2017 English Summer Camp:一起透過學習英文認識世界
　

Intro
Given that this is the third year IBSH students have been sent out to teach English, the Student Teaching English Program has become much more experienced in hosting these events, with the guidance of IBSH teachers. This meant the STEP officers have perfected a(n admittedly grueling) system for material preparation, which involved countless revisions and scrutiny on the members’ parts. To our pleasant surprise, each class was able to follow through, allowing the preparation process to be smoother than for any camp we had ever hosted before. I am proud that our volunteers did all the work without complaint (to the officers’ faces, at least!). :P
With a semester’s worth of preparation and quite some tumult during the process, many of us couldn’t believe we were actually there at Dazhuang Elementary School （大庄國小）at Hsinchu City for the summer camp. On the bus ride, the volunteers’ understated yet consistent chatter were the only indicator of their bubbling excitement. Everyone was tired from having to wake up extremely early, but all were storing their energy for when it was going to be needed: when we actually see the children.
Through watching the volunteers teach and the thoughtful discussions after every day, I can say that though there are certainly many aspects in which this event can improve, we have also grown steadier in our infantile STEPs to deliver a better summer camp than I had ever dared to dream.
If you’re interested in joining, don’t hesitate! You will be participating in a small but steadily growing group of IBSHers who are passionate about bossing around other little kids for a change instead of being the ones doing the schoolwork.
As sure as I am of Erin crying at the end of every camp we will ever host, I am just as positive that you will smile, frown, and perhaps shed a tear at the stories that you can read below. Don’t just glance through the text. Enjoy it every STEP of the way.
-Ninnie Chiang, STEP President

Class 1 (Erin Wang, Vivian Tao)
I think this summer camp was an amazing opportunity for students to interact with students. It was nice to see the students gain knowledge about English. Not only are the students learning English, but they're also having fun in the process. The STEP club was also really supportive throughout the process, buying us class supplies and monitoring us every step of the way. It's great!
-Vivian Tao

By far this class is probably the nicest class I have had in a while. Despite the wide range of ages I think the class worked together well. The fifth graders were the chatterboxes and always making the class laugh. The sixth graders were more mature, but also their English level was a little higher. Our seventh grader was very quiet but he seem to enjoy all our activities and didn't seem to bored when we were teaching. Their passion to learn really reminded me why I love teaching and seeing the whole class crying together on the last day shattered my heart. Hands down I am so proud of their final performance. The topic is something they came up on their own and the kids were super willing to dance or act. Honestly this time I felt my topics were kind of boring and there wasn't really a chance for them to use what I was teaching them in their daily life so I switched the direction into sustainability and pollution which would connect to their lives directly. Their creativity and energy made me reconsider what age I want to teach in the future. This trip not only gave me new students, but I made new friends with them as well. <3
-Erin Wang

Class 2 (Nina Low, Heidi Hsu, Stephanie Shyy)
Waking up is extremely tiring. Emotionally and physically pulling my body out of the bed takes heck a lot of motivation and spirit; however, knowing that there are 50+ people members, students, and myself waiting for my presence, I still manage to wake my ponderous body for this bright new day. Teaching was easy, however, getting the students to actually absorb the knowledge given to them takes the most efforts. In my opinion, I have a lot to improve on: preparation and real, genuine experience in "teaching". Throughout the lessons, our team (class 2 teachers) realized that the students weren't able to catch up to our content and a lot of one of the sub-themes were just direct translation. To change and solve this issue, next time and for all the camps following this, I would ensure the feasibility in terms of knowledge (not just direct translation) and skill level (degrade all grades to at least one: fourth graders need to be taught third grade English level content). Another point to improve, as mentioned above, is genuine "teaching", which in my interpretation is the ability to let the students be passionate about the topic/issue/context you are addressing instead of simply memorisation. From this year's summer camp, I caught a critical issue that most people end up speaking majority Chinese. Although this enhances the engagement between teachers and students and maybe the topic you are addressing, but it doesn't deliver the purpose of your presence. All in all, I still have lots of improvements, but this year's summer camp, regardless of sleeping issues, was the best of the best.
-Nina Low

