Friday, July 14, 2006

It's Been a While!

I made it through teaching the ten day summer camp! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have even a couple days off after that exhaustion. I have a five day camp coming up on Monday, but it's all girls and shouldn't be too stressful. My boss called to offer me a different camp that starts next week and goes right through the day before school. It's an incredibly long commute (they send a car) and, although it's only three days a week, it would mean I couldn't travel at all. He kept going on about how I would make more money, and I tried not to laugh. Instead I gave a very polite answer about needing time off so I don't burn out in the fall. Which is true. I don't think I've mentioned my other summer commitments. I have a new tutee! He's a grade nine student who is going to study in Texas for a year. I go to a coffee shop by his house twice a week and we practice conversation for an hour and a half. That in itself is a bit funny. If you know me, you know I'm really the one to "teach" conversation! He's really eager, though, and I really want to help him get ready. Also, I volunteered to sub some classes for a Fuhsing teacher (they have to teach summer school) right before school. I may be teaching pre-kindergarten! It's just a couple of days, and it should be... interesting. Anyway, in between all of this, I have decided I need a vacation (especially with new roommates moving in). More details to come.

Here are some pictures from the camp. We had some English classes, made craft projects and played games. We took field trips to the Astronomical museum, the National Palace Museum and the Taiwanese version of Disneyland, Leofoo Village. I also found out on the day before the end that we needed to put on a play! Talk about last minute. We spent the whole day learning dialogue, making sets and creating costumes (the styrofoam ears were my idea!) My TA wrote the play "Seven Little Wolves and a Big Naughty Pig"

This is one of our big art projects. There was a lot of pressure for the kids to do a great job so it would impress the parents. Each group had a piece of the island puzzle and designed the architecture and geography for it. It was a stressful mess and took us over five hours (they had only allotted one!)

So, this is the new blog skin! I decided to keep it simple and keep it me! The picture is one of my favorites; I took it on a misty day in Borneo just before it started to pour. The big font is for anyone who has complained about having trouble reading my posts. Let me know if this is better or you want to suggest any changes!

Posted by Kathleen @ 8:24 AM