Yesterday, when I was in class 113, I told them that they didn't do very well on English mid-term exam. Although their average grade is the second best among all the first-graders, they only won the third best by 0.2 point. This is not a good performance for them considering that they are a talented class. So, in class, I asked them to close their eyes and I would do some survey. I asked them questions like, how many of them thought that they had done their utmost and how many of them hadn't. As I had expected, almost half of them thought they didn't try their best. However, there are still about a dozen students who thought they had tried their best but still couldn't do well on tests. Today, when I was in their class and they were writing some tests, an idea flashed into my mind, which I could use to encourage them and teach them some conceptions. I thought of my experience of riding the foldable bike on the mountain road to Pin-ling, which is really an unforgettable experience for me. The following is my "speech" I made in front of them:

The Sunday before the last week, I went biking on the Pei-Yi highway to Pinglin. We started off from Taipei and passed Sin-Tien to get on the mountain road. I didn't have a good bike, so I borrowed a foldable bike to ride. When my friends told me we would ride on the mountain road, I wouldn't mind at all because I was quite confident of my physical strength and endurance. After all, I have exercised regularly for almost three years. So, I thought the trip would be just a little challenging but wouldn't scare me at all. With such innocence, we hit the road at nine in the morning. At first, being excited, the mountain road didn't really bother me. Panting and sweating was normal, I thought. And some part of the road is a little steeper but I just had to push myself a little bit and then I could go on riding. So, riding uphill about 1.5 hours, we reached the highest point of the highway and took some rest. We knew that we would feel easy the rest of the trip because we had got to the highest point and the road would be downward all the way to Ping-ling. After we took some rest, eating some chocolate and drinking some water, we started off again. When we were gliding down the mountain road, enjoying the cool breeze and the excitement of the high speed, we felt more complex than simply joyful. We were thinking that the high speed at which we were gliding down meant that it would be more difficult to ride back. We had already worried about the difficulty we would encounter when riding back uphill and that was why we couldn't enjoy the high speed and the breeze to the fullest.
About half an hour of gliding, we finally reached Ping-ling. There, we enjoyed an inexpensive good lunch. We also went to the Tea Museum to take a rest and do some strech there. At that time, I already felt sore in my thighs and legs. But when I thought of having to ride back on the same route, I told myself I had to forget the pain, or else, I would be unable to get on my bike again. So, I had no choice but to gather up my courage, get on the bike and hit the road again. It was more difficult than I had thought. It only took five minutes for me to realize how hard it would be to ride back to Taipei. I felt pain all over my legs after I just started riding. And there were still 8 kilometers of uphill road to go. I knew at that moment that it was only my will power that I could depend on to continue pedaling because I had used up all my strength. It was like competing with myself. I had to keep telling myself not to give up. I even begged my companions not to talk to me while riding because I was afraid that I might get distracted. I knew I had to pay all the attention to my pedaling and breathing. I had to have conversations with my own body. There were a few times I really felt as if I had no more strength and almost fell off the bike, but still, I clenched my teeth and made some growling sound to "squeeze out" some more strength from nowhere and kept pedaling. After an hour and half, we eventually got to the highest point. I felt a great sense of achievement. I felt an excitement that I had never felt before. We stopped for a while and had some tea and snacks to restore ourselves. After all, we were only on half way back to Taipei although the other half would be much easier. We finally got to Taipei at around six p.m. and this biking trip took almost 8 hours. This was the first time I rode on a mountain road for such a long time and I made it! I was proud of myself not only for my conquering the mountain road but also for that I made it with a foldable bike!

After I returned from the trip and went to work the next day, I told one of my colleagues who sometimes goes biking as well what I had achieved. I told her how challenging the biking tour was and how I suffered during the trip. To tell the truth, I was proud to tell her this experience because I thought there were not many females who could do that without much practicing. She listened but showed not much surprise and admiration. Then, one week after I told her, she told me that she also went biking on the same route. I asked her what it was like. She said it was "O.K." It was indeed challenging but she didn't feel worn-out as me. She blamed my sufferings on the foldable bike I rode and she also said that she didn't feel very exhausted because she had some professional friends to tell her when to change gears and speed. She also added that it took practice before you went mountain biking and she had gone biking several times.