Most of the kids were all engaged in our class. Two boys, Alan and Jimmy, were talking all the time,nonstop. Especially Alan. They kept shipping Nina with Jacob, calling Nina banana, and Jacob, 怪奶奶. Because of them doing that, the whole class(most of them) started doing the same thing too. The play we did was pretty good when we rehearsed. But then when they actually performed, it didn't go as well... When the kids rehearsed, their voices were much louder and has more movement. But at least they still kind of knew what to say and how to say it. Overall, I'll say the class did a pretty good job even though I thought they could've done better. Also, before I came, I thought their level will be much higher than what I saw their actual level. Many of them came every day but some didn't. I know some couldn't because of other stuff but maybe some thought our class was boring. But I was really happy when a girl named Hebe, said she will come every day no matter what. Also on the last day, all the students that came asked for our(me, Nina, and Stephanie) signatures and gave me their name tags to keep and remember. Also, Sandy even gave me her LINE ID! I will remember this wonderful class.
-Heidi Hsu

Overall, the week was very fun yet tiring! The first day was hard, since we found that their English level is not as high as we had anticipated and a lot of the kids were already showing signs of disinterest. However, after interacting with the kids during break time, they were more willing to pay attention in class. I, in particular, actually played tag with them or played on the bars with some of them. At one point, some of the kids even wanted to give me a tour around their school! It was really cute. On a separate note, we had fixed the problem with the students being bored, one of the major problems was that when they “decided” they didn’t understand the English vocabulary, they automatically wanted to give up. So a lot of the material was taught in Chinese, which wasn't our original intention. Besides this issue, I think the students enjoyed their time there that week. They even surprised me by asking each other to sign each other’s construction paper, something that wasn’t originally planned! One more issue though, was that somehow, the students would become very hyper just by mentioning “banana”, since that was the nickname they gave one of our teachers. That wasn’t a very big problem until they started thinking of random stories that weren’t true and teasing one of the teachers for it. We tried our best to ignore it, and it didn’t really stop, the kids’ interest in the subject began to disappear. But we all had fun during the week and it was worth the all the tiredness!
-Stephanie Shyy
　

Class 3 (Chloe Chen, Cheney Lee, Tim Lin)
This year’s experience with the STEP program was rewarding. Though there could be improvements on the preparation of the teaching materials, everything worked out in the end. With the preparation of the materials, members could have been more well-organized and on schedule. Miscommunication and procrastination left us with an undecided schedule only days before the actual event. Also, the fact that Class 3 only had two teachers in the beginning made it seem like the entire week was set off on the wrong foot.
One hour into our actual teaching experience, we realized that we were on the wrong track as the entire class refused to follow the teachers’ self introductions. Luckily, one of the officers gave us a helping hand and picked us up from where we left off. From this incident, the teachers came to understand that a firm attitude has to be maintained if we want control over our students. Previously, the teachers always gave students options with questions like “Do you ‘want’ to introduce yourself?” or “Is it okay ‘if’ we start the class,” which the student obviously rejected and took the easier way out. But throughout the week, we’ve learned to set a firm foot down if we wanted things to run smoothly. There is no “if” or “好不好,” there is only “do.” And thanks to the tips we received early on, the week managed to run smoothly mostly throughout.
Later on into the week, we were approaching the last day in which the class had to execute a performance. There were difficulties when it came to organizing the children into positions. This was when the teachers realized the importance of having a “stranger” or a “higher power” to take control when the children have already familiarized themselves with the teachers. The student immediately became settled when Ms. Joyce took the lead in the classroom, allowing the rehearsal of our performance to be finalized.
This class was lucky to have only one “problematic” child. The overall shy nature of this class was one of the main reasons why we did not experience as much turbulence as the other classes. Nevertheless, the officers, teachers, supervisors, and students all together brought success to this year’s program.

