I come from a Theatre and Arts background, which is all about creating an experience for audience members during a performance. Similarly, I like to organize immersive events for my students in which they can get right in there and have hands-on cultural and holiday experiences. In turn, this encourages students to share Taiwan's culture with me. In this way, we all teach each other and learn from each other. It creates memories for everyone.

While costume contests are always fun, I prefer to have a Pumpkin Contest. It is really exciting and interesting to see students' creativity and imagination as they try to design the Winning Pumpkin!

For Christmas, I like to do some crafts with students and then use those crafts to participate in common, traditional experiences. 

• Make paper snowflakes.

• Decorate a simple Christmas tree ornament which is then used in an activity to hang ornaments on the tree.  

• Writing a Christmas wish list.

• Writing Christmas Cards which then are exchanged with other students in the school. 

One of the most important things to do in the New Year is to make some Resolutions (or Promises) for yourself that you hope to accomplish in the year. To encourage students to think of their own ideas for their New Year's Future Goals helps them plan ahead. 

Making and writing Valentine's Day cards is the most important task of this holiday. Students design some very cute cards for each other, and I organize a valentine exchange between all participating classes.

Easter is one of the major holidays of Springtime. Easter is a time for Egg Hunts, Easter Baskets, the Easter Bunny, and Dyeing Eggs. It is a colorful, happy, and sweet holiday to celebrate new life, flowers and plants blooming, and the end of Winter. 

Cooking is a great hands-on experience for students! Not just to cook a dish, but to practice procedure language in English to see if they can follow the steps to complete their dish successfully. 

I've led or assisted students in the procedure, practice, and preparation of Thanksgiving Dishes, Prosperity Cakes, S'mores, and Pizza. Students can enjoy the process and feel happy and proud of what they make. 

A friend and teacher in Germany reached out to me for a country information exchange. Their students were learning about sending international mail and were hoping to do a one-time letter exchange about each other's countries. The students worked very hard to illustrate, describe, and put together two maps to send to the students in Germany. One map focused on the whole of Taiwan, while the second map focused on Changhua County. The letter from Germany arrived after the school year ended and students were unable to enjoy it all together. The German students LOVED the work of our students and learned a lot about Taiwan!