new term 2012

Havent updated my blog for more than a year. Life has been unbelievably busy but I know it is not an excuse not to have any updates. Every time when I have the impulse of writing something, it's kind of hard for me to find 20 mins to do that.

Anyway, I am back! There are so many things I love to share with all of you here. This is my fifth year  in LTPSS. Time flies. I'm glad that the school has experienced many changes and they are all for the better!
This term I have been really pleased with the smiling faces I meet every day. More and more students are at ease and happy with what they experience in the school.

Yet, this year, we have introduced a new venue system- Homeroom! This system has been widely used in the West for years and in Hong kong, most international schools are having that. It actually means that each teacher has his/her home room and students go in and have their lessons. Why? Teachers could then decorate their room according to their subject nature and display students' work. The junior kids can see what their senior have done and they could all immerse themselves in the world of their particular subject. Have you been to a theme park? When you're in the medieval land, you would start to imagine yourself speaking Medieval language, learning Medieval history. When you're in the earthquake zone, you would start to feel the 'shake' and the 'heat'! Isnt that amazing! Actually, last year we tried that out with half of the classes where students have to go to Spanish room for Spanish, Science lab for their science lessons and English room for their English learning. It proved that with a more contextualised environment, students seemed to be more intact with the learning of that particular subject..

I myself love this idea very much. However, when we first started that, my email box was full of emails from kids and parents. They tended to focus more on the transit from class to class where the kids have to walk up and down the stairs. The kids complained that they got exhausted. Parents supported them and worried about their physical condition! Oh, if you ask me, going up and down the school buildings on the contrary, means excellent physical exercise for everyone under the system. Last year, our index of overweight kids was alarming. We hope students could hijack this as an excuse for good exercises. Besides, our teachers told us that last year during a shadowing exercise, they discovered that students easily get drowsy as they have to sit for at least two hours before they have a break. This year, the situation would be totally changed and I believe students would be more concentrated due to better blood circulation.


As in many other schools, under the previous system, students always had sometime in the class left idle in between lessons( when teachers come and go) . Most of them just used the time to chat and didn’t do enough to prepare themselves for the next lesson. This was always the time when trouble happened. The homeroom system now requires pupils to move to another room quickly, thereby 'utilising' the 5-min transit. Not much time is left to chat and play during the transits. Everyone that was here last year can feel the difference in the above terms. We want to educate the kids to do the right thing at the right time.

In the past, when the teachers came in, they normally needed at least five mins to focus the kids. So when we count the amount of time and its quality, we found that the homeroom system has more advangtages. Teachers' teaching materials have all been ready for any class that goes in for lessons. The lessons can start immediately. Unlike last year, teachers having entered the classrooms needed a longer time for the children to get settled. The class time is used much more effectively and efficiently. Moreover, team support for teachers is readily available for homerooms of the same subject are on the same floor or in the closest vicinity.

On the other hand, the homeroom system seems to, if a by-product, break previous 'level ties' which sometimes resulted in bullying. Having been in operation in two weeks, it is evident that there has not been any overcrowdedness in the corridors. Our teachers have planned all the routes with much caution. However, the congestion is sometimes there because the students haven’t got into the habit of walking in single file. That would be something we have to work on.

With the new system, teachers have a much stronger say in their own homerooms to demand cleanliness and order of their own place whenever students leave their rooms. This way, much stronger civic-mindedness is cultivated amongst the users. This is a reverse of the scene, whereas in the past it was the teachers that went into the territory of the students and somehow the teachers even had difficulties in displaying the students’ work as the whole room was 'shared' by all subjects.

I understand that most students now are sometimes faced with hiccups resulted in their forgetfulness. They are required to think about what to bring from the lockers and for what purpose. To us, this is a good training for pupils' self management. This is what the outside world is like. Early training up for these essential life skills is going to be the most valuable part of the life of children.

I truly understand there are rooms to improve or make the system more efficient and so we are all ears to suggestions. I was walking along the corridors in lunch time this week and I found that while some students were having ball games in the playgrounds, some were having chats with the teachers in the homeroom. So we, on the contrary think that the sense of belonging to the school would be more enhanced as what matters are the availability of teachers and the relationship between teachers and students. We hope we could cultivate a happy campus so let’s wait and see and give the system a bit more time to furnish.

I am a strong happy learning advocate! I am sure few years later, our graduates would come back and tell us how much they miss their 'homeroom' and their 'teachers'!