THiNKGre@t and THiNKPosi+ive 2009 Finale

TH?NKPosi+ive and TH?NKGre@t Awards Ceremony proved a great success. We are very pleased with the enthusiastic response from students, teachers and principals, as shown in the quality and quantity of entries, involving over 2,000 students from Hong Kong.

We would like to express our gratitude to all guests, principals, teachers, students, and parents for the immeasurable support and encouragement given to the
TH?NKPosi+ive Lyrics and TH?NKGre@t Snapshot Competition 2009. Your presence meant a lot to us.

Sharing of Guests

Ms Theresa Cunanan | Lecturer, College of International Education, Hong Kong Baptist University

Congratulations again to all students who won, and to your coaches and mentors. I hope all participants will keep this meaningful project alive by taking part every year. We can all capture moments of life in words and pictures – moving and stills – making transcience mean something to us.

Mr Lai Tsang Hing | Chairman, Hong Kong Parents’s Association

Some of those entries impressed me very much and let me understand what you (students) are thinking . I appreciated very much about your serious production. Whatever you win any award or not, at least you had gained a lot of experience. Keep up this working attitude, you will have a Bright Future.

Mr Michael Tsang | Head of Treasury, Asia, Thomson Reuters

“People say you can learn a lot from your elders. Equally if not more, we learn so much from our younger generation. I am heartened to see in this year’s entries the almost endless level of commitment, enthusiasm, creativity and high standard of English expressed. The world may be changing, but it is still love at the core that makes the world go round.”

Sharing of Principals & Teachers

Mr Wong Chi Kwan | Principal, Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School

I am most impressed by the exemplary manner in which it is conducted. I am especially happy that all our students in Hong Kong received the recognition they deserve, although they all faced stiff competition in this process.

I believe that the process of learning English is as important as the products produced. I am therefore pleased that the students had the opportunity in the lyric component to showcase their talents. Personally, I am especially happy that the students from our school performed exceptionally well in the “Think Great” Category of the Competition by earning two championship awards : the Best Caption Award in the Senior Category and the Best Commentary Award in the Junior Category. Furthermore, eight of our Form 1 students earned Distinction Awards.

Ms Melaine Lee | Principal, Maryknoll Convent School (Secondary Section)

Congratulations to your organization and do continue with the outstanding work in making the difference in taking English to a higher level in Hong Kong.

It was a delightful experience to see the student leaders helping to organise the whole event. I was also happy to find everybody being so enthusiastic whether they got a prize or not.

Ms Teresa Hau | Teacher, The HKTA Ching Chung Secondary School

It is a great joy of taking part in this meaningful event! Not only is it a great opportunity for students to unleash their creativity, it also provides students a platform of sharing their individual thoughts. Through all the work and preparation, students were found to grow closer by working together with their differences blossoming into understanding and friendship. They also learnt that heeding ideas and advice is of the essence of coming up with an amazing masterpiece.

Ms Laurene Ho | Teacher, Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School

The Snapshot Competition provided a chance for our students to generate creative ideas. The competition was a golden opportunity for teachers to inspire our students to look at things from different perspectives and to encourage them to demonstrate their innovative ideas. Through the camera lens, contestants revealed social issues or unveiled a hidden world by capturing stunning images. Stories behind the photos moved people around and attracted them to glimpse the inner world of the contestants. Are pens mightier than the snapshots? Do great minds think alike? The commentaries alongside with catchy titles and captions truly reflected the contestants’ English proficiency. The Snapshot Competition took the participants forward to new horizons. The goal in taking part in the competition was not just to win great prizes but also to share previous knowledge and outlooks on life regarding love. Winners of the competition cherished the recognition from their counterparts and gained even greater confidence in themselves. Such experience will surely equip them with the courage to think positively and greatly in their future lives.

