First Week of IP - First Impressions

On the first day, I was brought to Nanmen Guoxiao to which I will stay to observe for the next 5 weeks.

Basketball court of Nanmen Guoxiao

I was introduced to the class 5A as an interning teacher from Singapore and was given a seat at the back of the class to observe the lessons. 

Table that I was assigned to

From my first week, I observed many differences in the way lessons were conducted in Taiwan as compared to Singapore that I took some time getting used to. 

Firstly, a typical primary school student in Taiwan attends school from 8am to 4pm daily, with the exception of Wednesdays. A period of lesson is 40 minutes and there are 10-20 minutes break between each period for students to play or rest. They believe that students need time to release their energy otherwise they would get restless in class. 

Students jogging during break

Secondly, Taiwan primary schools have a homeroom system and all students are responsible for their homeroom's cleanliness. Students spend 10 minutes at the start of the day and 15 minutes at the end of day cleaning their classroom. I believe that this is a very good habit to inculcate in young children as they get to take part in keeping their learning environment clean. In addition, students have their meals in the classroom and they are the ones in charge of distributing the food and throwing out the food waste. After talking to my mentor, I realise that this is to make sure students maintain a healthy diet and the duty roster system is meant to teach them responsibility. 

Nutritious lunch with students

 Thirdly, there was a variety of activities for the students to attend besides classes which reduces academic stress for students. On Wednesday, my class went out to another primary school for a zonal tug-of-war competition and we won first place! I was informed that they have been training for the competition for several weeks and I was immensely proud of them. I was also surprised that the competition involved the whole class and lessons were cancelled for the day. My mentor mentioned that the school emphasises on holistic development and it is important for students to be brought out from time to time for interaction with other schools. 

Tug of war competition outside school

All in all, it was a very fulfilling week and I managed to learn many things. I am glad that I have this opportunity to experience a new education system and reinspect our own.