THE KIDS I TEACH

It's been awhile since I've posted pics of the kids I teach. I decided I better hurry up and get them posted because in two weeks they are no longer going to be my kids. Ouch!!! I think it's going to be hard to say goodbye.

2nd Grade: I love this rowdy, out of control group of kids. I shouldn't. They are a hard group to teach but I get a kick out of them. Everyday they make me laugh and most days we have a great time. It is never dull in our class.

Rick, Jerry, Jonathan, Charile, Claudia, Cindy,Jack , Benson, Sandy, Alice, Joleen.

Afternoon Kindergarten: Oh the drama of being 5 and 6 years old. It seems like such an innocent age. Let me tell you, they aren't as innocent as they look. They are learning all sorts of new things now that they go to school and get to hang out with their peers all day. So of the more enduring things they have learned is how to manipulate people to be your friend, the difference between girls and boy (that's a fun one to deal with!), how to lie and gang up on the teacher. The fun just keep coming in AK. Now this class has given me plenty of headaches but for some reason I like them, don't ask me why!

Alex, Tim, Keith, Elvis, Mark, Ellen, Amy, Zoe, Emily, Elva, Tiger, Marcus, Jack, Hebe, Kiki, and YaYa.

We all wear UNDERWEAR!!!

The last month or so the Ak kids have been obsessed with underwear. Now that we are daily averaging over 80 degree the winter necessity of wearing layers of clothing has disappeared. No longer are the kids wearing 3 to 5 layers to school. ( We used to have a contest during opening to see who was wearing the most layers.) Instead, their shorts, skirts and dresses have been pulled out of the closet.


Which brings us to the underwear issue. We sit on the floor. If you are wearing baggy shorts, dress or a skirt we all get to see your underwear. Now, being kids every time one of them sees someone's underwear they start laughing uncontrollably and point out to everyone that someone's underwear is showing. At this point the "someone" start to pout and glaring at the Aker who pointed out their underwear to the whole class. Very annoying for the teacher, especial after it has happened three times in 10 minutes.


Finally I couldn't handle it any longer and one day at the end of class we had a talk about underwear and how it wasn't yucky. Jessica, my co-teacher in AK, must of thought I was crazy as I announced to the class that, "Everyone wears underwear!" I then went on to describing different colors of underwear you can wear; red, blue, orange, etc. You can even have cartoons on your underwear you can wear Doreamon underwear. (I unfortunately do not own a pair of Doreamon underwear, so sad.)


I think my inspiration for the above conversation came from the book, Everyone Poops. That book was a daily staple when I taught a 3 year old preschool class. I still remember my favorite part of the book. "A one-hump camel makes a one-hump poop, And a two-hump camel makes a two-hump poop. Only kidding!" I can't believe I miss that book but I do!


We then discussed the etiquette of letting someone know that you can see their underwear. You quietly whisper, "I can see your underwear." The kids' reactions was a mix of confusion(aka no idea what we were talking about due to their limited English comprehension), shock and some of them thought it was pretty darn funny. I thought the whole conversation was therapeutic and funny!


I would like to report that a few day after the above conversation one Aker leaned over to a boy wearing baggy shorts and whispered, "I can see your underwear." It was a proud moment.


Last week the idea of underwear was brought back when we read Curios George goes to the Hospital. In the book we have kids who are in a hospital (DUH!) and wearing hospital gown. Of course the back of the gowns were opening and we could see their underwear. This resulted in a lot of yelling at the book, "I CAN SEE YOUR UNDERWEAR." Whispering is a concept that has yet to catch on in AK.


I decided if they were going to obsess about underwear I would go with the flow. So in art we made injured people and then made underwear for them. If you look close you will see that their people are covered in red spots aka blood and greenish-brown spots bruises. Our theme was safety last week. Anyways back to the underwear saga. Making underwear resulted in a lot of giggling and protesting of making underwear but at the end of the day their paper people ALL WORE UNDERWEAR!!!!

For Miss Erin ~ We Miss You!

Well, Miss Erin, you asked and I have finally delivered with pictures of your Ak kids. We're have a great time but . . . it would of been even better if you had stayed! I guess it's a little late to be convincing you of that. Anyhoo, here's what we have been up to in Ak the last little bit.

Only One Month Left!!!

I was headed over to Mk this morning feeling a little lost. I go home in a month. This time in June I will be heading home. I'm finding it hard to keep motivated and involved with the school and my life here in Taiwan. But I am trying to make an efforts with my actions even if my heart isn't alway into it. Luckily, the kids in Mk are a permanent part of my heart and once I start interacting with them I didn't want to be any where else. Nothing melts your heart faster then a little Asian kids snuggling close and whispering "Miss Katie, I like you."

To add to the overall cuteness and wonder of these Asian children I have to relate the following story. Steven, one of the Mk teachers, was having the kids sign a birthday card for Joe, also an Mk teacher. When they were done signing the card Steven told them that it was a "surprise." Judging for the mostly blank stares he received back, he tried to explain what a surprise was. After a bit of back and forth the idea caught on. Some of the slightly more devilish children started yelling that they were going to tell Mr. Joe about the surprise. Then one little boy, Sean, and a little girl Stacy started to yell, "no tell" and "no talk". Then Sean stuck his hand in the middle of the table. He then grabbed everyone else hands and pulled them into the middle. These cute little kids had their all their hand on top of each other and 1-2-3 go, they had decided not to tell Mr. Joe about his surprise. I adore these kids.

