School Visits Continue!



Yesterday and today (our Tuesday and Wednesday, March 31 and April 1st), Ted and I had the pleasure of being able to visit two schools, one a junior high school (as they call our middle schools) and one an elementary school, both in different parts of Kaohsiung City. First, though, we treated ourselves to a newly discovered (by us) cafe very near our villa, with both indoor and outdoor seating. It is a lovely place, serves some food that resembles Western food a bit more than most of our choices (a chicken subway sandwich, Mc nuggets, homemade yogurt) and has a beautiful courtyard area with gorgeously colorful flowers in bloom.



Then we went to Ta Jen Junior High School, where the first sight we had was of a big welcome sign for Ted and me! For about three hours (their choice, not ours!) we got to interview six teachers and the principal on their strategies for teaching the learning disabled and physically disabled. Basically, they use the separate pull-out resource room for their kids with learning disabilities; but if a child is physically but not mentally challenged, he/she will be in the regular classroom. They reported using cooperative groups and role plays a lot, so I certainly could relate to that.
During our interviewing process, they kept putting plates of fresh tomatoes, fresh fruit (their pineapple here is so delicious!) and tea out for us!!The school is only 6 years old; the principal had input into its design, and it is a very attractive school with an open design. Classrooms have glass walls, there are lots of courtyard areas with plants blooming everywhere, they have a nice gym,etc. Computers, however, are not in the classrooms except for the one technology classroom where 7th graders have one class per week to learn computer use. So their adaptive technology is somewhat more limited than ours for the disabled learner. Having said that, however, one resource room teacher brings in his own computer and has access to some older ones for him to provide software learning programs for his small classes. Typically, a resource room class has about 6 young people, whereas the regular classes at this school have about 38, as it is a very popular school (so new, so open, good teachers) that even those not in the two elementary schools that legally can feed into it, sometimes wiggle around the law, use a friend's address who lives in the district, and attend. The logo of the school is a gorgeous Indian Coral Flower. We saw the actual tree of this flower from a long distance, but here is a
drawing of it on one of the school walls.
All the students wear the school uniform; the jacket is red with the coral flower emblazoned on it. Then, the uniform in the summer is a beige top with brown pants, and the summer uniform is the same top but with a culotte type skirt for the girls. In this photo, you can see each type. (They all were begging us to take their pictures; I have oodles of photos of the kids in my Picassa, only a few of which I include here in the blog. But it truly is so cute how they love to have their pictures taken!)

Today Ted and I went to an elementary school. Here the model for teaching students with disabilities is more like ours: a one of inclusion, with a resource room class as one period (or more depending on the student needs) a day for additional help. Basically, all kids, from grades K through 6th, are in a regular classroom. Those students who have been identified by the Minister of Education in Kaohsiung District (and have thereby received a certificate entitling them to resource room help) plus a few more students whom teachers have observed and recommended for further testing and evaluation as needing assistance, attend a traditional classroom but also get assigned to a resource classroom for extra help. It was our impression that, in general, inclusion is easier to have at the elementary level than at higher levels, for the emphasis on the mastery of individual subject matter is less than at a middle or high school level. That is, there is much more emphasis on the elementary level on the development of the whole child than it is as one grows older, where the focus is more on the development of the academic side of each student.
Again, the school environment is attractive, with plants, open spaces, and a sense of freedom. The principal here was himself a product of a lower socio-economic background and had over 20 years of experience as a special education teacher, so he clearly gives his teachers a great deal of latiitude in how best to teach. We spoke with him and with three resource room instructors, who use techniques that sound familiar to American educators: small group instruction, adaptive technology, team teaching, etc. Additionally, each teacher in the school must take a three hour seminar every semester on teaching kids with special needs, plus a minimum of 54 hours over their career of professional development trainings.
And we noticed once again one way to teach English. Look closely at these steps!

Six Mini Movies From the Indigenous Culture Park! (Even though the last movie here looks dark, it works!)
(compliments of Cynthia and Moohwah's camera!)
These capture Ted's failure at spinning the top, among other things, including the opening singing etc! Can't miss that!)

Indigenous Culture Park with Cynthia, Moowah and WanWan Followed by Dinner with I-Heng's Family!

Saturday night, as we came home from seeing the film, The Reader (powerful!) at the Dream Mall, we stopped and sat a while listening and watching a group of students on the campus doing some traditional indigenous culture dances of the various aborigine tribes that were the original inhabitants of Taiwan.

