Styling Librarian: Moving: Frequently Asked Questions

Moving to Hong Kong – My Q & A Page

I’ve found that I’ve had a similar conversation with all my school families, professional colleagues, close friends, and thought that perhaps writing the FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions, on my blog might be helpful for those I haven’t yet chatted with.

Why Hong Kong?  This was a lifetime opportunity decision that fit perfectly with many hopes: to continue to follow my passion of being a teacher librarian, to provide my son with a quality education, and to provide our family with a worldwide life experience. I will also continue to work in an IB/PYP School supporting the inquiry and research process that I’ve been trained in and am quite passionate about.

What will you do in Hong Kong?  I will be a Teacher Librarian at a beautiful International School: Bradbury School.

Where will you live? At first, we will live in a house on an island off of Hong Kong called Lamma Island, looks beautiful there and will be a nice transition until we find an apartment to rent.  We decided not to stay in a hotel initially so that we can have our dog with us without extra costs and worries.

Will your family move with you? Absolutely, I wouldn’t consider this otherwise.

Will your son attend your school?  Yes, this was quite important for us.

What grades will you be teaching? I’ll be teaching Year 1-6 ie. Grades K-5.

What is IB/PYP?  International Baccalaureate/Primary Years Programme http://www.ibo.org/    http://www.ibo.org/pyp/
The school I’ve taught at for years is an official IB/PYP school celebrating the development of the inquiry process every grade level. I love working with this program because of the common language throughout the school, inquiry/research process, and collaboration among colleagues.
I presently enjoy meeting weekly with every grade level team during PYP planning time to discuss and create curriculum, provide book resources, and also write Pathfinders (webpages) linking teachers, students, and families with various webpages, movies, and books: https://sites.google.com/a/beaverton.k12.or.us/rdgwd-library/home/pathfinders

How long are you staying in Hong Kong? I am contracted to teach at Bradbury School for two years, shall see after that point how long we’ll be there!

When are you leaving?  We are leaving towards the end of July.

What are you doing with your dog, Dulcie?  We are bringing her with us. She is a big part of our family.

What is happening with your house?  Renting with a wonderful agency. The house must be empty during the rental time, therefore, we’re working to get rid of most everything we have.

Will your family visit? Will you have space for us to visit?  Time will tell on visitors, we can hope to have visitors and also return to the states to visit as well. Space to visit? Well… we’re expecting to rent an apartment that is around 700-1000 square feet which will be quite a tight fit. We’ll look forward to meeting up with people.

What will your husband do when you move there?  My husband will be supporting the family, studying for an Actuary exam, and plans to start up an independent online pension consulting business.

How can we keep up with you?  You can keep up with me through this blog, Goodreads, Twitter, and other online venues. I’m pretty open! I actually was told by a colleague yesterday that I must Skype into a professional conference in the fall because they want me to be part of a session. I created some Moo Cards (really cute 1/2 sized business cards) that I’m passing out wherever I go. Those help with my webpage, twitter handle, and email address. I loved that with the Moo Cards I was able to upload pictures, adjust the formatting of them, and have multiple images mixed within the cards I’m handing out. http://us.moo.com/