Week Three Activities: July 19-23

During the third week, the American student teachers taught the curriculum unit on “Theatre and Performance.” Numerous new vocabulary words were introduced and reviewed. The San Sin students worked very hard in small groups to prepare a skit for Friday’s class, which illustrated a fairy tale or folk tale through play-acting. Popular performances incorporated such fairy tales as Cinderella, Robin Hood, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel.

On Thursday, six busloads of San Sin English Program students and their American teachers took a field trip to the Kaohsiung National Science and Technology Museum. They were treated to the impressive visiting exhibition portraying Leonardo Da Vinci’s contributions to art, music, science, and technology. While many college students have learned about Da Vinci’s contributions to the humanities such as his paintings of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, few are exposed to Da Vinci’s contributions to the areas of anatomy, physics, engineering, and even human flight. His works include the firsts concepts of a car, bicycle, helicopter, parachute, submarine, and even military tanks. The exhibition provided detailed descriptions of many of Da Vinci’s inventions and his creative attempts to explain the scientific events surrounding people in the period of 1452-1519. The exhibit ended with a 3-D animated wall projection of The Last Supper.

The American student teachers continued their after-school activities with groups of San Sin students. Some viewed the 3-D movie “Street Dance,” while others visited Chichen Beach, a popcorn store, or the Dream Mall. Still others shopped in traditional Taiwanese stores and played arcade games with students. All of these after-school excursions provide ample opportunities for the San Sin students to practice conversational English! The student teachers finished the week on Friday evening with dinner at the new Parking Pasta restaurant (next to the World Gym) with teaching assistants Tina and Susan, and their former San Sin student and good friend, Jane! This restaurant provides a menu only available in Mandarin Chinese with no pictures, but by asking a lot of questions and enlisting the aid of Susan, Tina, and Jane, the teachers negotiated the language barrier once again!