great and so far they appear to enjoy coming to class. maybe because i'm not afraid to cut loose with a little air-guitar when i really need to drive a point home.



business class
monday & wednesday
5:45 - 8:15
13 students (ages: 22-40)
2 evenings a week we focus on building/developing oral skills.


i was really looking forward to this class. how much easier can it get when the students don't want any homework and just want to talk? well ... it's a freakin' nightmare if they can't speak any english. this class is approaching disaster status. the students have almost no english ... about as much english as i have chinese. so basically i come to the sessions and put in a solid two and a half hours of charades. hard work. once again ... great people, which is the saving grace. we're supposed to discuss business ethics tomorrow. yeeeah. kill me.



A6 class
saturday
9:30 - 12:30
8 students (ages: 10 - 13)


we only meet once a week and cover reading, writing, and oral in the three hour session. i teach this class at marlene's school. it's a nice treat because marlene and i get to go to work together and finish together every saturday. i took this class over from another teacher at marlene's school who had nothing but bad things to say about the students. i don't know what she was talking about ... so far ... good times. we had our first in-class "tour de france" race the other day. i won.


1-on-1
whenever
usually 2 hours
(ages: 20 - 35)


i love these sessions. so far the 1-on-1's have all had quite advanced english skills and have only wanted to focus on improving their speaking skills. sometimes i pick the topic and sometimes they pick it and from there on in it's just tangent city. the word of the day last session was "hermaphrodite" ... hey ... i'll talk about anything. not much preparation required for these sessions besides reading the newspaper. awesome.



K1 class
wednesday
1:30 - 3:30
10 students (ages: 6 - 8)


cute. cute. cute. the only down side is that it takes me a long time to think up and organize what games i'm going to play with them. when the kids are that old there's no time for indecision. a moments hesitation and you've lost them. it's like skiing in front of an avalanche. exciting ... but if you fall you're dead.



A2 class
tuesday & thursday
7:00 - 10:00
15 students (9 - 14)


not sure about this class yet. it's kind of a tricky level to deal with ... plus it's late at night and the students are usually tired and distracted. i'd start checking out if all i heard was ... "blah blah blah ... past perfect sentence formations ... blah blah blah." something tells me this class will have to develop into a game-fest if we're all going to survive.

so ... there's a bit of a snap shot of my teaching schedule right now. more classes may be added in the coming weeks. it seems pretty full ... although i've heard this summer is quite slow compared to previous summers. it wasn't out of the question for teachers to be teaching for close to 50 hours a week in summers' gone by. yikes. throw in preparation and marking and ... that leaves time for ... oh ... nothing.


having said that ... i hope to get into the smoke pit here every sunday morning to add to the journal as there's no time during the week to do it anymore ... at least for the duration of the summer. apologies in advance if the emails slow to a bit of trickle for the next few weeks. once i find my teaching legs i'll have a bit more time / energy to write some proper emails too.




below are some pics ... once again lifted from other websites ... of life in taipei.





shi lin night market. the biggest night market in the world. when i buy a camera and take some proper pictures i'll devote a journal entry to night markets. they're incredible.






shi lin night market.






shi lin night market.






taipei has more 7-11's than I've seen in any city, but then you round the corner and come upon something like this.






the tallest building in the world ... taipei's 101 skyscraper.

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