Sun Moon Lake Remote Service

Advisor’s Feedback

What a fantastic camp! All of ETAs brought wonderful energy, passion, creativity, and lots and lots of interaction.  Students at Yidashao Elementary School were fun, responsive, and spirited in participating in each activity and also confident in using English throughout the day. This coupled with great execution and attention-to-detail by the ETAs resulted in a smooth (issue-free!), well-rounded, and enjoyable experience for all participants involved.  In addition, Mandy and Annie displayed great leadership in keeping everything organized and everyone on the same page. I am hopeful the school and students will enjoy the Mr. Bear picture book and the bottle cap map of Taiwan that were left as souvenirs and mementos of our visit. Overall, a very well-planned and a thoroughly rewarding experience!  Congrats and great job, everyone!

Megan Go

I’m grateful I was selected for this camp because I had such an amazing experience. It was a unique opportunity that brought ETAs from all different sites to work together towards one common goal, and we all had fun collaborating with each other every step of the way. Aside from other ETAs, I had the opportunity to interact with Ariel, Kevvy, Joyce, Megan, and Matt and I also had a wonderful time getting to know them. Teaching at the indigenous school for a day was rewarding, as the school size helped us foster close-knit relationships with our students. It is hard for me to single out one moment that was my favorite. I loved the overall warm, welcoming learning environment we fostered, and seeing the energy the kids had for camp. I loved teaching them through games and fun hands-on activities. Their energy and laughter was contagious! Despite my busy month of April, this camp will remain as one of the highlights of my semester.

Jake Mason

I had a fantastic time volunteering at Yidashao elementary school for the Sun Moon Lake remote service camp. Having the opportunity to collaborate with ETAs from other sites taught me a lot. With such a small group of 5th and 6th graders, we got to know them and had a lot of individual interactions with them. Matt was an amazing advisor dropping by between classes to interact with the students and give us feedback on lessons. I was also thankful for the opportunity to interact with all the ETAs and advisors outside of the classroom because some of their sites are very far from my own. Overall, I am grateful to have been selected to volunteer at Sun Moon Lake and would like to thank Ariel, Kevvy, Joyce, Matt, and Megan for all of the work they did to put this together.

On Saturday April 24th a team of 8 ETAs, 1 advisor, and a couple Fulbright staff headed to Yidashao Elementary school near the Ita Thao pier area of Nantou’s Sun Moon Lake for a special English camp. We had 16 wonderful campers, ranging from grade 1 to grade 6, all students of the very small Yidashao Elementary School. Our camp focused on the theme of animals and their habitats. This camp was an extension to the animals and habitats camp currently taught by the Wednesday camp team in Taichung City. For our remote service camp, we took that theme and expanded upon it to include learning about the student’s local habitat around their school, Sun Moon Lake. We learned through many activities and games and the students even made their own storybook at the end. Overall, the camp took a lot of preparation and dedication from the ETAs, but led to a really memorable day for both us and the students.

Mandy Chin

I had a great time doing the service project! What I enjoyed most about the project was its collaborative aspect because I do not normally get the opportunity to work with ETAs from other counties. Creating our lessons was also exciting because it gave us more flexibility and allowed us to use topics that we found interesting. My favorite part of the lessons was when we reappropriated bottle caps to make a poster of Taiwan. It gave the students a chance to engage in something creative and will hopefully remind them of the camp whenever they look at it.

Brooks Leftwich
What an absolutely amazing experience! I did not have many expectations coming into the camp, and I was not sure how well I would be able to connect with students with such a short amount of time spent with them. However, I could not have asked for a better afternoon at Yidashao Elementary School. The students were amazing and very eager to learn and engage with the content. My favorite part of the day, and what I think helped the students become more comfortable, was when I was able to run around the playground and play tag with them. We all laughed and played and enjoyed the community that was built inside of the English Camp, and I think that is exactly what Remote Service is all about.

Danit Liberman Tabachnik

I am very grateful I had the opportunity to participate in the Sun Moon Lake remote service camp. Getting to work with ETAs from different sites was very fun, and it was interesting learning about the different teaching environments we each teach at regularly. Furthermore, getting to teach at Yidashao Elementary School and connecting with students who were excited to be there, was so joyful and rewarding. I really enjoyed working with such a small group of 1st and 2nd graders who were sweet and willing to learn and participate. My favorite part was walking around their school on a “Nature Walk” in which we asked students to draw the plants and animals they were seeing. Their creativity and excitement was very special to see. Although a short experience, I believe this service opportunity is rewarding for everyone involved and I am grateful I was a part of this one.

ETA’s Feedback

Annie Ryan
The Sun Moon Lake remote service was a really unique opportunity for both the ETAs and students of Yidashao elementary to engage in something different than what they do on an average day at school. For ETAs it was a rare opportunity to collaborate with each other and build lessons from scratch on a topic we found important and interesting. For the students, it was a chance to be taught by foreign teachers and study topics that diverted from their textbook. Our goal of the camp was to have a both fun and educational day, and for the students to learn more about not only global habitats, but their local habitat as well. We also sought to leave the students with something to remember what they’d learned, which took the form of our “A home to share with Mr. Bear” book. This book was a collaboration of work by both the teachers and students, to sum up what we had learned in a memorable and engaging format. 

Amy Dong

Matt was a fantastic advisor for this project with his positive attitude and helpful feedback, and I loved getting to know Kevvy, Ariel, and the other Fulbright staff more through a more intimate service project. Working with such a small group of 5th and 6th graders at an indigenous school was also incredibly rewarding and culturally eye-opening. My favorite part of the project was creating the book ”A Home to Share with Mr. Bear” with the students using the vocabulary and sentence patterns they had learned throughout the afternoon lessons and then reading it out loud to the entire school and the students’ parents at the end of the day.

Melissa Hosek

I had a really great time at the camp and working with other ETAs I may not have gotten the chance to work with otherwise. Creating lessons with and working with other ETAs also really helped me to see teaching from different angels and provided ideas I might not have thought of on my own. Interacting with the students was also really fun, and it was nice being able to teach more freely without needing to use a textbook. I was somewhat nervous at the start of the trip because I was not sure what to expect, but I had a ton of fun hanging out with everyone. Matt and Megan are really great advisors and super fun to hang out with and Kevvy, Ariel, and Joyce were super great about making sure we were taken care and were also really fun to hang out with. Overall, the camp went really well, the students all seemed to have a ton of fun, and I had a ton of fun too! This was such a great experience, and I’m so glad I was able to participate in this camp.