Taiping Turns 90 Years Old!

There are many distinct features of a Taiwanese elementary school that make it quite different from a school in the US. Coming back and telling stories about my time in Taiwan has highlighted some of the key differences for me.

Class Leaders:

Students get to and from classes with the help of a class leader. The class leader is very important. The students walk in organized lines of two, maybe boy or girl. The class leader leads the line, stopping periodically to make sure everyone is in formation/paying attention. The class leader calls out “attention” and the rest of the class responds with “one, two”. They repeat this until the whole class is together. These class leaders have a lot of responsibility and also power. Each student in the class is given a class number and the class leader writes students’ numbers on the board at the beginning of class, if the students are not behaving. The class leaders can report these students to the homeroom teacher and also bring messages from other teachers to the homeroom teachers. The class leader is also responsible for dismissing class. For example at the end of my classes Shuting or I would say, “Ok, everyone stand up (they stand), push in your chairs (they push in their chairs), straighten your desks (you get the idea) and check your drawer.” Then we would say “class leader”. The class leader would signal the class with a command and the class would bow and say “Thank you Teacher Kait”, and then bow again and say, “Thank you teacher Shuting”.

Student cleaning squads.

The schools do not hire janitors to clean classrooms, hallways in Taiwan. While they do hire janitors to come maybe once or twice a week to clean bathrooms, the rest of the cleaning is done by the students. Each student or class is assigned to a different area of the school to clean, including the classrooms, school yard, hallways, etc. There are cleaning periods built into the school day, giving students time to get the cleaning done. They arrive early and clean in the morning, then again in the morning and in the afternoon. Some students sweep up the leaves outside the school gates and in the playground, others sweep the office, etc.

Somehow I failed to take a picture with my classroom cleaners, so I included this picture Grace took with hers, they have cleaning tools in hand!

Microphones:

Teachers in Taiwan use microphones.

I really like this feature. I would often come close to losing my voice after English Village because I spent two hours yelling at students. In my classroom, I didn’t need to yell. Despite that classrooms are lined with open windows to cool the room, the students can still understand the pronunciation of words/letters combinations.

School day schedule.

The Taiwanese school day is very different from an elementary school day in the US.

These key differences were a shock initially and I remembered this when teaching my fifth grade classes a unit on classes (“What classes do you have on Monday?”, “I have math class on Monday.”), we showed the students two school schedules: an American one and a Chinese one.

ABC Elementary (in the US):

Versus

Taiping Elementary School (in Taiwan):

So what is the difference?

-Break Times- in between classes students have ten minutes to do what they will. They can go out and play, use the restroom, finish a homework assignment, etc.

-Cleaning Periods- cleaning time is built into the schedule. Every cleaning time four girls would come to our classroom and sweep the floors, wash the chalk board, wash the desks, take out the trash, wash the windows, etc. Other students would sweep and wash the hallways and stairwells near our classrooms. There are also students assigned to clean the faculty lunch room after lunch, the office, the other extra classrooms, and the main office.

-Napping Time- From 11:50- 12:30 the students each and clean up lunch. Then from 12:30-12:35 a Chinese song about brushing one’s teeth plays and the kids brush their teeth. Then they go to sleep until 1:20, when class resumes again. At first I was resistant to this napping time. It did not take long for me to lay out on the couch in the corner of the office J

-Flag Raising Ceremony- Every Wednesday and Friday from 8:30-8:35 there is a flag raising ceremony in the school yard that all the students attend. The band plays the national anthem and a group of students raise the flag.

When presenting my students with these two slightly different school schedules their reactions were very cute. “no, napping time?” “Aren’t they tired?” ”No break time?” They were quite surprised.

Birthdays!

I was showing my mom pictures and this picture popped up.

“What is this from?” …”Oh this was the time my school turned 90”.

Yes, the children are in battle formation because the entire school was performing a choreographed, practiced dance to celebrate the school’s 90^th birthday! To see the full dance routine go to: In Taiwan schools (elementary, junior high schools, senior high schools, etc.) celebrate their founding days, “birthdays”, with elaborate day long celebrations.

On your school’s birthday there will be:

1. a blow up castle