Bei Shi, A Great School!

My days here are really awesome!! Thanks to a lot of people here who have made me feel so welcomed. Firstly, to my host family who have made me feel like I'm at home, bringing me around to eat nice food and for treating me like their own family. Secondly is to the school's staffs and teachers, especially 主任 and 校长 and Molly (6th grade teacher), for introducing me more about Taiwan, about Bei Shi, and the culture here. Also, thanks to all the lovely kids here, they are just soooooo sweet and cute, saying hi to me whenever they saw me, giving me handmade welcome notes/cards and certain things that I believe are really precious to them. Oh, and I keep hearing my name wherever I walked! Hahaha :p

A welcome note given by a P2 student

A lovely handmade card and a note from the 6th graders (really talented bunch of kids)

One thing I like about Bei Shi is that the school system is really different from Singapore and Indonesia. They have a short lesson time (40 mins each), a break (at least 10 mins) in between each lesson (which I think is very important!), and cute bell/song to indicate certain activities. They even have nap time! So basically they have to take a nap together in the classroom. XD I am really amazed when I saw the kids cleaning up the school (the garden/field, the classroom, the toilet) every single day, which in my opinion, is a good training and practice to make them a more responsible and independent person. During meal times, the kids have to take the pots of food from the kitchen to the classroom, and use their own bowls and cutleries to get the food for themselves. Afterwards? They clean up after themselves, oh my goodness, I never see such a practice in my home countries. The children here are very considerate and share their food with others too, lovely little kids :) Another activity they do together that surprised me: they brush teeth together after meals! A good hygienic practice since young. :)

The recycling practice in Bei Shi (and maybe Taiwan in general) is really really good! They have five different bins in each and every classroom, mainly for: refuse paper material, pet bottle, cans, plastics, and other wastes. The people here are actually really following the recycling practice, including the students. Their discipline is really good!

Recycling Bins in the classrom

I didn't teach anything for the first 2 days as I'm still adapting myself and preparing my teaching materials. In between the preparation, I learn Chinese during my own free time. I have my own notebook to write what new Chinese words I learned everyday!! XD Molly really helped me a lot, really feel so grateful with her around. :) I read the newspaper for children too hahaha :p Well, my main purpose is to help the children with English here. Beside that, I'm partly here because I want to improve my Chinese, so I have to make use of my time here well. :) I am determined to do my best here!

I'm a good student too you know :p

Joanna and Pudding :)

My lovely sisters in Taiwan :)