Hello from Hong Kong!

With this post I wanted to talk a little about my school, my last week, and my overall experiences here in Hong Kong and at the Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC).

I was placed with the English teacher at the school, so I didn’t have one class that I was in all the time, instead visiting all of the different classes throughout each day. I was really worried about this initially because I didn’t think I’d be able to make strong connections with the children. I’m very glad that I was wrong! I still struggled with some names (because most children have an English and a Chinese name!), but I made a lot of wonderful connections in every class and will always remember them.

I loved my time at the school and was surprised with how much I learned and will be able to use in my future. I was always super busy and I loved being able to work with very young children, which was my first more permanent placement with preschool aged kiddos. It was always interesting to talk to the children whether they were just learning English or developing their ability to use it. I have planned and implemented a unit of lessons, which I loved doing. In my unit, I was able to read stories, have the children decorate their own pancakes, and even made pancakes with each of my classes!  They had so much fun and loved talking about the story whenever they saw me throughout the week. I talked as much as I could with all the children and loved playing games or doing activities with them whenever I had the chance. I read a lot of stories to all different ages of children, helped with writing, danced and exercised with them, went on outings, participated in outdoor lessons/activities, and observed their daily activities and routines.

I have learned so much from this school. It’s interesting because I didn’t think I would learn too much that I would be able to implement in my future classroom because of how strict I believed the Hong Kong education system was. But this school is exempt from the rigidness that is seen in regular Hong Kong schools and they are proud of that! If I could find this type of school at home, I would jump at the chance to work there.

Overall I made SO many connections with students and I was surprised with how upset many of them were that I was leaving. The memories that I have made at ECLC will always be some of my favorite. I will miss my little ones very much!

I’m going to miss Hong Kong very much.  It was a very worthwhile experience and I’m so happy with how much travelling and adventuring we were able to fit in while we were here. Even though we were often exhausted, sore, and had a lot to do, we always pushed through and made the most of our time here. We have made an extreme amount of good memories and funny stories and I’m so happy with all that we’ve accomplished. I highly recommend completing your student teaching abroad!

Please reach out to me if you are ever thinking of going to complete your student teaching in Hong Kong (or elsewhere!), are already there and have questions, or just want to travel there for fun! (My email: annalisecarney@gmail.com)

Signing off for my last time in Hong Kong,

Annalise (or as my little ones will yell: “Miss Anna!”)

 

JCPS Overview 

Something I loved about this school was the fact that it was on campus. It was only about a 5 10 minute walk from the dorms. The campus is beautiful. It is very hard to explain it, but the recess areas were basically outside on each floor. The kids were able to go outside for recess everyday. The view is also BEAUTIFUL. It is something I won’t ever forget. 

Being at the Jockey Club Primary School has given me an amazing outlook on education. The school consists of grades 1-6. In total, there are 24 classes. 5 classes for grades 1-3 and 3 classes for grades 4-6. The classroom size ranges from 25-35 students. The classes are split up by educational level. For example, the highest students in each grade are placed in class A, and the lowest for 1-3 are in class E, and in 4-6 they are in class C. Classrooms are co-taught in most cases whether it is with a student teacher or another teacher. Some classes are also taught with tablets to work on self-learning skills and their E-Learning skills. Students spend majority of their day in the same classroom because students have a different teacher for each subject being taught. 

An example of the student’s day would be: 

8:40-9:10—Reading/Homeroom 

9:10-9:50/9:50-10:30  Periods 1&2

10:30-10:55— Recess (English Activities) & Snack 

10:55-11:35/ 11:35-12:15/ 12:15-12:55— Periods 3-5 

12:55-1:50— Lunch/Reading/Recess 

1L50-2:30/ 2:30-3:10— Periods 6&7 

3:10-3:40— Self-study 

3:40-4:40— After School Activities 

Teaching:

Each student teacher was given an English teacher to work with. This semester there were 10 student teachers and 10 English teachers, so we were only given one class to teach per day. Along with teaching English with our designated teacher, we were given a PLPRW class to work with. I am not exactly sure what PLPRW stand for, but basically, each grade is given a day off during the week from English to have this class. It is a double period. Each grade has a book they read and they have a packet to go along with it that contains grammar, phonics, writing, and vocabulary. You help the teachers teach the class. The teachers are not typical English teachers, they are teachers who strictly teach PLPRW. For example, my two teachers that I worked with were from California (Sal) and the UK (Gavin). There were two other teachers, one from the States and the other was from the UK as well. 