Class 4 (Ching Huang, Heike Chiu, Angel Low)
Our class, class four, was a mix of first graders and second graders. Before the camp, we prepared lessons for the kids, but during the actual camp, we had to adjust our plans and improvised sometimes. We found that some of our lessons were too short, so we had to think of games, tell them to do worksheets, or read them stories to fill the period. Some activities took longer than we had expected, so we had to push back our lessons. We also emitted some lessons because we thought the kids would find them boring or wouldn’t like them as much. At the end, we didn’t finish every lesson that we prepared and had to add extra; however, the preparation was really worth it. All of our lessons were new to the kids, and they enjoyed the activities we prepared. They especially liked freeze tag, which we related to King Midas’s Golden Touch, and taught them words such as gold and water. We also joined in the games, and the kids became more open to us. The camp was especially interesting to me in the aspect of getting to know the kids. There was one kid who seemed to be troublesome in the beginning, but turned out to be one of the most obedient kid. There were also kids that became close to us and some who were always enthusiastic. We, teachers, also got to know each other. This year’s summer camp was a fun and valuable experience for me.
-Ching Huang

This was my first time spending time with kids and teaching them English, by the time with things got closer and closer it starts getting nerve-racking wondering what type of kids would be in the class, how would they behave, and mainly would they see you as a teacher or as some random person that they don't have to respect too. Something I will never get used to doing is waking up 6 in the morning just to arrive at school on time Xp. By the time we got there it was easier than I expected well... mainly bc I had to be the bad cop in the class. The week had passed by sooner than I thought it would, by the last day it was so sweet when the students wouldn't be afraid to tell u anything and when one of the students gave us homemade accessories. <3 During the tiring week I wouldn't have done it with out @angel & @ching they have been the most helpful teachers I have met even though we had to starve in the middle of the class while watching the kids eat snack ;) <3
-Heike Chiu

I feel like this year’s summer camp(2017) went pretty well. I’m also really happy with the class I'm assigned to(i really like my class ^.^). Even though we are suppose to teach second graders, our class ended up with mostly 1st graders. I really like my class because at about the 3rd day of class, all the students became involved in class. However, some students started sticking with us too much, and over time it became annoying. They will keep asking questions, keep touching your stuff, and others. There’s a kid called Ramen in our class, and in the first few days of summer camp, whenever we wrote worksheets, he'll just either randomly do it to get prizes(which I have him in the first day because I thought he gave effort in it), or he'll just act like he doesn't know how to do it until we give him the answers(at least that's what I thought, because he doesn't know how to do word searches even after we told him how to do it, gave him some examples/answers, and even wrote everything in capitalized letters, because the kids don't know the capitalized and lowercase letters). There’s also another student in our class called Kiki and she's like the most sticky kid ever. At break time and when we are teaching stuff she'll keep walking to the back to find another teacher and 撒嬌. An example is whenever I am in the back controlling the computer and highlighting the main points of the slides, she'll come to the back and tell me to stop “drawing” on the slides… The point is when we are deciding if she wants to dance or sing, she will just ignore us which is really annoying. Do you remember when we were performing timber she was NOT singing right? Right after the performance she ran and held my hand… -_- But overall summer camp was fun, kids having love triangles since first grade, and other fun stuff! A kid in our class even gave us handmade pineapples! Super kawaii!
-Angel Low
　

