So many angry monkeys!Surprisingly, this break has provided a learning opportunity that was lacking from other field experiences. Most teaching internships take place over a few weeks and usually don't coincide with major breaks for holidays. I imagine the powers that be plan the duration of these things to get in the most teaching possible over the shortest amount of time, to avoid conflict with our regular McGill classes. Regardless, this trip is nothing if not unique, so we ended up with almost two weeks of vacation to see the sights and experience Hong Kong and surrounding areas without the distraction of teaching. An important pedagogical lesson that arose from this fact was how to prepare students for such a big break and how to ease them back into the routine afterward.
Easter break started on a Wednesday, so you can imagine that the students had already sent their attention spans on vacation as of Monday. Monday and Tuesday proved to be a very difficult balancing act! On one hand, I had to work hard to really drive home and solidify some important concepts to a point where the students would still remember them after the break. On the other hand, I had to avoid starting new units and topics that would be too hard to get through to them while their brains were in vacation mode. This proved to be challenging when I ran out of material for one unit and couldn't justify starting a new one on the day before the vacation. I opted instead to just give an overall review of previous units, but that ended up being fun and actually useful at the same time. Preparing students for a break was not something I thought about in previous field experiences, so it was interesting to experience it first hand and recognize the importance of it.
Coming back from the break was an even more interesting experience. For one thing, they did an insane amount of homework over the break. Like, I mean some of them might have spent the entire break doing homework and I wouldn't be surprised. That's one major difference between Hong Kong and Canada. You give students that much homework before Easter break back home and I guarantee you it comes back empty or poorly done. A "break", by definition, is supposed to give students a chance to forget about school and let their brains recharge. Such is not the case here! Although, I must admit, I was thankful that they stayed sharp over the break, because the first day back felt almost like we hadn't left. I expected them to forget everything I had taught them (my p.6s were in the middle of a unit when we left), but they just picked up like the previous lesson was only the day before. These kids are robots, I swear!
The (Original) Wishing Tree. Obviously no one wished that it could stand on it's own.As for my break, it was certainly not filled with homework. "Productive" is about the absolute last word I would use to describe myself during that time. Some days were spent completely in bed, relaxing, talking to people back home and watching movies. Notable trips included Monkey Mountain (exactly what it sounds like...a mountain covered with hundreds of ugly/angry monkeys), The Wishing Tree, a few more temples/markets, and Macau (the Chinese version of Las Vegas). Macau was the most interesting, as it is littered with hotels, casinos, and blinding neon lights. There are moments when you can just look at Wynn and the MGM Grand and imagine that you really are on the other side of the world. Other nights in Hong Kong were spent exploring nice restaurants and the nightlife. Honestly, I think Hong Kong is food heaven. I've really expanded my palette since coming here, while miraculously losing over 20lbs in the process. I have no idea how!
Viva Macau!Anyways, back to the grind for a couple more weeks, then we face the reality that we have to leave this dream world. I don't know how I feel about that yet. I'm sure I'll get to that in my next (and possibly final) post.
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