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Lau, Wendy (劉清華)
Exactly one year ago I remember sitting at my computer looking through one of my closest friend’s Facebook album “AID Summer 2013” as she shared with me what she claimed to be “the best summer of her life.” I took her word for it then and told myself I had to apply when the time comes around. One year later, here I am, sitting with the most incredible friend I’ve ever made, laughing and reminiscing over our experiences as teaching partners at Dawu Junior High. Looking back to three weeks ago, however, I never could have imagined how much impact this program could have on me, my peers, and most importantly, on the lives of the students all over Taiwan. In fact, when I first arrived to Chientan Youth Activity Center three weeks ago, I nearly regretted having applied and accepted my position into this program because it hit me that I was going to be on my own, overseas away from my parents and everything that I had been familiar with for an entire month. But by the end of week one training week, my fears vanished as I started making friends away from home and began to look forward to meeting and teaching my students. Now, as I reflect on my experiences during this program, here are some of my thoughts and lessons I learned the past few weeks:
Looking back to training week, I remember being the extremely enthusiastic, energetic girl who ran solely on adrenaline because I was overwhelmed by all the new people and information and hence slept very little. I was also so impressed and amazed by all the effort the counselors and other program staff put into AID, which really encouraged and inspired me to put my all into passionately learning more about teaching throughout the week. When my teaching partner and I had to write up our teaching plans, we highly underestimated how complex and how in depth it was required to be and in the end we honestly did end up making up a lot of it to fill up the periods of each day. Though we felt very unprepared at the time, we realized that these plans actually ended up changing quite a bit because we needed to adapt to our teaching situation and adjust accordingly. Ultimately, even though I came into this program thinking I was going to teach English to my kids, I realized during my two weeks of teaching that I did not exactly teach them English, but rather, established in them a love for learning English and about different cultures around the world.
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, I knew that AID would give me an experience that I would have never known about or have done because Miami has a sparse Taiwanese and Chinese population. During my time here, I was able to meet the most incredible people from around the world who all were passionate about learning about Taiwan, whether they were Taiwanese or not. Sharing such sense of love for Taiwan’s culture and for aiding the disadvantaged with over four hundred kids from various places over the past few weeks was so beautiful and incredible and an experience that I will never forget.
Though my own AID summer experience is sadly coming to an end, I know that all the memories I made over this month will forever stay in my mind. And though I left my students in Dawu and will leave the all the people I met, I realized that all of these captured memories will not just continue to live in my mind, but will influence me for the rest of my life. AID not only helped me touched lives, but also helped me shaped my own.
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Yeung, Dixon (楊鎮邦)
I first heard about this AID Summer program from my friend from Chinese School, who went 2 years ago. The main reason I first joined was to have a unique experience to help me stand out in college, as well as do something meaningful with my summer.
The lectures at Chientan were informative, but many of them were either too long or they repeated the same material that was covered in the previous lecture. The counselors and coaches were excellent and efficient, and the food was delicious.
The 2 weeks of teaching went relatively smooth. At first, I could tell that many of the teachers were not open to the idea of having us teenagers teach the children English and doubted our ability to teach. However, after the first 3 days of teaching successfully, we noticed the teachers’ appreciation by them talking to us more and buying us food, drinks, and other gifts.
Prior to teaching at my school (Dong Rong Elementary School in YunLin County), I already knew that we would not have the same comforts as we have in the U.S.A., such as air conditioning. We lived in the school’s library because it was the only room with A/C, but it was actually really comfortable. The school provided us with plenty of resources such as pencil, paper, marker, and other teaching supplies. We were given plenty of food and were always welcome to provide a shopping list for the teachers to buy for us.
On the first day of teaching, the students looked at us weird. However, after our opening ceremony performance, we could tell that they respected us a lot more and were actually curious about us. Teaching started off awkwardly because it was our first time, but soon, the kids began to open up to us more. Creating the teaching plans for the next day was also hard at first, but after the first couple of days and being able to gauge our students’ level of English, creating the next day’s teaching plans got easier. The same goes for teaching the students. At Chientan, it was difficult coming up with the teaching plan because we tried not to over or underestimate the students’ level of English.
