“A
teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops”- Henry
Brooks Adams.
With teaching in full swing for both Heather and I,
and subsequently each of us finishing our days with endless stories about the
children in our class, it is safe to say that we are loving our time in school!
Both of my classes wrote about me in their weekly journals this week and I’m
not ashamed to say that some of their responses literally had me on the brink
of tears (and that wasn’t because of the comments about my ‘big, pointy nose’
or receding hairline!) with most of them talking about my patience, my sense of
humour, or their amazement that I managed to learn all their names in the space
of fifteen minutes!
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| Paul from 5A was very please with his weekly journal entry about me! |
It’s a very strange concept to get used to teaching
a class for an hour, at the most, each day, and in between times going to a
designated room to do planning in preparation for the next day’s lessons. At
home, it takes no time at all before close relationships are built between the
teacher and the students, due to the fact that they spend all day with each
other, but here, it takes longer as children have different teachers for each
subject within the curriculum. Heather and I have both recognised this as one
of our personal struggles, so interacting with the pupils during recess, in
addition to class time, has been our biggest priority of the week. It has been
amazing to see how well the students react to our additional efforts with them.
The children also respond very positively to the variety of teaching resources
and lesson ideas that I have used during my lessons. I think versatility is
such an important quality for a teacher to possess, and using a variety of
teaching methods can help keep children more interested and engaged in what is
being learnt.
We got the chance to visit some students at their
homes this week. On Thursday, I went home with Jackie Chan (not the actor) and
his two brothers Henry and Charles, and I spent the evening just playing games
with the boys, and enjoying a lovely meal with the family. The school also organised
for us to have a tour of Tai Po, which was an incredible experience as we were
able to see some of the sights, that we would have never dreamed of visiting,
if it wasn’t for the company of the local students and parents who acted as our
tour-guides for the morning. Interacting with the children in a situation
outside of the walls of the classroom was an invaluable experience in getting
to know them as individuals, and it also allowed them the chance to use their
English skills to communicate with me. At first, some of the children were
quite shy, reserved and unwilling to engage in a conversation with me, but,
just like in a classroom by building up their confidence, they opened up more
and I learnt a lot about them. The PTA of the school have been really supportive
in helping us to really concrete meaningful relationships with the children by
organising opportunities like this for us to participate in. Both Heather and I
will visit two other families next week, and I really look forward to sharing
my experiences of Hong Kong with them.
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| Henry, Jackie and I exploring the gardens before dinner. |
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| The Chan family prepared some typical Chinese dishes for me. |
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| Some of the children and I at the Tai Po Railway Museum. |
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| Experiencing the Tai Po Market. |
Some children in our school were participating in a
modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ this weekend,
in which five schools from the local area came together to demonstrate how
Shakespeare’s work can be used to create a ‘worldwide classroom’. Our school’s
part was amazing, and I was blown away by the talent of the pupils who took
part. The fact that these children, who speak English as their second or third
language, were able to recite Shakespeare so well was amazing. Both Heather and
I stood proudly in the wings, while the children performed, with two ridiculously
cheesy smiles from one ear to another. We’ve been able to build such close
relationships with these children in the short time that we’ve spent with them,
and I was honestly so proud of them after the show. Looking at it from a more
professional viewpoint, it struck me how teachers can very easily
under-estimate the potential that children have, and pushing children to
succeed and to aim high in life in general, is a key quality which I will
definitely make a focus in my future classroom. I think at the same time that
drama has a massive potential for the primary classroom in not only attributing
to the children’s creative development, but also in allowing the children to
express themselves as individuals, and it plays a significant role in their
holistic development. Above all else, I’ve been reminded that my job is not
restricted to the four walls of the classroom, and to a specific list of academic
subjects, but to the education of the whole child, and in preparing them for
future life, as a member of a global society.
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| All the cast and crew of 'Shakespeare: A Worldwide Classroom'. |
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| Zach, Adrian, Edmund and I backstage during the show. |
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| Watching from the wings- the cast take their final bows. |
Shirley, Jackie’s mother, asked me on Thursday
night, what I had wanted to work as when I was younger. When I told her that I actually always wanted
to be a teacher, and that I used to pretend that my teddies were children in my
class, she smiled and said “so you’re actually fulfilling your dreams now?” My
time in the Hong Kong classroom has been so rewarding both on a personal and a
professional level, and I have no reservations to say that I will be returning
to Northern Ireland as a much better-rounded teacher than I was when I left. I
have one more week in the primary school, and I am expecting it to be a very
emotional one indeed… I don’t want it to end!
我想這將持續到永遠! (If only this could last forever!)
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| Jackie and Henry called me their big brother! |
Andrew Scott
