I teach all of my classes on the first floor, so I go downstairs from my office to start my day. When I get to the classroom, the first thing I have to do is change my shoes! In Taiwan, we are supposed to take off our outside shoes before walking inside, in both apartments and schools. It's a sign of respect.
The other interesting thing about Mondays? School uniforms! Nowadays most public schools here don't wear uniforms, but my school wears them on Mondays. Every Monday morning before class, the whole school has an assembly. The principal announces any important information for the week there, and students should wear their uniforms to that. For every other day, they can wear whatever they'd like!
After I change into my indoor shoes, I come in and greet the class. I say "Good morning everyone!" to the class, and they repeat "Good morning Mr. D.!" back to me. Then I start my lesson! In English class, I help my LET, Miss Yang, to teach letters of the alphabet. Because most students here speak Chinese at home, they start learning English later than you might. So far, my students have learned the letters A through I. We practice reading sentences, writing letters and even singing songs! It's usually pretty fun.
My culture classes are always a lot of fun. I get to teach all sorts of fun things! So far, I've taught all about what school is like in America (I even showed pictures of Weller Elementary to provide examples, and they thought your playground was huge!). I also taught all about Halloween and school lunches. Next week, I'll teach all about Thanksgiving! I'm excited to teach Thanksgiving because that is not a holiday here, and many students don't know much about it.
After my Monday morning classes, I get to eat lunch!