For the weekend between the first and second weeks of teaching, we were able to explore and experience our local town.
There was not a lot to complain about this trip. Asides from the minor inconveniences such as no A/C and unreliable Wi-Fi, I had an excellent trip in Taiwan. My group and I worked together extremely well. There was no tension within our group, and with the help of the principal and our coach, we were able to motivate ourselves to become better and better teachers every day. I am extremely grateful to all the counselors and coaches on this trip. Asides from learning methods of teaching, the dancing / singing activities also made the trip more enjoyable.
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Chow, Jessica (周倩霞)
My two weeks at National Dong Hua University have been magical. I have met some amazing people and I had the most amazing experience teaching my 6th graders. There are so many things to talk about; I don’t even know where to start.
I’ll start with my journey to Hualien with my group, B1-7. There are five of us girls in total, no guys. Isauna Mitchell, my partner, and I were given the 6th graders. These 6th graders were the smartest and oldest of all our students. The 5th grade class was given to one girl and the last class, 4th grade and under, were given to the last two girls. The first thing we all noticed about the children was their rowdiness. As it turns out our students were plenty advantaged. The school that was supposed to bring disadvantaged students fell through, meaning they didn’t uphold their end of an agreement. So my partner and I had to adjust our teaching plans to our students because their English level was much higher than we had expected. We added in lessons on plants and technology. Teaching in Dong Hua University was also easier and relaxing than we had expected. Our classrooms had air conditioning, projectors, wifi, and whiteboards. The teaching environment was much like those in America.
Also, to my teaching group’s surprise Dong Hua University provided 9 teaching assistants to us to drive us around, buy us food, print our worksheets, and organize events. There were also University dogs that followed us around on our bikes (that the University also provided) that served as entertainment. Overall our teaching environment was extremely pampered which was much appreciated.
At first our students were very quiet and introverted. There were three or four students that stood out exceptionally. The class also divided itself into its genders so uniting and integrating the class was more difficult. In order to break the ice on the first day Isauna and I made our students draw goofy faces and taught them body parts, a subject the students were already familiar with. Also to mix up the class structure we changed seats every 2-3 days. Over the first week our students got more comfortable with each other but also with Isauna and I. We even found out that one of our students did triathlons – biking, swimming, and running. To keep up class motivation in class participating we created a sticker system. Whenever a student got something correct in class or did something creative on a project they received stickers which they could redeem for something better later at the end of the program. To make teaching more fun and we played competitive charades. Isauna and I also wrote plays that were funny to energize students. I bonded well with my students and I’m so glad I did. The other classes had behavior problems that made it difficult to teach and bond with students.
By the end of the program I was attached to my students. The students gave Isauna and I gifts in thanks. But truly I should be thanking my students. They taught me to be more patient and tolerant of children younger than me. I learned to cooperate and compromise. AID has given me something that I can never pay back and I will never be more thankful.
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Wan, Lisa (萭俐杉)
AID summer has definitely been one of those programs that will make a lasting impression on my life. In the beginning, I was nervous and unsure whether or not I would bond with my group and my students. I'm definitely grateful for this opportunity and I could not have asked for a better experience with this program. Training week gave me the opportunity to learn about the experiences of experts on how to deal with students and certain scenarios. The two weeks at Dong Rong Elementary School taught me many things and I will never be able to duplicate the love, affection, and willingness to learn of the students.
I hope that AID Summer 2015 and the years to follow will enjoy their experiences in this program.
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Tia, Timothy (張勤真)
One of the most striking things about living in a small village like Tai Ping was that all the villagers were acutely aware of who we were, and what we were doing. In some ways this was great; everyone was friendly and eager to make us feel at home, on the other hand it was a little bit stifling to under what felt like constant surveillance. While preparing for classes, me and my teaching partner Emily realized that a lot of what we had planned and Chien Tien would not realistically fill up our class time. This became even more apparent when we started teaching, however I think we adapted quickly and found ways to keep the students busy and adapt our lessons to the unpredictability of the classroom.
