Joys of Teaching Shakespeare

I think I love teaching Shakespeare even more than I love teaching writing! Well, at least the comedies - I'm not planning on digging into Richard III anytime soon.

So my Midsummer Night's Dream unit with the Grade 7s is incredibly fun for me and for them. Our class this morning just flew by, we were laughing so much. Now it does really help that we're doing a rewritten version of the play, only 4 pages long and greatly simplified. But you still get the wonderful characters and humour. Last night I gathered up everyones Halloween leftover and put together a props bag, so that each character has it's distinctive feather mask, or tiara or hat. Then, when we start acting out the play, it will be easier to follow who are the girls and guys (since it's single gender classes). I have to stress the all-male Shakespearean actor troupe thing alot with my boys classes! Anyway, I'll try to take a picture when we get to the final performance stage.

14 hours to go! I'm not sure if I can stay up to midnight this year, I'm stuck in my sleep rut and I don't want to mess with it. We'll see how excited I feel. Everything's ready. I spent at least 12 hours this weekend redoing the website for my novel. You may or may not have noticed that it's different from the picture I posted Saturday. You'll have to check it out!

My Nanowrimo 2005 Novel Website

Here it is:

The home for my 2005 Nanowrimo Novel:

Your Own Adventure
*working title*

Soon to come, our writing club website. I'm still checking into the legalities, because some of my students are 12. That may be a problem. We'll see. But everything's set to go for my novel. Can you guess what my two main character's names are?

Final Check-List

I feel like it's Christmas Eve! I can hardly keep the smile off my face, I'm so excited about nanowrimo. Everything's coming together:

* Laptop computer
* new coffee filters, and illy ground coffee
* mondo mug
* small spiral bound notebook (with a small cartoon child in a bag of apples on the front)
* new pens, violet and hunter green
* comfy ikea lounge chair with cozy fleece blanket
* a working title (Your Own Adventure)
* Novel website, coming later this evening!

And perhaps the most exciting news. Yesterday, I noticed that nanowrimo has a new "Young Writers Program" designed for classrooms. And I had a sudden inspiration - do nanowrimo with my Writing Club! Four Saturday classes is a total of 8 hours. That's lots of time to write a story. Of course, the goal isn't going to be 50,000 words. They are 13 year olds with English as a second language.

So this morning in Saturday class, I introduced the idea. I felt like a used-car salesman trying to sell a clunker. None of the kids were quite as enthusiastic as I, but some of them seemed moderatly excited. I made new levels for them, 1,000, 2,500 and 5,000 words. I think that even if they just work on Saturdays in class, they should be able to hit 1,000 words. And the fact that we're all doing it together should be motivation.

So, stay tuned, I'll put the website up when I finish, hopefully later tonight.

Also, one last chance. Anyone out there up to the challenge and want some fun and excitment to brighten up November? I highly recommend it. And I want some friends to put on my Nanowrimo friends list. Let me know if you're going to try.

Useful Stuff

I've been having fun with my lessons this week, because I'm teaching the grades 6 and 7s about Shakespeare's quatros, and we've been making our own quatros, ie matchbooks.

They are loving it, and I just think it's funny that the one class from university that came the most in handy was that two week January class about book making. I use information I learned there all the time. Too bad Huntington got rid of J-term, I thought it was the most valuable part of the year. Well, I gave them my opinion!

Reconsidering the Life Plan

So a few weeks ago I checked for my final grade for my summer school classes. Before the page loaded, I mentioned to Kathy that if I couldn't get an A in that Gender and Development class I worked so hard in, I would have to seriously re-consider my life plan. The page loaded, and I had another A-. Three A-s! Not bad, but not good enough to get me one of those 15 spots. I mean, I suppose there's an itsy bitsy chance, but unlikely.

So I started re-considering. And do you know what I concluded? I think maybe I want to be a teacher. Like, a teacher in Canada kind of teacher. This may not seem like such a strech, considering my current occupation, but it came as quite a shock to me. It was never even remotely considering during my "what should I do with my life" decision making process in my senior year of college. I was always happy in my status as English major, never to be a teacher. But now, things are starting to look different.

I talked to my best friend from college and she thinks its a good idea. She wasn't as surprised at the option as I was, I guess its one of those things other people can see and you can't.

