Trip to Confucius Institute

Confucius(Top left) Prof Koh(Top right) CCSS (Bottom)

On Friday, 26 October, we went to Confucius Institute at Nanyang Technological Universtiy (CI-NTU) arranged by Mr Loke, our school principal. We were honoured to have Professor Koh Hock Kiat, the director to address us. He gave us an introduction to the Confucius teachings and pointed out some of the attractions we should not miss when we visit Shandong.

We will be making a trip to Qufu (曲阜), famous for being the home of Confucius. As Confucius is a great teacher, we hope to learn as much of his teachings and come back to school to share.

Prof Koh also painted a beautiful picture of Taishan Mountains (泰山), the famous mountains with rich historical and cultural significance. We were reminded to learn some of the famous Chinese proverbs related to the Taishan Mountains. This is one of the many highlights of our trip.

Our students were well-behaved and attentive, however, during the Q & A session, they were rather quiet. Perhaps they were too shy to ask or they needed more time to internalize the information. Nontheless the trip to CI-NTU was a very fruitful one. Even the teachers learnt just as much as the students.

Before our departure, Prof Koh gave a book, ‘The Analects of Confucius’ edited by him to the school library. We thanked Prof Koh for taking time to brief us and made our journey back to school while looking forward to our next journey to Shandong.

Preparation for the trip to Shandong

Hello, Mrs Tan and I, Ms Kong, are your tour leaders for the Shandong trip.
For the 20 pupils who are selected to go on this student exchange programme, it is indeed a valuable opportunity to learn beyond the shores of Singapore. It is also an honour to represent CCSS to play the role of ambassadors of Singapore.

Mrs Tan and I warmly welcome you on board on this learning journey to Shandong. We would like to explain to you why you're going so that you get the best out of this trip.

Why are you going on this trip?
The school wants you to:

- gain exposure, know the people of Shandong, their way of lives, their interests and how are they different from Singaporeans;

- get interested in the Chinese cultures through the visit to places of historical and cultural interest;

- get to know Confucius and his teachings at Confucius' birthplace;

- be ambassadors of Singapore, introducing Singapore to students of Shandong.

In order to ensure that you benefit from the trip, this is what you have to do:
- Daily reflections and small group sharing during the trip
- Blog entries of the trip (Individual)
- Presentation to the school
- Photo exhibition for the school

Every night, after our visits, we will have reflections and small group sharing to exchange information with one another.

For a start, we would like all of you to start your blog putting down your thoughts about the pre-trip preparation. The following questions will help to get the ball rolling.
What are some of your expectations of the trip?
What are the things you look forward to in this trip?
What do you wish to learn during this trip?
How do I prepare myself for this trip?
How do I want to share with my friends what I have learnt during the trip when I come back?

Why wait? Start blogging. Once you have started, leave your blog url in the Cbox for Mrs Tan and I to visit. Have fun!