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New Friends from Singapore!

11/28/2016

1 Comment

 
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It was a very special and enjoyable experience for our school to host 30 energetic and intelligent Singapore students from Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) last week (24-25 Nov) together with some valuable professional sharing with their teachers.

It was an immersion programme for the selected students in their school and YWPS was the only school they visited during their one-week stay in Hong Kong. The boys and girls were at P.5 level and thus they joined our P.5 classes to have lessons like what we do daily! It was truly a great cultural exchange opportunity for both sides particularly because these foreign students spoke English more than Putonghua!
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Ms Cheng was so glad receiving a souvenir from the visiting students.
In Ms Jackie Cheng's lesson, students learnt to write a poem. Ms Cheng reflected, "These two days were very special and unique. I was teaching six students from Fairfield Methodist School (2 girls and 4 boys) with my own 5E students. The lessons were on ‘Writing a Limerick’. Students were very creative during brainstorming and had all kinds of funny stories to share, since writing limericks is all about fun and humour.
    "During the second lesson, they started to write on their own. After they finished their work, they eagerly and proudly presented their poems. Both Fairfield students and Ying Wa boys took turns to read aloud their poems in front of the class. It was a wonderful session of group as well as individual effort where everyone put their best foot forward. Some limericks were really hilarious, and had us laughing aloud. Our 5E boys were at their best and did not feel conscious about the fact that they were speaking in front of foreign students, especially girls!"
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Teachers from Singapore had a brilliant sharing session with our English teachers on their method of teaching writing to young learners. Mr Richard had this reflection afterwards, "I spent a couple of lessons with the teachers from Singapore. They demonstrated to us how they engage their students (in Singapore) in the task of writing short compositions. One noticeable feature was the time spent in pre-writing tasks. It was clear to them that the pre-writing engagement process is fundamental in helping students produce good quality writing. As they said, “You only get out of students what you put it to students!”
    "On reflection, it was useful to see a different approach to teaching writing. And it was clear from the sample of students’ work that they showed us that their students took ownership of the task out of enjoyment rather than necessity."
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In return, I did my sharing with the visiting Singapore teachers (they taught both English and Maths)! I talked about what the English Department does in general and introduced specifically our reading schemes and our speech and drama approach. It was a real exchange as we discussed our similarities and differences very openly. 
  I was delighted that My audience was interested knowing how our boys learn English and was amazed particularly by our video productions!
    I strongly recommended that they visit our English Department website to view our updates! I felt relaxed delivering my speech as these teachers were very friendly and helpful. I wish to have more chances to speak to them and learn more from them especially since they were one of the top schools in their country. We teachers treasured this exchange as much as our boys did.
After this experience, I guess you can foresee what may come next...we may be bringing students to their school in the future! But when? And who to be sent? Well, I want to know that too. I hope we will not need to wait for too long to know the answers. Boys, perhaps if you write to Mrs Lam, she can start considering such a Singapore trip sooner! I hope to see you guys interacting with Singapore students again in the near future.

That is all for now. More updates soon!

Dr H C Lee
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Seoul – A City of Contrast

