The annual Super Teacher Awards on Saturday honored two educators for encouraging their students in rural communities to enjoy the outdoors and experience farming first-hand.
The awards came ahead of Teachers’ Day on Wednesday.
Kuo Hui-chuan (郭惠娟) won the award for Best Preschool/Kindergarten Teacher.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Kuo, who teaches at the preschool affiliated with Jingmei Elementary School in New Taipei City, was recognized for cultivating an appreciation of aesthetics among her students for the past 10 years.
She said her teaching philosophy involves living closer to nature and that she has been taking her students outdoors for classes that often involve working the soil.
Kuo has enlisted the help of local residents to teach her students how to plant seeds, which she said helps build character and empathy.
Hsu Yu-ya (許游雅) won the award for Best Elementary School Teacher.
Hsu, who teaches at Nanhua Elementary School in Tainan, said she highlights the importance of outdoors in guiding her students.
As her school is in an agricultural area, Hsu has instructed her students to join their parents in the fields, such as mango plantations, to better understand their families and find new ways to engage with each other, she said.
Rural areas offer types of cultural stimulation and experiences that are different from those in urban areas, Hsu said.
The awards also recognized other teachers for using alternative ways to motivate their students.
Chen Chao-hsun (陳昭勛), who won the Best Junior-High School Teacher Award, started working as an English teacher at Mu Zha Junior High School in Taipei after returning from Australia, although it was not what she had in mind.
Chen has a background in traditional Chinese medicine and she originally hoped to become a medical intern in Taiwan.
However, due to a bureaucratic mistake, she ended up teaching at the school.
She teaches a special class in which she conveys her educational philosophy and ideas to other faculty as Taiwan strives to become a bilingual country.
For mixologist Liu Wei-wu (劉緯武), who won the Best Vocational School Teacher Award, teaching students about cocktails is more than just giving them the necessary skills; it is about passing on a certain lifestyle.
Liu teaches his students about the value of self-cultivation, being humble and adopting the etiquette observed in cocktail bars.
He said he encourages them to avoid Taiwan’s culture that values binge drinking more than savoring a beverage and to understand what they are drinking.
The awards were launched in 2003 by the National Teachers’ Association to recognize educators.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS