Interview with Ms. Faye To

#positivepurpose #positiverelationship

By Hailey Wong & Kelly Yeung

This is Ms. Faye To’s first year at our school - or any school, for that matter, since she’s just finished her teaching training! To get to know her better and learn about why she chose to get into teaching, we sat down and asked her some questions:

Q. Why did you choose to teach L&S?

A. I think L&S, or LS, as I’m teaching the senior forms, is a practical subject. It will benefit students in their later lives, because we’re talking about what’s happening in society and in the world. So I think students can relate to it.

Q. What’s your favorite thing to teach in L&S?

A. I really enjoy having debates with my students. Apart from knowledge that we learn in books, I think it’s a skill that I want students to work on in their education as it will make a lifelong impact on their lives.

Q. What are some things you like to do during your free time?

A. I like to spend time with my family and friends, because apart from work, I think it’s very important for us to maintain a social life. I like watching movies, listening to music, walking my dogs and swimming. 

Q. Why did you choose to become a teacher?

A. Part of the reason is because I enjoy the sense of fulfillment when I see my students love the subject and improve. Another reason is that I’m from a family of teachers. My brother is also a teacher and I’m the eighth teacher in my family. We value education a lot. We have family members working in primary schools and secondary schools. We don’t have anyone teaching at kindergartens yet, but it’s possible in the future.

Q. Why did you choose to teach at our school?

A. I think the job seeking process is like matching. Instead of me looking for a job, and the school employing a teacher, it’s more like a mutual search. What I love here at HKUGAC is that the students are outgoing, active, and willing to share their thoughts. When I was working at another school for two months last year as part of my teaching training, the students there were rather passive and they weren’t willing to answer questions. They were too shy to share their thoughts. It wasn’t because they didn’t know the answer, it was because they were afraid of making mistakes. Students here are relatively more courageous.

Q. Are there any tips you want to give to your students about L&S?

A. It’s not like you’re remembering a lot of stuff. We want to focus more on implication. How you are going to transfer skills from one point to another, how you relate the things you learn to your daily life and how you connect examples from your own experience. For example, we were talking about family structures, so how do you relate that to your own life? Have you observed any similar changes of family functions in your own family or are you having any similar customs?

Q. What was your first impression of our school?

A. I think you guys are really talkative. Sometimes being too chatty can be a problem, because when there are some topics that you are really interested in, it’s very hard to get you to stop. It’s very nice to see that you’re enjoying the discussion, of course, but sometimes we have to move on, because we have a list of things we have to cover in the lesson.

Q. Are there any words of encouragement to the students?

A. I think we are in a bit of a critical situation in Hong Kong these days, especially the society, the atmosphere, so it’s very common to encounter people who have different views than us. What I want to say is, it’s not only about political stance, but a lot of other things that happen in our lives. It’s very important to stay open and to be respectful. Sometimes we have conflicts because we don’t understand what other people are thinking. It’s important to get to know each other more and think from others’ perspectives. It would solve a lot of conflicts.

It’s obvious that Ms. To has put a lot of thought into her answers, just like how she puts a lot of thought into her teaching. Let’s all welcome Ms. To into our school!