Hi there, friend.  I’ve got some green tea and a few chocolate pumpkin muffins ready for you. Come sit on the balcony and enjoy the breeze. =)

Wow ~ it has been a while since I last posted. I apologize! My last post may have left you with a slightly sour taste with children acting like monkeys in class, a stressed out teacher asking God what the heck she was doing trying to be an English teacher to first year students, and God answering prayer by showing this teacher patience, encouragement, and a love for her students. I am pleased to report that the Cubbies are no longer unable to sit in their seats, speaking during class, or jumping up and running around the room whenever they feel so inclined. My classroom now feels like… a classroom. Yes! It is so nice to walk into my classroom and hear, “Hello, Tr. Ruth!”; a relief to be able to start and finish class feeling like I had a run in the park rather than tried to climb Mount Everest. After six weeks of class, my students were switched over to “No Chinese” while at school. The first few weeks were a struggle for some students while others were like fish in water. Now, if you heard the Cubby class, you would never know that 3 months ago they were unable to communicate in English or that they didn’t even know the basics of the English language!

For example, I have a student who came to my class having never heard English, seen the ABCs, or met a foreigner. This student (let’s call him Vinny) is in first grade and had never had an English name before. He had no idea that he was being called, was totally clueless in every single class, and loved to jabber in Chinese. The week we switched to “No Chinese” he struggled. He lost all of his points for speaking Chinese and became very quiet as he could not communicate. Six weeks later, he is chatting with his friends during break time, telling teacher about students’ poor behavior, answering teacher’s questions, and making jokes for the class. He can tell you all the phonics sounds of the ABCs and can identify most of the individual letters. He enjoys telling small stories, reading stories, and playing with teacher. All in English. If you, my friend, came into my classroom, I can guarantee you would not be able to tell which students had no English when they walked in the door that first day. Of this, I am amazed. God has designed such an amazing and adaptable organism in what we call the brain. What stunning adaptations! What brilliant and beautiful intellect!

The Cubbies have begun to practice their Christmas songs for the Christmas show on December 13th. I created a dance that I thought would be a little challenging but also visually appealing while also allowing each parent to view their child unhindered. After a few weeks of practice, I am beginning to think that I made the choreography a bit too difficult. The Cubbies are incredibly intelligent and have a wonderful memory as well as a cheerful disposition. We are working on listening to teacher’s directions and following them without playing or adding on to them. Catch up with me in a few weeks to find out how our practices end up going. In the meantime, please pray for us! My co-teacher is a new teacher this year and has never done the Christmas show. Please pray for her wisdom in knowing how much practice is appropriate, and how she can best help the Cubbies prepare. Hmm. Now that I think of it, please pray those same things for me! 😀

The Nemos have been going through some growth spurts lately. In the past few months, we have lost some key members of our class (students who had been in Nemo class from the beginning or were strong personalities that supported the rest of the class) and have gained new students. This has created a bit of a changed class dynamic and we have been working to find our new balance. The Nemos were really struggling with speaking English while at school. As you might know, speaking English at our school is encouraged and enforced with the use of a coupon system (kind of like our school’s own currency). To this system involved paying coupons for some things (i.e. borrowing a pencil or eraser, going to the restroom during class time, speaking Chinese, etc.) As speaking Chinese is not allowed, if someone speaks Chinese, they owe teacher 10 coupons. This is a lot of coupons! After taking many coupons from students, I felt so bad and began to look for a new way to get the Nemos to speak English. After conferring with my co-workers, I realized that I had gradually stopped having a time when the class could get together and talk about things (known as ‘circle time’). I had done this like clockwork the first six months of Nemo class, but with the added classwork, I fell out of the habit. Two weeks ago, I tried running circle time again. I expected the experience to be like pulling teeth – or in this case, pulling words from students. Surprise! The Nemos were ready to talk. It was like they had just been looking for the opportunity to express themselves. We began learning new words to express what we wanted to say about our weekends and school lives. The last two weeks we have not had any issues with Chinese being spoken in the classroom. Score!

So much has happened in the last few months. I apologize for not reporting to you sooner on this. On a side note, the air pollution has been pretty terrible here in Taichung the last few weeks. If you check this website, you can see the daily and hourly levels. The pollution has aggravated my asthma quite a bit. I invested in an air purifier and have seen some great results. A friend also thoughtfully gifted me an early Christmas present in the form of an air purifying mask known as a Vogmask.

For those of you who love cockroaches, I took a picture with my inhaler (palm sized) so you may see their growth here.

And now for a few photos from the past few weeks.

The last day of one of the Badgers. We got together for a goodbye photo and cuddle.

The Badger student left unexpectedly without time for me to buy her her own Bible. So I gifted her my personal bilingual Bible. This was her thank you note.

I love peanut butter. And now there is a rice milk drink that taste like liquid peanut butter! ^_^

I was able to meet up with a close friend in Taipei!

My Nemo shadows. They make the night more cheerful! They like to braid my hair and call me “Tr. Elsa!” (referencing Elsa from the movie Frozen).

Air pollution makes for gray skies. Can you see the buildings and mountains?

Until the next post (I will do my best to make it next month and not three!), may God bless you and keep you. Please let me know what I can be praying about for you. 🙂

Tr. Ruth