TeachBreakthroughs

Celebration at Summerbridge Hong Kong is similar to Celebration in Cambridge (and, I imagine, elsewhere in the U.S.) in that it is all about having the students perform and show what they have learned over the summer. Many of the elements are the same: two student speeches, one teacher speech, performances by classes, etc. The mood is also similar: mostly celebratory and proud, with some sadness that the summer is over.

I sensed that in Hong Kong the mood was a little more emotional than it was in Cambridge last summer. There was a lot more crying and hugging, and many students and teachers were just really sad that the summer was over, more than they were happy about how good the summer had been.

For me, Celebration was a happy time. My overwhelming feeling was pride in my students’ accomplishments, in knowing that they were doing things they could not have done five weeks prior. This feeling was much stronger than any sadness I might have felt. I was not so sad; I was proud and happy. Kudos to the students and staff for your Summerbridge spirit all summer long!

–Ezra
Cambridge ‘07, Hong Kong ‘08

From Adriana in Boca Raton:

Hi, Bobby:

I attached a picture of the SB 2008 Cup winners.  I was very excited because they are six graders and won five of the six events in this competition. They were my family (Family E). I promised them that I was going to submit this picture.

Family E:
Gabriel, Emma, Eduardo, Wadlyne, Patrick, Chloe, Hilda, Nikki, Xiona, Juan, Ivan and Angelo.

Sincerely,
Adriana Guerra

Wow!  6th grade cup champions.  Impressive!

It’s hard to believe that Breakthrough is over for the summer. The last week was very stressful because in addition to planning the last few classes, I was on Celebration committee. Throughout it all, though, I really learned how supportive and amazing all of the teachers are and I realized how lucky I am to work with such wonderful people (not that I hadn’t already known this). I loved watching my students work on their final projects and impress me once again with their creativity and determination to succeed. What really amazes me about the last week of the program, both last year and this year, is how upset the students get when they have to leave Breakthrough for the last time. It’s really unbelievable that despite the hours of homework we give them and the fact that they have to work so hard all summer, the students are so sad to see it all end. On Friday, our last day, one of our fifth graders was sobbing all through lunch and I started thinking that it’s really incredible to see how much Breakthrough means to these kids. On Saturday, Celebration finally came, and it went perfectly. I loved talking with some of the parents and watching the presentations, but I definitely did not enjoy saying goodbye to the kids (and saying goodbye to the teachers a few days later). It’s so difficult to be around the same group of people for 6 weeks straight and then abruptly say goodbye, knowing that I may not see a lot of these people again, or at least not in the near future. Even though it’s only been a few days since Celebration, the students have started emailing the teachers saying that they miss us, which is so sweet and makes me miss them even more. This was definitely a summer I’ll never forget!

~Lauren

This morning was just one of those mornings. Not only was the train that brings some of our teachers running late, but our bus driver didn’t show up to pick up students. After a mad rush to find a new bus driver and send another teacher to the train station, we felt we comfortably had avoided disaster - Breakthrough would continue another day, students would arrive on the bus and all would go as planned.

As I sat on the bus to go with our new driver on the pick-up route, a thought occurred to me. If I had been waiting at 7am half an hour for a bus and it didn’t show I would go back home and straight back into my bed.

I feared that the bus stops would be deserted and perhaps Breakthrough would be short about 75% of our students for the day. While these thoughts coursed through my brain we pulled out of the school and headed down the main highway to our first bus stop.

There, sitting on the bus peering out the window, my fears dissipated. Walking towards the school were two of our boys who lived easily over a mile away WALKING to Breakthrough because the bus hadn’t shown up.

At the first bus stop we picked up almost all our kids; those who weren’t at the stop had found other ways to reach Breakthrough and a call tree had manifested itself among our students so that one girl knew what was going on at each stop and what I should expect. They filled me in on who was where and how each student was getting to Breakthrough. They let me know exactly where the bus should turn around and where to stop to pick up all our students.

I’ve never been so proud of our students. They took a “whatever it takes” attitude towards getting to Breakthrough. They contacted the faculty to find out where the bus was and what they should be doing to ensure they could get to Breakthrough.

We had almost 100% attendance today, and the day is rolling on despite our crazy morning.

For the first three weeks of the summer, there was a second-year student in my family who tried my patience. He always needed a personal invitation to do anything, he often slept during family time,and he did not contribute many ideas or thoughts to the discussions.

This week, leading up to Student Teaching Day, he has been different.He showed some enthusiasm about teaching his class, and he even showed good leadership working with two first-year students in preparing the lesson. Then, today, he managed to teach ten students how to make their own web pages, despite some technical difficulties. I was proud of the preparation he put into his lesson, proud of how well he worked with the two first-year students who co-taught with him, and proud of his presentation in class.

–Ezra (Hong Kong)

There are so many memorbale moments from our last Friday of Breakthrough. A few that stand out from Celebration are our faculty fashion show for which we adorned ourselves in trash to follow our “Go Green” theme and our cheesy dance to the Dancing Queen. Perhaps most memorable, however, has to be our summer director proposing to his girlfriend! One of our students who is a bit quiet sang a song so well that people were encouraging her to go professional, and many others took risks that I wouldn’t have taken as a 7th, 8th, or 9th grader. The reception afterwards was bittersweet for most everyone. We sang one final bus greeting to the kids, and even students who I was convinced did not like me were giving me hugs. Signing Summerbooks and seeing my students in tears was one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced in my life.

I learned so much this summer about teaching and education that I could never have learned as a student in any class. I do not feel like I will ever be a first year teacher again, even when I eventually have my own classroom for an entire year. Through this experience I learned the necessity of moving quickly in class, having defined units, and pushing kids further than they think they can go. Lois Loufborrow told us in professional development during her visit that when talking about their favortie teachers, students almost always use the word “push.” I learned to accept the fact that students do not need to like me in the moment, but after they graduate, the teachers who are remembered the most are those who made students work during breaks and lunch and those who assigned extra work to challenge students.

I am leaving to go home today, and I will truly miss all of the wonderful faculty and staff I have met this summer, and the amazing students I had the opportunity to work with. It has been a summer to remember.

All of a sudden I realized its the end of July, and our Olympics is on Friday and Celebration in just two weeks! However swiftly I felt last summer passed this summer is on a whole other level. In teaching math, I could share a number of topics we’ve been discussing, and a number of concepts which I think (hope!) the students have learned at least something about. However, I think the learning that some of my students have done this summer hasn’t been in math, and has been much more important than math. During our College Fair event on Friday I got to hear some of our students hopes and dreams for the future during discussions on what college they should go to. I heard everything from hip-hop dancer to doctor, lawyer and fashion design. Most memorable was a young man who wants nothing more than to play professional soccer, but told me that he thinks he wants a degree in sports medicine so he can be a trainer or coach after his career as a player. This kind of forethought and maturity was something I hadn’t seen in the student in the two years I’ve known him and this growth and change is exactly what helps me wake up every morning!

Celebration turned out to be exactly what I though it would. The kids wore a smile all day and it made me happy to see them happy. What made the occasion even more special is that I was chosen to be the speaker at the graduation of the Ninth graders. Seeing the responses from the kids after I finished speaking to them and getting all of their kudos on how well they thought I did was the greatest feeling in the world. What a fitting end to such a perfect summer.