Plus ça change…

Looking around me at work this week I am reminded of the French quote above, and little swift googling seems to indicate that it originated with Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr.

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”

Why start a post about working in Hong Kong with a quote famous in French literature? 1) I don’t know any Chinese idioms yet and 2) it just captures the moment so well!

Neurons in the brain

Neurons in the brain; CC licence courtesy of Rebecca-Lee

With my classes at the moment it is the same routine of getting to know the students, establishing boundaries and guidelines, and talking about library topics as I would have when beginning at any school. Today I used the “I went shopping” game technique (Google Books excerpt from the book where I probably discovered it) of stringing names together one after another to start to memorise the names of all the students in my classes – so that would be approximately 150 students across 6 classes today. Honestly I could feel my brain physically throbbing with the effort of creating all those new neural connections!

As well as learning names I was book-talking – for Year 5 I am highlighting Colin Thompson this week, displaying some of his novels and picture books, and pointing out intriguing features that may encourage some of the audience to try out his work (hey! The Floods have their own website!).

After lessons with Prep, Year 2, 3 and 5, I would go back into my office, put a few things away, check what I was doing next, and go back out to get ready. Within the Library there are no real differences – the role of books in promoting reading for pleasure, the provision of a variety of resources for information gathering, the balance between providing a welcoming space and keeping that academic focus. Stepping outside I am reminded that I am in a very different place – 5th floor of a 9 story building, with a view (on clearer, less smog-filled days) across the suburbs of Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, the rumble of traffic and splashes of brightly coloured signs in a language I do not understand providing an exotic backdrop for a familiar role.

Coming up for my classes are activities looking at locating materials on the library shelves, series fiction, genre, wide reading passport, understanding CC, and some as-yet undecided units for the younger grades – could be author studies, could be Encyclopedia Britannica, still to be finalised.

This week has been Chinese Week at school, to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival, marked by a Lantern Festival on Monday night – please follow this link to see the Guinness World Record lantern sculpture! I went to the festival with my family on Monday night, and it really was spectacular!!

Naturally we have had a display of culturally relevant books in the Library, and with the younger grades I have been reading a picture book by Colin Czernecki entitled “Paper Lanterns” – and was very pleased to read the list of people he consulted to ensure that his book was a realistic and respectful representation of this aspect of Chinese culture.

"Paper Lanterns" cover, linked from author's website

The last page of the book is a picture of glorious scarlet lanterns emblazoned with a Chinese pictograph each, which together create the Chinese word for friendship 谊  (you-yi) – my key learning for today. What a lovely image to finish a story!