Then, what a busy day today(Sunday). It began with the exhausting task of figuring out Ted's chances of winning
Chris' NCAA pool, as we sat with
our laptops watching the Villanova/Pittsburgh game and UConn against Missouri! They were close games, esp the Nova game and it took a lot of energy and self-control to watch these games. Ted, aka Taiwan Slick, is still in the running with nine others out of an original field of 90!



After that exhausting hard work, Ted and I met Cynthia, Moowah and WanWan for an hour plus car ride to a WONDERFUL village, the Indigenous Culture Park in Pingtung , a neighboring county to Kaohsiung. Here, we were guided through an amzing set of experiences by our fun tour guide, Isei (sp?)in a variety of ways,-a well stocked library, two theater performances, an exhibition hall displaying many of the tribes crafts and/or ways of living in the past,a series of small spots where one could learn how to play with some of the original tribes' toys or eat some delicious berry off a nearby tree or purchase boiled eggs that have been marinated in tea and the juice of lotus flowers, and so on. Thus,we began to learn more than we had already from a much smaller exhibit in Taipei about the aborigines of Taiwan.
(By the way, the eggs were very tasty!)



In an exhibit in Taipei two weeks ago, we learned there were 9 or 10 aborigine tribes; here, the count is 14. When we asked Isei, he said that reclassification is going on, with discussion about whether to separate, in more than a few cases, two close but distinct tribal entities or keep them identified as one the way the Japanese did during their occupation of the island during the war years.

Our guide is a member of the Paiwan tribe ; they are known particularly for excellent handicrafts and tools. We also saw the sampan canoe-type boats of the Yami people who lived on an island near Taiwan, Orchid Island; the Atayal live on the terraces of mountainsides and we saw how adult males and females wear tattoo marks, as marks of distinction: for men, once they have achieved hunting prowess; for women, weaving skills. Bamboo tubes stuffed with rice are the specialty of the Tsou as is the making of special wine for ceremonies. Each of the 14 tribes had an exhibit to display their cultural traditions.

We saw two theater performances in which representatives from the 14 tribes danced and sang songs, including new ones expressing unity and coming together, something which did not occur in the far past. Yet, while stressing the value of peoples working together and acting in peace, each tribe today struggles also with trying to maintain some of their original culture traits,something discouraged during the Japanese occupation.

As part of our learning experience, in addition to Isei's explanation and in addition to the dramatic dancing and singing, we also got a chance to play with an aboriginal toy, akin to our tops! Dad and
Moowah both did get theirs going!






And WanWan was great at the blowing bubbles category! Go to the end of this blog for two VERY short mini movies on their successes! (For some reason, I cannot seem to get the video of Moowah's success to work:sorry, Moowah!

We returned from that fun but tiring experience to go straight away to I-Heng's for dinner. He, his lovely wife Ping and their bright daughter Ariel treated us to dinner at a wonderful Japanese restaurant. We asked I-Heng to order for us all and did he ever! Delicious sashemi, with salmon, tuna, shrimp, squid etc came first with a real Wasabi accompaniment (not the paste served typically in Western restaurants, we were told!). Then came tongue and a very tasty sauce; that was immediately followed by platters galore: warmed spinach and egg; warmed salad, cold cucumbers and red peppers; very tasty spicy chicken wings; delicious fried dumplings stuffed with pork; soup; and I could go on and on! The food was scrumptious, our hosts were wonderful, and all in all we were treated to a fabulous evening!

The Library , the Interviews and Ted's Blueberry Pancakes!

We have had a busy and interesting last two days (Thursday and Friday, March 26 and 27)!!
First, I asked Ted if he would cook breakfast yesterday morning, as he has no classes on Thursdays. The other day, we had bought a pancake mix (at least that is what the picture on the front looked like!) As you know, we sometimes get surprises when we open packages!!) and had gotten some fresh blueberries at Costco!

Ted did his usual superb job, just as he does in Maine when we have company at breakfast time, and we truly enjoyed our Western breakfast!

Then, we did some work in the office. After that, we went to the University's library for our first time ever, not exactly knowing what to expect but hoping there might be an English literature section, as I have completed all 17 books I either brought with me or got, at very dear prices, when we were at a big dept store or at Costco (where the selection for English books is extremely limited and usually also only in hardbacks).
Well, to our delight, with Professor Repa's I.D. card , we not only had easy entrance but found a section of carrels with English, Russian and American literature, in English. So I am now reading some classics by Dostoevsky, Fitzgerald, Cheever, etc!


