introducing mr. chung & sarah!

these are my co-teachers, mr. chung and sarah. mr. chung is also our principal's name, so unless i'm talking to mike, i call my principal "mr. chung" and my co-teacher "edward." when i'm talking to mike, who enjoys a challenge, they are both "mr. chung." sarah goes by "sarah." i now go by "ms. eileen," "ingwen laoshi," and "eileen laoshi." laoshi means teacher.

sarah has taught english at our school for many years, and she was my very first contact in taiwan. she has 2 beautiful children (dada and eva) whom she regularly speaks to in hakka, mandarin, and english; her husband (ah-leen) has a bicycle shop in the nearby town of meinong; and we hit it off from the start. this year, sarah has dual responsibilities as homeroom (math and chinese) and 4th grade english teacher. sarah advocates a phonics-based approach to english language instruction, and she has a very clear and relaxed way of reaching the children. she is excited that i'm here, because she wants to see what exciting new methods i can bring to the "hello, darbie!" english curriculum. so far, she's been most impressed with my dynamic flashcard illustrations.

this is edward's first year teaching english, and 3rd year as a teacher. he loves art, fashion, taiwanese religion, and mariah carey. when our principal, mr. chung, asked edward to arrange decorations for last week's folkgame friday, edward came through with a major flourish. for a week straight, he knocked himself out creating an elaborate and astonishingly beautiful wall of oversized paper cuts. edward and i are working together to learn the ropes of teaching "hello, darbie!" english to our eleven 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade classes.

photos: edward and sarah in front of shun sian gong temple; meinong's historic guang chin sheng paper umbrella workshop; eva; edward and his impressive art