Ready, set, "Jeye-oh"!

Sam hands off to me in the 4X100 Meter Relay

These past two weekends the school has had a track meet. Last Friday was a preliminary competition for the students. This Friday and Saturday were the finals. The entire event was a lot of fun. I saw many of my students run, and I had a chance to run in a couple of events as well. (oh yeah, "Ja-eye-oh" a chinese equivalent to go. In a race you would yell "Mark Jio")

There were two events in which only teachers ran, and I ran in both of them. One was the 1500 meter run (which is just a little shorter than a mile), and also the 4X100 meter relay. The mile was a lot of fun, and I was the second teacher to finish.

In the 4X100, I ran with the English department. This event kicked off the finals competition on Friday morning. The atmosphere was electric, and it was so much fun. Sam, Mike, and Jackson (a Taiwanese English teacher) were also on the team. We won the event, and apparently I ran pretty fast. This is shocking because I do not find myself to be the fleetest of foot.

All of this took me back to my days of running track in high school. I really enjoyed the experience, and also it was a great opportunity to see my students outside of the classroom.

I also had a chance to learn just how out of shape I am. My muscles were aching, especially after I ran in the 4X100. I seriously thought I pulled muscles or snapped something. I guess my body does not work the same way as it did in high school.

And now for new pictures. I have some pictures from our vacation to Kaoshung, which we took with the church group. I also have several pictures from the track meet this past weekend.

October 22

Well what can I say,

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged, so I would like to begin with a disclaimer. I now realize that I will not have the time to blog as much as I thought I would when I first started this site. With that being the case, I will try to blog a couple of times each month, and this will probably coincide with times that I post pictures on my yahoo photo albums. Lately I have had some issues with the photo website and the pictures I had loaded were not able to be viewed. I hope to have time in the near future to sit down and remedy the situation. I would like encourage all of you to read the blogs of my friends here in Taiwan. They are posted as links on this website, and I know some of them are better about blogging than I am. Plus we all write about different things and this can give a better perspective of the total experience for those of you who are interested.

At school, these past two weeks have revolved around the students’ monthly tests. This last Monday and Tuesday the kids took their first set of monthly tests. They have these in October, November, and December. For two days each month, the students take tests in all of their classes. They have 4 extended periods each day, and school gets out an hour and a half earlier than normal. The atmosphere is similar to a finals week in college. Us teachers proctor the tests over those two days, and do not watch our own test. I watched chemistry, physics, and junior high English tests.

Before the tests, much time was spent to prepare students for their test in my class. After the tests, we have to check those tests. The obvious disadvantage to this system is that we have all of our test grading at the same time. So I had about 170 tests to check, from my Senior 1 and Senior 2 classes. They were not multiple choice tests, but rather creative written tests. So that is how I had been spending much of my time in the past week. Thank God that I am done checking the tests though.

Also in this post I would like to comment the importance of the test in Taiwanese society. I know in America there is debate about teaching to the test, and various concerns about No Child Left Behind and putting great emphasis on tests. Well, here in Taiwan teaching to the test is taken to a new level.

School here is designed to teach to “the Test”. In the final year of school, students take a big test that showcases their intelligence in all of the subjects. This test will determine their lives. Universities admit students based on their scores on this test. A good score on the test allows students to go to a good university, a poor showing means they cannot go to a school they would otherwise like to attend. The pressure for this test is immense. Beginning in Junior High School, the entire education system is designed to prepare students for this test. The goal of every class is to help students do better on this test, so they can go to a good school. So the entire goal of education here is to teach to the test.

During my first week here in Taiwan, I remember meeting a student who was entering his last year of high school. I asked him what he thought about it, and his reply was that it was too much pressure. He was nervous, and the test was months away.

There are so many more things that I could reflect on about education over here, and I can do this in another entry. For now, I should get going.

May God bless all of you, and I pray that you remember me and my students in your prayers. May God bless our efforts as we learn, and may God give us peace, strength, and faith.

Update

Hey everyone,

I know that I have not been the best about my blogging lately. I guess I have just been busy and it has not been the priority as of late. I did want to give an update on some new things that have been happening here.

I have just began going to a college group that is interested in learning more about English culture. This has been a good opportunity to build relationships, and meet some people my own age. I am very thankful for this opportunity.

Also, I am starting to take Chinese lessons. I will be having them twice a week, with 2 different teachers. I hope that this will greatly improve my speaking and comprehension skills for Mandarin.

I have posted some new pictures from the Moon Festival. I guess I should explain a little more about the circumstances of that event. A friend from church (Sun Rose) invited us out to her house to celebrate it. She is in some of the new pictures, as is her sister Angela. Ray, their brother, is also in some of these pictures, as well as Jean, another friend from church. Beyond them, everyone else is a member of the missionary team here in Taiwan. So I hope that gives some perspective on those pictures.

Forthcoming (I hope) will be pictures from my first haircut here in Taiwan, and also a trip we will be taking next weekend with some people from church.

What I would like to know is if there are any specific requests for pictures to be taken, or for topics to be blogged about. I can go take pictures or write about anything you would like, just post a comment or email me and I will do my best to get to it. My Grandma Wolfram is curious about the school store, so that is in the works, but please tell me some more ideas.

Ok that's all. Take care!