As a teacher, it is always a bonus to get sweet little things from students. There was no exception for this Valentine’s Day. Kids usually like to draw their own Valentines or stick a candy or chocolate on their card. I always have to set a class time aside for them to give out their lovely Valentines to each other. I don’t promote it but somehow they all know how to do it, amazing! Last week I gave them a period in the afternoon to finish their heart-shaped pocket and then hand out the cards to each other.
 
I got quite a pocketful of treats and sweet Valentine’s as well. While I was opening the cards, I noticed that one particular note was from a parent. In two simple sentences, she thanked me for taking all these children in and treating them as my own. Those simple words brought tears to my eyes. I have no word but heart-felt emotions churning inside me………………….
 
I guess the class was all too excited about the treats and cards. Someone accidently knocked down the cup filled with water and the flowers that I just received from my secret Valentine (my colleague, note 1). I was very disappointed that the person who tipped the cup did not say anything right away and the water spilled all over my desk. My Valentine’s Day ended with a sour note that I had to throw out all the paper and to clean up the massive mess on my desk.
 
The next morning while I was in my class getting ready for the day, a parent peeked in my room and said, “Yes, she is in there.” Behind her was her son who had a small bundle of roses in his hand. The mother told me that the child asked her to get a small bundle of roses for me because he said that my Valentine’s flowers were ruined yesterday and I wouldn’t have flowers for myself. I couldn’t believe my ears because the child is such a typical jumpy boy and who would have believed that he is so sensitive and thoughtful inside? He comes from a single parent family and they live on a very tight budget. I am just grateful for their kind thoughts. The boy later made a comment that the bad thing about roses is that they are full of thorns and people can get hurt. Well, my boy, the thorns may prick me but the pain is worth it.
 
All of these little things made my days, every single one of them. How can I not treat these children as my own? They are my Valentines!
 
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I have been really busy lately. It is getting closer to the time for writing report cards which are due at the end of this month. Although I don't have time to write much for my blog, I do want to wish all of you a very Happy Valentine's Day with your loved one or loved ones. 

For the people I love and the people who love me (even just a little bit), have a chocolate for yourself when you think of me. Here is an article from a newspaper site about "love at first sight". http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/02/13/pf-4845130.html 

Do you believe it? Judge it yourself.


February 13, 2008

Most Canadians believe in love at first sight
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It's your New Year Eve there in Taiwan. You must be all sitting together and enjoying the dinner. I wish all of you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year!

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Savage Garden: a two-men band broke up in 2002. I like quite a few of their songs. The followings were a few of my favourite songs, I knew I loved you and Truly Madly Deeply.

If you like these songs, go and buy their albums.





Affirmation

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I have gone out to shovel the driveway twice this morning. While I was clearing the snow off the driveway, I joked with my retired neighbour next door who was doing exactly the same thing because we were worried that the snow would get too heavy to lift later on. I made a comment that I would pray that the street plower (the truck with a big pusher in the front) would be “kinder and gentler” today. We both laughed and shook our heads after I said that. Of course not!
 
The plowers seem to time their arrivals every single time. They always, I mean “always”, show up right after I have cleared the snow off the property and then dumped the snow from the street back onto the driveway again, which, of course, blocks the entire entrance to every single driveway on the street. If you were out when that happened, you wouldn’t be able to drive back in. If you happened to be in the house, you wouldn’t be able to leave your house with your car. YOU WOULD BE TRAPPED!
 
After my first shoveling this morning, I left for an emergency doctor appointment, I came back home an hour later and sure enough, my driveway was blocked. Thank Goodness that I had shoveled and piled some snow onto the front yard before I left. At least, the load would be lighter. So, back to square one, I had to shovel it all over again.
 
I have been enjoying the snowy view from the comfort of my home for the whole day. The old man winter has returned and it is still lingering as we speak. It seems that the snow does not intend to leave. It has been snowing solid for the entire day. My inner voice tells me that I should go out and do some shoveling again and forget about my Yoga class. But, DO I HAVE TO?
 
