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Taiwan Diary: Clubs and Wrenches
Aug. 31st, 2022 05:07 pmOkay, I have now been in Taiwan for two and a half weeks, but it feels like months. The heat is definitely aging me, as is the abundance of wrenches in plans. It's becoming clear that there are several layers of goals going on at school, and they aren't necessarily compatible with one another. It's not to the point where I feel like I have made a bad career move with this school, but I definitely need to know who has my back, if for no other reason than knowing who it's safe to vent to.
On the clubs side of things, I have somehow ended up (co)leading a media club that the school director, I'm beginning to see, wants to use as the PR arm of one of her pet projects instead of letting it be a student club. I was assigned just to help, but during today's meeting, it became clear that the leader, who was also just assigned this club, doesn't really know what to do. Nor does she have the ... backbone? ... to be mouthy to the head of the school. I mean, I'm not going to be a jerk, but I decided about 20 minutes into the club "meeting" that I was going to either have to just sit there and be a warm body in the room or take charge and do something. My fiery Aries side came out, so now I'm going to write a proposal for the club that is less a suggestion and more a "this is what we're doing" sort of thing. The director will get some of the things she wants and the kids will have some agency in how they participate in the club. We'll see how it goes.
At the same time, one of the classes that I am nominally in charge of is a giant hot fucking mess, for a lot of reasons. I am DEFINITELY supposed to just be a body in the classroom, so I decided that during this period, I'm simply going to catch up on my reading. I need to have something I can put down if the students need help, so grading is out.
Finally, I managed to eke out one day of writing to add to my GYWO goal. I don't think I'll meet my yearly goal this year. I could, if I forced myself to write every day, but I do think I'm a bit burned out on the writing side of things, so I'll be open to writing if inspiration strikes, but I'm not going to force it. If I don't meet my goal this year, I don't meet my goal. It's fine.
And I'm generally fine, too.
On the clubs side of things, I have somehow ended up (co)leading a media club that the school director, I'm beginning to see, wants to use as the PR arm of one of her pet projects instead of letting it be a student club. I was assigned just to help, but during today's meeting, it became clear that the leader, who was also just assigned this club, doesn't really know what to do. Nor does she have the ... backbone? ... to be mouthy to the head of the school. I mean, I'm not going to be a jerk, but I decided about 20 minutes into the club "meeting" that I was going to either have to just sit there and be a warm body in the room or take charge and do something. My fiery Aries side came out, so now I'm going to write a proposal for the club that is less a suggestion and more a "this is what we're doing" sort of thing. The director will get some of the things she wants and the kids will have some agency in how they participate in the club. We'll see how it goes.
At the same time, one of the classes that I am nominally in charge of is a giant hot fucking mess, for a lot of reasons. I am DEFINITELY supposed to just be a body in the classroom, so I decided that during this period, I'm simply going to catch up on my reading. I need to have something I can put down if the students need help, so grading is out.
Finally, I managed to eke out one day of writing to add to my GYWO goal. I don't think I'll meet my yearly goal this year. I could, if I forced myself to write every day, but I do think I'm a bit burned out on the writing side of things, so I'll be open to writing if inspiration strikes, but I'm not going to force it. If I don't meet my goal this year, I don't meet my goal. It's fine.
And I'm generally fine, too.
