The Good And The Bad

Hey everyone!  I would just like to share about the last couple days here teaching.  I will start back on Tuesday.

Tuesday was one of those days where you wake up and right away things start to take a downturn. Unfortunately, as soon as a woke up I was aware of the scratchy feeling in my throat.  I mentally groaned because I was already sick less than a month ago, and I had no intentions of dealing with illness while trying to teach.  Of course, I tried to prevent getting sick even further.  I drank a couple bottles of water and swallowed some cough drops.  To my amazement, my prevention measures had worked, for by 0800 I was able to talk and my throat longer felt sore.  I was very relieved because I had to teach a large group class on Rules right at 0800.  The Rules class, well, I honestly do not know what happened. When I taught the large group class on Countries, everything went smoothly and according to my preparations.  However, Rules class was the opposite.  The class was hard to control, maintaining their attention that is, and I had extra time.  Not just a little extra time, I had tons, but in my planing I had nothing prepared for "filler time."  I had to wing it, and let me tell you, winging it does not work when it comes to teaching.  To make things worse, it was as if my brain went on vacation, I kept forgetting little things.  Relief, that is what I felt as soon as that class ended.

One good part of Tuesday was when I had my small groups.  I was teaching Actions, like run, sleep, dance, eat, etc. Both my groups were a lot more involved, which probably came from a boast in confidence. Compared to Monday, all my students participated a lot more, especially my small group from Class A.  Crazy, that is the word I would use to describe my students from Class A.  They were loud and rambunctious, but it was not like they were being naughty; all their personalities together just created a big bowl of crazy, so they could not help themselves.  Not to mention it is hard to view them as trouble when they are all so amazingly funny.

On Tuesday, we also have a night class.  In this class we teach the students about a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  Although they call it Jelly, I am sure we were using Jam, but putting technicalities aside, Jelly is close enough to Jam.  Throughout the class, each of us-my team and I-are to look for a student, or students, that are displaying good character.  After the class, each of us praises the student or students we witnessed practicing good character.  I decided to praise this one table in Class A, for being attentive during the lesson by not falling asleep or talking to their friends.  There were actually a few other tables I could have chosen to praise but I chose this table for a particular reason.  There was this one student at the table named Alex.  I had heard from another person that he was a little naughty.  I do not know why this person came to that conclusion, but I thought maybe Alex was acting out because he wanted attention.  Maybe he did not feel very loved, as is a feeling the majority of the students seem to have.  Thus, I thought if praised him I could send the message that he does matter and when he displays good character people will take notice of him.

Then Wednesday came.  I immediately found out that the sore throat I had the other day did not go away; it came back with a vengeance.  I tried not to panic, but I soon realized that on Wednesday we had song class.  I had to teach my class how to sing "You Are My Sunshine" when I was losing my voice.  Luckily, I was not a main teacher for the large group class in the morning, so I was able to conserve as much as my voice as possible.  After explaining to my students that I would need them to be quiet and respectful so that I would not have to shout, they were quite eager to comply.  Thanks to some cough drops I was able to make it through that small group class without my voice failing. Unfortunately, I also started sneezing and developing a stuffy nose over lunch.  Then came time for my second small group class from Class A, the crazy group.  I would like to blame my cold for my not thinking through some of my "ideas" before implementing them, but I probably would have done the same thing even if I was not sick.  Fortunately, The Lord answered my prayer and let me keep my voice until my students learned the song and right after we finished my voice left me.  So I decided in the extra time, we could play a game of UNO.  We only played one round because I had this "brilliant" idea, honestly I should have stuck with UNO.  But I thought, we played UNO yesterday after Actions class, I should make class interesting and switch it up.  Magical Chairs to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine," that was my idea.  Maybe with a normal well behaved class, this game might have been feasible, but this group was filled with the Crazies.  I love them, but honestly they really are crazy.  Long story short, amongst a lot of minor problems, there was one major problem. One kid, Andy, in the mad dash for a seat, sat on Stenley who then shoved him to the ground.  I explained right then and there that the behaviour exhibited was wrong, and I would have left it at that. However, Andy, the student that was shoved, had started to cry.  I knew that I had to take them to the office to talk with both of them.  Actually, this was all quite ironic, because just the other day I was thinking about how lucky I was not having to take anyone to the office to be, "talked to."  I even thought it would never happen.  Wrong word to think: never.  Of course God was going to challenge me on this, it is too bad I did not realize that fact before I though the word "never."  My talk did not go quite as well as I had planned, mainly due to the language barrier, I had to hear everything secondhand from a Taiwanese Teacher who translated for me.  I am pretty sure they forgave each other, but I will find out for sure in class tomorrow.

Basically, I was exhausted from being sick, and slightly frustrated at how the day had gone.  To my surprise it was during the last 10 minute break the students had before their next class at 1700, which is the same time my team and I get off of work, that turned my day around.  I was standing against the wall, watching the students play, when Alex, the same student that I mentioned earlier, came up to me.  He was trying to communicate with me using hand motions and Chinese.  I could understand a little of what he was trying to say, but during some parts I just smiled and nodded.  He was asking about my curly hair, and then asking about what a hair tie was, because I had one around my wrist.  He then wanted to play a game.  I am not sure what this game is called, but it is a hand game that goes to the tune "Eeny Meany Miny Moe."  I played it who knows how many times, and he kept wanting to play more.  I was so surprised he did not get bored with the game.  Every time, I would say last one, he would convince me to play another.  Alex also showed me how to play another game that was similar to Tag, but not quite the same.  I was having a lot of fun playing with Alex and making him happy, that I was reluctant to actually leave, but I had to go because it was my turn to cook dinner for my team.

I came to teach in Taiwan to touch kids lives by showing them God's love and kindness, but I never thought it would happen in reverse.  Each week, this week especially, there is always at least one kid, that I am heartbroken to say goodbye to.  This week there are a few, Alex is one of them.  I love the teaching set up here in Hualien, but I really wish we were able to have the students for longer than 1 week.  One week, never seems like enough time.

Also, I would appreciate it if some of you all could pray for the students here, especially the ones like Alex, because all they need is a little love, and their attitude completely changes.  Also, if it is not to much, could you pray for my health as well.  I still have to teach Thursday and Friday, but my cold is not getting better, but worse.