Today, we had a fascinating and informative interview with three special education teachers at Ta Jen Junior High School (the concept of a middle school, not just as transition pupils waiting to get into high school, where students of that age have a unique set of traits and needs rather than a "junior" high school, has not caught on in Taiwan, at least not that we can see). This interview (and some others to follow in the next few weeks), is to help provide Ted and me with more information than what we have been able to research so far, regarding how the needs of learning disabled or emotionally or physically handicapped kids are taught in the Taiwanese educational system. The ultimate goal is to co-publish a comparative paper on Taiwanese and American educational programs for teaching the special needs students.

The three teachers were young, attractive and clearly caring instructors. In this particular school, kids with special needs, as evaluated by regular teacher recommendations, observation (for typically two months), and testing by the special ed teachers using a variety of evaluative procedures but including standardized ones from the Minister Of Education for Kaohsiung, are then approved (or not) for being in a pull-out resource room for one or more periods a day as needed, to assist them in their learnings. Teaching assistants who accompany the child throughout his daily schedule are provided when the committee determines that need. These teachers modify the curriculum and create exactly the same form, called an IEP (individualized education program) as we do in the States. They said they learned it from America and this is their first year of implementing IEPS in Taiwan! (I have worked with sp ed teachers almost my entire professional career and rely a lot on the IEPs for ideas how best to modify my curriculum to allow such kids to have learning success.) Many of the techniques they use to help the slower or disabled learner are similar to ours: use of computers and other adaptive technology; a modified curriculum and modified expectations; peer-assisted learning, etc. Typically, the resource room class is composed of no more than 5 or 6 kids, and often just 1 or 2 at a time.

After that interview, we also got time with a counselor at the school, who basically is there as supervisor of all the students; he is the one to go to if a youngster is troubled, whether it be because of some teasing or is suicidal and everything in between.









The school classrooms look similar to ours but I did notice three differences. One is that a picture of Sun Yat-Sen adorns the office and several classrooms. Two, the courtyard of the school is beautifully kept with a gorgeous profusion of flowers. Very nice. And three, just as in our villa and private residences, the expectation for persons entering the classroom is for them to take off their shoes and put on the slippers by the door!


And look at one of the ways they teach English!! I have enlarged the picture but it still may not be clear enough. Steps are labelled with a category, such as in this photo:Flowers. Then each step has the name of a flower printed in English on a sign attached to the step!






We ended the day by attending a free jazz quartet who evidently have been on a world tour, ending here at the University. It was a terrific crowd and the jazz performers were fabulous!! We really enjoyed the performance, even though before we went, we felt tired and almost did not go. But our opportunities here for all these wonderful experiences are really not to be missed.

Sports Day at NSYSU: March 25, 2009!

Today, a Wednesday here in Kaohsiung, was Sports Day at the University. This is a pre-planned day; classes are cancelled for the day and students are encouraged to participate in a number of sports activities, such as badminton, volleyball, basketball, etc, and at the day's end is a ceremony with trophies distributed to the winning teams,etc. Basically, participation in the sports events is voluntary; but being a part of the opening day parade is strongly encouraged!


Ted and I reported, along with the students (about 40) in Human Resources, to the Department's office at 7:45 am, where we all had a casual Taiwanese breakfast. We had warm soy drink (actually quite tasty) and our choice of a number of different dumplings. One had a meatball inside (you never know what is going to surprise you when you take a bite!) and was very tasty. Even Dr I-Heng Chen, Ted's sponsor here, joined in the festivities. You see him waving there! Another was a very traditional Taiwanese dumpling; it had all sorts of finely chopped veggies in it moistened by a soy sauce. Also quite good.

Then we all donned our blue shirts, to identify us as the Dept of Human Resources in the Business School and practiced the chant we were to say when we got to the parade.

Each school, we learned, creates a little mini-performance to do once their group parades and passes in front of the reviewing stand, where the University President was behind a big podium.(This President is well-liked; Janet said he is fairly new, here two years, and when he first arrived, he made it a point to visit every single professor to see how they were doing, if they had any concerns, etc.).
"Our" department had to scurry, a la the Stanford Marching band, into a sort of V formation, as shown on the handout given to each of us (Ted and I were at the head of the line that is in the darker circle area) and then say this little chant, which began in Taiwanese but ended with us all raising our right hands into the air and exclaiming in English:"Woo-Manpower!"
It was a riot. I will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves, as you can see how the different departments costumed themselves for this parade, from the funny to the more dignified (us). The mini-performances included archers shooting, in a fairly brisk wind, at balloons to pop them; med students pretending to care for a person with a bum leg; the school of Marine Biology wearing flamboyant Hawaiian-like long bermudas, to another department acting out a circus routine,etc.
Just good fun and good community spirit for the campus!