- I travelled to Europe with my dad in the summer of 2014. We went to France, Italy and Switzerland. I was excited to see the beautiful natural views, interact with local people and feel the beauty of different cultures. This travelling experience inspired me to introduce my students to different countries with various cultures in a Social Studies class in my future teaching to offer them the opportunity to learn and celebrate diversity in their learning community. Also, I will have my students learn about the geography of various countries in a Science class. They can compare and contrast the landforms in Canada and many other countries. Moreover, I can include recipes for traditional foods in different countries in a cooking class for students to expand their knowledge and have some hands-on learning at the same time.
2. I went to Yunnan, China in the summer of 2016 and I climbed the Snow Mountain of Yulong to a fairly high height and then took the cable car to the top which was 4506 meters. During the process, many people including myself had altitude sickness due to the lack of oxygen but I did not give up. From this experience, I learned the importance of confidence and persistence. I think that these can be applied to teaching and learning as well. In my future classroom, I will encourage my students not to give up easily during the process of trying and I will tell them persistence is a valuable quality. Once they are determined to continue to explore, there will be a great possibility of achieving success at the end.
3. I went to Guangzhou Chimelong Safari Park in China in 2019. While I enjoyed seeing different wild-life animals, I also started to think about whether it is appropriate to take these animals away from their original habitats and cage them into a zoo for humans to visit. I believe that it is an important topic for my future students to discuss and possibly debate about in small groups. By doing so, students can develop their communication, collaboration, creative thinking and critical thinking skills. These skills are considered as the core competencies in the BC curriculum. Therefore, it is necessary for students to gain these abilities by studying topics like this one. Taking students to a local zoo for a field trip is also a great idea. Students can observe the animals, learn about knowledge in biology, gain an understanding of how to protect wild-life animals and discuss the rationality of caging animals for human entertainment. In this way, students can gain some real learning and develop their multiple skills at the same time.
