week 9 15thMarch -21st March

Personal and Cultural Experience

Temple street is an interesting place to go to in Hong Kong. One minute your fighting your way throgh street vendors selling products from all over Asia and then your amongst fortune tellers, who for a fee will tell you about any part of your future. There is also entertainment amongst the fortune tellers so we enjoyed some singing and some Chinese Opera after a traditional meal, in a restaurant that prides itself on being one of the oldest in the district. It seems that its kept the original tills.

Professional Development

This week I have been working on a presentation for my Hong Kong History and Culture class. Michaela and I choose to look at birth, dating, marriage and death and the surrounding traditions. We wanted to look at the influences on each of these stages in life. It was interesting to compare to the culture in the U.K and also to learn more about the importance of tradition in Hong Kong despite the presure of being a 'Global city' and modernising in a western way.

Norwegian school visit

The International Office set up a school visit to the local Norwegian International school. This is a very small school with only six classrooms. It was set up originally for the children of the missionaries from Norway so it was always meant to be small but now it is struggling to support itself and interestingly there is only one Norwegian child enrolled at the school at present. The school is set up on the international primary curriculum but is more child-centred. In one classroom I went around talking to the children who were all working on different projects that interested them. They had their seperate lap tops and the teacher circled around to challenge the children. There didn't seem to be any need for discipline because the children were all on task and very focused. The school was a lovely environment for the children because of the small classroom sizes there was a community feel. During break the children all played a game of touch rugby together with one of the teachers. I was impressed with the learning environment which seemed less focused on academics and more concerned with the childrens spiritual and moral development and their sense of enjoyment. As a trainee teacher, one thing that has made a lasting impression is the relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. The children are given a lot of freedom but their intrests are challened to ensure they pick up the neccessary skills. I would love to adopt this practice in my future classroom. The children were able to organise their time and work as part of a group in a more effective and mature way then most college students.

Week 8 8th March-14th March

Personal and Cultural Development

This week we went on an 'art walk'. Its an event that is sponsored by many different companies and restaurants to celebrate art in Hong Kong. You pay a fee which for students is a fourth of the cost. All the art galleries are opened and there is finger food and wine provided. It was an amazing evening spent at statue galleries, student galleries and even galleries where the art is produced to make us aware of human needs in the world.

This week I joined the Putonghua group and visited Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark is a replica of the real boat from the bible and has been made to the exact measurements. Inside it homes some less well known animals and is a celebration of the efforts of the Chinese team who went to Mount Arafat and found relics of what they suspect to be parts of the ark. Inside there is a video showing what it was like while Noah built the ark and what happened to the unrighteous. There is also a challenge from Earth boy to protect our Earth. I suspect that the earth boy section of the museum has something to do with the sponsorship of the Noah's Ark park.

Professional Development

This week we were asked to share with the Hong Kong students about Northern Ireland. The International Office wanted us to present our home country and university in such a way that would persuade students to apply for the exchange to our home university. In the slide opposite I am telling the students that Laurence is to Stranmillis what Carmen is to Hong Kong Institute of Education. I also invited Victor along to share with the interested students what class and extra curricular activities are like for exchange students coming to Stranmillis. I knew he would have a better idea then me.

Michaela talked about Saint Patrick and we made cards, while Jamie, from Scotland who also presented made family shields with the students and I played potato games to 'the belle of Belfast City' and warned the students that if they came they would have to replace rice with potato. Something previous Chinese exchange students have complained about.