Teaching in Taiwan in a private school is pretty much what I thought it would be like in Asia in general (well or the Korea/Japan/Taiwan/China set anyway)- the details were just what I was not so sure on. Do I love it? No. ...However, I will attribute most of that to the fact that 3 year olds are not my cup of tea in the long term scheme of things. That being said, my little girls and boys are super cute, I get a LOT of hugs and I love you teacher Suzanne, and I am much much more comfortable in a room of kids under the age of 6 that need entertained for long periods of time and I'm apparently pretty okay at it. I also like the fact that the classes are based more on natural language acquisition and we do a lot of projects so I get to be crafty (this week alone we made musical monkey "shakers", monkeys in a tree, and monkeys with pipe cleaner limbs that are now hanging around in a chain from the ceiling, reminding me of the game a Barrel Full of Monkeys...clearly our theme this week was monkeys)
Regardless, I chose to do kindy for reasons that I still would stand by (the most that I have my nights and weekends off essentially, and because working with the littler kids is way more intimidating to me than teenagers...that part I've gotten over finally!), but I don't think I could do this for another year after my sixteen months are up. Now, could I teach adults or teens again-particularly in other lands? Of course. hehehe. In ideal situations for here, I'd be working at an English camp that is actually a camp, or teaching in a public school. Those settings just interest me more but given that this is a pretty popular place to come (something about the high standard of living I'd imagine, or industry, or Taiwan just being amazing in general) most of those positions require your teaching cert from your home country.
Some food for thought on education...in the form of What If questions!
- What if everyone really did think education was our most valuable tool?
- What if all kids really did have the unadulterated opportunity to learn?
- What if education was something all children, not just those blessed with geographic or financial preference, had in their collective memory?
- What if high school did not conjure up horrid thoughts of moments people wish had never happened?
- What if teachers were paid the same as (or heaven forbid more than) professional athletes?
- What if our students dreamed of traveling and could actually explain where these exotic places were located?
- What if our students spoke two and three languages by the time they left elementary school?
- What if university professors, and trade unions were involved in the discussion of high school curriculum?
- What if our schools had access to all the money they needed, when they needed it and our military had to have bake sales?
- What if students and teachers, alike, felt better when they walked through the school doors, even on a Monday?
- What if school was a hybrid of on-line, in-class and real-world learning?
- What if our teachers worked all year? (…because they wanted to and were afforded the chance to do so).
- What if our schools worked in partnership with community planning organizations to build sustainable structures that were used as models of green building and places that literally and figuratively provided energy for the future?
- What if our schools had fleets of bicycles in addition to or instead of fleets of buses?
- What if our computer labs were solar powered?
- What if our teachers worked out, did yoga and ate healthy along side our students?
- What if our teachers, principals, superintendents and students were intimately involved in policy formation before the implementation stages?
- What if being a teacher on the elementary and secondary level was more like being a professor on the university level?
- What if our schools had gardens, trees and natural light?
- What if age was not the only thing we considered when deciding what grade or class students should be in?
- What if teachers had enough time in their actual workday to grade, plan and teach? (Not to mention go to the bathroom, eat lunch, or talk to colleagues).
- What if teachers felt the teacher evaluation process was really about making them better and not about getting fired or about what words may not have been on the board?
- What if students felt real ownership over their education?
- What if we as a society really rallied behind the need for better approaches to education?
- What if we didn’t give up until there was a new and better way?
- What if we started really thinking about why we do the things we do?
- What if we stopped doing all the things where the only answer to the question of why we do them, is because that is the way we always have?
- What if you were in charge?
- What if we could do it all over again from scratch?
- What if you knew it wouldn’t fail, then my friends what would you do to make it happen?
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