Teaching in Taipei

I've been teaching here in Taipei since January and thought it was about time to give the low-down.

I work for an after school program called a bushiban, which virtually all Taiwanese children attend. All bushibans are privately run and differ in that they offer some kind of extra curricular teaching (English, Art, Music, etc.) alongside their collective primary function -- to ensure that all children finish their regular school homework.

I currently have 4 different groups of kids that I work with, which totals 24 teaching hours per week. I have a class of 13 8 year olds, a class of 13 10 year olds, a class of 6 12 year olds, and a class of 4 13 year olds. I see most of my classes
for 2 hours each time with a 10 minute break in the middle. The exact schedule is a little complicated and unimportant, so I won't bother with it. My first class starts at 2:30pm and then I finish up around 7:30pm or 8:30pm depending on the day. So I have lots of time before work.

The school is relatively modern with nice rooms (I have my own classroom, so each class comes to me when it's their turn). I started off riding my bicycle to work, and that was taking 30 minutes, but I really started feeling the pollution in my lungs so I quit that and now take the bus, which takes the same amount of time. I've put up a few photos I took of my 8 year olds.






























The view of the neighborhood around the school from my classroom window (7th floor).