This semester, I worked with class 4A. I was given 1 week of observation before I started teaching. (It can be 2 weeks but since my first week was Curriculum week, I was short a week.) I worked on a Balanced Nutrition unit. Their units always have a life lesson to them. The unit before I started teaching was based on portions, where my unit was based on what foods they should be eating and what happens if you eat too many bad foods. Within each unit, there is a story, 2-3 grammar lessons, a learn and discover (Mine was about reading food labels), and a listening activity. All of the A classes use tablets. All of their books used throughout the day are on the tablets. This took some adjusting to me because I did not have one to use, but the teacher was kind enough to let me use hers during the lessons. 

During PLPRW, I was able to teach a lot as well. It all depends on which teachers you are placed with for the semester. I had two different teachers, Sal and Gavin. Gavin let me help him teach a lot during the class, which I loved. It gave me an opportunity to get to know all of the students more. This gave me the opportunity to work 5A, 4C and 6C. It was amazing to be able to work with all three grades and see the differences in levels. We were reading The Wizard of Oz and Puss in Boots, which were both so fun to do with the students. 

Lessons: 

Each week, you will provide your mentor a lesson plan. They are very very simple here which I loved because usually my lessons wouldn’t go exactly how I planned. To begin each lesson, I used PowerPoint games, Quizizz (AWESOME WEBSITE) and Kahoot to review the material I went over the class before. The students absolutely loved doing them because they are extremely competitive! Then, I would focus on one part of the unit (grammar, vocabulary, reading, etc). It is very important that you remember these are all ESL students so plan to spend a decent amount of time on parts that you wouldn’t expect to. It took me a little bit of time to get the hang of that. It is also very important to word your questions using very simple terminology and without any slang. I did not realize how much I used until I got here! Little things like “why?” Instead of “how come?” make a huge difference. 

Recess: 

I had recess duty on the floor that my classrooms were located on so I was able to create great connections with my students at recess! Each student teacher is given a floor/area for recess duty. We would come up with “American” games to play with the students at this time. For example, students love charades or pictionary. 

English Week: 

This was one of my favorite weeks here. During recess, all of the student teachers and the PLPRW teachers were in charge of table games. The games were charades, riddles, heads up, name 5 things, and chatters’ corner. (Perfect games for recess duty!!) Each student was given a stamp chart. When the students were able to successfully answer the question, or complete each assignment, they were given stamps. When they filled their card, they got a prize. It was amazing to work with the students of all grades. The younger kids loved playing the games and I loved working with them. They are SO stinkin’ cute. 

Curriculum Week

The week I began at the school was their Curriculum Week. Curriculum Week is STREAM week. (Science, technology, reading, engineering, art, math) Each grade would create something different. 6th grade created rocket ships, 4th grade created futuristic instruments and 2nd grade created planes, 3rd grade created aprons and hats. This week was a bit intimidating at first because it was all in Cantonese. Nothing like my first week being in a completely different language! Luckily, my mentor, Tiffany was with me the entire time and she was able to translate a lot of it to me. Also, I was working with 4th grade, which was a lot of hands on work. I was able to help them as much as I could with what I understood was suppose to be happening. Students then used Mictobit to create music for their futuristic instruments. I was amazed that they knew how to do that because honestly, I had no idea what they were doing. Then, students created a catalogue that was advertising their instrument. This part was in English so I was able to help them with that. My favorite part was when the students presented their instruments. All of 3rd and 4th grade was able to go around and observe everyone’s instruments/clothing. Then, the teachers gave awards to instruments that they thought were most creative, most realistic, etc. 

It was incredible to see how quickly students were able to create actual instruments with sounds. The students were all so proud of the work they created and I was honored to be able to participate and help the students with this. 