Class 5 (Yu-Shin Lee, Karen Chang, Jacob Chen, Sarah Ku, Maxine Tseng)
I feel like since I was pulled in last minute, I had insufficient knowledge about what the camp was teaching. I think I should have taken the initiative and just asked Yu-shen(sorry if I spelled it wrong) or the officers about what class 5 was teaching. Being more conscious about what was being taught would have improved my teaching quality and the class as a whole. Furthermore, I probably should have communicated more with my fellow teachers seeing as most of the classes were taught improv.
Also, there was one day where I got really distracted and went off track, playing with the kids while I should have had the kids listening to class. That's something I should work on seeing as the goal of the camp was to get the kids to learn English and not play with them.
Something I felt like went really well was how Yu-shen and I were able to befriend the kids pretty easily. The kids directly latched onto Yu-shen from the very beginning and I was also able to chat with the male kids. Even though this friendship is great, I think being too familiar with the kids caused them to be too comfortable and they ended up not really listening to us. Perhaps if there is a next time I should be more strict with the kids.
Overall, I feel like I also learned more about how to be a teacher at this camp. Being a teacher is not being a "friend" to the kids but actually being a "teacher." Someone that can effectively give new content to students and have them be able to retain this information while giving them confidence in themselves. To conclude, I hope I can improve in the future as a teacher and that the kids in class 5 were truly able to improve and continue to improve their English.
-Jacob Chen

I believe the camp was very rewarding and interesting, as it allowed us to get a closer look upon teaching English to younger children. While not an easy task, as it was often difficult to keep children from becoming too rowdy, there were many moments that were also heartwarming, like seeing some girls leave cards for Maxine and Yu-Shin, and as they were gradually more cooperative with performing the song and practicing the planets. Additionally, they were rather engaged with learning the Greek gods, and we were quite pleasantly surprised by their energy and enthusiasm to answer such questions. By the last day, it was quite rewarding to witness how the students have grown, and see them become less shy and more confident with their English skills. We truly hope they have gained as much enjoyment and accrued valuable English skills, just as we had.
We think this year’s summer camp was very rewarding and interesting, as it allowed us to get a closer look upon teaching English to younger children. While not an easy task, as it was often difficult to keep children from becoming too rowdy, there were many moments that were also heartwarming, like seeing some girls leave cards for Maxine and Yu-Shin, and as they were gradually more cooperative with performing the song and practicing the planets. Additionally, they were rather engaged with learning the Greek gods, and we were quite pleasantly surprised by their energy and enthusiasm to answer such questions. They were judging the gods’ looks by saying, “He doesn’t look like...Why isn’t he wearing a shirt...” and making up stories about the gods and goddesses, which we thought was pretty funny. They were also pretty into the solar system. We told the kids that Yu-Shin has been to Jupiter. We also told them other things that aren’t true, but it helped the kids get more engaged with our lesson. We told them that people lived on all the planets except Uranus because it orbits on its side. We used that story to explain the word orbit to them. We eventually got all the kids to participate in the performance. They were pretty good during rehearsals, but freaked out and forgot their lines during the performance. Some kids were hard to control. We had to raise our voice to get them to listen to us, but when Yu-Shin raised her voice some sweeter kids would say, “The teacher is angry,” in a cute voice, which made Yu-Shin smile, so it was harder for her to discipline the kids. By the last day, it was quite rewarding to witness how the students have grown, and see them become less shy and more confident with their English skills. They were no longer afraid to speak up and answer our questions. We were closer to the kids than before. The girls wanted Yu-Shin to teach them English again, some even wanted to go home with her. The kids fought over Yu-Shin saying, “This sister in mine! Not yours!” is was pretty cute to look at. The girls wanted to sit next to Yu-Shin during Big Wind Blows and followed her wherever she goes. On the last day, Jacob asked the kids if they wanted a signature form Yu-Shin, since she is one of the ten people who went to Jupiter. All the kids ran to Yu-Shin with a piece of paper and a pen, even the naughty kids wanted her autograph. Many kids were unwilling to say goodbye. They wanted us to come back next time and we wish we could see them again too. We truly hope they have gained as much enjoyment and accrued valuable English skills, just as we had in teaching.
-Yu-Shin Lee, Karen Chang

 ▲TOP