We also found that the students’ English was not up to the level that we expected. Although most of our students could recognize letters and as well as certain words, they were completely unable to read even the simplest words or consonant-vowel combinations. This meant that they had to learn to speak and write all of the words through rote memorization which is ignoring major advantage of a phonetic language. I would I have liked to teach the students phonics, but I felt like I had neither the time nor the training to do it properly. Phonics are also a more boring subject and it would have been difficult to keep the attention of the students especially in what was meant to be a fun summer program. Often early on in a lessons we would realize that the lesson was either too difficult or too easy and we would have to adjust our lesson to the students’ learning level.
The class that I taught was eight girls and one boy, and most of the girls were very shy and hesitant to participant in class. It was difficult to get these girls to speak during lessons and even more difficult to prepare them for the opening ceremony. However we found that most of them were eager to participant when provided with the right game or classroom activity. The one male student we had, Antony, was something of a troublemaker however it was clear that he was very eager to learn and it was tough to find the balance in how freedom to give him in the classroom.
Overall I was very happy with my experience teaching in Tai Ping. It allowed me to experience a lot more personally than an ordinary vacation or tour would have allowed. I got to live in a very small community which is something I might never have experienced otherwise. And experiencing school from the perspective of the teacher rather than the student has given me a new respect for my teachers and insight into the student/teacher learning process.
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Zhao, Wenli (赵雯莉)
AIDSummer was a truly eye-opening experience for me in several ways. In addition to being the first time I ever taught English to junior high students, it was the first time I visited Taiwan. Meeting all the students, volunteers, and people who were apart of the program has given me an extremely diverse perspective on teaching and life. And of course, the country, with all its mountains, beaches, and night markets, is absolutely gorgeous.
When I first arrived at Chientan, I felt rather overwhelmed. There were so many volunteers – 425 – a number I don’t think I’ll forget after it was asked so many times in our training games. I only met a small fraction of those 425 volunteers during training week and I remember an even smaller fraction of their names. Although we seemed to be just sitting down all day listening to talks, training week was grueling. It was impossible to try to remember all the lectures and take useful notes, but after teaching, I realized that much of it didn’t matter. I think it’s interesting how we all received the same training despite heading off to very different schools all across Taiwan. Every group teaching junior high students listened to the same lectures for several hours each day. However, the lectures could not really be applied to any one school. The lectures gave us suggestions, but you really can’t tell how well which games, or rules, or teaching styles will work until you arrive at school and teach for a couple of days. Each school has its own unique students, and even more unique dynamics between the teachers and the students. The lectures gave us information, but not experience. Standing up in front of a class and trying to teach for one day taught me a lot more than the entire week at Chientan. The planning was useful, but not enough. Lesson plans are helpful, but I found that being able to improvise to the needs of your students is much more important.
I really enjoyed my two weeks of teaching. At my school, I taught the “A” class, which consisted of the most advanced students. It was extremely encouraging to teach them because they were all genuinely interested in learning English. I was lucky to get my class. In addition to being good students, they had the best behavior. There were no discipline issues. The only problems I ran into was running out of material to teach. My teaching partner and I had to constantly think of new games to play and activities to make learning more fun. We spent a lot of time practicing conversation with our students and I was surprised at how well most of them could carry a conversation in English. One of the suggestions from training week was to only speak in English and I think it made a lot of sense. By solely speaking in English, we created a cultural barrier between the students and ourselves which gave them more respect for us. I found out it was impossible for the students to actually understand the lessons and instructions without our TA translating, but I think this may have contradicted the suggestion to not speak Mandarin to the students.
Overall, teaching occupied a small portion of the two weeks. It was fun to talk to the students, TA’s and other volunteers and gain their perspectives on life. There is something to be learned from everyone, no matter their age, education, or background.
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