End Of Semester Blues Or VT Art Salon Part II

Iutian sitting in the corner against an interesting glow at the VT Art Salon.

I am almost completed with writing my exams. I have only two left for tomorrow, and since I finished my bigger grade 4 class, the other one will be easier. I will probably finish it today. I find it a lot easier to do this. What I sometimes hate is that my job is like a two jobs combined but only with one salary.

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I have finished writing all my exams. I still have to complete writing 2 tests for tomorrow. Both classes have a test tomorrow. Hopefully, by Tuesday I will have gotten through the marking of all of their homework.

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The VT Art Salon Bonanza Series was taken on the 30th of December 2006 on our way to the VT Art Salon, a minimal lounge off Nanjing Rd. in Taipei. All photos were taken with a Nikon D200 and a 18-35mm Nikkor lens. These are the best shots of the photos that had not uploaded a few days ago.

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It is a lot easier to manage your workload if you are teaching similar grades; for example, I teach two grade 4 classes, who each get different material, but I can just imagine how it could be should they get the same books and matter. A lot easier. I can just imagine doing the work only once for a bunch of different classes of the same grade. It helps that all grades use the same Macmillan McGraw-Hill books. We use the 2003 edition. I know that an all inclusive edition came out in 2005. This means that to teach phonics and grammar, they would be integrated directly into the stories, keeping the lessons under a same theme. I wouldn’t mind getting grades K to 8 of that series. It is called Treasures.

Hsinchu train station before our departure for Taipei.

Though the books are great, they do not really consider the ESL part of my teaching. They are very colorful and easy to use for teachers. I do lesson plans once every two weeks. That way, I have two weeks before I have to sit down and do them again for the next story. The curriculum I have established for both classes follows the one laid down by the books quite easily. I have tests each two weeks and next semester I would probably have a spelling test every few days. My tests are reading comprehension and grammar based. Since I am the writing teacher for only one of my two classes, it kind of shackles me. It would be a lot better if I were both, but I make the kids write a lot. I find that they will understand more if I make them write down every single word I write on the blackboard. Also, it allows the parents and children to easily review the subject matter.

Interesting silver balls suspended at the VT Art Salon.

One class definitely needs a more ESL curriculum, with Mandarin translations and tips included in the text.

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A closer view of the Hsinchu train station with a higher ISO setting (1600).

Yesterday, I didn’t write at all, other than my posts. I just relaxed. I watched Toy Story 2. The stupid thing is that I had planned on using it in my class but it looks like that will not be possible. Oh well, I still have it for later on in the year. I finished watching The Closer S02E14-15. It looked like a TV movie, but it was all nicely contained and wrapped up the stories that ended the 2nd season. I hope that still means that the show will return next summer.

More train station and people.

Tonight, I am tutoring French. I have unsuccessfully tried finding lesson plans on the internet. I will have to try again and prepare a spelling test and translation test for the kids tonight.

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Sogo building redux.

Though smartsets and sets in photo sharing sites aren’t essential with multi-tag searches, they are still convenient.

One of Liezel’s friends Delia, who teaches in Tokyo, Japan and has been in the Orient for 5 and a half years.

More balls.

If you look closely enough, you can see details of our booth and the people in it. 

Silver globes in the dark.

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