The more I let myself explore the option, the better it looked for a number of reasons. First, it fits the lifestyle I eventually want. I don't want to live in New York city and work at the UN. I do want to have a little country house near Halifax. There are no relief& development jobs in Nova Scotia, but an English teacher fits. Also, I'm a super-structured person. I love the idea of teaching year after year, perfecting my lesson plans and working within a structured schedule. The job is relatively secure, with good benefits, early retirement, etc. It not exactly lucrative, but I have no desire to be rich.

Finally, I just love teaching, I love going to work everyday. I love my students and I love sharing my love of Shakespeare and writing with them. I do realize that I have quite the wonderful set-up here, and teaching the advanced eager-beaver taiwanese teens is quite a different situation from trying to motivate low-level or badly behaved Canadian teens. However, its just so rewarding to make even a little difference, to be an influence. And I just love English, the literature, the language, the writing. I love learning. I would go be a student for the rest of my life if I could, maybe being a teacher is the second best thing!

So, right now I'm looking at teacher education programs. Unlike trying to get one of the 15 spots at Dalhouise, my prospects are pretty much guaranteed to get in. I'm thinking of going to school in Nova Scotia, because it would make it easier to get certified. My four choices are: Acadia, St. Francis Xavier, Mount St. Vincent, or Cape Breton. Anyone have any suggestions? Changing my life plan in two weeks makes me nervous, so I'd love any "go for it" or "are you sure?" I'd hate to get to the end of my life and feel like I didn't take a risk and reach my potential. But I'd also hate to feel like I tried to make a career that seemed important and monumental, when all I really wanted was a simple little life. PLease feel free to respond here or on the family site.

Cheap Lunch!

WEll, Kathleen and I were walking up a new street, trying to find a certain store (which we never found). Instead, we saw a restaurant called Ecco, which had Pizza*Pasta*Cafe on the side. We were hungry, the menu looked good, and we could tell it was brand new because it had tons of flowers outside. (In Taiwan, when someone opens a new business, everyone sends them flower arrangements for good luck, which are then displayed outside for a week or so of grand opening).

Well, once inside, we were handed two little tickets. We sat down, and our waiter came over to explain. It was their grand opening day and everyone's whole meal was 1 NT dollar (like 5 cents). So Kathleen and I had salad, garlic bread, pasta and pizza, drinks and dessert for the equivalant of a dime. Now thats a deal!

October in Taipei

I heard that October is supposed to be the best month for weather in Taipei. I think I might consider it the only non-horrible month. It was stiflingly hot up until the end of September, and pretty soon it will get drizzily and chilly. But for October, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, there's always a breeze, and the temperature stays between 24-27 in the daytime with no sight of rain. It made me wonder if a month of absolutely perfect weather makes up for 11 months of damp cold, massive rain, or unbearable heat. I don't think so, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying every last minute of October!

Guest Post by Kathleen

So Carole asked me to update her blog with one of my daily "Ohhh, how cute!" stories. I am constantly amazed at how much the kids notice and how much they admire their teachers. Julia, a very bright grade one student, came up to me this morning holding a pink plastic folder. She showed it to me like it was something special, so I "ooed and ahhed" appropriately. I asked a few questions to try to find out why she was showing it to me ("Is it new?" and "Where did you get it?") Julia fliped it over and proudly exclaimed "It's like yours!" You see, every class I bring flashcards in a plastic envelope with a button-tie closure. She had bought the same style folder... just to be like me!

Flamenco!

Last weekend we went to see a production of Carmen by the Spanish National Ballet. It was an enormous auditorium over by Taipei 101, and it was completely sold out, with good reason.

The flamenco dancing was fantastic, without too much "stomping." And the most surprising part was that all the music was live as well, with the Spanish band and opera singers. It was a lovely evening, so far our entertainment season has been way above expectations.

Clear Dancers

A more literal picture, I balanced my camera on the railing.

Watching

Kathy's flash free shot of me watching the dancers.

Taipei 101

This is the view of Taipei 101 on a lovely dusky evening. Taken five minutes after the next picture.

Taipei 101

Isn't that a stunning sky?! I didn't do any edits, this is exactly what it looked like one night at about 6 pm, and exactly what my camera took. I love pink sunsets.

Grading Purgatory

Alas, as the foreign teacher who has been at Fu-Hsing the longest, you would think I would be smarter than this. I am up to my ears in pen pal letters, interviews, and notebooks, and have more grading to do than I ever have. Yesterday and today are half days at school, which is usually cause for vacation, but instead I spent 8 hours sitting on the couch grading penpal letters yesterday and I will be doing the same today with notebooks. Alas. Well, at least I know that the pen pal letters mean something to the kids and it's better than just another test.