Mr Law Man Tak | Teacher, Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School

Life is exploration. We live to explore life and if we don’t, we leave ourselves lonely, unfilled and hollow. But if we pay a bit more attention to every trivial thing appearing in front of us, observe and think a bit more and try to capture their images and our thoughts in our note-books, our diaries or our photo albums, we will soon find life momentous, rich and meaningful. The Think Great Snapshot Competition was such an impressive idea and competition for today’s youngsters, who seldom look around and consider others’ interests. To make them considerate and responsible individuals, we certainly have the utmost responsibility to make them think great and act right.

Ms Renu Mudaly | Teacher, Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School

The Think Series Competition, initiated by Wiseman Education, is a great opportunity to help our second language learners of English in Hong Kong to express themselves through their photos and in writing. It allows our learners to exercise their imagination and to be recognised for their creativity at various levels. May I take this opportunity to congratulate Wiseman Education and to express our gratitude to your organization for being so proactive in promoting English to another level in Hong Kong by investing in our students. It truly allows the students to “think positive” and to “think great”. Where there is a will, there is a way is a truism at our school. Despite the severely limited time constraints of merely two weeks and in the midst of preparing our students for their First Term Tests, I entered my Band Two students from Forms 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the “Think Great” Component of the Snapshot Competition. As a Native-Speaking English Teacher (NET), I collaborated with the local English teachers (LETS) during the language arts lessons and in my personal time to challenge our students to exercise their potential. While many sacrifices were made, I experienced immense job satisfaction in working alongside our educators and the teaching assistant with our students in us collectively encouraging them to think out of the box.

Minimal scaffolding was provided. Rather, a general frame of reference and how this is applied specifically with reference to practical examples and techniques were provided. It must be pointed out that the students comprising the teams are not our top students. Rather, they volunteered or were encouraged to participate. Team brainstorming sessions were facilitated to assist them in the process of submitting their efforts. The idea was to really get our students to think out of the box in taking photos to capture moments of love and what the essence of this meant to them. They were challenged when focusing on love to view something ordinary in an extraordinary way or to capture the extraordinary nature of love expressed in the ordinary.

It was most satisfying to see our students exercising their creative juices. It was also wonderful seeing them work together as a team. Their camaraderie was amazing. I continually emphasised that the process was more important than the product, especially when they felt very stressed at submitting their efforts. They have internalized that winning is not everything, but learning something in the process is more meaningful than any prize. It was therefore a bonus for us when our teams won (as was the case last year when we entered our entries per individual). From the teams entered, our senior team won the Best Caption Award while our Junior Team won the Best Commentary Award. Furthermore, eight of our Form 1 students earned Distinction Awards. However, we are proud of all our students since we consider them all to be winners in what they learnt through the process of taking photos as well as writing titles, captions and commentaries based on their photos.

The Award Ceremony was a fitting tribute to our students to see the products of all the participants of Hong Kong in motivating all students to strive to do their best – irrespective of whether they hailed from EMI or CMI schools. Also, the fact that such prestigious organizations from the diverse sectors were represented at the awards ceremony is so positive in our students practically being given the “VIP” treatment. I felt especially proud of my students when they were interviewed on an impromptu basis. Despite their being nervous and lacking confidence in their speaking abilities, they tried their best to answer all the questions accurately in English – a real accomplishment for our band two students!

I look forward to Wiseman’s Education next competition where our school hopes to enter our students in all three categories because we believe that our students must be afforded every available opportunity to excel optimally and the necessary investments must be made to ensure this.

Ms Kanyu Wong | Teacher, Elegantia College

During the writing process of the Think Positive Lyrics Competition, students had a great time trying to fit the right syllables into each line while maintaining the logic of the whole. They had an opportunity to exercise their poetic license and it’s been a rewarding experience for them. As for the Think Great Snapshot Competition, trying to be expressive through a photograph and using words to expand what is unspoken of, is again a new experience for the students. They have enjoyed it immensely and as a teacher, I, too, have a lot of fun guiding them through the process of creative writing.