11/13/2016

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The Traditional Side: Food 
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A typical meal in our tour with dishes of kimchi on the table.
Korean food is an important element of their culture. It provides taste, medicine, and a connection to the country. A traditional Korean meal usually consists of rice, a bowl of soup and a number of side dishes. Its most distinguishing feature is the amount of fermented foods served at every meal, which are known to be good for health. The most iconic fermented food must be kimchi. For centuries, Koreans have kept their habits of eating kimchi with lunch, dinner and even breakfast! They take much pride in this national dish. In order to find out more about this important part of the Korean culture, we paid a visit to the Kimchi School.
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Teachers trying to prepare kimchi...lots of fun!
At the school, the history and the process of making kimchi were illustrated vividly through the use of words and life-like models. The commonly used ingredients are more than just cabbage and red chili paste, in fact, soy sauce, salt and garlic are often needed too. The highlight of the visit was the experience of making kimchi by ourselves. The finished products will be sent to the homes for the elderly as presents. We hope the elderly will have a warm winter enjoying the tasty kimchi we prepared.
The Modern Side: Architecture
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A wavy construction we could see in the city. What building is it?
Seoul is evolving at an astonishing pace. A world-class global image has been created through its modern architecture. Take a quick stroll on the street in Seoul and you’ll find yourself surrounded by skyscrapers and construction.
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Under Stand Avenue - an interesting shopping area
​Their creativity in architecture is shown at the Under Stand Avenue, a special cultural space started in 2015. Shops and restaurants are built with recycled shipping containers. This project aims at providing job opportunities for the minority groups (the “under”) and allowing them to become independent (“stand” for themselves”). The visit inspired me on how creativity can be used in a meaningful way to help the needy.
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More modern buildings
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An Astonishing building design visible at night
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A classic night view of Seoul. Similar to Hong Kong?
Miss Candy Ho
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Exhilarating Experiences in South Korea

11/12/2016

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​South Korea is one of the countries with the most advanced technology. Look around and you will notice numerous Korean technologies, including famous companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai ETC. Teachers of Ying Wa had exhilarating experiences during our educational tour to South Korea (2-6 Nov 2016). The followings are some highlights for your enjoyment!

TeamLab World
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Dr Lee and Mr Tam "blossoming" in style
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Mr Richard practising his art
​TeamLab World allowed us to immerse ourselves in the world of art and technology. The experience was not limited to a touch screen. Teachers were surrounded by digitized images that responded to our motion. In Flower Blossom, if we touch the walls, flowers will blossom, creating an environment for butterflies. In Light Ball Orchestra, when we hit one of the big balls, it will not only change the color but also compose different sounds, orchestrating vibrant music. In Sketch Aquarium, teachers demonstrated the power of creative imagination by sketching their own sea creature and bringing it to life in the digital aquarium by scanning it. Before exiting into the reality again, the 3-dimensional light space blew our imagination into a crystal universe, where our movements affected the light particles and created changes in the installation. 

Digital Pavilion
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Mrs Lam enjoying her digital make-up
​Digital Pavilion offered teachers a look into IT-related products in its ubiquitous lifestyle experience center. In iCar, teachers could design their own car on a tablet PC. In iComestic, teachers could choose the style that best suited them from the virtual make-up images and find the product recommendations. Digital Pavilion demonstrated to us how technology advancements could be applied in our daily life. 

KBS
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Mrs Lam and Dr Lee improvised a conversation as news anchors
​In the KBS tour, teachers experienced radio and television broadcasting production firsthand. In the radio drama studio, teachers experienced how the voices of the characters could be dubbed in the production process. In 9 o'clock news corner, teachers had the chance to act as news reporters and worked out the dialogues within the time limit.

Pop Culture
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The screaming crowd was addicted to the performance of a group of Korean pop singers.
​Korea is well-known for its pop culture. Unexpectedly, after the visit to the Digital Pavilion, teachers witnessed how K-pop fans worshipped their idols as there was a music function nearby. Hundreds of K-pop fans gathered under a huge screen, cheering and yelling with excitement whenever they saw their idols appear on screen in the music video. A little away from the screen, close to the street, another hundreds of fans queued up, hoping just to have a glance of their idols upon their arrival!
Have you ever been to South Korea? What do you think about it? Share with us your exhilarating experiences


​Ms Jenny Ho

19 Comments

A Sincere Cultural Visit at Guil Elementary School, Seoul

11/4/2016

34 Comments

 
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The entrance of Guil Elementary School
Today, 4 Nov, we visited the second and last school in our itinerary (the GS teachers had other destinations though) - Guil Elementary School, Seoul. It is another large government school with over 1,300 students. Again, we valued so much their friendliness and great attitude for cultural exchanges.

