Long Time No See
I know...... It's been a while since I last wrote. Life's been crazy busy. On top of my regular teaching hours, there were observations, student surveys, substitutions, interviews, more observations, and more substitutions. There's also the Chinese Teacher Training Course on weekends and trips to the doctor's office every two weeks. Last weekend, I finished the Final Tests for the weekend course. The teachers will mark our tests, and the certificate will arrive in the mail in a month's time.
Now I can relax on the weekend like normal people do.
13 more working days then we go on a 20-day term break in mid September. Since Karen and my mom are going to Vancouver in mid September, my mom's cat, Mocha, is coming to stay with us for a while. I really look forward to not having a schedule and just hanging out with the two kitties at home. I can finally sort out the living room, garden, cook, go for walks, read, write, listen to music, blog, or simply space out. Ah~~~ weight gets lifted off my shoulders just thinking about it.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
A Brief Note
I did the demo lesson in my weekend Chinese class. I taught it the way I teach English. The four students from the States had fun, but I don't think my classmates "got it". They were surprised by the fact that I wrote my name big on the board. They then concluded that I'm a very confident person. While we were having lunch, some of my classmates told me that they didn't think I'd be this friendly considering how confident I am.
When are the Taiwanese gonna understand that confidence does not equal arrogance? When are they gonna stop placing judgment on others?
The final exams (oral & written) are coming up this Sunday. Gotta sit down and study for them.
A category 4 typhoon's approaching at 195 kph. The weather man says it'll touchdown tomorrow afternoon, just in time for the weekend. I just hope the exams won't be cancelled 'cause Bill and I are planning to go away next weekend.
CA-125 = 19.42 (phew.......?)
I don't know how I should feel about it anymore.
I did the demo lesson in my weekend Chinese class. I taught it the way I teach English. The four students from the States had fun, but I don't think my classmates "got it". They were surprised by the fact that I wrote my name big on the board. They then concluded that I'm a very confident person. While we were having lunch, some of my classmates told me that they didn't think I'd be this friendly considering how confident I am.
When are the Taiwanese gonna understand that confidence does not equal arrogance? When are they gonna stop placing judgment on others?
The final exams (oral & written) are coming up this Sunday. Gotta sit down and study for them.
A category 4 typhoon's approaching at 195 kph. The weather man says it'll touchdown tomorrow afternoon, just in time for the weekend. I just hope the exams won't be cancelled 'cause Bill and I are planning to go away next weekend.
CA-125 = 19.42 (phew.......?)
I don't know how I should feel about it anymore.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
The 100th Blog Entry
I remember it was when we lived in this apartment the first time that Bill encouraged me to start a blog. "You like writing anyway. Why not put it on the Internet?" I was reluctant 'cause knowing how bad I am with regularity, I thought I wouldn't be able to keep it up. Plus, ..... who would want to read my blog?!
Almost a year ago after a confusing hospital visit, Bill suggested starting a blog again.
"Why don't you make it a record of your experience with chocolate cysts?" he said. That idea sounded very intriguing at the moment 'cause I got the perfect name for it.
"I'm gonna name it The Chocolate Cysterhood but spelt C-Y-S-T-E-R hood." I declared.
While my heart was filled with self-admiration, Bill rolled his eyes, smiling.
What started out partially as a light-hearted joke turned out to be much more significant. The Chocolate Cysterhood has also transformed from a mere record of medical experience to a garden of hopes and love. It delivers comfort and support and fuels us with strength and courage. Through it, we witnessed "the power of the Martins" (the Vancouver Martins included), we shared some major life-altering experiences, and together we kicked ass!!!
I couldn't have done it without you.
I know I can never say it enough, but thank you all for being there for me in your own ways.
Thank you for loving me.
I remember it was when we lived in this apartment the first time that Bill encouraged me to start a blog. "You like writing anyway. Why not put it on the Internet?" I was reluctant 'cause knowing how bad I am with regularity, I thought I wouldn't be able to keep it up. Plus, ..... who would want to read my blog?!
Almost a year ago after a confusing hospital visit, Bill suggested starting a blog again.
"Why don't you make it a record of your experience with chocolate cysts?" he said. That idea sounded very intriguing at the moment 'cause I got the perfect name for it.
"I'm gonna name it The Chocolate Cysterhood but spelt C-Y-S-T-E-R hood." I declared.
While my heart was filled with self-admiration, Bill rolled his eyes, smiling.
What started out partially as a light-hearted joke turned out to be much more significant. The Chocolate Cysterhood has also transformed from a mere record of medical experience to a garden of hopes and love. It delivers comfort and support and fuels us with strength and courage. Through it, we witnessed "the power of the Martins" (the Vancouver Martins included), we shared some major life-altering experiences, and together we kicked ass!!!
I couldn't have done it without you.
I know I can never say it enough, but thank you all for being there for me in your own ways.
Thank you for loving me.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
My Name is Kate and I'm a Teacher
Kate, I have a question.
