Education Taiwan Project #68159

Empower rural Taiwan children through activities

by Teach For Taiwan

Empower rural Taiwan children through activities

Project Report | Sep 2, 2025
Learning Beyond the Classroom

By Cheng-En Liu | Teach For Taiwan 8th Cohort Alumnus

Thank You for Your Donation — A Story from a TFT Teacher
Learning Beyond the Classroom

"Teacher, why are there so many tall buildings here?"

I still remember my very first field trip with my students, shortly after I became a teacher. We were traveling from Hengchun Peninsula to Kaohsiung. As the bus drove along the highway, the scenery outside gradually shifted into rows of tall buildings. At that moment, one of the children suddenly asked me: “Teacher, why are there so many skyscrapers here?”

For children growing up in Hengchun, “tall buildings” were something they had only ever seen in textbooks—a concept both familiar and foreign.

The more time I spent with my students, the more I realized how disconnected the content of our lessons often was from their lived experiences. Textbook knowledge was difficult to internalize when it did not resonate with their daily lives or cultural background.

Because Hengchun is located at Taiwan’s southernmost tip, the children’s understanding of their homeland was mostly confined to what surrounded them. Even reaching Pingtung City, the closest urban area, required at least an hour and a half. Traveling to other counties took even more time and money. Most parents worked in seafood restaurants or tourism, and even on weekends they were busy with work, leaving little opportunity to take their children out to explore and broaden their horizons.

A Learning Journey to Tainan

Recognizing this challenge, I began to believe that learning should not only happen inside the classroom. Firsthand experiences could help make knowledge come alive.

In my second year of teaching, I applied to the AUO Foundation’s Sustainable Campus Program and worked with my students to plan a learning trip to Tainan.

During the preparation phase, we revisited texts from Chinese class about Jingzaijiao Salt Fields and Anping Fort, as well as lessons from science class on wetland ecology and solar energy. Using tablets, the students researched destinations, ticket prices, and travel times. They also applied math skills to create budgets, timetables, and permission slips—learning how to plan a real trip from scratch.

On the trip itself, we visited the salt fields, where students could finally see with their own eyes what the textbook described: “heaps of salt piled like white chess pieces on a giant board.” We then explored the historic Anping Fort, learning its cultural context through guides and group activities. Afterwards, we boarded a boat through the Sicao Green Tunnel, observing mangrove ecosystems, lively mudskippers, and fiddler crabs waving their claws.

Back at school, the children recorded their reflections through travel journals, sharing their experiences with classmates and families. One child’s words stayed with me deeply:
“In the future, I want to go on more trips like this with everyone. Because just like the saying, ‘Reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles,’ I’ve learned so much from this journey.”

Beyond Expectations

This trip not only enriched the children’s life experiences but also reminded me of the transformative power of learning beyond the classroom. The impact went far beyond what I had imagined—showing that when students step outside, the world itself becomes their teacher.

Thank you again for your support. Your contribution is the best support for every TFT teachers.

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May 7, 2025
The Boy Who Taught Me That Growth Isn't Always Measured in Scores

By Chih Hsien Yu | ER volunteer

Thank you for your donation. We would like to share an article written by our on-site teachers with you:

The Boy Who Taught Me That Growth Isn’t Always Measured in Scores

(Nono) is a sensitive and thoughtful boy in my class—quiet at first glance, yet surprisingly athletic. He’s what you might call a “half-sports kid”—not academically strong, and he’s well aware of it. In fact, he had almost given up on himself entirely when the school year began.

During the first semester, I often saw him murmuring quietly to himself—little fragments of emotion slipping out in whispers. It was clear that he wanted to say something but just didn’t have the courage to speak it aloud. I knew then that if I wanted to reach him, I would have to be patient.

I tried everything. At first, I asked him questions directly. Then I tried more subtle ways—offering empathy, sharing my own stories, letting him know that I was someone he could trust. Slowly, little by little, he started to open up.

You see, throughout his childhood, Nono had rarely encountered teachers who were willing to just sit with him and listen. More often, he was dismissed by adults who said things like, “This is nothing. You’re just not trying hard enough,” or “With grades like this, what do you expect?”

"Why Try, If I Always Fail Anyway?"

After gaining Nono’s trust, the next small goal was helping him speak honestly about how he felt about learning. He finally said, “I am trying. I really am. But why is it still like this? Maybe I should just stop trying at all—because no matter what I do, I’m still bad at it.”

As a teacher, those words broke my heart. It made me ask—what kind of system makes a child feel hopeless about learning? And why did I feel so helpless to fix it?

Then an idea came to me. I have a free after-school tutoring session every week. Any student who got their parents’ approval could stay and get extra help. To my surprise, Nono—who usually spent his after-school hours in a sports club—signed up.

Week by week, something changed. During our sessions, he started asking questions—not just to me, but to other teachers too. I saw him slowly opening up, becoming more engaged. He started to show real progress, both in his learning and in how he interacted with others.

To me, trying a different approach to learning was already a sign of growth. But to Nono, growth meant only one thing: higher scores.And so, it felt like we were stuck in place again.

After an exam, I watched from the front of the classroom as Nono looked at his test paper—still a failing grade. I saw the disappointment in his face, and I felt the pain from across the room. After class, my colleagues and I tried different ways to encourage him. We reminded him how much he’d improved, how effort shows up in many ways—not just in numbers.

When Effort Finally Pays Off

Before the next monthly test, Nono didn’t give up. He studied hard to grasp the concepts he struggled with. When he didn’t understand something from the first teacher, he’d go to a second. If that still didn’t work, he’d find a third. He wouldn’t stop until he truly understood.

And then, in the final math test of fifth grade—he improved by 31 points. He even won the “Most Improved” award, something he had never dreamed of achieving.

For the first time, Nono saw his efforts reflected in real results.

I believe that on the journey of learning, everyone has had moments when they wanted to give up. But how we choose to face those moments—that becomes the nourishment that shapes our path forward.

“Hey Nono! Next semester, let’s keep our math steady—and start working harder on Chinese, alright?” That was the goodbye I gave him on our last day of the school year.

We still have one more year together. And I believe—in all the parts of school that tests don’t measure—we’ll grow even more.

Thank you again for your support. Your contribution is the best support for every TFT teachers.

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