My Students

Hello there everyone,

After people asking for a long while, here are some pictures of my students. Well, in actual fact, they aren't my students anymore. I finished with them at the end of June, but they were my students here for a year.

I've been working at a private school here in Taichung, called Cornel. The kids go to Chinese school in the mornings and come to our school in the evenings. I teach the grade 1's (The Ducks Class) from 2:00 to 5:00, four days a week, and teach the grade 3's (The Salmon Class) from 5:00 to 7:00 three days a week. We have an American curriculum that we teach from, which focuses on reading, writing, grammar and phonics. I have about 10 hours a week of prep and sometimes have an extra class (chess or graduates) for a couple of hours a week to make up my hours or as overtime. We have two campuses. I teach at the main campus (Nan Men Road Campus). I think we have an enrollment of about 300 at our campus, and our school goes from kindy (three levels of ages 3, 4, and 5) to grade 6. It's a bit different teaching at a private school, but still a good time. The kids here are beautiful, but still are kids and don't differ much from the ones at home when it comes to behaviour. They are much more innocent though. These kids come from very well off families. Most of their parents are doctors, lawyers, government officials, professors, businessmen and businesswomen, and so on. The kids will end up getting scholarships for universities in the states and Canada and become whatever their parents tell them to be. Most of them will move back here and work, taking care of their parents when they retire. I find that a lot of the times, children here are investments for parents. Someone to take care of them (financially) when they're older. So, their parents will make them work hard and become someone who earns a lot of money so that their own future is secure.....

The first group of students are my grade 1 class. I had 12 (I find that this is much better than 32, like back at home). This class is a mixed abilities class, so the students are either average or weak. There may be some in the class, however, that are eventually moved up to the accelerated class. I had three of mine move up this year, for example.

The second group of students are my grade 3 class. This is an accelerated class. They are very, very smart. Many times, I just have to explain the lesson to them once (if needed at all) and then get them to do it. They all usually have it done in half the time expected with all of the work correct....they are very bright and will probably be performing surgery on me in twenty years.....

The last pictures are of my class I teach on Friday evenings. They are students who have graduated from Cornel and come back to keep their English in check. They have very busy lives and are burnt out by the time they get to the class at the end of the week, but I try to make it exciting and fun for them; I beat them at scrabble every now and then. They don't stop though. All they do is study, eat, drink, study, sleep, study, eat, and study. That's on the weekends. They tell me their schedule for the week and it's crazy. I like being a teacher in Asia, but I would rather be a student in Canada.

After all of that talk, you can now click on the link below to go to my albums. Click on My Students and view slideshow.

Okay, time to get ready for bed. Take it easy and I will hear from some of you soon.

Remember....I'll be home in December......woohoo.....

Peace be with you people,

Jonathan

http://picasaweb.google.com/jonbrooks.12