Other Student Teachers:

I spent majority of my days here with the other student teachers. We were all in the same room everyday working on lesson plans together, planning trips, and just learning about each other’s cultures. I met friends from all over the world. There were 4 students from Northern Ireland, Latvia, Spain, and two students from the EDUHK. They pretty much saved me from feeling completely lost here. Coming laster than all of the other exchange students, I was nervous I wasn’t going to have the same experience, but the student teachers made sure me and Annalise felt comfortable. If I had any questions, they were the ones to go to. It was also having other student teachers from EDUHK because any strange or random questions I had about HK, they were my go to people. They also would bring in HK snacks all the time for us to share! The other student teachers did the same if they brought stuff from home. I highly suggest bringing your favorite American snack to introduce to them! 

I will add pictures to the comments because it won’t allow me to on here!

Hello from Hong Kong!

 

We have been super busy with teaching, exploring, and travelling on our Easter Break. With this post, I wanted to talk about travel and adventuring around Hong Kong. I found it really helpful to look at the blogs to see what to do when travelling before I came, so I wanted to do my best to add to the information with some of my own. Kiley will also be posting another blog detailing some more of our adventures.

It’s very easy to get around the city, but some prior planning can be really helpful when you first arrive because Hong Kong can be a little confusing to get around. There are multiple levels to the city and lots of different ways to get to the same place (by bus, taxi, escalator system, walking, MTR!). Google Maps doesn’t really like it here and often thinks you have wings or a boat on hand, but using Google Maps was still very helpful in helping us get the general direction that we needed to head in and for the names of streets. I would also recommend watching the crowd and reading all of the signs. Many of the things on this list are easy to find on the pink “tourist” signs that are usually all around the city and you can always ask someone for help. One huge suggestion would be to be careful when exiting any MTR (train/subway) station. Many of them have multiple exits and signs that will help you to get to the right level that you need to be on.

 

Helpful Apps

“Klook” is a free app that allows you to look up deals on any kind of ticket for a lot of the places on this list. It also shows you a lot of interesting ideas if you are searching for some things to do.

“Google Maps”

“Maps.me”

“XE Currency” Converter (very helpful for quickly calculating HK dollars to USD).

“Hong Kong” (MTR train map and times)

“KMB . LWB” app for the bus system that gives you times and locations

 

Zoological and Botanical Gardens (Free)

A hidden away outdoor garden with birds, monkeys, and lots of different trees and flowers. There were a lot of animals, more than I was expecting, and I loved being able to see all the different types of monkeys who were climbing around, eating, sleeping, and making lots of loud noises!

 

Ladies Market (Free)

This is an outdoor market right in the middle of a city and you can get lots of designer bags, clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, phone cases, art, and a whole lot more. It is a crazy place to go bargain hunting and haggling is the norm. If you aren’t getting something for half of what the seller offered, you’re getting ripped off. I personally hate haggling because you never know if you’re actually getting a deal or not, but it’s definitely fun to barter and try different tactics to get a steal. Especially because if they say “no,” the same items are available at the next stall.

 

White Cube (Free)

This is a modern art gallery. It is pretty small, but worth it if you are into the style of art that they have or you like whichever artist is being shown.

 

Museum of Space (Free with your student card from EduHK)

A very small exhibition room, but they have a large movie viewing dome with lots of shows!

 

Hong Kong Public Library (Free)

A large and beautiful public library with a bookstore. It is right across from Victoria Park, which is a very nice park with some statues and sculptures.

 

PMQ (Free to look around)

The PMQ is a building filled with pop up art stores and art exhibits. We were able to see an exhibit by KAWS, an artist who I love! It is in an awesome area in the city, SOHO, which is filled with interesting food shops, art galleries, artsy stores, and the walls are covered in beautiful art work. It can be a little pricey, but definitely worth exploring, especially if you take the escalator system up, which we didn’t know about on our first trip and it ended up being quite the hike!

 

Man Mo Temple (Free)

A temple near the SOHO area is one of the oldest temples in the city. We have seen a lot of temples while we have been here and many of them have interesting histories and are right in the middle of cites. It’s an interesting contrast.

 

Tai Kwun (Free)

A old prison in the SOHO area that has been transformed into an art filled area and a bit of a museum about its history. They had some interesting exhibits outdoors when we went and we loved exploring all the art stores and learning about the history of the area.

 

Victoria Peak Tram and Victoria Peak (Costs vary, we paid about $13USD with included egg waffle!)

Victoria peak is beautiful and worth seeing. It is a mall, viewing area, and has a lot of restaurants at the highest point in the city. It has a beautiful view, some areas to walk around, and when you take the Tram up it’s really interesting to see how tall the city really is.

