GRIP, Internships Abroad Teaching Others, Teaching Myself

The Science Workshop - Hong Kong

When I first told my friends and family that I was traveling to Hong Kong this summer, their
first question was, “What are you doing there?” I usually shrugged my shoulders and told them
that I was just going to teach science classes to young children. At the time, I thought doing so
would be a simple task, and my friends and family celebrated what they thought would be an
enjoyable and relaxing experience for me. But my eight weeks teaching at Science Workshop
introduced me to the challenges and hard-fought rewards of teaching young children.

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching is understanding the full spectrum of
personalities and student types that can co-exist in one classroom. In one week, I experienced
both extremes of this spectrum, teaching hyperactive and socially withdrawn kids within a single
classroom of twenty-five children. Jayden was an intensely shy, six-year-old child I taught who
hid outside of the classroom for three hours after I asked him to tell me his name and favorite
movie. I realized through him how a simple icebreaker could be a representation of my Western
teaching styles in a classroom of children who are usually not given personal attention in school.
Alternatively, Caden was a hyperactive child sitting next to Jayden who ran to the front of the
classroom every ten minutes so that an assistant teacher would be forced to pick him up like a
toddler and drop him back at his seat. I struggled to not fixate on Caden throughout the week and
focus on the dozen other children coming to me with questions and concerns about their work.
Children were either eager to please me or determined to spite me for teaching chemistry
to them. Another Jaden in my classroom followed me everywhere I went in order to demonstrate
his immense knowledge of the periodic table to me. He would pick up a bottle of salt from the
teacher’s table, point rapidly to the label, and read off the molecular weights of sodium and
chloride from his seemingly library-like mind. Kids like Jaden excited me because I knew that
the hands-on experiments that Science Workshop required me to teach would greatly benefit
them. Yet, other children completely rejected this opportunity to learn in a new way, asking my
assistant teachers and I to complete every step of an experiment. I was then tasked with instilling
the confidence that these kids could complete an experiment without breaking another
thermometer or spilling more citric acid on the table, while also catering to kids who already
knew the results of the experiments we were doing.

Another large concern of mine throughout my teaching experience was controlling my
temper with children who misbehaved. Often, these children had intellectual challenges that their
parents never told me or the program about. One child named Matthew constantly grabbed
materials without my permission. He would shake bottles, rip table covers, break glass beakers,
attempt to escape the classroom, and even spit on the floor to attract attention to himself. My
assistant teachers and I realized that Matthew needed to be active at all times, or else he would
wreak havoc on the classroom environment I had painstakingly established. I initially yelled and
ordered him. But my frustration with him transitioned to sympathy and understanding as I
witnessed how other children interacted with him. Kids would complain that he was naughty and
that he should leave. One child would speak over me to tell me that Matthew was acting out
again and even attempted to push him over to punish him for his behavior. At one point, I asked
the full-time teachers at Science Workshop whether his parents were aware that he needed
additional attention. They told me that they probably didn’t, because many institutions in Hong
Kong lack child psychological services and parents themselves are so burdened with their
working lives that they don’t see every side of their child. Helpers at home may think Matthew is
misbehaving when he is actually displaying his natural behavior. It was my responsibility, then,
to treat children like Matthew with care, and give them the understanding they deserved while
also disciplining them enough to continue running a classroom.

I became overwhelmed with responsibility. I worried about what these kids would go
home and tell their parents, whether they would walk away enjoying science or hating it, and
whether doing experiments was just too much for a week-long summer program for children who
are burdened with high expectations from their parents to succeed, even during vacation time. I
wanted them to have fun, but I wanted them to behave. I wanted them to learn something, but I
wanted them to be excited. All the while, every kid had different wants and needs, and it was
impossible to appease every type of kid in my class.

Teaching introduced me to a novel source of adrenaline from having achieved as a leader.
When I first started teaching that week, I was self-conscious about the way I spoke, whether the
kids liked me, and whether I was achieving my goal of teaching them something they would
remember. But some of the kids who I thought resented me the most for disciplining them
actually showed the most gratitude towards me. Children wrote “I love Science Workshop” all
over their artwork and boards on the wall. They drew me thank you cards and showed me the
notebooks where they wrote what they learned, along with my name, “Ms. Shreya.”
Upon leaving Hong Kong, I am tasked with connecting this experience to my
professional goals of becoming a doctor. Teaching taught me how to lead and how to show
compassion in difficult situations. It enlightened me with the rewards of smiling faces of children
and my own for having helped them achieve something new.