Page 235 - 國立竹科實中創校40週年紀念特刊

major-league locations that had glamorous windows to cement walls, they became
cities around them, bigger salaries, and snob unintelligible. Unless you spoke extra loudly,

appeal? I always tried to sell the Bilingual extra slowly, and with perfect enunciation,
Department as a unique opportunity, saying someone in the back would invariably say,
that any foreign teacher smart enough to pick "What? I can't hear you!" The same sad
us would be able to do the finest teaching of situation was true for communication from

his/her career. back to front. Thankfully, that awful acoustic
In those days, the BD was small. My problem is a thing of the past. We finally got
first year, I was the homeroom teacher for dropped sound-absorbing ceilings and heavy
both grade 11 and grade 12, a total of about drapes for the windows, which helped solve

20 students. It was quite a juggling act, the sound problem as well as giving control
supervising two homeroom classrooms, but over outside lighting conditions.
that is not the point. To teacher candidates, Another classroom problem was the 4
the reality of small classes, really smart chalkboard, which used dusty, old-fashioned ―

students, and supportive, highly educated white (or colored) chalk. Its mess each Ϋ
ᚥ
parents, not to mention the genuinely park-like day made a separate clean-up chore for one ၾ
living conditions, gave us a combination of lucky student. He or she needed to wash the ज़
၅
benefits that no other big-name international board each afternoon and clean the erasers.
―
school could match. If a teacher couldn't Each room had an electric machine that was
do effective, satisfying teaching under those supposed to vacuum the chalk dust from the
conditions, go look in the mirror-you are in erasers and store it safely in a bin, that also
the wrong profession! had to be emptied frequently. Opinions varied

That sales pitch worked well during the over the effectiveness of the machine, but it
several recruiting campaigns that I participated really didn't matter because the machine often
in. During one period in the late 90's-early wouldn't operate.
00's, the BD placed a student into Harvard for Don't get me started on the lack of

seven consecutive years. We were putting us climate control in all the rooms, at the
on the map! beginning. No AC and no heat. In winter,
However, despite the solid benefits of an observer could be forgiven for mistaking
teaching in the BD, in those days, there were my class for an Inuit camp. To survive the

some drawbacks, particularly in the area of Hsinchu winter, you soon learned about layers.
classroom amenities. My biggest complaint We must have looked like an over-sized Papa
was the lack of acoustic-tile ceilings. Without Bear with a litter of roly-poly cubs. No idea
them, sound bounced and echoed chaotically if that climate issue still exists in the NEHS of

around the classrooms. By the time your today.
words ricocheted madly from bare concrete Fortunately, after extended debate, we
ceiling to bare terrazzo floor to uncovered finally did get AC in all the classrooms. The

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