Two of St. Clair College’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) students headed off to China this week to experience the field placement of a life time.
Victoria Horrobin and Delta Haymes, both second year ECE students at the college’s Thames Campus, are in Taiyuan, China for an eight week placement at the King Sun Primary School located in China’s Shanxi Province, with all expenses paid by the school.
Program Coordinator Brenda Huff found out about the opportunity and offered it to the students, who both jumped at the chance to go. When asked why she wanted to go, Horrobin answered, “Why wouldn’t I want to go?”
“I believe that travel is one of the best educators, and this opportunity is a great way to enrich my education. I aspire to become an elementary school teacher and this opportunity to go and teach in a school in a completely different culture will give me a new look at teaching, and a unique experience I would not have had here in Canada,” she said.
The pair took a variety of teaching materials with them for the children to use in hands-on activities.
“I hope the children discover that learning can be interactive and fun and that they will learn some English from the activities we will be implementing,” said Horrobin.
Horrobin is excited to be a student and have the chance to learn about Chinese culture, along with different learning styles and new ways to teach literacy to children whose first language is something other than English. She believes is a great asset as the world becomes more globalized.
The two students will be back in home in mid-June just in time to graduate.
“This is an incredible opportunity that has been offered both Delta and I,” Horrobin noted. “I am so grateful to everyone who has helped make this happen, particularly Brenda Huff, Quan and Peter Shi, and St. Clair College. I hope to bring much into this school, but even more so, take much away from it as you should never stop learning.”