Festival Walk (Free)

Festival Walk is a large mall that has a lot of different stores, places to eat, a cinema, and an ice skating rink where we watched some young figure skaters compete.

 

Party Room (Costs vary)

We went to a “party room” that they have in the city with some other exchange students, they had a pool table, food, karaoke, a ball pit, stuffed animals, a claw machine, places to take pictures, and lots of video games. We had a great time hanging out and I love learning more about the other exchange students and the programs that got them here in Hong Kong!

 

Sai Kung (Free to look around)

                This is an area on the water with a large fishing village. My students took me here and we looked at the giant tanks of fish, shrimp, and crab, talked to the people selling their product right off the boats in the water, ate some delicious food, and saw a lot of the boats that can take you around to the small islands and beaches all around this area.

 

Lam Tsuen Valley Wishing Tree (Free)

This is a very small area, but my students took me here and we had a great time. It is a valley that is the site of an old wishing tree that has an interesting history. We had a lot of fun trying to toss our orange into the tree so that our wish would come true!

 

Garden Hill (Free)

We found this place with some exchange students who had been before. It is a place where you can see the whole city after walking up quite a few stairs to get to the top of this hill. The view was amazing and I would highly recommend it. It was very tricky to get to, because the formal entrance is pretty hidden, but it is a well-known lookout and at night provided a breathtaking view.

 

Kowloon Walled City Park (Free)

                This park was very beautiful to visit. It has a lot of information about the area and its history and beautiful architecture, art work, landscaping, and really is unique to look at compared to the towering buildings that surround such a small and quaint park.

 

10,000 Buddhas (Free)

It’s a bit of a hike to get to and like most things in Hong Kong there’s some stairs involved, but the stairs are lined with gold buddhas and once you finally get to the top there are beautiful statues and temples that are worth the hike. Sometimes there’s even monkeys around, but they must have been sleeping when we visited!

 

I’m really happy with how much adventuring we have been able to do! We are super tired, but it has been completely worth it. The city is gorgeous and if you walk around, you can always find awesome places for food, coffee, and little stores that you never would have known about without some wandering/getting lost. It’s definitely been really helpful to talk to exchange students, local teachers, and to do a lot of research to make these adventures as rewarding as possible. We still have a number of exciting things left on our list and I am really looking forward to continuing our exploring and to finish up my last weeks of lessons with my students. I’m really missing being in the school now that we’ve had our long Easter break!

 

Until the next post,

Annalise

So my time is over halfway done here and I have been exploring the area nonstop! In my final post, I will be telling you all about my school experience, I just want to make sure I include everything at once!

Over Easter break, Annalise and I went to Australia! Unfortunately, our breaks did not line up directly, but we were able to get 6 days together. If Australia is on your bucket list, I highly suggest going from Hong Kong. There is a direct flight with Cathay Pacific (the same airline we used to come to HK) and it was about 8 hours. I know that seems like a lot, but compared to how long it would take to get there from USA, it is a breeze. It did cost us about $800USD, but if we planned sooner, we definitely could have gotten them cheaper. We help contemplating whether or not go to there or do places in Asia but since it was Easter Break, we could not find any direct flights that were cheap to go to places around here.  Going to Australia has always been a dream of mine and it will definitely be an experience I will never forget. We went to multiple zoos, an aquarium, the Tower Eye, which was a BEAUTIFUL view, and so many other things. Fortunately, we were able to get cheap hotel rooms from my brother, but hostels are a great idea.

One huge piece of advice: PLAN AHEAD. You can fit in so many cool things if you have a plan. Also, getting lost can also be very fun as long as you’re in a safe area. Annalise and I found so many awesome spots when getting lost.

Here are some things we suggest doing when coming to HK! Annalise has a list as well of other places.

Charlie Café- In this cafe, there are a ton of different desserts and food items that have Charlie Brown treats on them! It was very good and they had a lot of different desserts. It is located in Tsim She Tsui. It wasn’t very busy at all so we didn’t have to wait. 

