Hi everyone! Here are some pictures from my latest adventure to Camp Taiwan with HIS (Hsinchu International School ... the high school where I teach!). We got the opportunity to spend three days and two nights at Camp Taiwan, which is located a bit north of Taipei. Camp Taiwan is in the mountains and has a strong team building focus through environmentally friendly activities (like exploring nature by going on hikes, rock climbing, zip-line, giant swing, cooperative games, stream exploration, learning about Taiwanese aboriginals ...).
We left for Camp Taiwan Wednesday, September 10th early in the morning. A little about how HIS is structured ... we divide the students into three different Institutes, each made up of two grades. So, Institute I is grades 7 and 8, Institute II is grades 9 and 10 and Institute III is grades 11 and 12. The teachers are all divided into advisories by grade. Patrick (my roommate and also one of the Math teachers) and I are the advisors for grade 9. We basically are the ones responsible for the overall well-being ... checking in with them to see how they are doing in all aspects of their lives. There are 11 students and really, they are great kids. Here are four of our students on the bus getting ready to head to camp.
Since I am an advisor for grade 9, I am part of Institute II. This year Institute II got to explore and learn about Taiwanese aboriginal culture. This was a really unique opportunity because we got to learn about it from people who are not only part of an aboriginal tribe, but also practice and teach about their aboriginal traditions. Here we learned how to sew and make headdresses and bracelets.
After participating in the sewing activity we got the chance to sit and reflect on what we learned. We each got a packet with more information about different aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. We got to put in perspective how long it took us to just decorate the headdresses and bracelets, versus having to make and gather everything from scratch, as is done in some aboriginal tribes (like making the clay beads, gathering shells, weaving and dying the fabric ... etc).
We learned an aboriginal dance. We had a lot of fun learning it. It was danced in a giant circle and at one point we all cross arms and do a step motion in sync with each other that takes us around the room. We performed the dance for Institutes I and III the last night we were there.
We played Aboriginal Olympics! Here students were trying to spear the ball of fabric with tall bamboo poles. The story goes that long ago this was how marriage was decided. A woman would through up a 'ball' (which in the olden days was actually the head of an enemy, she through it up by the hair) and which ever man would spear it with their bamboo pole would win her hand in marriage. After playing this game for about a half hour, most of our students where getting married at least 6 times!!!
We left for Camp Taiwan Wednesday, September 10th early in the morning. A little about how HIS is structured ... we divide the students into three different Institutes, each made up of two grades. So, Institute I is grades 7 and 8, Institute II is grades 9 and 10 and Institute III is grades 11 and 12. The teachers are all divided into advisories by grade. Patrick (my roommate and also one of the Math teachers) and I are the advisors for grade 9. We basically are the ones responsible for the overall well-being ... checking in with them to see how they are doing in all aspects of their lives. There are 11 students and really, they are great kids. Here are four of our students on the bus getting ready to head to camp.
Since I am an advisor for grade 9, I am part of Institute II. This year Institute II got to explore and learn about Taiwanese aboriginal culture. This was a really unique opportunity because we got to learn about it from people who are not only part of an aboriginal tribe, but also practice and teach about their aboriginal traditions. Here we learned how to sew and make headdresses and bracelets.
After participating in the sewing activity we got the chance to sit and reflect on what we learned. We each got a packet with more information about different aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. We got to put in perspective how long it took us to just decorate the headdresses and bracelets, versus having to make and gather everything from scratch, as is done in some aboriginal tribes (like making the clay beads, gathering shells, weaving and dying the fabric ... etc).
We learned an aboriginal dance. We had a lot of fun learning it. It was danced in a giant circle and at one point we all cross arms and do a step motion in sync with each other that takes us around the room. We performed the dance for Institutes I and III the last night we were there.
We played Aboriginal Olympics! Here students were trying to spear the ball of fabric with tall bamboo poles. The story goes that long ago this was how marriage was decided. A woman would through up a 'ball' (which in the olden days was actually the head of an enemy, she through it up by the hair) and which ever man would spear it with their bamboo pole would win her hand in marriage. After playing this game for about a half hour, most of our students where getting married at least 6 times!!!
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