The only good thing came out of today was that I had a snow day. All schools were closed for the day. Oh, I could not even imagine driving to school and back in stormy winter weather like today. Often, the school district would only cancel school buses for students but schools would still be open for students who usually walk to school, which means that teachers still have to report to school for duty. Teachers often say that if it was too dangerous for school buses to take students to school in a stormy snowy weather, why on earth would it be all right for the teachers to risk their lives to drive to school? We drive on the same city streets, don’t we? Why don’t they close all the schools instead of cancelling buses only? Are teachers’ lives not as valuable as the drivers’ and students’? (It is a logical argument but it is kind of petty. Hehehe…)
 
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My First Stained Glass Panel

Co Co and Po Po Time

I have always wanted to do something for children who are going through family hardships. I believe that it is (or should be) everyone’s mission to reach out to others whenever they can. When I first started teaching in Taiwan, it was great to make money as an English teacher but it did not mean that I should forget our social conscience. As a student who could not afford to go to any cram school, I often thought about those children whose families could not send their kids to study English before junior high school. If I could make it, I should try my best to help others.

The year I got my first job teaching English at Fu Jen, I also started teaching at two other different language centers in Tien Mu and Shih Lin in Taipei. Parents were in a rush to send their children to the centers to learn English then. Adults paid big bucks to study in the evening to advance their language skills. Immigration boom just started to be on the rise which also helped the booming of the language centers business at that time. It was a great time to teach English and earn a decent income. We did have foreign teachers working at the centers, but the domestic teachers were greatly in demand.

While I was having a great time enjoying working full time at three different places, I got a phone call from a friend TL one day to ask me if I would like to help her plan a radio program called Fu Di Tien Tien Chuan. TL was a school friend of mine who actually hired me to work at Fu Jen’s Continuing Education Department. She was invited by a friend SY to design a segment for a children’s daily radio program.

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I I don't have a lot of time for myself. I enjoy painting immensely but when can I find time to do it? (Maybe I can cut down bloggig and writing emails! Hahaha.) I have a beautiful and talented younger sister (note 1) who always thinks that she can draw better than I do, which may be true, because I did not tap into my hidden ability until 7 years ago. (My parents couldn't afford to pay for any art lessons when I was grwoing up in Taiwan.) 

I took the art lessons because I felt that I needed to find some way to relax and destress. Teaching could be quite demanding and stressful. I really enjoyed the time spent on paingting. The art lessons I took also made me a better teacher to teach my students how to draw at school. I have been running a few art clubs for a few years.  I am not the most diligent art student because I don't have a lot of time to produce artwork. I really should try to get back to practise painting on a weekly (or more consistent) basis. New Year resolution? (still thinking....)

Here is one of my old paintings. I called myself a toilet artist. So, guess where I put this painting? 




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Right in the beginning of the school year, I would make it very clear to my students that we sometimes have to vote as a group to decide which fun activities we will do in class; however, I AM the teacher and I AM still in charge of the class. (Hehehe. Sometimes, I feel like telling them to their faces that “I am the BOSS”.) Often, I tell my students that we literally live together 6 hours a day in the classroom which is like our second home; therefore, we have to work together to take care of the environment we live in. I don’t claim to be the most organized person in the world, but my students certainly know that we all have to chip in to care for our classroom. I have noticed that it works really well if I lay down the law clearly right away in September. I guess I am the head of this one big "family".
 
Some teachers are warm and fuzzy like a mother hen who often speaks sweetly and softly to their students. I always want to be like one of them. Sadly, I am NOT! I think it is more like a personality thing. No matter how much I tried, I am loud and firm. (Note 1) I think I present myself more like a “father” who explains logical rationales or disciplines to children. I don’t mind playing sports such as soccer, basket ball or badminton with them. (Note 2) I love tricking them when asking questions in class and joking with them just like my father used to do. I would rather personally stay in with them at recess as a consequence for their misbehaving and they would not be able to get away with anything. I always tell my students that I will try to make learning fun but I am “tricky” which means that I will ask them many questions to make sure that they fully understand my instruction and won’t get confused.
 
Having the pain of losing my father at his prime age, I often thought much about those children who grow up without a father figure. Unfortunately, that group of children has been growing every year. One year, more than half of my class came from single parent families. I don’t blame those parents who sought divorce to break up a family because, in truth, there are too many reasons for a marriage not to work out. It is sad that those children can only live with one parent at any given time; however, it is certainly not a great idea for children to grow up in a family with two unhappy parents or in a conflicting environment anyway.
 
