I have mentioned MEV a couple of times before in previous blogs, but have never gone into full details about it. I guess it's time I explain a little bit about how it works. All the FET's (Foreign Language Teachers) teaching in Miaoli County have to participate in something called the Mobile English Village (MEV for short). Basically, since many rural schools throughout the county don't have the luxury of having a foreign English teacher at their school, the county government has created the Mobile English Village group, where all the foreign teachers and local SMS (Substitute Military Service) guys will get together on Wednesday and travel to a rural area elementary to teach the students there English for the day. We have a total of 5 official MEV trips, and will travel to a different school each time. On weeks when we don't have to travel, we will be meeting up at our headquarter for workshops, teaching demo, TV program recording, and radio broadcasting (yes, we will be appearing on local radio and TV station for an English teaching program as well).
For MEV, there's a North group, and a South group (which I am in). There are currently a total of 5 foreign teachers in the South group, and 4 different stations, themed after the countries: USA, Australia, Kenya, and Canada. Each teacher will be in charge of teaching a station/country, and students will be divided into 4 groups, and will rotate to the 4 different stations to learn about each country. I am in charge of Australia, and will be teaching the students about the famous landmarks of Australia, the unique animals found there, and the distinct movements of the animals, such as fly, hop, swim, run, climb, etc...
We did our first practice teaching with actual students today, and by golly we needed it. There are definitely many details that we still need to work out and finalize to make our MEV session run smoothly. Other than teaching the countries, we are also in charge of the opening entertainment and the closing, which we have reached a group consensus to teach the students the Cupid Shuffle and sing a couple of songs (yet to be finalized). That part should be a lot of fun! We tried a little bit of that today, and I won't go into details about our flops, but let's just say that we still have some work to do. Still, I am very glad we got the chance to practice teaching today before we do the real thing, so we at least have the chance to experience what it feels like and make any needed adjustment.
Overall, I am ecstatic about this whole MEV thing and really can't wait to do the official thing. Not only do we not have to report to our regular school every Wednesday, we will get the chance to travel to different places and get to know the schools and the culture there. What a wonderful chance to explore and understand more of Taiwan! Unfortunately, we won't get to start our MEV run until November, but when it's time, I will certainly be ready for it!
Miaoli County Foreign English Teachers
MEV workbook for students
I'm in charge of teaching about Australia
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