Just like my writing for the first school yesterday, allow me to walk you through this experience through my photography!
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Their School Head, Ms Nam, did a friendly opening speech with a comprehensive slideshow projected at the back with English subtitles. We were all amazed to know that Ms Nam's old son was a graduate in Beijing! This gave a great bonding between us.
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Their staff taught us to make a "Traditional Patterned Mirror" as a souvenir. It was quite a challenge for us as it needed very advanced folding techniques! But the end products were beautiful!
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We paid a visit to their history lesson. The children at the back were interested, again, in Mr Richard! Although they spoke limited English, they were eager to converse with Mr Richard as well as some other teachers of YWPS. And this lesson was conducted in groups through tablets. It was not a surprise at all considering the technological standard of Korea.
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Just next door, we came into another class which, interestingly, we had very little information about. We could see that the children were sitting in groups doing some activities with fake money. The children seemed very focused and excited about the task.
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Before we left, we could briefly observe the children's outdoor activities. That could be their PE lesson, I was not sure. But the children were all enjoying their ball games and free running on their large playground. Children do need space to vent out their energy so that they can calm down during lessons! Agree?
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Ms Eve Lee represented YWPS to present souvenirs to Guil.
It was another fantastic experience visiting a local school and interacting with the nice people there. Language barrier was not a great issue knowing that we were all very open to each other for a genuine exchange. These visits always give us fond memories and energy to improve ourselves as educators.

I would love to end this article with the picture below. It wasn't taken at Guil, but it isn't at all a bad idea when it shows two handsome teachers in front of the charming autumn leaves! We will be back soon and more sharings will surely follow!

Dr H C Lee
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At Seoul Forest (Photo courtesy: Mr Chan Shue-hung); who's more handsome?
34 Comments

A Warm Visit to Dangseo Elementary School, Seoul

11/3/2016

26 Comments

 
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The main building of Dangseo Elementary School
The Korea Study Tour of YWPS simply couldn't be done without a school visit. And our thirst for knowledge and cultural exchange brought us to this government school in Seoul - Dangseo Elementary School.

Arriving this morning (3 Nov), we were immediately impressed by its physical openness and the sense of liveliness from the excited children trying to use English to communicate with us. The school was built in the 80s and the School Head, Mr Lee, has just taken up the position for a year. So, this school is rather new.

Getting into the campus, there were several things that struck me:
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It is always most effective to impress others with your unique cultural acts. These junior students played us a traditional tune with a great Korean flavour. Their outfit was so sharp! Their attitude was so welcoming!
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The Head of School Mr Lee in the library. Note that he was wearing indoor footwear as a usual custom in this country. This gives one a "home" feeling in the school.
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Mrs Ho and Mr Tam were glad meeting students passing by in their rush hour for lunch! The School Head was proudly watching over.
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Mr Richard was so popular even in Korea! He was obviously overwhelmed by the super excited girls welcoming a foreigner! 
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Mr Dick "intruded" their maths class with most of them still outdoors working on a maths activity. Mr Dick found that students there were learning about angles. This teacher did not find us disturbing at all!
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Their energetic and animate English Native-speaking Teacher was doing a fun sharing with a senior class. A female translator was assisting throughout the lesson.
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Happy classrooms bring happy learning! Every classroom in this elementary school was very well decorated with students' colourful work. Students seemed to enjoy viewing the pieces too!
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A farewell handshake between the two School Heads.
In reflection, this visit clearly fostered a good cultural exchange between YWPS and Dangseo Elementary School although there was much more room for concrete exchange in curriculum planning. We love that they were all being so friendly during our 2-hour stay and that their children were so aggressive and curious! Children all over the world need the same passion to become great learners!

Finally, here are two more pictures for your inspiration:
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These children were so proud of their own country and traditions. Every one of us was moved by this heart of theirs.
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Mrs Lam in the School Head's office. There's something "sparkling" in this picture, can you see it? Haha...
More visits to come. It is so far a great adventure for us teachers who are always hunting for good teaching and learning ideas around the world for our boys in YWPS! Stay tuned!

Dr H C Lee
26 Comments

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