In large group, I felt like I had to constantly talk over the students because they were so loud. We tried telling them a dozen times to pay attention, be quiet, sit down, do not lay on the table, etc, but no matter what we said they would not listen. If the students did listen, they would go back to doing what they were doing shortly after we talked to them. Even the Taiwanese teachers were at their wits end. Which is rare because normally the students respect the Taiwanese teachers.
In small group I was having a lot of difficulty. However, I got a little lucky because some of my students behaved a bit better during small group time. Even still, most of the time teaching that week was taken up by classroom management, instead of teaching English. Especially during Song class, because apparently saying love was taboo for these students. Which was unfortunate for them and me because in the song I teach, "You Are My Sunshine," you have to say love twice and the words of the song reflect on affection for another person. Unfortunate for me because I had to literally force them to sing the song, and I had to stop them from trying to hijack the lesson, because the whole time my students were trying to get out of singing the song.
By the end of the week, I was exhausted and very glad the weekend had finally arrived. I have to admit, that week was probably the worst I have had here in Taiwan in regards to teaching.
Then along came this past Monday. It was as if the sun was peeking through the clouds after the end of a storm. This last week was our lowest attendance, only 55 students. Thus our small groups were really small, about 7 students in each group. What was even more amazing was the fact that these students were almost like little angels! I have not yet seen a group this well behaved since my first week of teaching. During large group when I was the lead teacher, I almost never had to stop teaching to get the students' attention. And while I was the assistant teacher I hardly had to exercise any classroom management.
Small group was even better. All my students we awesome. They listened when I was teaching them, I hardly had to use my "stop doing that right now" stare. Only one student I had was a bit rambunctious, Samuel, but he was not rambunctious in a disrespectful manner. He was just a little crazy, in the good way. Samuel also can only hear out of his left ear, because his right ear is mutated, so it was hard to be firm with him when he did act up. I just felt so bad for him, but he had such a great attitude. To Samuel, it was as if he still had two working ears; it makes me appreciate what I have.
In addition, all the students had very high English levels. In one of my small groups I had this one kid, Jimmy, he probably had the highest level of English of all the students, and he is only in Grade 4! On top of that, his handwriting was not just normal print, he wrote in cursive. And let me tell you, his cursive was the neatest, perfect script that I have ever seen. I wish my cursive looked as nice as his. Due to Jimmy's high English, he was able to translate to to the other students for me when I needed it! Although, I noticed I did not need a translator as much because I have learned a lot more Chinese and I can understand a lot of the words the students say. I really appreciated being able to converse more with my students this week. Most weeks I am not able to experience that because the students' English is usually much lower.
The last couple weeks have been different in many ways, but I can see important lessons from each week. God's grace that got me through the first week, and God's goodness that I was blessed with this past week.
What broke my heart was the today, the last day with this group of students. By the end of the closing ceremony, more than half the students were in tears. Usually, kids are happy when they are able to return to their families, but these kids were crying. It made me wonder if all of them actually had a loving home to return to.
Although, I am sad to see this batch of students leave, I am exited for the weekend, as well as next week for a certain "surprise," so to speak! 高 別 今天!
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