Dear all partners,

 

   This is Margaret Chen from Kaohsiung Jhengsing junior High School. I am an English teacher with 18-year teaching experience. Now I am teaching grade 7 and 8. For me, teaching is the most wonderful job in the world!

 

   I am a light eater. It is not because I want to manage my weight, but because I don't have much interest in food.  Vegetables and fruits are my favorites. My hobbies are reading and listening to music. I like classical music very much. In fact, all my family members are music lovers.

 

   In my school, the students doing this project are from different classes. We meet one another for discussion once a week. I am not their regular class teacher, much like a club teacher. My school has several computer labs, so it is very convenient for us to use the computer equipment in class. The school also provides me a notebook. During the project, I can check the mail every day and my class can get online a period a week for 45 minutes.

 

   This is my first time to join a learning circle, a very fresh and challenging task for me and my studnets. We’ll try our best and look forward to learning with all of you!

 

 

                                                                Margaret  

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Our Project Club

 

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Our project club has 38 students, 12 boys and 26 girls, at the average age of 13. Most of the students are grade 7, only 9 grade 8.  We had a meeting with Bob last Thursday. That was a big surprise! At the break time, we were told a guest from the Netherlands was going to visit us and help us know about the project. So we gathered all the club members and went to the meeting room very quickly. Bob told us the meaning of the project name and how to do the project. It helped a lot. Bob, thank you very much!

 

All the grade 8 students made a short video to say hello.

 

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Our Country

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   Taiwan is an island located in the western Pacific Ocean, near China, Japan, and the Philippines. The shape of Taiwan looks like a sweet potato. The weather here is usually warm(even in winter). There are five major cities in Taiwan:from the north to the south, New Taipei City, Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City. About 23 million people live in Taiwan. Our official language is Mandarin. People also speak different dialects, like Taiwanese and Hakka. Ancestor worship,  Buddhism, Daoism, and popular folk religion are our main religions. 

 

            

                         Can you find where Taiwan is? It's only 36,000 square kilometers.

 

          This is our national flag.                                      This is our president, Ma Ying-jeou.  

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Our City

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    Kaohsiung is a harbor city situated in the south of Taiwan. It is the second largest city in Taiwan. Life in Kaohsiung is very convenient. The city has an international airport, high speed rail line and the MRT system. Love River is the most famous local spot. Night markets are also the must-visit places. Now Kaohsiung Lantern Festival is held at the Love River. Many school students join the lantern contest. Our school wins a prize.

 

      Many people go to 2011 Kaohsiung Lantern Festival.  This is Jhengsing rabbit lantern .                                             

 

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Our Community

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    Our community is cool. You can see different styles of buildings in it. Some are very tall; some are very short; some are a traditional style; some are a modern type; some are very old; some are new.  Walking in the community is just like walking in a forest.

 

 

  

       This is the map of our community. There are several special places around our school. 

 

(1) Grand 50 Tower-- The skyscraper has 50 floors. We can see the tall building from our campus. It was the tallest building in Kaohsiung before, but now it is the second tallest. The tallest one is an 85-story building, 85 Sky Tower. 

 

 

 

 

(2) National Science and Technology Museum-- The museum is our best neighbor. There are exhibitions about natural disasters, water resources, food, energy, biological technology, etc.Teachers take us there to join a science fair every year. The museum has a playground where people can go bicycle riding, roller-skating or jogging.  

 

(3) Tennis Court--Beside the museum, you can see the tennis court.Our school is famous for tennis. Our tennis team have won lots of  games in domestic and international tennis tournaments. We have tennis courts in the school, but sometimes the tennis team practices there. 

 

(4) Minzu Elemertary School--Most of Jhengsing students graduated from this elementary school.

 

(5) Supermarket--Next to the elementary school, you can see a big supermarket. It is very convenient to buy things we need

 

 

 

(6) Kaohsiung City Terminal Market--The market is very big. All kinds of vegetables and fruits are sold there. The prices are low, so lots of vendors buy products there and sell to customers. You can see that vendors sell fruits, vegetable, and meat along the streets near my school and the market. 

 

 

 

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Our School

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There are 73 classes about 2500 students in Kaohsiung Jhengsing Junior High School, including 25 classes in grade 7, 25 classes in grade 8, and 23 classes in grade 9. A school year has two semesters, 200 school days in each semester. Our school hours are from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm. The first class starts at 8:20 and each takes 45 minutes. Each grade takes different subjects. The grade 7 has Chinese, English, math, biology, geography, history, civics, PE, art, music, technology, health education, scout education, and home economics. Grade 8 doesn't study biology, but physics and chemistry. Grade 9 has one more subject --earth science.  

 

 This is our school badge. The Chineses word 正 (Jheng)in the center of a star. It means that Jheng students will have outstanding achivement shining like stars. Besides, a star in Chinese word is  星  pronunced as sing.  So the badge has the meaning of our school name. You can see it on our school uniforms, school bags, and even the ground!

 

 

There are all kinds of clubs in Jhengsing, such as the chorus, the school orchestra,  the community service club, the handicraft club, various sports clubs, etc.

 

 

      guitar club                                                  Chinese painting club                           balloon club 

 

We have morning assemblies twice a week. At that time, all students get together in the hall. Sometimes we have to play the national anthem on the flute at the beginning of the assembly. 

 

 

We clean our classroom and campus three times a day. The first thing we do as attending school is cleaning. Everyone has their own job. We sweep and mop the floor,clean the chalkboard, clean the toilet, rake together the fallen leaves, and take out the garbage. 

 

 

 

 

Some students eat their breakfast at home. Some buy their breakfast on the way to school, and eat during the break time. Chinese egg omelets and rice balls are two popular breakfast foods. 

 

     

        Chinese egg omelet                                       rice ball

 

 

We have lunch at school. The kitchen workers send the meal to the class, so we can have hot lunch in our own classroom. The school dietitian designs the menu, including rice or noodles, vegetables, meat or fish, soup, and dessert. School meals are healthy and delicious.The menu even shows the calories! Look at the picture,students enjoy their lunch.

 

           

 

 

All the students in our school have communication books. We write a short diary every day. and teachers read it the next day and give us feedbacks.It’s a way that we talk with our teacher. Except a diary, we write down important messages like homework and test scores. That also lets our parents know what we do at school.