A Hotel School

This is something that one of Kathy's grade 9 boys wrote in answer to the assignment to design an ideal hotel. This is exactly as written, and I think it's cute!

If I could make the best hotel ever, it would be like a big school. I would make the bedroom be like a sleeping teacher and make it soft and worn. I'll make the food like the student's food, but I would put a lot of delicious food inside it. And I also would make a lot of toys and put them in a specil room let the children could play inside.

Happy Double Ten Day!

We have the day off work today because it's Taiwan's national day: Double Ten Day. This picture is from the ceremony at the school on Friday. It was quite the show.

So today is a day for relaxing, and waving a flag if you're Taiwanese and eating turkey and being thankful if you're Canadian.

So happy Double Ten Day and Happy Thanksgiving, and what the heck, Happy Columbus Day, too!

Double Ten Day

Some of my grade 6 boys in their very cute boy scout uniforms. They are holding the symbol for double ten day, because the cross is a ten, and two next to each other is double ten, October 10th, get it?

Sun Yat Sen?

I like the lines of this picture. More pictres of good old Chaing Kai Shek, or Sun Yat Sen?

Flag Wavers

They gave all the students little flags to wave. They seemed to think it was pretty fun. I like the little boy on the side who is very intent on having his flag the highest.

Flag Bearers

These are some of my grade 6 girls being flag bearers in their cute girl scout uniforms. They all look a bit surly - I don't think smiling is allowed!

Planning ahead is a good thing!

Alright, everything's planned. Whew- that was hard work. It paid off, though, I saved over $1000 Canadian by spending 4-5 hours searching the internet. Air India is dirt cheap, but tricky to book, because they only do paper tickets and they only mail them to the country of departure. But I finally found them at Travelocity.ca, which is now my new favorite travel site. Expedia.ca and Travel Cuts both had flights starting at $1500!

So, my Chinese New Year includes: Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Indonesia. WHOO-HOO! The Taj Mahal was on my must see before I die list, and I'd never find a $400 flight from Canada.

Now, with all my flights in hand, I can take my time looking into further travel arrangements, hotels, etc. Only three months to go.

Only three months to go!

This weekend I've spent hours upon hours doing travel planning for Chinese New Year. It's very time consuming, but it's the only way to go cheap-cheap. I'm still finalizing one country, but there's one thing I'm sure of:

I'm going to Bali and Lombok in Indonesia! I'm going to do a Geckos tour, because I don't want to just go lie on a beach by myself. You have to read the description of the tour - it sounds like paradise. I'm so excited.

Flowers

Are they real or fake? Well, they're sorta fake. They are made of felt! Now, I'm usually opposed to fake flowers, but these just made me smile. They're going to replace those ugly cheap tulips that I've put in my vase from Claire.

A bouquet

This is me with my bouquet of flowers outside of our office on the fifth floor of the junior high building.

Nanowrimo

Can I just say how happy I was to get my first Nanowrimo email this year! I went to the website, registered as a 2005 participant and got my new "participant image" for the sidebar. Exciting! I can't wait to start planning my novel. I have a few ideas I'm working on, and the rest of October to sketch out the plot.

Is anyone going to do it with me this year? It's a heck of a lot of fun. I suppose it's kind of like the experience of training for a marathon - extreme self-discipline for the ultimate payoff at the end. Except Nanowrimo does not involve exercise or cold mornings. It's more like curling up in a blanket with a coffee on a late Saturday morning. My kind of self-discipline!

So, if you want to check it out, start at their website: Nanowrimo. They have an introduction to what it is, and guidelines

Sunny Octobers

I miss Fall; leaves that crunch, the first scarf, and the apple cider. October in Taipei has it's own joys, though, every so often there's a warm breeze that makes the clear sunny sky seem magical. It's hard to believe that Monday is Thanksgiving - it's really hard to feel thanksgivingy when the weather is mid-summerish. However, we luckily have the day off, because it's October 10th, or Double Ten Day, the Taiwan National Day. So we're going to do a pseudo-potluck. One person gets the pumpkin pie from Starbucks, the other the real mashed potatoes from Chili's, and so on. It certainly doesn't beat cooking up the meal with Claire in the Meadows dorm kitchen, but it will be a memorable Taiwanese Canadian thanksgiving. And if the whole thing flops, there will always be American thanksgiving with our American friends!

Thanks for clicking the box, by the way. I've made a dollar in a day! This could get addictive. If anyone finds it annoying or if it slows down loading the page, let me know.

