(3 May) Day 7 is the final day for me to update you before I return home. I will fly back tomorrow evening.
The feature today was our final school visit: Tartu Erakool. We took a 2 hour 15 min bus ride to reach Tartu from Tallinn. Tartu Erakool is a private school serving students from Year 1 to 6, very similar to YWPS. The school's population is rather small. It has only around 250 students in total. However, it was very well designed into a cozy, vibrant and energetic place for interactive learning.
Although we didn't have a chance to formally observe their lessons, I fortunately spoke to a Primary 6 girl, who was the chair-lady of the Student Council. She told me that her team helped solve problems that their schoolmates encountered and her position was won by an election. She was obviously very proud of her role. Perhaps our school should also have an official student council one day! Our boys could definitely handle that!
I also spoke to a teacher who only started to teach in this school a year ago. She was from Ukraine and she told me how friendly the teaching approach was in Tartu Erakool in comparison to where she was from. She said that in here, teachers and students were just like friends. Teachers didn't need to raise their voices to discipline students. If needed, teachers would only keep talking to the students and sooner or later things would work out fine. That was a good inspiration to me too because indeed it may make things worse if teachers are always taking the high and authoritative role. I agree that a more friendly relationship can help build a more positive teaching and learning environment.
After a satisfying lunch at the school, we went out to visit the town of Tartu. It is the second largest city in Estonia (the largest one being Tallinn) and it recently earned the prestigious title of European Capital of Culture 2024. That explains why the city was full of tourists and festive aura.
Overall, this day can be described as "delightful" as we went to a very bright school with a lot of cheerful children (I personally like this school the best in the whole tour). And the biggest blessing today is that, despite the long travelling hours from Tallinn to Tartu and back, the traffic was safe and smooth and we went back to our hotel timely. I feel grateful for the driver in particular.
As I said, this is the final post before I return to Hong Kong. So, please take your chance to answer my questions below and/or the previous ones. I will be rewarding the best students who gave me quality answers when I return to school on Monday, 6 May.
I hope you enjoy my posts as much as I do writing them. See you all soon!
Dr Lee
_________________________________
QUESTION TIME:
The feature today was our final school visit: Tartu Erakool. We took a 2 hour 15 min bus ride to reach Tartu from Tallinn. Tartu Erakool is a private school serving students from Year 1 to 6, very similar to YWPS. The school's population is rather small. It has only around 250 students in total. However, it was very well designed into a cozy, vibrant and energetic place for interactive learning.
Although we didn't have a chance to formally observe their lessons, I fortunately spoke to a Primary 6 girl, who was the chair-lady of the Student Council. She told me that her team helped solve problems that their schoolmates encountered and her position was won by an election. She was obviously very proud of her role. Perhaps our school should also have an official student council one day! Our boys could definitely handle that!
I also spoke to a teacher who only started to teach in this school a year ago. She was from Ukraine and she told me how friendly the teaching approach was in Tartu Erakool in comparison to where she was from. She said that in here, teachers and students were just like friends. Teachers didn't need to raise their voices to discipline students. If needed, teachers would only keep talking to the students and sooner or later things would work out fine. That was a good inspiration to me too because indeed it may make things worse if teachers are always taking the high and authoritative role. I agree that a more friendly relationship can help build a more positive teaching and learning environment.
After a satisfying lunch at the school, we went out to visit the town of Tartu. It is the second largest city in Estonia (the largest one being Tallinn) and it recently earned the prestigious title of European Capital of Culture 2024. That explains why the city was full of tourists and festive aura.
Overall, this day can be described as "delightful" as we went to a very bright school with a lot of cheerful children (I personally like this school the best in the whole tour). And the biggest blessing today is that, despite the long travelling hours from Tallinn to Tartu and back, the traffic was safe and smooth and we went back to our hotel timely. I feel grateful for the driver in particular.
As I said, this is the final post before I return to Hong Kong. So, please take your chance to answer my questions below and/or the previous ones. I will be rewarding the best students who gave me quality answers when I return to school on Monday, 6 May.
I hope you enjoy my posts as much as I do writing them. See you all soon!
Dr Lee
_________________________________
QUESTION TIME:
1. What room were we in? Please explain your answer.
2. Interesting artworks are everywhere in Tartu. This piece of work at a street caught my eyes. Can you tell me what message(s) this piece of art wants to tell people?
