week 14 19th April-25th April

I started teaching practice this week. I am in Renaissance college, an English Schools foundation (ESF) school. I have to wake up at six to get ready and take a bus into Tai Po bus centre. From there I take the MTR to the end of the blue line-Tai Wai. I change to the brown line and get off at Heng On stop. The school is right opposite the MTR stop, so no walking required.

The school is an Australian international school and has a International Baccalaureate curriculum based on the PYP system. Children from every nationality attend the school. There are many local school and then children from the many European and African countries as well as Canada and the US. There is also a good representation from other South East Asian countries, there are a lot of Indians that attend the school.

On Monday I went to a meeting in the staff room and the staff seem to be as diverse as the students. The teacher in the classroom beside wears a hi jab and the RCHK school is very aware of different backgrounds and allowing people to express who they are through religious or cultural attire. The meeting was a chance for the teachers to hear about whats happening in each year group, to bring up any problems or suggestions. The up coming sports day and the problem of spinning tops destroying the tables are some of the things that are discussed.

I will be working with the year five during my time at RCHK. The teacher I am working with is Jo Kennard and she comes from New Zealand. She has been really helpful from the start especially after the observer wanted to come out and see me on my second day, before I had even planned to teach. On Monday Ms Kennard talked to me about the inquiry based learning that is encouraged at the school. She explained that the teachers role is really to facilitate learning and so as a year five group of teachers they always decide what their learning outcomes are for a topic but they give the children a lot of autonomy for the learning process. The curriculum is very skills focused. The school is very committed to developing well functioning citizens of the future. One aspect of this is recognising the importance of technology in daily life. The school has poured a lot of money into technology and as a mac school prides itself on the 1to1 ratio of laptop to child. There are also two desk tops in each classroom but the children can go and take a lap top from a trolley station outside the classroom when they need to.

The children are looking at everything related to news at the moment. So on Monday there was an opportunity for the teacher to link learning with learning profiles-E.g. good communicators and also attitudes-like integrity for writing for the news story. The children are finding, gathering, writing, assembling and broadcasting news. The main topics they are looking at is the Chinese earthquake that just happened a week ago and the Icelandic cloud. It is important to have local and national news. The doors are decorated with newspapers and the bulletins covered with news stories that the children have been bringing in each day.

Morning Routine:

On a Monday morning there is a meeting with all the staff at 8 o'clock, every other day school starts at 8.40 and so teachers are expected to be in around 8 and no later then 20 past.

The children come in from the playground and usually look to see what will be happening during the day. The teacher has a timetable showing what happens every week and then puts in any other special events that will be happening. There is also a daily list for example Art, Chinese//break time//maths,home learning, current events//buddy class and sports. The children usually spend a few minutes in the morning becoming familiar with the timetable. They like to know what's happening and it also makes them responsible for being in the right place at the right time without having to ask the teacher all the time. Every child's temperature must be recorded. They do this at home and write it down in their diary's, this is then collected. Its a precaution the school has taken since swine flu and is recommended by the government.

On Tuesday; There was a supply teacher in because the class teacher was away for training in PYP. Obviously routines were lost but I was able to see how important routines are for children even this older age group. Having a very clear routine saves a lot of time. Also having things written up on the board makes students feel more comfortable, there aren't surprises they know what to get ready for the next lesson.

I really enjoyed attending Spirit morning. Each of the children belong to different houses-Quing, Ming, Song and Tang-The different dynasty's of China. There are children from each age group in the different houses and the idea is to build the school community and give children the chance to mix with different from different classes and years then themselves. The children learnt many chats, sang their house song and got prepared for sports day when the older children will partake in activities in the afternoon against peers. They will clock up points for their different houses. For the younger children the activities are just for fun and no points will be awarded.

On Tuesday I took my first lesson. I taught a creative writing lesson. It was about myths and Tall Tales. I began by showing the children a picture of the giant's causeway and I told them the story of how it was formed. They really loved the story about the Irish and Scottish Giants. We then discussed what a myth was and I told them a tall story about my own life. I wrote up their WALT which was to write a creative story that made an unbelievable event seem believable. Myths and tall stories often weave the unbelievable part of the story with details that can be very accurate about a place or did indeed happen. WILFs were to write in paragraphs and to have a beginning, middle and end. To have a realistic setting, to introduce something fictitious and to finish off the story. We discussed the way tall stories are often told with feeling and emotion sometimes the stories have been passed on through generations that people begin to really believe them and this affects the way they are told.

