Love

When lots of people these days are talking about Martin Luther King’s quote, “I have a dream”, I want to share with you another of his quote,

 ‘We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.’

What else would be more powerful than love?  With love, there would be no hatred. There would be no greed, no aggression, no fight and no war! When we love our country, we would find ways to better it and be proud of it. When we love our society, we would keep it in good shape and again, try our best to improve the situation that we do not like. When we love our family, we would care for each member in the family and try making every day a happy and memorable time for everyone. When we love our school, we would keep the campus in good shape and respect each person in the building by smiling and caring them.  When we love our class, we would express our love and care to each individual in the room and work as an entity. When we love ourselves, we would be healthy and disciplined so that we could enjoy the happy moments in life.

As a Principal, I would love to see my school full of happy and curious students. Every kid would be enjoying learning with the dedicated teachers exploring their potentials. All of us would be loving each  other like a family. This year, I hope we would all be reflective learners, always thinking of how to improve ourselves and how we could help others in the school and in the community.  We should all strive to learn, to love and to serve in the community and the world! 

This would be my dream!

The world needs us! The world needs our love! 

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'!

Differentiated Instruction

I have been doing some preparation for the conference I am attending tomorow by doing some researches on the web. I came across an article and the related discussion


We have always been put in the dilemma of whether we should differentiate the instruction in class. Some say that we should have different strategies for students of different abilities and some say that too much labelling causes harm! I have parents calling in and saying that we shouldnt be streaming the students into classes of different abilities as that is demotivating for the less able students. But I also have parents complaining sometimes about the pace of some lessons which have been slowed down because the teacher has to deal with the less able ones in class.



Some teachers tend to be bothered by the marginal group and spend whole lot of time doing remedial classes for them and offering personalised help. This is really good of them. But what about the more able ones, are we trading off the benefits that they can enjoy?



Schools in Hong kong in general tend to be giving little attention to the 'cream' group. We always see advertisements on papers for teachers in doing after school remedial classes, not so much in enrichment classes. What abou the curriculum and the lesson design? Perhaps we should design the lesson well enough to arouse their 'curiosity' to explore further in learning? Or should we give more opportunites to them outside classrooms?


Three of our students won the overall champion in the Cathay Pacific Aviation knowledge contest. They really surpised me! And I couldnt hold my breath as we nearly snatched off their opportunity to win! I remember when the notice of the competition came, it was around the exam period and every one was so busy. Even the teacher given the notice was frowning. He wondered whether anyone would go. I said , ' ask the students! ' Surprisingly, three students came up. They went to the competition, went through the rounds and won the champion! Gosh! This is the opportunity I meant! Given the opportunity, their interest got further enhance and their talent got tapped!



I hope I could get some more insights over the weekend in the conference.

New Term starts

Still excited about the start of the new term though it's 6th Sept already! I love going up the classrooms and meet the students as they are so cute! The S1 kids still look like primary school kids! Lovely! The others are sweet too! Thank you so much, kids, for your smiles! You light up my days!

The job of a Principal is multifacious but to me, building up a good ethos is of paramount importance. It is only when we have a good atmosphere in the school then we could have happy teachers and students doing effective learning!

I read an article on the web about ethos. Here are few lines to share with you,

Ethos includes the atmosphere in the school, relationships between pupils, staff, families and the wider community, the school building and grounds, the sense of welcome and positive learning in the classroom. ....

Pulils learn more and behave better when they receive high levels of understanding, caring and genuiness than when they receive low levels of support.

Good relationships in classrrooms must be based on the teacher having established a framework for order and having earned the respect of the pupils.

A positive and supportive environment is characterized by high teacher and learner expectations, where the learner is relaxed, alert and free from stress, yet challenged.

This year, my teachers are all very keen on building up a lively and positive school ethos. We are all very excited! Let's work hard and go for it! 

Cheers! 

Attitude that matters

Ms Maria Lam, the Principal of Ying Wa Primary school shared with me these lines. Beautiful!

Heavy rain reminds us of challenges in life. Never ask for a lighter

rain. Just pray for a better umbrella. - That is attitude.

When a flood comes, fish eat ants and when the flood recedes, ants eat

fish. - Only time matters. Just hold on, God gives opportunities to

everyone!

Life is not about finding the right person, but creating the right

relationship, it's not how we care in the beginning, but how much we

care till the very end.

Some people always throw stones in your path. It depends on what you

make with them. A Wall or a Bridge? - Remember you are the architect

of your life.



Conference in Singapore- Challenge based learning

I had a very fruitful weekend on 4-7/3 in Singapore. The program was packed but very practical.

The theme was challenge-based learning, using lots of mobile devices to learn.

I met  a group of Hong kong International School teachers and IT coordinators during the trip and they made a summary of some of the keynote speeches and the two school visits we have been to. Do click and enjoy that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91rzjyABwvI


Next, I would like to share with you the blog site made by the school of science and technology in Singapore just for our visit. I want you to look at the meaning behind the whole site. Now, we all love to have recollection and feedback, same like all our students. AFter we have done one thing, we hope to keep some memories by pics or videos or texts. Then we love to share with others and get feedback. Think about this logic and apply to your lessons. To cater for people of different interests, the school put up a column on resources on the left. That's exactly what we have to do for students. When we have a task for students, we cater for students of various abilities and interest, so a resource area is important. So when we are designing a learning task for our students, this could be the scaffold to follow. So please enjoy and read the resource page according to your subject interest.
http://www.sst-20110307.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Let's share the insights from the 21C learning conference

I joined the 21C learning conference last week, three days in a row from Thursday to Saturday! We had lots of sharing on the use of technology in schools. Let's join in the discussion by browsing the website as below:

http://21clearninghk.ning.com/

Please look at the post on the two sides of the page. You can read the slides or watch some clips and browse our discussion contents!
Hope you got inspired too.