Welcome

This blog is a result of my two tenth grade honors English classes studying in our American Literature course the Transcendentalist writers of New England during the 1850's, when it was the beginning stages - the first thirty years - of the Industrial Revolution.

My students and I are over here in Taiwan at The International Bilingual School at Hsinchu, grades 1-12.

To read the overview that explains the seeds that sprouted into this blog, please see May 4th's blog post, The process of a modern day transcendentalist: http://transparenteyeballers.blogspot.com/2009/05/process-of-modern-day-transcendentalist.html



Tuesday 5 May 2009

more about our school and students

We're a special international school teaching grades 1-12, as we're not a typical, private international school. In fact, we're a bicultural, bilingual school where both the Chinese culture and the American culture co-exist within the larger societal context of Taiwan, which you can read and view pictures about on our blog. Taiwan is in an interesting position right now, as it holds to its rich Chinese cultural history, while emerging into the post-modern era as an industrialized, democratic nation; yet on any given day the influence of Buddhism and Taoism can be observed alongside the exhaust from the ubiquitous scooters, the fresh veggie morning markets along with the upscale department stores and organic food stores and Buddhist vegetarian cooperatives, the computer stores, cell phone gadgets stands and most importantly of all - the Seven Elevens.

Our students at IBHS are either American Born Chinese (Taiwanese), or Westernized Taiwanese if they are the sons and/or daughters of Taiwanese diplomats. Their parents are mostly high-level employees of major hi-tech companies in the Hsinchu Science Park - where our school is also located, a Taiwanese version of Silicon Valley - or academicians at the nearby major universities, specializing in the sciences. Our bilingual, bicultural environment teaches our students American based curriculum alongside Taiwanese curriculum, with the majority of our students being prepped to return to the United States for college, for example with AP classes. We have many of our alumni attending the most prestigious American universities, both Ivy Leagues and the Big Ten.

I am now in my seventh year of teaching here at IBSH. It's taken me some time to develop my curriculum in order to make it relevant to our special mix of bicultural students. This has included my need to learn about this Taiwanese culture that both myself, and my students who are at varying levels of acclamation and integration within the local, non-westernized Taiwanese population, are all immersed within.

To learn more about me, please see "About Me" in my profile.

3 comments:

  1. Vincent Luoh
    Allowing you to believe
    Through our teachings this semester, I have learned many new concepts. The concept that will probably stick with me the longest, probably my entire life, is that whatever we do is what we think we can do. We learned through THE SECRET about the law of attraction. I learned that whatever we want, we must believe that we can get. I learned that to do anything, you must think about it, tell the universe that this is what you want, and the universe will make it happen. English class has taught me that belief is a very important part of wanting to do anything, and that passion is the other most important thing. To have passion about something, and then to have the belief in yourself that you can do it, is something that I learned will make anything possible.

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