I am in touch with so many wonderful single parents who are trying their best to provide the best opportunities they could offer to their children. I have to give them credits for trying hard. However, there is a group of parents whose behaviour really irks me! Here is the little story to give you an idea about those parents.
 
BB was not a student of mine but in a class next to me. I knew his older brother because he was in trouble a lot in Grade One. The older brother was later identified with special needs and got a lot of extra help at school. (Apparently, he is doing better now.) BB was different from his older brother. He was a gentle kid but also required remedial academic support. One day he was very excited and announced to his teacher that it was his birthday that day and his father was coming to take him out. That was big news because his father did not have much spare time for BB and his siblings. It turned out that his father had more than five wives and was unmarried to any of them. He had at least 18 children with those mothers but the father did not live with any of the women. He simply just slept around!
 
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Personally, I think there were so many interesting things to write about my university life but they might not sound interesting to any of you. (You may log off now.) I really believe that I had a very much fulfilled university life. The only complaint about my university actually came from my mother because I spent most of my waking hours at school for work, student clubs or classes. I guess I was hardly home. According to my mother, home was like a hotel to me, a place only to sleep in. (Hehehe. Sorry, Mom!) She even had a saying for me, something like this, I was like a dragon outside my home but I immediately became a worm whenever I hit home.
 
I was one of those university students who were busy getting involved in clubs and the student union. Ever since the first year of university, I started working part time on campus as a copy girl and later a secretary at the Physical Education Department. In addition to my student loans and scholarship, I needed those jobs to earn more money to help pay for my expensive tuition, imported books and other living expenses. I remember that I worked in the back of the university campus and had to walk all the way to the university administration office many times a day. I finally saved enough money to buy a brand new bike for work one day but it was stolen a day later. I also met a lot of kind people, great teachers and famous athletes through my work. Those were precious memories that would never fade away in my mind. (Maybe I will write about them one day. I believe blogging will help me combat my early Alzheimer later on. Hehe.)
 
Ever since high school, I loved going to different camps in the summer. One year I signed up for a week-long military camp. That was an eye-opening experience for me. I could slide on a rope with a fork of a tree branch over a river or walk with two suspended ropes like a trapeze to cross the valley. (Note 2) I could take the rigid discipline and the long march over the mountains. I could take the lean meals, little sleep and the heavy workout days in and days out in the heat. However, one thing I couldn’t stand was to take a 3-minute cold shower with 20 other screaming high school girls. (Hahaha, don’t get any wrong idea!) The interesting thing was that everyone cried, whined and complained about the life in the military camp, but by the end of the camp, everyone cried, whined and didn’t want to leave. They were reborn through hell, I guess.
 
As you could see, the camps that I went to were quite different from those popular ones that many young friends would take nowadays. In fact, not too many of my peers would sign up for the camps that I had taken. I did learn a great deal from those experiences though. Any hardship could either defeat a person or make this person stronger, and I’d like to think that those experiences of hardship only made me stronger in spirit and more willing to take risks. (Note 3)
 
At the end of my freshman year, I had the opportunity to attend a week-long leadership training camp, which was named after the three resilient plants in winter: pine, bamboo and plum tree. Honestly, it was so long ago and I simply couldn’t remember much about what I learned from that workshop/camp but I did meet a few good friends, with whom I later made some business connection. Through the leadership camp, I was given a very precious opportunity later to become an activity guide and a camp leader. I started working as a hiking leader and a camp leader for high school students during the summer and winter vacations when I did not have any income from my part time office work at school. (Note 4)
 
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If you love certain type of music, you wouldn't and shouldn't care what the other people think about your taste. I like all types and I also like to sing (never at a karaoke bar though, hahaha). I,however, do enjoy listening to someone who can "actually" sing live.


Here is a song, I Have A Dream, from ABBA but sung by a boy choir. I like many of ABBA's songs. With the promotion of the musical Mama Mia, their music seem to be played more often on the radio for the last few years. Enjoy this one!




I Have A Dream

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