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.