The most important part of teaching is to be reflective. Reflecting on this experience, I feel that the lesson could have gone better if I'd just focused on one area, like I'm looking for a good beginning,setting a realistic scene, and then taking this further next lesson. Building up the different sections of the story until the children can write one full piece including all the different areas discussed over a few English lessons. The children were also confused between what parts of the stories needed to be believable and unbelievable. Time limitations meant the lesson was ruched. On the plus side, some of the stories were brilliant but there was a range so more work needs to be done to pull the weaker students up. As suggested above spreading the key areas over a period of time will help them bring the areas together to write one good piece which includes all the criteria that a myth or tall story should include.

Wednesday was back to normal with the class teacher back. In RCHK there are specialist teachers for Chinese, music, art and library periods. This means the children have to move around quite a bit but from observing these different lessons its wonderful to see how high a quality of teaching there is. Students are offered experiences and opportunities that wouldn't be possible without specially designed rooms and specialist teachers for these art subjects. It was interesting to watch a music lesson. The children had written their own song, the teacher put it to music and during this lesson the children were recording. The children had to decide as a class what music to put in the background and it was great to hear their efforts. One classroom management method I thought was good for a music class was to make the child who was misbehaving to have to do the opposite of the rest of the children. So if everyone is standing up they must sit down or if everyone is seated they must stand up. This is a reminded to others to behave and makes the child think about their actions. This is only used for a few minutes until they are ready to join everyone again.

I showed the teacher my lesson plans for teaching the two highest groups guided reading. They were okay but didn't fit in with the way the school does guided reading. The teacher's advice was to take a WALT and let the children come up with their own WILFs then as a group we do one example written up by me but lead by the children. Then the children have to read some more pages into themselves quietly and then do their own example in their reading books. The topic was note taking and the idea was to get the children away from thinking note taking is just bullet points. The children were really successful during these lessons and were able to link learning from maths. With some guidance the children choose mind mapping as the best technique for displaying the given material. The best practice that I picked up about guided reading in Renaissance is the Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy. Its quiet common to find that children will listen when the teacher talks but not to their own classmates. The TPS strategy means that the children have to listen to each other. It encourages listening to one another. I told the children they would be asked to share what their partner said. Most of them were able to do it but some fell into the old trap and talked about their own ideas. It was important to give gentle reminders that they were talking about what their partner had said. It would be good to use TPS more until the children really do it well.

Thursday, I took the lower two groups for guided reading. This gave me an opportunity to see what a range their was in reading levels in one class. The children are all reading about news but the lowest group read their book twice. They also do examples in one lesson and concentrate on reading the next. The other groups do both in each lesson and can cope with a much faster pace, in fact require the faster pace to ensure they get the challenge they need.

The children also have assigned periods in the library. An important part of PYP schools is that everyone is trained including the librarians. The children had a few minutes to choose a book and then they sat and read for about 25 minutes. The librarian then called the children over to one corner. She read important notices, told them about book week and a few library competitions-one to come up with a new logo for to go on all library productions and the other to answer questions about the recommended book of the month. I was really impressed with the school library. There were TV screens with top ten book recommendations for the different year groups. There was a section off to one side of computers. Upstairs there are meeting rooms that can be booked out by the older students and by staff as well.

week 13 12th April-18th April

Personal and Cultural Development

This week a few friends and I were able to get our hands on tickets to attend a christian conference held at the local Baptist University. The speaker spoke on key Christian fundamentals and also presented his viewpoints as someone who used to be a strong atheist. The conference was translated into Chinese and I found it very amusing that the Chinese would laugh at something that when said in English no one reacted.

My hall was having a singing contest so I went along on Wednesday night to enjoy the karaoke style evening. There were groups, dues and solos. There was a great range from those who had been signed up by friends to those like Luci above who has vocal cords like no other. Almost every night of the week there is an event in HKIEd and sometimes too many events going on that it is hard to choose which one to attend. HKIEd seems to have clubs for everything including the puntunqua and lomographic, Russian photography to mention a few of my favourites.

TST is a hub for people from all over, with the Mosque only a minutes walk from one of the MTR stations. Its always interesting to pass by on a Sunday and to observe the woman taking off their shoes in a different area and entering through a different door from the men. The mosque is made up of two floors, the upper floor is for teaching and the lower floor is set in a way that allows salat, the special rituals prayers to be carried out.

