Week 2 in Taiwan!

June 02, 2018

Week 2 in Taiwan!

This week was a fulfilling one - let me share with you how it went!

For myself, I am following a Grade 1 class (Primary 1) and they are such lovely children. My mentor is a native speaker of English and I will eventually be teaching English too, alongside my mentor. I am learning so much here!

My mentor would share with them 6 new words each day (from Mon - Wed) that is based on a text that the kids are reading. The students are then tasked to write these words and use it in a sentence as homework. This helps my mentor check if students understand the words taught.

What is really unique about English lessons here is that every Wednesday, time is set aside for Language Experience Class. The English teachers would plan relevant activities for students to experience the content that is being taught in class. This shot was taken when the teachers were filling up water balloons for a water balloon fight! Students have previously learnt about pirates and how they engaged in fights - this is meant to excite them so they would want to learn more! The students really enjoyed it!

Another interesting aspect of teaching English here at Xinmin is that my mentor would spend an hour each day (except Thursday) at the kindergarten side and teach those kids English. My mentor would teach them how to sound out letters and learn more about phonics. It was eyeopening to see how lessons are conducted for these smaller kids.

At Xinmin Elementary, the students are exposed to a holistic curriculum that includes time set aside for them to participate in activities of their interests. They can select from a range of activities such as magic, cooking, robot making etc. and they would stick to it for a year. This is similar to our Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) in Singapore. But here, the kids participate in these activities from Grade 1!

A Grade 1 boy creating his own robot.

Additionally, the culture of using technology as a pedagogy to engage students to learn more effectively is strong here. I really admire how the teachers are able to set up routines and harness the power of ICT to make learning much more interesting! Even at Grade 1, teachers can be seen using ipads as part of their lesson.

A Grade 1 boy using the ipad to key in his answer, which will then be shown on the smart-board. This is a quick way for teachers to immediately get the responses of the class.

I am really humbled by the teachers here at Xinmin Elementary - observing them teach and the conversations we share really encourages me to want to be a better teacher for my students. I am really glad to be here in Taiwan.

It is also during this week that I got to teach my own class - the first few lessons for 15 minutes then eventually teaching an entire period (40 minutes) on my own. It was both exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time! I am so glad that my mentor was there to guide me all the way.

Teaching my Grade 1 kids about the long o sound.

We ended the week with a visit to a temple. My NTNU buddy organised this trip and I am really thankful to have made a new friend!

In view of Vesak Day!

We then visited Tzu Chi Foundation (Taipei Branch) to learn more about the good work that they have been doing. It was certainly an eye-opening experience for all of us!