58-60 Grandville Road G/F & 1/F Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Cafe Idea (Cat Cafe) – If you love cats, this is a must! A lot of drinks, food and dessert. There were about 7 cats that we were able to see but many more there. There was a room designated for the cats so if there aren’t any near your table, you can go in the room and pet them. There are more than one of these but the one we went to was located in Monk Kok.To get in there, you have to go up an elevator and then down a hallway. 

83 Argyle Street Monk Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Disneyland ($50USD with KLOOK): This is a MUST SEE. If you have gone to Disney in Florida or California, this is going to be a lot smaller but it is a lot of fun. They have the characters, rides, food, and gift shops. At 3:00 there was a parade, so definitely look up times for it because it was amazing. I suggest getting there 15-30 minutes early because they will let you in and you can be first in line for the rides and have little to no wait. I also would suggest planning your rides because the lines get very very long. It would be smart to do those rides first! It is super easy to get to. Take the MTR and there is a line specifically for Disney. The train is adorable and everything including the windows is Mickey. It takes about 1hr30 minutes-2 hours depending on the day you choose to go to.

Temple Street Night Market- Located off of the Jordan line, this is a night market full of small outside vender shops. This is where you can get many souvenirs for all your friends and family for very cheap. Make sure you bargain! They will charge you about 3x more than what they are really worth. I was able to get a (fake) Fjallraven Kanken bag for about $8. This is similar to the Ladies Market, but has more clothing and artsy gifts. Definitely worth giving a shot 🙂 

Museums: 

History Museum(FREE with student ID): This was one of my favorites! My favorite part was the section where they had all of their holidays and events in exhibitions. They explained them all and showed what they looked like. They give you directions to show you how to get around and not miss anything. Definitely read the signs that explain what is going on in each room because this is a great, FREE way to learn about the history of Hong Kong! 

MTR East Tsim Sha Tsui Station Exit P2- About a 10 minute walk

100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui East

Science Museum (FREE with student ID): Located in the same area as the History Museum. If you are into science, this is a definite go-to. It was $5HKD to go into the special exhibition, highly encourage it! The museum was big and FREE besides the special exhibition. There were a lot of hands on parts of the museum.

Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 

Heritage Museum (FREE with student ID) : This is located right next to the Space Museum. You have to go up the elevator, there are signs to tell you the floor. I believe it changes every now and then on the material they have in there but there were beautiful paintings in there. It isn’t a very popular space, but if you are into art, this is definitely a quiet place to go to. They even let us sign our name using the same paint they used for the artwork. 

Ocean Park ($50USD) – This was one of my favorite things that we did here! We were able to see pandas, red pandas, walruses, and many other animals as well as go on rollercoasters! It was an all day trip. Get the tickets on KLOOK. I don’t suggest getting the deal with the food plan unless you really like rice and chicken because it only works on that for a meal. The MTR takes you directly there, but it takes about 1hr45 minutes to get there. Get there 30 minutes early! 

Big Buddha (Ngong Ping 360- $30 KLOOK): This was an absolute amazing experience. Not only was the Big Buddha beautiful, you are able to take the cable car up there and the view is gorgeous. If you are afraid of heights (like me) you can take a bus that takes about an hour and a half, but the view made it worth being a little scared. We got the tickets on KLOOK for $30USD and we we were on a cable car with a clear bottom so you could see everything. There was about a 45 minute wait so going during the week would be better or go very early. There is a lot to do up there as well. You can pay extra and go in the Buddha, but definitely not necessary to do so. There were wild cows and dogs, so made the experience that much better. 

Escalators- These Escalators will save your life. Before knowing about this, we walked up a HUGE hill that made us feel like our legs were going to fall off. The escalators can be found by using Google Map and typing in mid-level escalators. Along the way, you are able to see different restaurants (perfect if you’re craving Western food), shops, the Botanic Zoological Gardens, museums, etc. 

Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront- You are able to go to the waterfront when you are going to see the Avenue of Stars. It is a beautiful view and a pretty walk. You are able to walk near the Space Museum, the Culture Museum, and interesting statues. You can see Hong Kong’s skyline. This walk also leads you to the Star Ferry which will bring you over to central. We went to visit this sight many times because we loved it so much! 

Avenue of Stars and the Promenade- This was super interesting to see! They have hand prints of celebrities and statues of famous people. We were not familiar with many of the celebrities, but it was still really awesome to see. They just redid the area so it all looks brand new. There are statues that you can take pictures and pose with.