Professional Development

This week I have been so busy getting all my assignments finished before teaching practice starts. I finished my film analysis on sense and sensibility and have learnt a lot about teaching film. I have now got a wider vocabulary to describe filming techniques. Films are a useful tool in today's classrooms and so I'm excited about putting my new skills into practice. I also completed my science and critical thinking report outline on Stem Cell Research and have about 800 more words to write of my 3000 word essay on The identity of Hong Kong people. This essay looks at how years of Japanese and British occupation has affected how the people feel about themselves in a city which is often described as East meets West. The work on Embryonic Stem Cell has really stretched me as I think about ethics, analyse other viewpoints and decide where I stand on the issue.

Despite being so busy with work on Sunday I took a break to go to church and afterwards headed to a gallery display in one of the nearby malls. The gallery was in aid of charity. The charities name is lifeline express and it was very interesting to learn more about what it does. According to China's ministry of health there are 4million cataract sufferers with an increase of 500,000 new cases each year and most of them live in villages. Lifeline Express is a custom built Hospital Eye train which travels to remote areas. It is a gift to China from the Hong Kong and Macau area. So while I was looking at art it was great to hear the story behind what the sale of the art would go to do.

Week 12 5th April -11th April

Personal and Cultural Development

After much searching on the Internet we found an English service so we could worship on Easter Sunday but unfortunately when we arrived the service had already begun and we had been misinformed the service was in fact only in Taiwanese. This was a little disappointing as Easter is a special time for us but we made our way to the train station to meet with the others and head to a baseball game.

We also visited Cing Jing farm which was an amazing experience because of the outstanding beauty of this area. There were sheep castles, places to visit baby rabbits and trails that afforded the most amazing views.

Professional Development

In 2004 I spent a year in Thailand with an organisation called OMF. I was able to e-mail people back home and find out some OMF folks were just an hour away from TaiPei in a place called TaiChung. During our time in Taiwan they were going to be hosting a team from Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church and it worked out for us to join them.

On my first day in Tai Chung I meet the Eastwoods and Lucy took us to see her mother-in-law. It was great to be in a real Taiwanese home, sipping pumpkin juice and eating rice cakes. We entered a spacious and clean white room that was designed to keep us cool. There were the usual Buddhist shrines about the place including the female god that grants wishes to all females.

The next day we met with the team and were given a talk on the culture of Taiwan and then taken to visit one of their temples. This temple can be seen for miles around because of the big God that sits on the roof. This temple is especially important to business people because of the gods that it houses. There are six floors to the temple and people preform different rituals with different pleas being said depending on the floor and the gods that are enshrined on that floor. We were able to observe people throwing two wooden shaped oval sticks onto the ground. We were informed that if the wooden ovals land a certain way the answer is 'yes', if they land on opposite sides then they must ask again and if they both land turned away this is meant to be the gods laughing at their silly question and they know not to repeat it!

In the temple their are many cow statues on the first floor. It is interesting to see the influences of Hinduism on Buddhism and this is one example. There are also lots of goldfish symbolising gold and good luck in ponds surrounding the temple walls. There are also hundreds of turtles which represent long life.

Visiting the temples in Taiwan was an interesting experience for me because of the ornate way the building is decorated. There is artwork everywhere and vivid colours are used to paint the statues, making it an intriguing place to spend a few hours.

The best part of being in Tai Chung was getting to visit the local university. We had the opportunity to teach English in a very informal setting. The students were told to take us out for lunch and to ask us the questions they had prepared in a previous class. They wanted to know all about Ireland and so we answered questions that ranged from the weather to how woman thought about body shape. The students grades relied on their ability to ask and answer some questions. The students paid for us which was very sweet so if I was grading they'd get an A*.

Later in the afternoon, we had a cultural exchange where we taught the students how to Irish dance. The programme 3was broken up by including a piece by the Irish team followed by a piece from the Taiwanese students. We sang Molly Malone, The belle of Belfast City and In Christ Alone. They put on a skit from Enchanted and we got to enjoy a show from their hip hop team.

In the evening, we held a coffee bar. Some of the team shared their stories and why they had come to Taiwan. We played games and got the Taiwanese students to write down some of our favourite food dishes so we could order out alone.

Week 11 29th March -4th April

Personal and Cultural Development

This has been an amazing week full of travel and new adventures everyday. We have two weeks off for Easter and have decided to spend 12 days in Taiwan. There are four of us going so we've had many planning meetings to book hostels and decide on the route, also to make sure that we make it to every ones' top sightseeing destinations. We started in Taipei, the capital city and I was struck by how many scooters there were. So many that it was sometimes hard to find a space at the curb to cross with enough room.

