Substitute Teaching

We have officially been in Taiwan for over two weeks and we are almost finished the observation part of our training. We had to sit in on multiple classes and we were supposed to trial teach for the last ten minutes each time. While I usually got away with not trial teaching, Rickie was forced to do so every time. But somewhere in the middle, we have been given sub classes. When another teacher is sick or on vacation, they send you a schedule (usually the day before) that you will be subbing one of their classes. You get a detailed schedule that states which textbook and what pages they are on and you plan their lesson. Usually, you get there and this all changes and you just have to wing it.

For my first sub class, I was nervous as all hell because all I could think about was the way that I, when I was young, used to treat substitute teachers. Having a substitute teacher in Canada was like having a free day where you barely had to do any work and you could sit with anyone you wanted to. This is not the case in Taiwan. The Taiwanese co-teacher is there with you so the students still can't just play around. Having a good co-teacher can really change the class dynamics. I have been lucky with every one of my subs to have an amazing co-teacher but I have heard horror stories of co-teachers undermining the foreign teacher or speaking Chinese all throughout the class to the students. (Which is counter productive when we're trying to provide an all-English environment.)

Anyway the point of this blog was to talk about my sub class that I had yesterday. They were AMAZING. They were a Smartchoice 3 class so they were pretty advanced and I could actually have a conversation with them. I wish they were one of my regular classes and they all seemed to like me a lot as well. But in other news, I have a regular class now! Thursdays from 7-9 I will be teaching a Red Book Class which means they are younger, probably around 8-10. I am so excited!!!! But before that I still have a sub tonight and one tomorrow. Rick hasn't been given a regular class yet which he is happy about because he really doesn't want to work haha he just wants to hang out in Taiwan.

Heading off to a mini workshop now then off to the hospital for a measles shot. Excuse me while I cry.

- Melissa