C.K.S.

Someday I mean to photograph Chaing Kai Shek memorial in earnest, because it is truly the most beautiful part of Taipei for me. I'd like to try some dramatic black and white shots with filters. But until I get around to it, here's a walking by, quick shot.

Coffeeshop

This is Kathleen's shot. She wanted to capture the Taiwan coffeeshop experience. Instead of using the coffee shop mainly as a source of caffination, here Starbucks and Ikari Coffees are full of people sitting. They might have ordered a caramel macchiato two hours ago, and that means they may then spend the rest of the afternoon sitting, doing homework, napping. I read an article about the growth of Starbucks in China, and how the Starbucks are used as an extension of people's homes, since they often lived in more cramped apartments. Interesting, eh?

A Saga of Contacts and Glasses

So, this summer I found out how many regulations there are in Canada about buying contacts. Without going into the details- even though I had a brand new perscription, I couldn't buy them.

So, I came to Taiwan, and wore out my last pair of contacts last week. Today I wore my glasses to school, and threw everyone for a loop. A little grade 1 boy asked me why I was wearing glasses, and I explained that my eyes hurt. Then I asked him if he thought they looked nice. "No, they look funny." I polled the whole class- across the board consensus: Ms. Carole's glasses look funny.

So, at lunch, I stopped by the glasses shop at the corner. Walked in, pointed to the brand of contacts I use at home, showed her my perscription, and walked out four minutes later! And, I paid under $40 for them, whereas in Canada they are about $140 at Wal-Mart. So take that Canadian regulations!

Chinese New Year

Last night, I booked the first part of my Chinese New Year vacation. It was a very hard decision, because our "company" is not giving any firm dates we are allowed to take vacation. As it was last year, we will only know about what days we will need to work winter camp one or two weeks in advance. That's no good for planning travel. Trying to get a cheap ticket two weeks before Chinese New Year is laughable! If you remember last February, I had a horrible time, was worked way too hard and ended up getting so throughly sick and exhausted I started the second semester at school desperately needing a vacation. All that to say, I knew I needed to just plan my travels, and worry about the 'company' later.

So, I booked my first flight from Taipei to Singapore. There's only one cheap company that does that route, Jet Star Asia, and the cheapest tickets sell out quickly. From Singapore there are lots of discount airlines flying everywhere. I'm thinking Australia and Bali, also maybe Fiji or New Zealand. Ironically, after I booked my flight I read about the bombings in Bali. Unlike most toursists, I think that's good news, all the hotels will have great sales to try to draw back business!

I'll let you know more when I decide where all I'm going. Should be soon - I've learned the value of planning ahead.

Happy B-Day!

Alright, it's Taipei Traveller's First Birthday! Exciting, eh?
Technically I think I started on October 2nd, but as blog author I hereby declare October 1st to by my blog birthday.
In a freakish coincidence, I just noticed on my blogger homepage that this is my 600th post. And my visitor count for total unique visitors is at 3,405 (meaning my mom only counts as one!)

So in honor of this momentous occasion, I thought about completely changing my blog look. However, I think continuity overrides creativity in this case. Instead, I'm putting my creative energies into designing a website for my next Nanowrimo novel, which starts in a month- I can't wait. So, Taipei Traveller will stick with the same look and the same name, probably until I leave Taipei and need to overhaul the whole thing. But I love my life so much right now, I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Chinese Opera

This was my favorite part of the Chinese Opera. Sadly, the only comparison I can think of making is to Mulan, which just represents my sadly Western-centered education. Anyway, the character in green was some sort of princess-warrior who was a very graceful, flexible and powerful performer. I wanted to go backstage afterwards and try to get a close-up of her face, but when I tried, they were already removing their makeup. It would have been a great shot, though. I'll just have to keep the memory.

Chinese Opera

These are the 'monkeys' and some sort of king? His headress has very, very long feathers on top, which added to the expressiveness of his character.

Lady in Lavendar

I used to think lavendar smelled like old ladies. I don't know at what point my opinions changed, but I do know that using all my new Italian lavendar bath products makes me feel so calm and relaxed. Wait, that's probably it. Once I started getting addicted to aromatherapy massage I started equating lavendar with pampering. There you go.

Oh, and I figured out which little grade 1 kid gave this to me (he wrote the card himself, all in Chinese). He's a cutie, who's quite good in class.

P.S. If you haven't seen the movie Ladies in Lavendar you most definitely should.