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!