I Love The Smell Of Chalk In The Morning

I love the smell of chalk in the morning...it smells like learning. Another day at school is finished, my schedule gets me out of school at noon today and I have a late start tomorrow. It will give me chance to get some planning done, but mostly I will rest and play some basketball this afternnon. I'm hoping to score more than one point this time.

A little about school structure in Taiwan. Students have their own classroom with the same classmates. So, teachers move from classroom to classroom. Each classroom has a log/grade book that each teacher signs after their lesson. They give 0-5 points to the class for behavior and 0-5 points for tidiness of the school. Yes, that's right, tidiness. Students not only clean off the chalk board but they clean the school grounds. They clean classrooms, bathrooms, the teacher's offices, the gymasium, and the school grounds (leaves, trash, etc.). The students clean everything in the school. It seems like a great idea (except for the bathrooms...it would be nice a have a professional cleaning) since students have more respect for the school. They're not going to throw trash around since they will have to clean it up later. The janitors, or maintenance staff, are only here to fix chairs, replace lights, remodel classrooms, and perform other skilled labor.

On another subject, I've noticed that it is common for teachers to be casually late for class. Teachers usually arrrive about 3-5 past the bell. Of course, I am there early...writing down the agenda for the day and getting my lesson organized. Remember, I have cooperating Taiwanese English teachers in most of my classes. They stay in the classroom with me to help with discipline and translation. As I am preparing I have had a few of my cooperating teachers come into the classroom (with a confused look on their face) and say something like, "Class doesn't start for 5 minutes." I think the teachers see the 10 minute passing period as time for the students to unwind and blow off steam. Or, maybe it's just a culture of casually late people. When I was invited by some teachers to play basketball last week they arrived about 15 minutes past three. They told me three o'clock. I thought it was likely that they didn't know how to say..."a quarter past three", but now I'm beginning to think that it's okay to be casually late. I guess I should try to fit in, but I will still be a little early.