Anyone who has been to Hong Kong will know that there is a British feel about it. In comparison Taiwan has an American feel. While you find cricket pitches in Hong Kong, Taiwan in contrast has Baseball stadiums, even in the sleepy towns. Obama English schools could be spotted and signs used American English.

Shopping is amazing in Taiwan. Of course there is a big black market in Taiwan. I've been informed that the Taiwanese working in the factories will hide away some items from each batch. This then supplements their low pay when they sell on to the market vendors where many locals and tourists come for a bargain. One of the most exciting stores that Michaela and I found was a Beatrix Potter store.

The Taiwanese are also very proud of their food and beautiful Buddist temples.

Professional Development

While in Taipei, we visited the National Palace museum. We hiked for about two hours looking for it, only to realise when we got to the bottom again and a taxi ride later we had been climbing the wrong hill. We were fortunate to be just in time for an English guided tour however. Our guide was very enthusiastic and proud of the collection the museum had. Her enthusiasm meant we forgot how tired we were from trying to find the place. She was very knowledgeable and even managed to interest us in 'chicken dishes'. She possessed a lot of the skills of a good teacher should have.

We also went camping in the National Park, and it was interesting to notice tags on the trees for identification purposes. We were also able to do a some bird watching in this park. The worst part of camping in Taipei National Park was

when we were hiking to our campsite after dinner in town, we spotted a snake. It wasn't the best thing to notice before spending a night out in the great outdoors but we survived and had a lot of fun.

As a Geography student it was very exciting to be able to visit the Sulphur Mountains in the National Park.

We all look very happy but it was very smelly with all that sulphur being released from the hill side through air holes.

We travelled from Taipei to Hsinchu and one of the highlights there was visiting the Japanese style buildings and learning about the occupation period. When the Japanese first invaded Taiwan and took over, the people were treated more like slaves but by the end of the occupation period it has been noted that the two got on more amicably. This good relationship seems to have lasted and Japanese influences are seen, even celebrated around Taiwan.

Week 10 22nd March -28th March

Disney Land; Hong Kong

Personal and Cultural Development

You can't visit or stay in Hong Kong for any length of time and not go to see Disney Land at least once. Even the Tibetan monks find the lure of i-max, meeting Disney characters and going on the rides irresistible.

I also attended a talk on Burma which Michaela told me about. There was a visiting professor from another local university who has humanitarian projects on the Thai/Burma border. His talk was a quick overview of their history and an insight into the military mindset and how they feel they are doing the best for their country while the rest of the world looks on and describes the acts as inhumane, They justify their actions as building a better future. They see the casualties of today as an investment for a better future and this has lead to so many atrocities that I could scarcely listen to.

Professional Development

This week Jamie, another exchange student from Scotland and I, organised a school visit to Kennedy school. Its part of the English schools Foundation (ESF) and we were interested to see what a modern liberal education looked like in practice. Before we began the tour of the school the vice-principal spent some time with us in her office talking about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP). The programme advertises itself as more then just a curriculum and prides itself on developing the whole child. This is an interesting concept that is often talked about in Educational debates but it was exciting to see a school based on the English Curriculum but embracing the fact that it was located in Asia and needed to accommodate for the different background's the children in its school were coming from. For example the school offered Mandarin and Cantonese classes, celebrated both Eastern and Western holidays and put a major emphasis on teaching skills, concepts and attitudes that will help these children find a job in Hong Kong coined the 'World's City' or beyond.

There was a high staff to child ratio with class sizes being around 20. The school was designed effectively and I was able to observe how useful an extra room shared between two classrooms was. This provided space for students to work in groups, read quietly or work on another project and not distract the rest of the class. In most of these extra rooms there was a teacher's assistant preparing work for the next lesson who was also there to supervise and facilitate learning. In one of these extra rooms the children showed us a science project that they had been working on. It was their responsibility to find time during the day to see how the experiment was going and to write down their observations over a number of weeks.

Another very important aspect of the school is the value it places on reading. The school had comics that were laminated in the library. The vice president pointed out that their aim was to make sure reading in the formative years was enjoyable and that there was a good selection from comics to reference books in the library. The IBPYP requires that all staff are educated in its aims and this includes the Librarians. The librarians had 'inquiry time' with the students and were like an extra teacher. In most schools I've visited the librarians are very helpful but spent most of their time arranging books and checking them out. Its encouraging to see how an effective school values each member of staff. I believe that the children benefit greatly from being part of a community where all the adults are trained in the same programme and given time to pass on their expertise.