Welcome to the new Craig's English Blog
In the summer of 2008, after teaching English to Taiwanese junior and senior high school students for 3 years, I was trying to think of ways to better engage my students in English learning. We had such limited contact time each week, it didn't seem like enough to make much of an impact. Giving more homework in the traditional sense would probably not have been well received. What I needed was a way to connect using English to something that they really enjoyed doing.
One common activity that most of my students enjoyed involved using the computer. Many of them enjoyed playing computer games as well as writing in their blogs. That gave me the idea to create an interactive blog with games, puzzles, songs, quizzes and other English learning activities and assign it as homework.
It was met with mixed reviews and limited success, but I used the blog for one semester as homework for my higher level students. Once the blog was not part of their required homework, however, participation dried up. I kept the blog online for another 6 months, but the limited use was not worth maintaining it any longer.
Therefore, I have decided to transform the site into a more traditional blog, where I will write occasionally about my life in Taiwan. It may serve no purpose other than for me to record some thoughts, observations and experiences, but perhaps someone out there might find the information interesting or entertaining.
Thank you for visiting the site. Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions.
When biking first became enormously popular in Taiwan, about 2006 or 2007, I resisted it. In fact, it sort of annoyed me as the park where I really liked to walk my dog was taken over by bicycles and became almost too dangerous to let my dog run free.
This year, I finally gave in. Many of my colleagues and students at ChuLin Jr/Sr High school were biking every weekend and I thought it would be fun to join them. I bought a Giant Iguana, a decent mid-range bike for a variety of riding conditions, and took to the streets.
One of my favorite news commentary shows in the US is Countdown with Keith Olbermann. I like his perspective on news stories.
In this case, I have to disagree with him and object to one of his stories. He has a segment called "Worst Persons in the World". The "winner" on Dec 1 was Taipei's mayor for banning the Apple Daily newspaper in public schools for students under 18 years old.
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