I am now telling you my own experience of biking because I want to tell you that you might think that you have done your utmost and you have paid as many efforts as you can to study English but those who do better than you might pay more efforts than you do. Take my biking experience for example. I thought that I had tried my best and used up all my strength. However, my colleague seemed to use only half of her strength to finish the same biking tour. It is not because she is born a better biker than me but because she has practiced more times than I. We can always think that we have done our best but actually other people are doing more than us and that's why they are better than us. So, there is still a lot you can do and there's still something you can improve. If you really think that you have already paid every effort you can and there's no more you can do, maybe you can contemplate whether you are using a right and effective method or not. My colleague had professional friends to teach her some tips so she could do it without much pain while I didn't have any so I suffered a lot. Therefore, if you find your method of studying is not effective, you can consult your teachers or discuss with your classmates to find out a method that is more suitable for youself.....

Then I encourged them to do better next time on English exam and made a deal with them that they have to raise their average grade by 3 points at least. I also told them that if they could improve by 5 points, I would treat them to some goodies. They were glad to make this promise to me and I hope they can really keep the promise, for I had spent so much time telling my story to encourage them in class. I hope my words can really affect them and inspire them.

House viewing tour

Yesterday was an exciting day. I, with my boyfriend and his parents, went on an interesting and "educational" house viewing tour in the district of Yilan County Administration Center. There are plenty of new, big houses there. Some are even like villas. The district is the only area that was planned well in Yilan. There are many regulations and restrictions on house construction there. Therefore, there is supposed to be no illegal constrution there. And so, houses there should be more good-looking and safer and every building land should contaion a certain proportion
of yard or garden. With so many patches of garden or lawn among the houses, the residential area there is a view! Living there is like living in a Japanese community, a dream community. Although there is still a lot of land unused and some area is still a little bit deserted, the district's got potential to be the most high-classed community in Yilan. During the day, we had went into several houses to have a look. It's really fun to watch new houses, especially the ones with some furnishings. Watching these new houses can give me some ideas of how we can decorate our house.
When things get started, I also start to look forward to my new life. I am looking forward to having a cozy new home and living happily with my family. And I expect myself to be a woman who can take care of both work and family. Starting to think about managing a house and taking care of family means starting to become a real adult. Maybe soon, I will formally say goodbye to my girlhood and step into another stage of life.

(a country house in Salzburg)

Dec. 4

I am now waiting to play badminton. This is one of my "extracurricular activities." I started to play this sport about three years ago. At that time, I just wanted to exercise in a fun, not boring, way. So I joined in the school badminton team and played every Tuesday and Friday. However, I was a poor player then. Everyone in the team played a hundred times better than I. So, it was not at all exciting to play with me. And if playing double, I was a bad partner, which always made the game look like a single. Of course, I also found no pleasure in playing badminton with those skilled players. Then, I decided to find some colleagues who were as bad as me to play with me. I was surprised that there were really some female colleagues who also wanted to play the sport. From that time on, we, several girls, went to the gym on Tuesdays and Fridays and occupied a court to play our own game. We enjoyed ourselves on the court but we still didn't neglect the so-called "sports manners"--which is not to occupy a court too long and to take turns to play. However, perhaps we were too innocent and too "happy" when playing badminton, we were distasted by other players without knowing it. Those skilled players might have thought that we played poorly yet we still occupied a court. In short, we were not qualified to use a court. So, one day, a senior female colleague came to us when we were taking rest after playing a keen game. Very "indirectly", she suggested us to find some other days to play our games because there are not enough courts. She tried to tell us not to occupy their courts in an indirect way. However, what she tried to do was not decent basically. So, she spoke and acted very awkwardly. She as well as we knew that she had no good reasons to make us leave. If courts are not enough, everybody can take turns to play. Anyway, we were certainly offended by her words, but she was a senior to us after all. So, each of us just kept silent, listening to what she said. Then, we could not but promise her that we would play on other days but we still felt very offended and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, because of this experience of being humiliated, I was determined to practice my badminton skills and play well. I decided to take this sport as my second profession. And I also made a decision secretly that I would one day beat her on the badminton court. I want to revenge!! Ha! She never knew who she messed up with!

Now, I've been playing badminton for three years. And my skills did improve a lot. What's more, I could easily beat her on the court. After all, she is much older than me. Now, I am going to prepare to play and have fun on courts!

