“The
world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”- St. Augustine.
I literally cannot believe that I am sitting writing
my final blog. The question ‘where has time gone?’ is thrown around regularly,
but I am genuinely surprised that time has gone so fast. This experience has
been amazing, and the fact that it is all coming to an end is actually quite
saddening, but as the saying goes ‘all good things must come to an end’.
I can remember the looks that Heather and I
exchanged when we landed in Hong Kong, and the question ‘what are we doing
here?’ was asked on numerous occasions, particularly during our first week of
culture shock, and when the sheer scale of our adventure seemed intimidating.
Yet, here we are, fifteen weeks down the line, and looking back at our time
here as the best opportunity that we have ever been given.
Obviously as future teachers, gaining experience in
teaching in Hong Kong was a priority of ours. Comparing and contrasting Hong
Kong’s education system with that of Northern Ireland has helped us to
appreciate the positive aspects of the curriculum which we are so used to, as
well as giving us a chance to see where Hong Kong comes out on top, and hence
giving us plenty of ideas that we both hope to introduce within our future
classrooms. I also never expected that teaching English as a second language
would be so different from teaching it back home, but this learning experience
has taught me so much about my delivery during lessons, namely my diction and
the pace of my voice.
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| 5A |
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| 6B |
I was incredibly thankful to have been placed with
Miss Mak over the past three weeks, and it was great to learn from and observe
her in action. Miss Mak’s relationship with both classes that I was placed with
was very meaningful, and she actively cares for the children in her care. This
quality is something which I really respect, and being the children’s friend,
as well as their teacher, is a great way to keep them motivated in their
learning. I wholeheartedly wish that I will develop and be shaped into a
teacher like Miss Mak, and become someone who treasures their friendships with
the pupils, and to support the students in the highs and lows that they
experience in their journey through life. Although it is more ideal, in my
opinion, for the children to have the same class teacher all day long, as
opposed to a more specialist education, Miss Mak has put extra efforts into
developing friendships with the children, and in overcoming this potential
barrier to building more meaningful relationships with the students.
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| Miss Mak, Jason and I. |
The children in my classes responded very positively
to my interactive approach to teaching, and they really enjoyed playing some
games at the end of each class. I also used ‘WALT’ and ‘WILF’ consistently with
my classes, and after some getting used to, it really helped the pupils to be
more targeted with regards to what they were learning, and it also gave me the
opportunity to decipher between students who perhaps needed more assistance with
certain concepts and those who didn’t by asking the children if they felt the
learning intentions were achieved. In addition to this, I’ve learned a
considerable amount of other lesson and activity ideas which I will be able to
implement into my future classroom.
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| Teaching 5A about phrasal verbs. |
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| First and second place of 'Mr Scott says'. |
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| The children's favourite game to play is 'heads down, thumbs up'. |
This week both Heather and I embraced further
opportunities to visit some of the students at their homes. On Monday, I
travelled to Jacob’s home and both he and his father brought me to a local
restaurant for some traditional food- they were both very impressed by my
chopstick skills! Jacob’s English proficiency was obviously quite low as he was
only six years old, and as a result, communication with him was quite difficult.
However, being with him actually allowed me to put my very limited Cantonese
knowledge to the test, and I actually surprised myself at how quickly I was
able to pick up some of the phrases he was teaching me. On Thursday, my third
and final home visit took place. I visited Johnathan from year 5 and his
parents at their home. I have been constantly amazed at the kindness of the
Chinese people since day one, and it was such a great experience to have been
invited into three, very different Chinese homes and to see how the children
and their families live first hand.
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| Jacob and I during his home visit. |
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| Another very enjoyable home visit with Johnathan. |
This week, the International Office organised a
little farewell party for the international students. As each student shared
something about what they learned about themselves, it hit me just how grateful
I have been of having the support of other students who, like me, where spending
the semester immersed in an alien culture, and completely out of their comfort
zone. Although our time in Hong Kong has come to an end, we will treasure the
memories we’ve made here forever. I am definitely sad to leave, but with some
amazing opportunities to see countries we have never travelled to before on the
horizon, we are excited to discover what the next five weeks have in store for
us!
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| The international group: semester 2 2012. |
So the big question… If I could go back in time to
that moment just before I handed in my application to Margaret last year, would
I go ahead with it?…Answer? Absolutely, YES!
謝謝你這個機會! (Thank
you for this opportunity!)
Andrew Scott