A female student grabbed me by the arm looking all worried and asked, "Kate, if I only say 'my daughter' instead of 'our daughter', would people get the impression that I'm divorced?"
After teaching how to use the present and future tenses to express future, a studious student looked up from her notebook, covered with neat tiny hand prints, and said, "Could you tell us the exact percentage of the level of certainty with each sentence?"
I just came out of the bathroom and a student was pacing in the foyer with a rolled-up notebook in his hands. When he looked at me, his eyebrows were tangled and he looked as if he was in great pain. "Are you alright?" I asked (that was the mistake). He hit me with this question, "What's the difference between 'continuous' and 'continual'"? I was still drying my hands from my visit to the bathroom for crying out loud!
Students are Social Animals Too
I had been trying to figure out where the awkward vibe came from in my high-intermediate evening conversation class. They can work together, but they don't seem to jive. They laugh at my jokes, but they don't nudge and share a quick exchange of comments afterward. I decided to try something new as a way of getting to know what's going on in my classroom.
We learned to make polite requests in different ways last Friday. At the end of the class, the homework I assigned was for my students to put a request (for anyone in the class) on the class website. Depending on who they're asking, they'd need to adjust the language they used to ask for the favor. The end result was 17 new messages in my email. That confirmed my suspicion: They never gelled as a class ('cause they were not comfortable with their classmates seeing what they had produced) and they probably never will. It's really too bad 'cause some of them are really funny and wacky. I emailed them back individually with a silly comment. When I finished emailing them back, my brain was fried.
What Makes it All Worthwhile
My afternoon half-day students have been reading Penguin Reader "Billy Elliot", and we finished it on Monday. They enjoyed the book so much that some of them admitted that they had gone ahead and finished the whole thing a week earlier. On Tuesday they had their first quiz and we watched a part of the movie "Billy Elliot" afterward. We had the English subtitles on because the accent would've made it nearly impossible for them to understand. While we were watching the movie, I noticed they were saying some words and phrases in that heavy northern British accent in the movie. It was fun to watch these lower-intermediate-level adult EFL students, who had probably never enjoyed learning English before, having fun imitating what was said in a movie in that "strange" accent. Since they had read the book and learned about all the characters in the story, they burst out shouting a character's name while pointing at the screen when they recognized who that was..... like children do.
After the class, I saw some of my students in front of the bookshelf discussing which book they want to read next; others were exchanging phone numbers for a viewing of the movie at a student's place this weekend.
Kate, I have a question.
A female student grabbed me by the arm looking all worried and asked, "Kate, if I only say 'my daughter' instead of 'our daughter', would people get the impression that I'm divorced?"
After teaching how to use the present and future tenses to express future, a studious student looked up from her notebook, covered with neat tiny hand prints, and said, "Could you tell us the exact percentage of the level of certainty with each sentence?"
I just came out of the bathroom and a student was pacing in the foyer with a rolled-up notebook in his hands. When he looked at me, his eyebrows were tangled and he looked as if he was in great pain. "Are you alright?" I asked (that was the mistake). He hit me with this question, "What's the difference between 'continuous' and 'continual'"? I was still drying my hands from my visit to the bathroom for crying out loud!
Students are Social Animals Too
I had been trying to figure out where the awkward vibe came from in my high-intermediate evening conversation class. They can work together, but they don't seem to jive. They laugh at my jokes, but they don't nudge and share a quick exchange of comments afterward. I decided to try something new as a way of getting to know what's going on in my classroom.
We learned to make polite requests in different ways last Friday. At the end of the class, the homework I assigned was for my students to put a request (for anyone in the class) on the class website. Depending on who they're asking, they'd need to adjust the language they used to ask for the favor. The end result was 17 new messages in my email. That confirmed my suspicion: They never gelled as a class ('cause they were not comfortable with their classmates seeing what they had produced) and they probably never will. It's really too bad 'cause some of them are really funny and wacky. I emailed them back individually with a silly comment. When I finished emailing them back, my brain was fried.
What Makes it All Worthwhile
My afternoon half-day students have been reading Penguin Reader "Billy Elliot", and we finished it on Monday. They enjoyed the book so much that some of them admitted that they had gone ahead and finished the whole thing a week earlier. On Tuesday they had their first quiz and we watched a part of the movie "Billy Elliot" afterward. We had the English subtitles on because the accent would've made it nearly impossible for them to understand. While we were watching the movie, I noticed they were saying some words and phrases in that heavy northern British accent in the movie. It was fun to watch these lower-intermediate-level adult EFL students, who had probably never enjoyed learning English before, having fun imitating what was said in a movie in that "strange" accent. Since they had read the book and learned about all the characters in the story, they burst out shouting a character's name while pointing at the screen when they recognized who that was..... like children do.
After the class, I saw some of my students in front of the bookshelf discussing which book they want to read next; others were exchanging phone numbers for a viewing of the movie at a student's place this weekend.
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