December 2

Time flies. It is almost the end of the year. And it's been another two weeks since last time I posted something here. Life changes all the time. In the past two weeks, many things happened. A big shopping mall was open and all the people in town are talking about the mall. "Have you been to the mall?" has become the most frequently heard greeting in Ilan recently. Yeah! I have hung out there two times and also have spent money there. The opening of the mall is really a breakthrough of the development of Ilan city. The Carefour is allegedly the biggest one in east Taiwan. Should we be proud of this? Let's wait and see. I am more looking forward to the opening of Eslite Bookstore in the mall. It occupied the greatest corner of the floor in the mall. But the most important is whether they have a large collection of books or not. The previous one in Yo-Ai was so disappointing. I hope it can improve. As for my work life, there has been some frustrations in my class management. But fortunately, everything is fine now. I can adjust myself to take those criticisms and malicious comments as a challenge for myself. I can learn and grow mature from that. And I also try no to take things too personally. After all, the top priority is whether my students can learn in a good environment or not. So I am only a supporting role while my studnets are the leading roles. Once I change my way of thinking, I can be more rational, unaffected, to deal with problems. I am sincerely grateful for those who criticize my class and me because they give me a chance to think and learn. From every failure or frustration, I think I have gained more courage to move on.














The view from my seat in my office

Nov. 19

Making it a habit to write something in English every day is not easy. It's been more than a week since I last posted something here. I really have no idea why I have been so busy last few days that I couldn't even spare a few minutes to write something. I was not being lazy. It's just every day there seems to be endless work I have to finish. In the past few days, I have been busy working on my project of IWill. I designed an on-line lesson for my students. Although doing this is not difficult for me, it still has to take quite an amount of time to finish a project. First, I have to spend some time organizing my teaching ideas. Then, I have to think up some way to present my ideas. Collecting the ingredients for the presentation also requires a lot of time. Sometimes, I may come across some technical problems, which may waste a lot of time. So, generally speaking, it takes me at least 10 hours to finish a teaching project. And I am sure I work quite efficently. Now, I have finished the job, and later I will use this project to teach my students. Hope it can work well!

Hahaha...

Today, my class had the foreign teacher's class. In an activity, students were asked to say their daily routines. When this part was finished, the foreign teacher asked them if their routines in weekends were different from those in weekdays. Not surprisingly, students answered, "There's no difference. We still have to go to school on Saturdays." Then, I heard some little voice saying "holes" and several others also repeated "holes." All the students laughed and turned their heads to look at me and there was a bit commotion. Then, another voice said, "We have to dig holes on weekends." I coudn't help but laugh. What is funny about this? Now, let me explain. This semester, I assigned my students to read two English novels. We have already finished one novel (The secret garden), which is not difficult for them. But when they started to read the other one(Holes), they found it very challenging because there are too many new words in the novel for them. And some students would spend 3 or 4 hours just looking up new words in dictionaries. Besides, they have to do the reading homework that I assign every week. Like the hero in the novel, who has to dig a big hole every day in the camp, students feel like they are digging holes in some sense. Their assignment is just as difficult as digging a hole for the hero. I admire my students' cleverness to mock themselves in this way. And I am also glad to see that the reading(or the novel) has become part of their lives. Ha!

Down

As soon as I stepped into the classroom of 112 this afternoon, I sensed something different in the air. The atmosphere was kind of tense. Studnets seemed to be a little down and unenergetic. I knew part of the reason was that they couldn't go to the auditorium to watch their seniors' chorus contest. Their class schedule is different from the other classes because they are so-called "language talented" students and the school has given them many extra classes and lectures. When all the other classes attend activities of student clubs, they have to stay in the classroom studying. I don't like this arrangement at all, but I can do nothing to change it. Everytime when I see the disappointment on students' faces, I feel helpless, too. They know they are treated specially by the school, but they don't know they are sooooo special that they even can't participate in some school activities. When I sensed this disappointment today, I again played the role of offering some comfort to them. However, I found my words didn't work at all on them. They still looked dispirited. Then, I realized there must have something else happening in the morning. I stopped my teaching to ask them what had happened to them. I was showing my concern and sincerity, but they seemingly didn't know how to tell me(or maybe they just didn't want to tell me.) Now, I was discouraged. I thought that I was their homeroom teacher whom they could trust and count on most. I tried my best to stand in their shoes and encourage them. But it seems I am still not a teacher whom they can really rely on and talk anything to. At last, there were some students telling me that they were down maybe because their math teacher had a serious conversation with them in her class. What the math teacher told them has some effect on them. Ok, at least this explains some part of their discouragement. Although I don't really think that's the real reason, I try to believe them. When I finished my class, on the way back to my office, I was thinking, "Maybe I think too much. Maybe I worry too much." Sometimes, students would get low in spirits for no reason. It may be the change of weather; it may be the weariness from their over-loading homework and tests. Perhaps I have to learn to not bother myself with these questions so that I can be calmer and more stable to help them go through these problems. From this experience, I realize that I care more about them than I thought. That means the there is more pressure to manage this class than I expected.