I am a writer

I tried to write this essay to submit on coursera.org. The class I am taking is "English Composition 1."
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I am not a writer. It was not my profession, and now, as a stay-home mom, I am not a writer at all. But I have to write. I write in my Vietnamese for my baby's blog, telling about her events so that my mother living in another hemispheres can know about her grand-daughter. I sometimes write something not important on my facebook notes to let my thoughts out of my brain, in Vietnamese too. So, I am an amateur writer in my mother tongue. However, I want to write to communicate with my foreign friends, who usually see my writing awkward.
I am from Vietnam. I was educated to become a teacher of English in high schools. Then I studied Master of TESOL to teach English in colleges. I should have been a teacher if I had not followed my husband to the U.S. He is studying for Ph.D while I become a stay-home mom with a brains always filling up with so many questions. Sacrifice or not sacrifice? Family or Work? My baby or my career? 3 years staying home because my visa status does not allow me to study higher or work, even part-time. Therefore, writing is my relieving solution.
But I used to writing in my mother tongue, I wrote well when I was in high school. In my country, students depend on sample essays to learn more beautifully-written phrases to write well. However, I didn't follow that. I read a lot instead. Regretfully, I didn't do the same when I learned to write English essays in college. I still read Vietnamese novels then and felt it hard to digest the thinnest English novel in the library. Another reason is I didn't practice writing much. That's why I am not a good writer in English.
I am trying to correct that mistake by learning to write in English again. 3 years staying home with my baby, I have chance to read materials about parenting and children books. Still, American people find my writing "awkward", the word they describe my writing. I am also worried about grammar mistakes. From my language background, I am not used to using articles, prepositions and tense. That's the reason why I enroll this class with the hope to be helped from others.

Be Creative in Poverty

I have 2 essays to write but can not help sharing this. Writing this way is also some kind of practice, so... Write!
The news is in Vietnamese. The context is in Vietnam. The school is in Yen Bai, north Vietnam where teachers have to live together in the same room. Although the school was funded to build a two-story building, teachers have to use their creativeness to furnish the school.
While many people complain about the government's wasting money in other projects, I feel the teachers should feel proud of themselves. They don't let poverty conquer them but make creativeness flourish.
Here are pictures from the news:

This is the picture of the school. It has a 2 story-building with about 10 classrooms, I guess. They have the gate but the fence is made from bamboo branches.

This is the picture of a room where teachers live together. They sleep in metal bulk beds.

They painted mathematical formula on the side of the stairs so that students from the yard can look at and learn by hearts. However, I don't understand why they painted a picture of Snow White and 7 dwarfs. They should have painted a picture of an ethnic hero in their literature. Just my opinion.

The container of shuttlecock is cut into halves and used as a flower vase. Green, right?

The flowers on the windows are from old CDs. Beautiful classrooms, huh?
Creativeness has no borders. Hope that all school in Vietnam can learn their green ideas.