The poor AK kids are a bit older so it harder for them to compete against the MK kids. Lets be honest they aren't going to win the cuteness award when competing with the littler kids. But despite it all, include their new found joy in manipulating their friendships, they have wormed their way into my heart. Today we had fun destroying the pinata we had made in art class. Like most pinatas I've made it wouldn't break. I ended up tearing it apart and throwing the candy across the floor. You should of seen the joy as eighteen kids hit the floor looking for candy. In fact, you can, enjoy.

Following in love is easy to do with the kids I work with here in Taiwan, I am a lucky teacher! Let just hope the luck continue this fall as I start my student teaching!!!!

五月天 知足

I just figured out how to directly put a video from youtube on my blog. I am very excited!! Now you can all experience my favorite Mayday song via the music video. It was the music video that helped me fall in love with it.

Also, here are the lyrics translated into English. It will only make you love it more knowing what they are singing about!

知足 Contentment

Words and Lyrics by Ashin

How do you possess a rainbow
How do you embrace a summer wind
The stars in the sky laugh at the people on the ground
I can never understand why I can’t feel it is enough

If I fall in love with your smile, how can I keep it, how can I possess it
If you’re happy and it’s not because of me, will we give up, actually that is possession

When a wind blows by, a kite flies to the heavens
I pray for you, and wish happiness, and am moved
At last your shadow disappears in a sea of people,
Then I realize, laughing through tears, the greatest hurt

That day you and I, that hill, that kind of singing, that year’s song
That kind of memory, just enough, enough that every day I taste loneliness

When a wind blows by, a kite flies to the heavens
I pray for you, and wish happiness, and am moved
At last your shadow disappears in a sea of people,
Then I realize, laughing through tears, the greatest hurt

If I fall in love with your smile, how can I keep it, how can I possess it
If you’re happy and it’s not because of me, will we give up, actually that is possession

The happiness of contentment calls me to endure my broken heart
The happiness of contentment calls me to endure my broken heart

Mayday Concert ~ May 17, 2008

Back to Earth

We went to the Mayday concert!!!!! It was the best! I am totally in love with Mayday and their music. I now have the desire to go and buy every single CD before I go home. I need to sit down and budget. The random "I'm leaving Taiwan and never coming back" buy spree has begun. It would be to big of a concern except for the fact that I won't be working for the next year. Money is going to be tight when I get back home, I should be saving not spending. I just not sure how well the saving plan is going to go.

To prove the point, before the concert I went shopping with a bunch of the teachers. Mary and I are both planning on making t-shirt quilts out of the crazy t-shirt they have in Taiwan. Taiwaness Fashion deserves to be preserved and remember. It is horrific and adorable all at once. I bought at least 5 t-shirts and a cute light weight zipped-up hoodie to wear, not for the quilt. The adorable shirts that are displayed in the picture I didn't buy, they were a bit expensive. But I had to get a picture of them (thanks to my models Mary and Jessica). In Taiwan it is very cool to wear matching or coordinating shirts with your boyfriend.

Once the shopping spree was winding down we headed over to Swenson's for some old fashion American food. I had an amazing hamburger (on whole wheat bread) and a cookies 'n cream milkshake. It was the best food I've eaten in ages. Then it was time for MAYDAY!!!!!!!!!! I wasn't excited or anything.

We made it to the concert right on time, luckily it started late so we didn't miss anything as we found our seats. The show started around 7:45 and didn't end until midnight. They were singing the whole time, they may have sung every song they have ever written. I am proud to state that I recognized at least 3/4ths of the songs. They played my favorite song, Contented, at the end of their second encore. That's a right second encore, there were about 4 encores at the end of the show. The show ended around 11 and the encores went on for about an hour. Destiny and I were so confused because after the 2nd or was it the 3rd encore no one clapped and the band didn't come back out . We sat waiting for about 10 minutes. We had just about decided that you don't clap at concerts in Taiwan and we should leaves when the band came back on stage! At the very end the crowd started sing the chorus of their last song. I sang to, since it was just la, la, la, las. Then they bowed to us and walked off stage as we sung and then the audience clapped!!! The concert was over. SAD!

I loved it so much I bought a Mayday shirt (that is not going in the quilt) to remember the fun.

I've included my FAVORITE Mayday song in the post above. You should all fall in love with Mayday. The English translations was found at a great website: http://www.onedayinmay.net

Your Know Your in Taiwan When

you are doing some routine, run of the mill, souvenir shopping and before you know it your in the middle of a parade with dancers, musicians, fireworks and Big Gods.

Destiny, Li and I had decided to spend Saturday in Lu Gong to pick up some gifts (for others and ourselves!) before we went home. I didn't think it would be an exciting trip but Taiwan is always full of surprises. We were trying to kill time while waiting for Destiny's fans to be made. (As a side note, there is the cutest man who makes hand painted fans in Lu Gong. He is popular with the missionaries and loves painting LDS temples on his fans. It is great.) I was starting to get bored when all the sudden fireworks started going off in the middle of the street. It was a parade Taiwan style.


From what I can figure out the purpose of the parade is to bring the gods to the temple.